Vince explained that the purpose of a cold case investigation was to review previously unearthed information in the hope of finding new clues. In this case, earlier investigations had been done with too narrow a focus. New techniques and technologies could bring fresh insights. After that, the board members seemed somewhat less skeptical. The atmosphere was so friendly and pleasant that Vince began to entertain the hope that the board members would pledge their cooperation. That optimism came to an abrupt end when Kugelmann asked if they already had a name for the project.
Thijs replied that the working title was “A Cold Case Diary: Anne Frank.” The room immediately became quiet. Kugelmann started to speak. He said that they really objected to that. Why misuse the name Anne Frank for the study? Did they not know that the name Anne Frank was protected and that the AFF owned the trademark rights? The Cold Case Team would not be allowed to use her name. And wasn’t it particularly unethical to make money on the back of the poor girl? After all, the betrayal was not about Anne alone, it was about all eight people hiding in the Annex—and it was also about 107,000 other Jews who’d been taken from the Netherlands and were not named Anne Frank. Why did the Netherlands claim Anne, anyway? She was first of all a German girl and a Jewish girl and not a Dutch girl! For that reason, they supported the Anne Frank House in Frankfurt. In fact, for them, it was simply incomprehensible that there was an Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
Vince, Thijs, and Pieter were dumbfounded. Pieter in particular was outraged. The AFF was reproaching them for trying to make money from the name Anne Frank? The same AFF that has rights to one of the best selling and most profitable books of all time? Anne foremost a German girl? Wasn’t she stateless and more or less expelled from her country by a regime that deemed her an Untermensch? Did she not write in her diary that it was her greatest wish to become a Dutch national as well as a famous writer? Didn’t she write her diary in Dutch? If she had survived the war, she might have had second thoughts about becoming Dutch, but that was clearly her intention.
Kugelmann said he saw opportunities for support and collaboration, but only if the Cold Case Team did not use the name Anne Frank. It could even cooperate with a research group that was already financed by the AFF. Although the atmosphere had clearly cooled, everyone still behaved courteously. Thijs indicated that they had not anticipated that condition as the basis of future cooperation and they needed to think about it.
And then Kugelmann spoke the words Thijs, Vince, and Pieter would not soon forget. He said that the team would never be able to solve the case without the help of the Anne Frank Fonds, insinuating that the Fonds possessed something that was key to solving the mystery. If it did have something, it would likely be in its archives, but it was unclear what specific evidence Kugelmann meant. As the three men were leaving, Goldsmith pulled Vince aside and said, “You know that Otto lied to Wiesenthal about knowing the identity of Silberbauer. Why do you think he did this?” Vince replied that he didn’t know yet but was determined to find out. This was the first time the Cold Case Team understood that Otto Frank had held back secrets.
A few weeks later, Thijs had a short phone call with a board member, who asked if the team had reconsidered using the Anne Frank name in the title of the investigation, the book, or the film. When Thijs replied that they had not, the board member let him know that the AFF was not interested in a collaboration. Later, when the investigation was at full speed, Thijs sent a letter to the AFF inviting the board to visit the team’s headquarters, which it politely declined. Also, Vince officially asked for access to the AFF archive in a letter that was answered two months later with a formal request for more details. Though he provided the requested information, silence followed.
And so the Cold Case Team learned lesson number one: the entities devoted to maintaining the legacy of Anne Frank were more mysterious and complex than even Jan’s labyrinthine graphic had suggested. And the team had no idea how much, much more complicated everything would become.*
5
“Let’s See What the Man Can Do!”
Otto Frank was born in Frankfurt in 1889. On his mother’s side he could trace his ancestral roots in Germany back to the sixteenth century. He’d fought in the First World War, responding to the call “Patriotic Jews, fight for your country!” and had been promoted to lieutenant for his bravery in leading reconnaissance missions. He’d been in the trenches in France during the Battle of the Somme, which had seen 1.5 million casualties. He’d known loneliness, isolation, and fear in war. Perhaps that was why he wrote to his sister in 1917 that love and family must take precedence in a human life.1