In The Last Secret of The Secret Annex, the authors give a view into the life of one of the helpers of Anne Frank and her family, that mostly went unnoticed; Bep Voskuijl. She was one of the helpers that never gave much interviews and wasn't that much in the picture as Otto Frank and Miep Gies. Why was this? She thought that her heroic work was nothing extra special, just normal. But Joop van Wijk Voskuijl , who wrote a book about his mother Bep earlier, now paints a broader picture why her mother stayed out of the spotlight and why her sister Nelly has something to do about this. For long, a plausible answer has been sought about who have made the call to the Nazi's that there where Jews hiding at the back building of Prinsengracht 263. Later police reports tell that it was the voice of a young woman who made the call, and in this book, the authors, paint a picture of Bep's sister Nelly, and why it seems very plausible because of her nazi-sympathyzing background, that it might have been her who made the call. During the book, he explains more about this theory and the research that the authors did. Their research is very strong, and everything is very believable, altough we never will know 100% if it was Nelly. It was very difficult for Bep to live under one roof with a Nazi-sympathizer as a helper of hidden Jews. For years she struggled with the trauma of it all.
Besides this and the life story of his mother Bep, Joop tells a lot about his childhood and later years and the relationship he had with his mother which was moving but also sad to read. The writing style is very entertaining and I finished this book in two days, as it was just such a fast paced and gripping read. In my teen years, I have read many books relating to Anne Frank, also for school, but this book was very different then many other books about this topic. This is a very good non-fiction read that I truly recommend!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a comment here, but keep it nice!