The Last Secrets of Anne Frank

The Untold Story of Her Silent Protector

De: Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl, Jeroen De Bruyn

Narrado por: Jacques Roy

A “gripping” (Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor) historical investigation and family memoir that intertwines the iconic narrative of Anne Frank with the untold story of Bep Voskuijl, her protector and closest confidante in the Annex, bringing us closer to understanding one of the great secrets of World War II.

Anne Frank’s life has been studied by many scholars, but the story of Bep Voskuijl has remained untold, until now. As the youngest of the five Dutch people who hid the Frank family, Bep was Anne’s closest confidante during the 761 excruciating days she spent hidden in the Secret Annex. Bep, who was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding, risking her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market to source food and medicine for people who officially didn’t exist under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. In those cramped quarters, Bep and Anne’s friendship bloomed through deep conversations, shared meals, and a youthful understanding.

Told by her own son, The Last Secrets of Anne Frank intertwines the story of Bep and her sister Nelly with Anne’s iconic narrative. Nelly’s name may have been scrubbed from Anne’s published diary, but Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn expose details about her collaboration with the Nazis, a deeply held family secret. After the war, Bep tried to bury her memories just as the Secret Annex was becoming world famous as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi horrors. She never got over losing Anne nor could Bep put to rest the horrifying suspicion that those in the Annex had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood.

“Part biography, part whodunit” (The Wall Street Journal), this is a story about those caught in between the Jewish victims and Nazi persecutors, and the moral ambiguities and hard choices faced by ordinary families like the Voskuijls, in which collaborators and resistors often lived under the same roof.

Beautifully written and unsettlingly suspenseful, The Last Secrets of Anne Frank will show the Secret Annex as we’ve never seen it before. And it provides a powerful understanding of how historical trauma is inherited from one generation to the next and how sometimes keeping a secret hurts far more than revealing a shameful truth.

©2023 by Jeroen De Bruyn & Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Extraordinary

THE LAST SECRETS OF ANNE FRANK, written by Joop van Wijk, the son of his helper Bev (called Eve in the diary to protect her anonymity) and a young Anne Frank historian, Jeroen de Bruyn gives extraordinary insight in to the events outside the annex.

Bev, the youngest of the helpers, was a mere decade older than Anne. Her visits to the annex provided the hiders information about the war and happenings outside the attic. She was particularly close to Anne, often the only one who could calm Anne’s outbursts.

After the war Bev suffered the emotional trauma few could understand. She was unable to show her husband and children the love she could freely give to the Franks and other helpers. She gave few interviews throughout her life and rarely disclosed anything about the war to her children. Bev had many estrangements with family and friends, likely in part due to the generational trauma the war and her role in helping the Franks, losing most of the eight hiders to the concentration camps.

The writers attempt to discover who “betrayed” those in the attic, their conclusion closer to home than they knew when starting their journey.

Interesting, Heartbreaking, Inspiring

I’m so glad I listened to this book. There is a lot of new information about Anne Frank and the people who hid her and the others. I’m completely stunned by the revelations about who betrayed the Secret Annex. It makes a lot of sense and the authors of the book do a thorough job of explaining. Thank you for writing this!

Great listen after reading Diary of a young girl

This was a very interesting read. I liked it even more than the original diary, but you definitely have to read the original diary 1st in order to understand it.

Enlightening

I just watched the movie by the same name and wanted to read the book.

Extraordinary

Wonderful story about an extraordinary woman, her courage during the war and the memories she dealt with.

Loved this book

Loved the book and learning so much! Would listen to it again. Highly suggest buying.

The story line

Very well written. Kept me interested the entire book! I did not like some Dutch pronunciations of some words but still very narrated.

Wonderful new information!

I thoroughly enjoyed this expansive new knowledge on this case. I’ve never heard this before.

Background

I enjoyed hearing the background of the Anna’s diary and the people that helped the people in the Annex.