The arrest of Fritz Pfeffer
On 4 August 1944, Fritz Pfeffer was arrested along with the other people in hiding and helpers Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman.
Nothing concrete is known about circumstances leading to the 4 August 1944 raid on the Prinsengracht 263 building. The course of events on the third floor of the annex during the arrest is known only through statements by Otto Frank and Karl Silberbauer.
Around 10.30 am, an arrest team raided the premises on Prinsengracht.[1] The team was led by SS-Hauptscharführer Karl Silberbauer and also included detectives Willem Grootendorst and Gezinus Gringhuis. The first two were working for the Sipo-SD, the latter had transferred from that service to the National Department of Criminal Investigation.[2] The policemen drove a car ahead, got out, after which one of the Dutch detectives asked the warehouse staff something, who directed him to the office floor upstairs. There they found the office staff working.
Sitting there at the time were Johannes Kleiman, Bep Voskuijl and Miep Gies, who all knew about the people in hiding. The detectives walked on to the office of Victor Kugler.
The policemen questioned him and took him along on a search of the building. During this inspection, they entered the room with the revolving bookcase, which blocked the entrance to the Secret Annex. They discovered the secret entrance and surprised the hiders in their hiding place.
Otto Frank recalled: "Suddenly someone came running up the stairs and then the door opened and a man stood right in front of us with a gun in his hand. Downstairs they were all gathered."[3] In 1963, he added: "He made us raise our hands and then searched us for weapons. (...) Then he ordered us to go downstairs. He came after us with a gun drawn. We first entered the room of the Pels family, where I saw Mr and Mrs Pels, as well as Mr Pfeffer [also] standing with their hands raised." [4]
Together with Kleiman, Kugler and the other people in hiding, Fritz Pfeffer was taken to the SD on Euterpestraat for interrogation. The next day he and the others were transferred to the Detention Centre on Weteringschans, and from there transported to Westerbork.[4]
Footnotes
- ^ Dit tijdstip gaf Jo Kleiman in 1948 aan, en werd door Otto Frank in 1963 herhaald Nationaal Archief (NL-HaNA), Centraal Archief van de Bijzondere Rechtspleging (CABR), toegang 2.09.09, inv. nr. 23892: Verklaringen J. Kleiman, 12 januari 1948 en O. Frank, 2-3 december 1963. Zie ook: Gertjan Broek, Onderzoeksverslag inzake verraad en arrestatie van de onderduikers in het Achterhuis, Amsterdam: Anne Frank Stichting, 2016.
- ^ De formuleringen van de getuigen laten ruimte voor de mogelijkheid dat er meer dan deze drie bij aanwezig waren. Zekerheid is daar echter niet meer over te verkrijgen. De Nederlandse rechercheurs werden op 10 november 1945 door Otto Frank van foto’s herkend bij Bureau Nationale Veiligheid; AFS, AFC, reg. code OFA_072: O. Frank aan Alice Frank-Stern, 11 november 1945. Silberbauer wordt door Jo Kleiman met name genoemd in zijn brief aan de Politieke Recherche Afdeling van 16 juli 1947. Zie hiervoor David Barnouw en Gerrold van der Stroom, Wie verraadde Anne Frank?, Amsterdam: Boom, 2003, p. 29.
- ^ Ernst Schnabel, Anne Frank, Spur eines Kindes. Ein Bericht, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Bücherei, 1958, p. 107.
- a, b NL-HaNA, CABR, inv. nr. 23892 (dossier van Maaren): procesverbaal, 3 november 1964: verklaring Otto Frank, 2-3 december 1963.