The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation(22)

11:15 a.m.: Bep, Miep, and Kleiman remain in their office. Silberbauer takes his pistol (a Browning) out of his jacket and orders Kugler up the stairs. Several Dutch detectives follow with their guns drawn.16


There are two options as to how they got to the upper floor:

Option one: They make an immediate right out of Kugler’s office and then up a semispiral staircase that leads to the room where the bookcase is located. (This is the most likely and logical avenue that Kugler and the raid team would have taken.)

Option two: They go back downstairs, out of the warehouse, and onto the street and reenter the building through one of the exterior doors, which reveals a two-story staircase leading up to the Annex level.*

What they did next is important. Did they go immediately to the bookcase because they had prior information, were they led to it by Kugler at gunpoint, or did they find it on their own after looking around? Which of the scenarios is true determines whether the betrayer was an insider who knew exactly where the bookcase was or simply someone who’d received the information of the presence of Jews secondhand.

Kugler describes the raid team tugging at the bookcase until it tears loose from its fastening.17 The heavy bookcase moves on a bottom support wheel. Over the two years since Bep’s father built it, this wheel would have left a curved mark in the floor, what law enforcement agencies call a “witness mark.” The Jew-hunting units were used to searching houses for ingenious hiding places. Rather than having foreknowledge of the hidden door behind the bookcase, they may simply have noted the marks indicating that the bookcase moved to conceal something.

11:20–11:40 a.m.: The raid team enters the Annex and confronts the occupants. Otto is in Peter’s room when an unfamiliar civilian with a pistol enters. He searches their pockets for weapons. Otto and Peter are walked down the stairs to where the Van Pelses are standing with their hands up before another man in civilian clothes with his pistol drawn. They then move down a floor to where Otto’s family lives. His wife and daughters and Kugler are standing, likewise with hands up. There is a green-uniformed man with his pistol drawn who turns out to be Silberbauer.18

Silberbauer takes Otto’s briefcase and empties it, scattering papers over the floor, including Anne’s diary. He keeps the money and jewelry and Pfeffer’s dental gold.

Once Silberbauer notices Otto’s World War I trunk, he asks Otto about his service in the German Army. Otto then tells him that they have been in hiding for twenty-five months. He shows the incredulous Silberbauer the ruler marks on the wall indicating how much his daughters have grown. After this, Silberbauer tells the occupants to take their time packing.19

While the Annex occupants are packing, Kugler asks Silberbauer if he can get his lunch. He is hoping to flee the building. He gets as far as the lower storeroom, where the doors are standing open, and is at the point of running into the street when he sees another policeman and turns around.20

11:50 a.m.–noon: While the raid team is still in the Annex, Bep Voskuijl leaves Opekta with Kleiman’s wallet. He has told her to go to the drugstore on Leliegracht, whose owner is a friend who will let her call Kleiman’s wife.21 Bep runs desperately from the building, expecting to be shot at any moment, and waits at the drugstore for some time before phoning back to the office.22

11:50 a.m.–noon: Jan Gies arrives at the Opekta office as usual for lunch with Miep. Miep meets him at the office door at the top of the step, whispers, “Gestapo,” and hands him her purse containing illegal ration cards, money, and his lunch. He knows immediately what is happening. He swiftly leaves the building and goes to his office, which is seven minutes away. There he hides the items.23

12:05 p.m.: Miep returns to the front office. Another man from the raid team comes through the door and directs Kleiman, who is still sitting with her, to come to Kugler’s office. After a period of time, she hears the door of Kugler’s office open and Kleiman emerges, followed by Silberbauer. Silberbauer orders Kleiman to give the warehouse keys to Miep, and then both return to Kugler’s office and close the door.24

12:20 p.m.: A few minutes later, the Dutchman who first entered the office with a gun comes back, sits at Bep’s desk, and phones the SD office on Euterpestraat requesting that a vehicle be sent.25

12:25 p.m.: Silberbauer comes into the front office and confronts Miep, taking back the keys that Kleiman gave her a few minutes earlier. Miep recognizes his Viennese accent and says that she, too, is from Vienna. After chastising her for helping Jews, he warns her not to flee because he intends to come back and check on her. Shutting the door behind him, he leaves her alone in the office. She is shocked that she is not arrested and assumes it is because of their shared Austrian background.26

12:45 p.m.: The ten prisoners are moved downstairs.27 Little is said. There are no emotional farewells to the helpers.

1:00 p.m.: As the prisoners are walked out of the building, the two warehousemen are standing at the front entrance.28 The eight Annex residents, along with Kugler and Kleiman, are loaded into a closed dark green truck waiting on the Prinsengracht. Miep’s husband, Jan, and Kleiman’s brother, whom Jan has called, watch from across the canal.29 Silberbauer departs on a bicycle.30

1:15–1:30 p.m.: The SD truck arrives at HQ Euterpestraat, and the prisoners are escorted into cells and locked up. Questioning begins. Silberbauer asks Otto for the names and addresses of more hidden Jews, but he says he knows nothing. He has been out of circulation for twenty-five months. Kleiman and Kugler refuse to talk about their involvement in the hiding. Neither Otto nor the others are mistreated.31