By Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg

AMSTERDAM (Reuters). During a six year cold case investigation, Anne Frank was betrayed. A surprising suspect has been identified in her death. She was discovered hiding in her canal side room and later died at a Nazi concentration camp.

An unknown Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh has been identified as a suspect in the case by an international team including Vincent Pankoke (retired U.S. FBI agent) and approximately 20 historians, data experts, and criminologists. Others emphasized that the evidence wasn’t conclusive.

After hiding for almost two years, Anne and seven others Jews were discovered by the Nazis in an annex located above a Amsterdam canal warehouse. They had been there since Aug. 4, 1944. Anne was 15 years old when all were expelled and she died at Bergen Belsen.

Pieter van Twisk from the research team stated to NRC that Van den Bergh lied about the Franks’ hideout in order for his own family.

Van den Bergh died in 1950. The team found that he had information about the hideaway because he was part of Amsterdam’s wartime Jewish Council.

Although Erik Somers, historian at the Dutch NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, praised the multidisciplinary investigation, he wasn’t convinced of its conclusions.

According to Van den Bergh, the research that eventually led to Van den Bergh being identified as a suspect was based on an anonymous note identifying Van den Bergh and assumptions regarding wartime Amsterdam Jewish institutions, which aren’t supported by historical research.

Somers stated that they work with the view that he is guilty, and have found a motivation to do so.

Somers believes that there were many reasons Van den Bergh wasn’t deported, including the fact that “he was an extremely influential man”.

Miep Gies, one of the family’s helpers, kept Anne’s diary safe until Anne’s father Otto, the only one to survive the war, published it in 1947. The diary has been translated in 60 other languages, and it captured the imaginations of millions worldwide.

Anne Frank House was not part of the cold case investigation, but it shared data from its archives in order to help, and said that they were impressed with their team’s efforts.

Ronald Leopold, Anne Frank House Director, stated that the research “indicated important new information as well as a compelling hypothesis that warrants more research.”

It was not the intention to bring about any criminal prosecution. The goal of the investigation to find the culprit was to illuminate one of the most elusive mysteries of World War Two in the Netherlands.

A master database was created using modern research techniques. It included Nazi informants, Nazi collaborators, historical documents, police records, as well other relevant research data to help uncover more leads.

A map was created to visualize a variety of situations and possible locations for suspects. This map is based on information about the hideaway, motivation, and chance.

Rosemary Sullivan will publish the findings in a book entitled “The Betrayal Of Anne Frank”, and it will be available on Tuesday.

In past decades, many suspects have been identified. In 2016, the Anne Frank House concluded that the Secret Annex discovery could have been accidental.