Wilhelm Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895- November 28, 1971) was the person who was the most suspected for being the betrayer of Anne Frank. During the arrest of Anne Frank and the people who hid with her took place, van Maaren worked as the manager of the warehouse of Opekta and Gies & Co, of whose buildings the Secret Annex was situated.
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Van Maaren joined as the warehouse manager of Opekta at the building of 263 Prinsengracht in the spring of 1943, just after Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl, the previous manager, was admitted to hospital because of his sickness. None of the office workers, including Miep Gies and Victor Kugler, used to like van Maaren. From the beginning, he used to steal products from the warehouse, and at one stage, he began to suspect about the Secret Annex. He began to set up small traps in the building, to ensure whether people walked in the building at night or not. His sly nature brought everyone a special dislike towards him, and Anne openly criticized him in her diary. Van Maaren was most of the time trying to discover who lives in the building next to them. The building next to them was actually the back part of the same building where Opekta offices were situated. The Secret Annex Annex was situated in the back part of 263 Prinsengracht. Near May or June 1944, van Maaren informed his fellow worker Lammert Hartog that he knew that Jews were hiding in the building of 263 Prinsengracht.
On August 4, 1944, the Jews hiding in the Secret Annex were arrested, although van Maaren seemed puzzled at this. Van Maaren later helped Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl to rescue the diary papers and manuscripts of Anne Frank.
In several investigations after the war, van Maaren was the most suspected person to be the betrayer of Anne Frank. Van Maaren openly denied being the betrayer, and it was finally declared that there was no real evidence about who was the original betrayer.[1] But he was caught getting information from Anton Alhers trying to blackmail Otto Frank.
Van Maaren died in November 28, 1971.