Karl Silberbauer | |
|---|---|
 Silberbauerc. 1939–1943 | |
| Born | Karl Josef Silberbauer (1911-06-21)21 June 1911 |
| Died | 2 September 1972(1972-09-02) (aged 61) Vienna,Austria |
| Resting place | Mauer, Friedensstrasse Vienna, Austria |
| Occupation(s) | SS-Hauptscharführer; Austrian Police Officer |
| Known for | Apprehending and arrestingAnne Frank while her family was in hiding |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
Karl Josef Silberbauer (21 June 1911 – 2 September 1972) was aSchutzstaffel (SS) member who led the 1944Gestapo raid on theAnne Frank House and the arrests ofAnne Frank, her fellow fugitives, and two of their protectors. He was stationed in Nazi-occupiedAmsterdam duringWorld War II, where he was promoted to the rank ofHauptscharführer (master sergeant) and after the war served 14 months in prison for usingexcessive force against members of theCommunist Party of Austria. He was later an undercover investigator for theWest GermanBundesnachrichtendienst (federal intelligence service). In 1963, Silberbauer, by then an inspector in the Vienna police, was exposed as the commander of the 1944Gestapo raid and arrests. He was not prosecuted for his participation in the arrests.
Born inVienna, Silberbauer served in theAustrian military before following his father into the police force in 1935. Four years later, he joined theGestapo, moved to theNetherlands, and in 1943 transferred to theSicherheitsdienst (SD) inThe Hague. He was then assigned to Amsterdam and attached to "Sektion IV B4", a unit recruited from Austrian and German police departments and which handled arrests of hidden Jews throughout theoccupied Netherlands. He was promoted to the rank ofHauptscharführer (master sergeant).[1][2]
On 4 August 1944, Silberbauer was ordered by his superior, SS-Obersturmführer (Lieutenant)Julius Dettmann,[3] to investigate a tip-off thatJews were being hidden in the upstairs rooms at263 Prinsengracht. He took a few Dutch policemen with him and interrogatedVictor Kugler about the entrance to the hiding place.Miep Gies andJohannes Kleiman were also questioned, and while Kugler and Kleiman were arrested and the young secretaryBep Voskuijl managed to escape with documents that would have incriminated theblack market of the Secret Annex protectors, Gies was allowed to stay on the premises. She later surmised this was because she recognized and connected with Silberbauer's Viennese accent. BothOtto Frank and Karl Silberbauer were interviewed after the war about the circumstances of the raid, with both describing Silberbauer's surprise that those in hiding had been there for more than two years. Frank recalled Silberbauer confiscating their valuables and money, taking these spoils away in Otto Frank's briefcase, which he had emptied onto the floor, scattering out the papers and notebooks which made up thediary of Anne Frank.[4]
Soon after, Kugler andJohannes Kleiman, together with Otto Frank,Edith Frank-Holländer,Margot Frank,Anne Frank,Hermann van Pels,Auguste van Pels,Peter van Pels, andFritz Pfeffer, were arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam. From there, the eight who had been in hiding were sent to theWesterbork transit camp and then to theAuschwitz concentration camp.[5] Soon after, Margot and Anne Frank were sent to theBergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died from typhus.[6] Victor Kugler and Jo Kleiman were sent to work camps. Of the ten, only Otto Frank, Kugler, and Kleiman survived.[7]
Silberbauer returned to Vienna in April 1945. He served 14 months in prison for usingexcessive force against members of theCommunist Party of Austria.[8] After his release, Silberbauer was recruited by theWest GermanGehlen Organization, and spent ten years as amole, or undercover operative for Gehlen and its successor theFederal Intelligence Service (BND). According toDer Spiegel reporterPeter-Ferdinand Koch, who learned of his postwar activities while researching BND employment of former Nazis, Silberbauer infiltratedneo-Nazi and pro-Soviet organizations in West Germany and Austria. His BNDhandlers believed, correctly, that Silberbauer's past membership in the SS would blind neo-Nazis to his true loyalties.[9][10]
Possibly due to Gehlen Organization pressure, Silberbauer was reinstated by the VienneseKriminalpolizei (Kripo) in 1954, four years after the German publication ofAnne Frank's diary, and promoted to the rank ofInspektor.[11]
Holocaust survivor andNazi hunterSimon Wiesenthal began searching for Silberbauer in 1958, upon being challenged by AustrianHolocaust deniers to prove that Anne Frank existed. One teenaged Holocaust denier stated that, if Anne Frank's arresting officer were found and admitted to it, he would change his mind.[12]
During the 1948 Dutch police investigation into the raid on the Secret Annex, Silberbauer's name had been disclosed as "Silvernagel". The Dutch policedetectives who had assisted with the raid were identified byMiep Gies, who recalled their commander as having a working-class Vienna accent. The Dutch policemen claimed to remember nothing except an erroneous form of their superior's surname.
Wiesenthal considered contacting Anne's father, Otto Frank, but learned that he was speaking out in favor of forgiveness and reconciliation. Otto also believed that the person responsible for the denunciation of the Gestapo, not the arresting officers, bore the greatest responsibility. Wiesenthal, however, was determined to discredit the growing Holocaust denial movement and continued his search for "Silvernagel". In late spring 1963, after ruling out numerous Austrians with similar names, Wiesenthal was loaned a wartime Gestapo telephone book by Dutch investigators. During a two-hour flight from Amsterdam to Vienna, Wiesenthal found the name "Silberbauer" listed as attached to "Sektion IV B 4".[13]
Upon his arrival in Vienna, Wiesenthal immediately telephoned Dr. Josef Wiesinger, who investigated Nazi crimes for the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. Upon being told that Silberbauer might still be a policeman, Wiesinger insisted that there were "at least six men on the Vienna police force" with the same surname and demanded a written request. On 2 June 1963, Wiesenthal submitted a detailed request but was told for months that the Vienna police were not yet ready to release their findings.[14]
In reality, the Vienna police identifiedInspektor Silberbauer almost immediately. When he had admitted his role in arresting Anne Frank, the department had been terrified of the bad press that would result from disclosing his past. Therefore, the Vienna police suspended Silberbauer from theKripo without pay, ordering him to "keep his mouth shut" about the reasons for his suspension. Instead, Silberbauer lamented his suspension and disclosed the reasons for it to a colleague. His fellow officer, a member of theCommunist Party of Austria, immediately leaked the story to the party's official newspaper, who published it on 11 November 1963. AfterIzvestia praised "the detective work of the Austrian comrades", an infuriated Wiesenthal leaked Silberbauer's address to the Dutch media. When reporters descended upon Silberbauer's Vienna home, the policeman freely admitted that he had arrested Anne Frank.[15][16]
Upon being asked aboutAnne Frank's diary, Silberbauer stated: "I bought the little book last week to see if I am in it. But I am not." Upon being told by a reporter that he "could have been the first to read it", Silberbauer chuckled and said, "Maybe I should have picked it up off the floor."[17][18]
Silberbauer's memories of the arrest were notably vivid – he in particular recalled Otto and Anne Frank. When he asked Otto how long they had been in hiding, Otto replied, "Two years and one month." Silberbauer was understandably incredulous, until Otto stood Anne against the marks made on the wall to measure her height since they had arrived in the Annex, showing that she had grown even since the last mark had been made. Silberbauer said that Anne "looked like the pictures in the books, but a little older, and prettier. 'You have a lovely daughter', I said to Mr. Frank".[19]
Although he disclosed what he knew, Silberbauer was unable to provide any information that could help further the Dutch police's investigation into the Dutch collaborator who provided the tip. He explained that the call was taken by his commanding officer, SS LieutenantJulius Dettmann, who said only that the information came from "a reliable source". As Dettmann had committed suicide in prison (Huis van Bewaring, Havenstraat 6, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) on 25 July 1945, the second investigation also hit a dead end.[20]
Although the Austrian government stated that the arrest of Anne Frank "did not warrant Silberbauer's arrest or prosecution as a war criminal", the Vienna Police convened a disciplinary hearing. Among the witnesses was Otto Frank, who testified that Silberbauer had "only done his duty and behaved correctly" during the arrest; however, Otto added: "The only thing I ask is not to have to see the man again."[21]
As a result, the police review board exonerated Silberbauer of any official guilt. His unpaid suspension was lifted and the Vienna police assigned him to a desk job in the "Identification Office" (Erkennungsamt).[21]
Silberbauer died in Vienna in 1972. He is interred in Mauer Friedensstrasse cemetery, where his wife Barbara is also interred.[citation needed]
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