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Revision as of 14:34, 29 December 2004
Miep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II and preserved Anne's diaries to be published later.
Hermine 'Miep' Santrouschitz-Gies (b. 15 February 1909) was evactuated to Lieden in Holland from her city of birth, Vienna, in December 1920 to escape the food shortages caused by the end of the first world war, and moved with her foster family to Amsterdam in 1922. She met Otto Frank when she applied for the post of temporary secretary in his company,Opekta, in 1933. She initially ran the Complaints and Information desk in Opekta, but graduated to the general running of the company. She became a close friend of his family as did her partner, Jan Gies (18.8.1905-26.1.1993) whom she married in July 1941 after she refused to join a Nazi women's association and was threatened with deportation back to Austria. Her knowledge of Dutch and German helped assimilate the Frank family into life in the Netherlands and Miep and Jan became regular guests at the Frank's home.
With her husband Jan Gies and her colleagues Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman and Bep Voskuijl, Miep Gies helped hide the Frank family and four other people in the sealed-off back rooms of the company's office building from July 1942 until they were betrayed by a Dutch informant on August 4 1944. After the raid on the hiding place, Miep found the discarded diaries of Anne Frank and saved them for Anne's return. Once the war was over and it was confirmed that Anne had perished in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, she handed the collection of papers and notebooks that made up the diary to the sole survivor of the family, Otto Frank, who arranged for the book's publication in 1947.
Since the Second World War Miep Gies's courage has been recognised with awards from several international organisations, including the Yad Vashem medal, the Raoul Wallenberg Award for Bravery and The Righteous Amongst the Nations Award.
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