The Dutch publisher of a discredited study of the betrayal of the Jewish teenage diary Anne Frank said on Tuesday that it recalled the book after a critical report on its findings.
Anne Frank’s betrayal: A cold case study by Canadian bestselling author Rosemary Sullivan has been widely rejected by experts since its January release.
The book designated a Jewish notary, Arnold van den Bergh, as the main suspect in revealing the Frank family’s whereabouts to the Nazis.
There was a setback from Jewish groups, historians, and independent scholars, who subsequently criticized the Cold Case team’s conclusion.
Last month, the main umbrella group for Europe’s national Jewish community called on HarperCollins to withdraw the English version, saying it had tarnished Anne Frank’s memory and the dignity of Holocaust survivors.
On Tuesday, a counter-report was released by experts and historians from World War II in the Netherlands, stating that the conclusions of the cold case team, led by a retired US FBI investigator, did not resist professional investigation.
“It is without exception very weak, sometimes based on a blatantly erroneous reading of the sources, fabricated additions to sources and has in no way been subjected to a critical assessment,” the report concluded.
“There is no serious evidence of this serious charge,” the experts found.
In response, Dutch publisher Ambo Anthos said: “Based on the conclusions of this report, we have decided that with immediate effect, the book will no longer be available. We will encourage booksellers to return their stock.”
The English version of the book was published by HarperCollins. HarperCollins did not respond to a request for comment.
Frank’s diary about life in hiding has been translated into 60 languages.
She and seven other Jews were discovered in August 1944 after evading capture for nearly two years in a secret annex over a warehouse on the Amsterdam canal. All were deported, and Frank died in the Bergen Belsen camp at the age of 15.