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The Last Secrets of Anne Frank

The Heartbreaking Story of Her Silent Protector
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( 1,471 ratings, 229 reviews)
Brief Description
‘DEVASTATING’ Daily Mail ‘FASCINATING’ Daily Telegraph ‘POIGNANT’ TLS The extraordinary story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex. Bep Voskuijl was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect... Read More
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A riveting historical investigation and family memoir that reveals the untold story of Bep Voskuijl, the young Dutch woman who was Anne Frank’s closest confidante during the time she spent in the Secret Annex.

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‘DEVASTATING’ Daily Mail

‘FASCINATING’ Daily Telegraph

‘POIGNANT’ TLS

The extraordinary story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex.

Bep Voskuijl was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect them, sourcing food and medicine under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies. But while Bep’s friendship with Anne blossomed, Bep’s sister Nelly—whose name was scrubbed from Anne’s published diary—was collaborating with the Nazis. Long after the war, haunted by the loss of Anne, Bep is unable to put to rest the horrifying suspicion that she had been betrayed by her own flesh and blood.

Written by Bep’s son, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex is a captivating story of heroism, betrayal and the devastating, destructive power of a secret.


‘Not only conveys the quiet heroism of what his mother contributed to Anne Frank’s story, but a sad playing-out of a family’s dysfunction, of the pain of survival, of the ripples of trauma flowing into succeeding generations’ Daily Telegraph

'Intimate, engrossing, and heartrending’ Booklist

‘Gripping. I read it in one gulp – as will you’ Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781398518247

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 July 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Illustration: 1x8pp colour plates

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 288

About the Author

Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl is the third of Bep Voskuijl’s four children. He was born in 1949 in Amsterdam. After a successful career as a video producer (creating corporate movies for major Dutch companies) and marketing manager (for newspapers such as NRC Handelsblad and Algemeen Dagblad), Joop retired in 2010 to pursue research and writing with the goal of telling his mother’s story. He also volunteers as a guest lecturer, teaching Dutch schoolchildren and other groups about Anne Frank, the Holocaust and the resistance during World War II. Jeroen De Bruyn was born in 1993 in Antwerp. At age fifteen—the same age as Anne when she died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp—Jeroen began doing original research on the Secret Annex. He got to know the Anne Frank House firsthand during an internship there in 2011. He went on to study journalism, subsequently contributing to prominent Flemish news magazines like Knack and Joods Actueel, and working as a senior editor for the major Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen. 

Also by Jeroen De Bruyn

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  • The Last Secret of the Secret Annex
    The extraordinary, never-before-told story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex. Bep was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies to source food and medicine for the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Also by Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl

View all
  • The Last Secret of the Secret Annex
    The extraordinary, never-before-told story of Bep Voskuijl, Anne Frank’s closest friend during the 761 days she spent in the Secret Annex. Bep was just twenty-three when the Franks went into hiding and she risked her life to protect them, plunging into Amsterdam’s black market under the noses of German soldiers and Dutch spies to source food and medicine for the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

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