Retired agent Vince Pankoke of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is using nvestigative techniques developed in the past decade and recently declassified documents in a cold case review into identifying those who may have betrayed the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family to the Gestapo in 1944, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
Pankoke was recruited for the crowdfunded project by the film-maker Thijs Bayens, and the Dutch journalist Pieter Van Twisk through contacts in the Dutch police. The Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam has made available its archives and welcomed the initiative. Last December, the museum published its own study, suggesting that the Franks may have been uncovered by chance instead of being betrayed, though the researchers ultimately judged there to be no conclusive evidence. Ronald Leopold, the executive director of the Anne Frank House, said: “Despite decades of research, betrayal as a point of departure has delivered nothing conclusive. We are interested to see the results [of the review].”