Karl Silberbauer

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Karl Josef Silberbauer (21 June 1911 – 2 September 1972) was an Austrian police officer and SS member who led the 1944 Gestapo raid on the Secret Annex in the Anne Frank House and arrested Anne Frank, her family, and their protectors.

Early life and career
Silberbauer was born in Vienna. He joined the Austrian police in 1935, moved into the Gestapo in 1939, and later transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in The Hague. He was assigned to Amsterdam, where he rose to the rank of Hauptscharführer (master sergeant) and worked with a unit that arrested hidden Jews in the occupied Netherlands.

The 1944 raid
On August 4, 1944, Silberbauer led a small team to 263 Prinsengracht after a tip-off that Jews were hiding there. He questioned Victor Kugler, Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, and others. Gies was allowed to stay after recognizing Silberbauer’s Viennese accent. That day, Otto Frank and his family, along with the others who had helped them, were arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters, then to Westerbork concentration camp and later to Auschwitz. Anne and Margot Frank died later in Bergen-Belsen; most of the group did not survive. Silberbauer returned to Vienna in 1945 and later said he had only done his duty.

Postwar life
After the war, Silberbauer served 14 months in prison for using excessive force against members of the Austrian Communist Party. He then worked as an undercover investigator for the German Gehlen Organization, which became the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), for about ten years. His past as an SS member helped him blend in with neo-Nazi and pro-Soviet circles in West Germany and Austria.

1963 exposure and aftermath
In 1963, the Austrian police and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal identified Silberbauer as the officer who had led the Anne Frank raid. He was suspended from the Vienna police but not prosecuted. Otto Frank, Anne’s father, testified that Silberbauer had “done his duty,” though he preferred not to see him again. Silberbauer eventually returned to police work and worked in an identification office.

Later revelations
There has been ongoing discussion about whether there was a genuine tip-off or if the hiding place was found by chance while investigating ration-card fraud. In 2016 new information suggested the raid might have resulted from a routine operation against ration-card trafficking, but the full story remains uncertain. Silberbauer’s own accounts from 1963 are considered unreliable by some researchers.

Death
Karl Silberbauer died in Vienna in 1972. His involvement in the Anne Frank case remains a notable, controversial part of his complex postwar life.