Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl

Johannes Hendrik Voskuijl (15 January 1892 - 27 November 1945) was one of the people who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family and friends. He is known as "Hans Vossen" in the earliest editions of Anne's posthumously published diary, but all people in the diary have their real names restored in all versions printed since 1985.

Voskuijl and his wife Christina had eight children, one of whom was Bep Voskuijl. He worked as the manager of the warehouses of the Opekta company, administrated by Otto Frank. He was the only one of the warehouse employees who knew about the people in hiding.

Helping the people to hide

In 1942, when Otto and his family and friends decided to go to hiding, Voskuijl and his daughter Bep were asked to help them. Voskuijl built the famous bookcase which covered the hiding place. In 1943, he was diagnosed with cancer^[1] and retired from working at that time.

On 4 August 1944, the hiders and two of their helpers were arrested by the Nazis. Only Otto Frank, Jo Kleiman and Victor Kugler ultimately survived.

Death

Johannes Voskuijl died in Amsterdam on 27 November 1945 of cancer. Otto Frank and the rest of the helpers attended his funeral on 1 December.^[2]

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