The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan was a fascinating way to learn history through books of the search for the person who lead the Nazis to the Annex.

This un-put-down-able read shows how a Dutch filmmaker, journalist and a former FBI agent methodically look for the betrayer. Along the way they consulted experts (like a typewriter forensics specialist), and dove into archives and personal collections of papers across continents. This investigation began with a man named Thijs Bayens, a filmmaker who was astonished to realize how fast people could (and did) turn on each other. “Slowly but surely, human relationships had come under pressure and people had turned on one another…where there once was tolerance, now there is distrust. At what point do we give up on one another? Whom do we stand up for? And for whom do we not stand up?” (pg. xiii).

Otto Frank “wanted people to know that fascism builds slowly and then one day it is an iron wall that looms and cannot be circumvented. He wanted them to know what can be lost and how fast it can happen” (pg. 290). In America we are becoming so divided and polarized. I’m trying to teach my students that you can have a disagreement with someone without calling them names or acting ugly towards them, that you can have a respectful conversation. I’m afraid that if we as a society can’t respectfully disagree and compromise, we will stagnate. It’s important to learn from mistakes made in the past, and my favorite way to do that is to learn history through books.

“The message to take from Anne’s story is to stop prejudice and discrimination right at its beginning. Prejudice starts when we speak about THE Jews, THE Arabs, THE Asians, THE Mexicans, THE Blacks, THE Whites.” This leads to the feeling that all members of each such group think and act the same.”

-Miep Gies (one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank and her family, quoted in The Betrayal of Anne Frank)

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