‘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.
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‘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
 

"‘Fascinating . . . 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

"'Devastating, compelling'" - Daily Mail

" 'A superbly well-written, intimate, engrossing, and heartrending reckoning with the endless damage done by genocide'" - Booklist (Starred)

"‘An important contribution to the literature on Anne Frank’ " - Kirkus

"‘Part biography and part whodunit, The Last Secret of the Secret Annex is, above all, a bereaved son’s cri de coeur, simultaneously mourning and celebrating the mother he lost even before she died’ 

 " - Wall Street Journal

"‘Provides a poignant account of the poison left by Dutch collaboration . . . [and] the devastating effect that Bep’s lifelong secretiveness had on her family. It is for their own stories that these books should be read, not for the extraordinary fame of Anne Frank’ " - TLS