Exploring Anne Frank's Capture: Who Snitched?

On this day in history August 4, 1944, the Nazi Gestapo captured Anne Frank and her family, and fellow Jews, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeiffer all of whom were hiding at Otto Frank's office building 263 Prinsengracht in Amsterdam in a Secret Annex above the offices. After 10 a.m. in the morning on August 4, SS-Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer of “the Sicherheitsdienst” and some Dutch police collaborators two of which are known, Willem Grootendorst and Gezinus Gringhuis stormed into the annex directly through the bookcase that hides the entryway, they stayed two hours. It has longed been believed the Franks had been tipped off by a source informed the Nazis police there were Jews hiding there.