Voting Station

Karl Silberbauer

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (June 21, 1911-September 2, 1972)
    Born in Vienna, Austria
    Austrian police officer
    Birth name is Karl Josef Silberbauer
    Nazi Staff Sergeant (SS-Oberscharführer)
    Transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst in The Hague; assigned to Amsterdam shortly thereafter (1943)
    Commander of the Gestapo raid on the Secret Annex and its residents, among them Anne Frank and her family (Aug. 1944)
    Later became an undercover investigator for the West German Federal Intelligence Service
    Identified as the man who arrested Anne Frank by Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal in 1963

Why he might be annoying:

    For years, he was identified as 'Silvernagel.'
    He was complicit in the systematic murder of Anne Frank & her hiding-mates.
    He was the only Nazi present during the raid (the other officers were local Dutch policemen).
    His identity as the arresting officer was concealed for years, for fear of negative publicity.
    He showed no remorse for his role in the deaths of the Annex residents or any other Jews he arrested.
    He provided virtually no insight into the identity of the Frank family's betrayers, either out of unwillingness or actual cluelessness.
    He looted the Secret Annex with his fellow officers shortly after the raid was initiated.
    He emptied out a briefcase of Otto Frank's to keep any confiscated valuables, out of which the diary of Otto's daughter fell.
    Accounts also claim that he kicked the diary out of his way when it hit the floor (casting aside of the most valuable documents of the 20th Century).
    He admitted to later buying the diary and flipping through it, if only 'to see if I am in it' (he wasn't).
    He later expressed regret that he had left the diary behind, joking that 'maybe I should have picked it off the floor,' likely to turn a profit.
    He complained about the negative blowback, claiming that he had lost his job because of it, and was having difficulty paying for the new furniture he had just bought (heartache...)
    Nonetheless, he not only got his job back eventually, but was also able to retire and collect benefits - ironically in recognition of his work for the Gestapo and the SD.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He is yet one more reason why Simon Wiesenthal was one serious badass you wouldn't want to mess with...
    He was allegedly dumbfounded when Otto Frank admitted to him that they had been hiding in the attic for two and a half years.
    He is living proof that Anne Frank actually existed and that the diary was not 'a hoax' as Holocaust deniers insisted.
    He had no way of knowing, at the time, that he was sealing the tragic fate of a world icon by carrying out a routine arrest.
    He described Anne as more beautiful than existing photos would suggest, and even told Otto that he 'had a very lovely daughter' during the arrest.
    All charges were dropped against him by the Viennese police in 1964, when it was determined that he knew nothing about the Holocaust and was only following orders (where have we heard that before...)
    Luckily for him, Otto Frank actively preached forgiveness and asked only that he not have to see him again (he was more interested in the identity of his family's mystery informant).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 17 Votes: 76.47% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 111 Votes: 54.05% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 26 Votes: 42.31% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 158 Votes: 65.19% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 75 Votes: 57.33% Annoying