Miep Gies
Hermine "Miep" Gies, was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other 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 …
They were completely dependent on six helpers; employees and friends of Anne's father. The helpers provided food and clothing, as well as books, magazines and newspapers.
How did Miep Gies help Anne Frank?
Miep Gies hid the Frank family for years, helped them survive, and even saved Anne Frank's diary from falling into Nazi hands. In 1933, Hermine Santruschitz began working for Opekta, a European spice and pectin company that specialized in manufacturing jam.
How did Miep help the people in the annexes?
Miep, Jan and three others risked their lives daily and acted as helpers for the people in the annex, and brought them food, supplies and news of the world outside the darkened windows. Miep's friendship with Anne Frank was especially strong.
Why did Anne Frank bring Miep blank accounting books?
Miep's friendship with Anne Frank was especially strong. When she wrote the diary, Anne changed all the names of the people in it, to protect them from Nazi retribution - except for Miep, whose first name remained the same. Miep brought her blank accounting books so Anne could continue to scribble her thoughts after she filled the checkered diary.
How did Miep and Bep find Anne's notebooks?
They arrested the eight people in hiding, as well as their helpers Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler. When Miep and Bep later went to the Secret Annex to see if they could save some personal belongings of the people in hiding, they found Anne's notebooks and papers on the floor.
What did Miep Gies do with Anne's diary?
Miep stored Anne's writings in a drawer of her desk, unread, and gave them to Anne's father when he returned after the war, as the only survivor of the concentration camps.
Did Miep Gies read Anne Frank's diary?
Gies told of her emotions when she finally read the diary. She wrote: “The emptiness in my heart was eased. So much had been lost, but now Anne's voice would never be lost.
How did Miep get Anne's diary?
After Otto learns that none of his family has survived, Miep presents him with the papers she has collected from the attic floor. The Diary of Anne Frank is published two years later. In the 50 years since its publication, the diary has been read by tens of millions of people worldwide.
Did Miep Gies betray Anne Frank?
“Mrs. Frank's face said it all. Quickly, I left them.” For the next two years, until the Franks and four others, who later went into hiding with them, were ultimately betrayed, Gies and her husband used pluck and illegal ration cards to provide food and other supplies to the upstairs prisoners.
Why did Miep keep Anne's diary?
When Miep and Bep later went to the Secret Annex to see if they could save some personal belongings of the people in hiding, they found Anne's notebooks and papers on the floor. Miep and Bep gathered everything up and Miep decided to keep the papers in a desk drawer, hoping one day to be able to return them to Anne.
Who betrayed the Franks?
Willem Gerardus van Maaren (August 10, 1895 - November 28, 1971) was the person most often suggested as the betrayer of Anne Frank.
Who discovered Anne's diary?
After the arrest of the eight people in hiding, helpers Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl found Anne's writings in the Secret Annex. Miep held on to Anne's diaries and papers and kept them in a drawer of her desk.
Who was in the attic with Anne Frank?
During WWII, Anne Frank's family hid in the Secret Annex for over 2 years, with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer.
Did anyone survive Anne Frank's house?
It was little over a year later when things went wrong after all: the Secret Annex and the people in hiding were discovered. Of the eight people in hiding, Otto was the only one to survive the war.
How did the Franks get caught?
Anne Frank captured. Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp.
What did Miep Gies do?
On January 11, 2010, Miep Gies, the last survivor of a small group of people who helped hide a Jewish girl, Anne Frank, and her family from the Nazis during World War II, dies at age 100 in the Netherlands.
How old would Anne Frank be today?
What would be the age of Anne Frank if alive? Anne Frank's exact age would be 93 years 22 days old if alive. Total 33,990 days. Anne Frank was one of the world's most famous young diarists who is known for the only book she wrote titled The Diary of A Young Girl.
What was Miep's life after the war?
For years, Miep’s life after the war was connected to Anne’s legacy. Countless were the times she told students her stories about the Secret Annex and her memories of Anne. In the early 1990s, she wrote her memoir, helped by writer Alison Leslie Gold.
Why did they call Jan and Miep?
They called Miep and Jan, so that they could bring things for the hiding place. The next morning, Miep picked up Margot. Together they cycled to Otto's company on the Prinsengracht. Otto, Edith, and Anne went there on foot. Once they were settled in the hiding place, they quickly established a routine.
Why did Miep and Jan Gies go into hiding?
Kuno van der Horst, a 23-year-old student, went into hiding with the Gies family because he had refused to sign a declaration of loyalty to the Nazis. Miep knew that Anne kept a diary.
What did Miep and Bep do after the arrest?
After the arrest Miep made a last desperate attempt to free the people who had been arrested. She took a big risk and walked into the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst.
What did the helpers do in the hiding place?
Once they were settled in the hiding place, they quickly established a routine. The helpers divided the work, with Miep taking care of the meat and vegetables. In her diary, Anne wrote: ‘Miep is just like a pack mule, she fetches and carries so much.
Why did Miep become malnourished?
Because there was not a lot of food available after the First World War, Miep even became malnourished. Her family therefore decided to make use of a relief project for Austrian children: in December 1920 they put 11-year-old Miep on the train to the Netherlands to become healthier.
When did Jan Gies and Miep get married?
Miep had met Jan Gies in her first job. The two got romantically involved and on 16 July 1941, in the second year of war, the couple married. At that point, Jan was working as a social worker with Social Services of the municipality of Amsterdam. They found a house near the Merwedeplein, where the Frank family lived.
What is Miep Gies?
Miep Gies, tiny, white-haired, gentle and courageous, is an unfamiliar name to most people , but without this remarkable woman, there would be no The Diary of Anne Frank . During the Nazi occupation of Holland the Austrian-born Dutch woman risked her life daily to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis.
Why did Anne change the names of the people in her diary?
When she wrote the diary, Anne changed all the names of the people in it, to protect them from Nazi retribution - except for Miep, whose first name remained the same. Miep brought her blank accounting books so Anne could continue to scribble her thoughts after she filled the checkered diary.
How old was Miep Gies when the war started?
The young Miep. Miep Gies was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909 as Hermine Santrouschitz. She was five years old, when the First World War began and because of the serious food shortages during the war, she soon became undernourished and sick.
How many copies of Anne Frank's diary have been sold?
By saving the diary from the debris left by the Nazis, Miep Gies made sure that Anne Frank’s name was known around the world - since its initial publication in 1947, The Diary of Anne Frank has sold more than 25 million copies in 54 languages.
How long did Otto Frank live with Jan Gies?
Otto Frank decided to fulfill his daughter's wishes and arranged for the diary to be published in 1947. He lived with Miep and Jan Gies for seven years. He died in 1980. Miep Gies didn't just help the eight people in the annex.
Why did Miep give Peter lavender peonies?
Miep even supplied some lavender peonies to Peter, who presented them to Anne as a sign of his affection. One night, Anne persuaded Miep to sleep over in the attic. Miep spent a suffocating, sleepless night on Anne's small, hard bed.
What did Anne Frank do to help the Franks?
Of course, she said without asking for details. She agreed to help the Franks go into hiding in the secret annex despite threat of imprisonment, deportation or execution. On her 13th birthday in 1942 Anne received as a gift from her parents, a diary. She immediately took to writing her intimate thoughts and musings.
Why did Miep never read Anne's writings?
Once Miep learned after the war that Anne had died, she was even more determined never to read Anne’s writings for fear of all the painful memories it would provoke, notwithstanding Otto Frank’s repeated requests that she read Anne’s remarkable observations and musings.
What was Miep hired for?
Miep was hired in 1933 to run Otto Frank’s complaint department and over time handled an increasing number of tasks within the office. If all you read is Anne Frank’s diary, the actions of these helpers on the “outside” is naturally almost always in the background. I recently finished reading Anne Frank Remembered, ...
Why did Anne Gies burn the diary?
While she was glad she did, claiming that she could once again hear “Anne’s voice come back to speak to me,” Gies also admitted that, had she known of the contents of the diary during the war, she would have burned the manuscript “because it would have been too dangerous for people about whom Anne had written.”.
Where was Miep Gies born?
PS: In one of the many, many ironies with which World War II abounds, Miep Gies was born in Vienna (as noted above). She was only sent to Holland as a young girl in the aftermath of World War I when she failed to thrive in war-ravaged Austria.
Who was the helper in the hiding scheme?
Of the four helpers involved in the hiding scheme, Miep is best known since she recovered Anne’s diary after the Gestapo left with the family, which papers she then kept safe in her desk drawer for the duration of the war, awaiting Anne’s return.
Who wrote Anne Frank's story?
Written by Timothy Boyce. Anyone familiar with Anne Frank’s story knows that the eight Jews hidden in the annex at Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam, were helped by various employees at Otto Frank’s firm, among them Miep Gies.
Did Miep ever look at Anne's diary?
But for this exemption, Gies would never have had the opportunity to retrieve the diary. >Miep never once looked at Anne’s manuscript for the duration of the war, feeling it would be an invasion of Anne’s privacy. Once Miep learned after the war that Anne had died, she was even more determined never to read Anne’s writings for fear ...
