Karl Silberbauer

Karl Josef Silberbauer was a Schutzstaffel (SS) member who led the 1944 Gestapo raid on the Anne Frank House and the arrests of Anne Frank, her fellow fugitives, and two of their protectors. He was stationed in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II, where he was promoted to the rank of Hauptscharführer and after the war served 14 months in prison for using excessive force against members of the Communist Party of Austria. He was later an undercover investigator for the West German Bundesnachrichtendienst. In 1963, Silberbauer, by then an inspector in the Vienna police, was exposed as the commander of the 1944 Gestapo raid and arrests. He was not prosecuted for his participation in the arrests.