A Dutch publisher is suspending its printing of The Betrayal of Anne Frank, a new book that claims the young Holocaust victim was likely betrayed by a Jewish Dutchman, the Guardian reports.
Amsterdam-based publisher Ambo Anthos apologized, saying it had failed to be sufficiently “critical” of the book’s thesis.
The book was written by Rosemary Sullivan and published last month in the U.S. by Harper. It tells the story of a team of investigators determined to find out who betrayed Anne, the Dutch girl who was arrested in Amsterdam alongside her family and several others after hiding for more than two years. She died in a Nazi concentration camp when she was 15.
The investigators posit that Arnold van den Bergh, a Dutch notary and a member of Amsterdam’s Jewish Council, told the Nazis where Jewish people in the city were hiding, in a bid to protect his own family.
The team’s claim drew doubt from some historians, who said the evidence was insufficient for a definitive conclusion to be made.
CNN reports that Ambo Anthos sent an email to its authors reading, “We await the answers from the researchers to the questions that have emerged and are delaying the decision to print another run. We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who might feel offended by the book.”
Sullivan and HarperCollins declined to comment on Ambo Anthos’ decision when contacted by CNN and the New York Times.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
