"THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
‘Hums with living history, human warmth and indignation’ New York Times
Less a mystery unsolved than a secret well kept
The mystery has haunted generations since the Second World War: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?
Now, thanks to radical new technology and the obsession of a retired FBI agent, this book offers an answer. Rosemary Sullivan unfolds the story in a gripping, moving narrative.
Over thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teenaged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family and four other people in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent them to a concentration camp. But despite the many works – journalism, books, plays and novels – devoted to Anne’s story, none has ever conclusively explained how these eight people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years – and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door.
With painstaking care, retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents – some never before seen – and interviewed scores of descendants of people familiar with the Franks. Utilising methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the infamous arrest – and came to a shocking conclusion.
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is the riveting story of their mission. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behaviour of both the captives and their captors and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust."
"‘Compassionate and compelling, this is not a political story but a quest for love in the heart of darkness’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘A biography on an epic scale, with a combination of tragedy and history worthy of a Russian novel’ Independent
‘Superbly well told’ Sunday Times
Who was Svetlana Alliluyeva?
A little girl, her father’s only daughter, his “little sparrow”; instructed to bury her secrets in her heart by her mother, who shot herself soon after.
An observer as her relatives were mercilessly killed and her first love exiled.
A woman who tore through relationships with men, joined and abandoned various religions, and became the most famous defector to the United States.
The victim of an inescapable truth: “You are Stalin’s daughter. . . . You can’t live your own life. You can’t live any life. You exist only in reference to a name.”"
