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Reviewed by: Sarah Wergin, High School Librarian Title: The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation Author: Rosemary Sullivan Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Year: 2022 Good for Grades: 11-Adult Genre/Type of Book: True Crime/Cold Case/Nonfiction
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: No Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: We have a holocaust and genocide class in our HS. I wanted to read this book and see if it would be of interest to the course as a supplemental resource. If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: Over 75 years after her death, a team of investigators lead by a former FBI agent dig through historical data, primary sources and witness statements. Will the team finally discover who betrayed the Frank family?
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Review:
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is a non-fiction book that will pique the interest of history buffs. The novel follows a team of investigators over six years as they dig through historical documents, located in numerous countries as they strive to answer the question millions of people have asked: Who Betrayed Anne Frank?
The question "who betrayed Anne frank" is deeply rooted in context and understanding of the time. This book is a historical recounting of a six-year investigation and goes into the rich history and circumstances of numerous different people of interest and the wealth of historical evidence the team uncovered. The investigative team, and the author of the book take their time to explain the process in which evidence was found, evaluated, considered and then how that information was applied and considered among the other copious amounts of information and evidence.
The investigative team uses modern technology to help further their discoveries – from using mapping technology to map the locations of various people, explore the line of sight into the Annex and beyond. One of the most notable things is the use of AI in the investigation. The team had an AI software developed for the purpose of aiding the team in the investigation. Each detail, fact, and account they discovered went into the program. This program helped the investigation team discover relationships, connections, and correlations between pieces of information. Can you imagine how long this project and examination of historical documents would have taken without the powerful technology of AI?
I think this book would be a great supplemental resource for a history course, but I don’t think a typical student would willingly pick this book up and read it cover to cover. Students interested in true crime/cold case readers would find this process intriguing as well.
If you are considering purchasing, I would say this book would make a great addition to your historical collection. You could use excerpts of the novel to look at specific chapters/pieces of evidence to review and examine. You could also use this as a tool for the real-life application of research skills.
There are also a lot of supplemental resources to support instruction of the book:
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