The arrest of Edith Frank
On 4 August 1944, Edith Frank-Holländer and the other people in hiding in the Secret Annex were arrested in a raid by the SD. Helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler were also arrested.
On 4 August 1944, an arrest team of the Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst, (Sipo-SD) raided Prinsengracht 263 and the Secret Annex. The team was led by SS-Hauptscharführer Karl Silberbauer and included the detectives Willem Grootendorst and Gezinus Gringhuis. All eight people in hiding and two helpers, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler, were arrested and taken to the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung building at Adama van Scheltemaplein 1 in Amsterdam. It has never been fully clarified how the SD tracked down the people in hiding.[1]
According to statements by Victor Kugler, Edith Frank-Holländer was the first person he saw when he, followed by the SDs, entered the Secret Annex. Kugler said: 'Ich konnte nur mit vieler Mühe sagen: die Gestapo ist da.'[2]
Otto Frank stated in 1963 that Edith, Anne, Margot were on the Frank floor with Silberbauer during the arrest: "There I saw my wife and both daughters standing, also with their hands raised."[3]
Together with helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler, Edith and the other people in hiding were taken to the SD building on Euterpestraat. The people in hiding were taken the next day to the Detention Centre on Weteringschans, and later to Westerbork.[3]
Footnotes
- ^ Zie: David Barnouw en Gerrold van der Stroom, Wie verraadde Anne Frank?, Amsterdam: Boom, 2003; Gertjan Broek, Onderzoeksverslag inzake verraad en arrestatie van de onderduikers in het Achterhuis, Amsterdam: Anne Frank Stichting, 2016.
- ^ Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, Archief Ernst Schnabel: Schriftelijke verklaring van Victor Kugler, 17 september 1957 (kopie bij: Anne Frank Stichting A(FS), afd. Collecties, Collectie in handen van derden, Instellingen Buitenland).
- a, b Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Centraal Archief Bijzondere Rechtspleging, inv. nr. 23892 (dossier van Maaren): Verklaring Otto Frank, proces-verbaal 86/1963.