The main umbrella group for Europe's national Jewish communities urged HarperCollins to pull a book that suggests a Jewish notary betrayed Anne Frank, saying it had tarnished the teenage diarist's memory and the dignity of Holocaust survivors.
The U.S.-based publisher released the English language edition of "The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation", by Rosemary Sullivan, on Jan 18.
Sullivan's book — which details the conclusions of a six-year investigation led by a retired U.S. FBI agent into the mystery of how the Nazis found Frank — caused a sensation by naming Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh as the main suspect in exposing the family's hideout to the Nazis in 1944 — which resulted in Frank's deportation and subsequent death in the Bergen Belsen camp at age 15.
Independent researchers subsequently criticized the book's findings.
Its Dutch publisher Ambo Anthos this week suspended printing and apologized, saying it had questions about the methodology behind the conclusions, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.
HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, did not respond to several requests for comment. Ambo Anthos declined to comment.
The Brussels-based European Jewish Congress, which represents 42 national communities, called on HarperCollins to consider removing the book and distance itself from its "potentially incendiary claim... at a time when anti-Semitism and the denial and distortion of the Holocaust are on the rise."
"In our view, the publication...has deeply hurt the memory of Anne Frank, as well as the dignity of the survivors and the victims of the Holocaust," EJC President Moshe Kantor wrote to HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray on Feb. 1, in a letter seen by Reuters.