Historical Figure
Miep Gies
1909–2010
Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank (1909–2010)
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Biography
Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.
In Their Own Words (2)
I don't want to be considered a hero. Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.
Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank, dies at 100 (January 12, 2010) , 2010
I myself am just an ordinary woman. I had a lot of choices
Timeline
The story of Miep Gies, told in moments.
Born Hermine Santruschitz in Vienna. Malnourished as a child. Sent to the Netherlands at 11 for better nutrition through a foster care program. She stayed. Changed her name. Became Dutch. Got a job at a spice company run by Otto Frank.
Helps hide the Frank family and four others in the secret annex above Otto Frank's office. She shops for food, brings news, keeps the secret. Every day for two years, she walks past the bookcase hiding the door. One wrong word means death for everyone.
The annex is raided. Miep is questioned but not arrested. After the Nazis leave, she goes back into the annex and finds Anne's diary scattered on the floor. She gathers the pages. Locks them in a drawer. Doesn't read them.
Gives the diary to Otto Frank when he returns from Auschwitz, the only survivor. "Here is your daughter Anne's legacy to you," she says. She'd kept the pages for a year, hoping Anne would come back to claim them.
Dies in Hoorn, the Netherlands, at 100. She spent decades refusing to be called a hero. "I am not a hero," she said every time. "I did what any decent person would have done." Most decent people didn't.
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