Here”s a word about keeping your word.
Miep Gies was described as gentle and courageous.
She died the way she lived, quietly.
Her name is unfamiliar to most.
Without her there would be no Diary of Anne Frank.
Aside from the Bible, Anne Frank”s diary is the most widely read book in the world.
Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, wrote: “In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted an attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care …”
Miep Gies was born Feb. 15, 1909.
I wrote this on the date of her birth, to honor her courage, nobility, perseverance and humanitarian efforts, but mostly to offer appreciation to someone who kept her word when her very life was at stake. She had the courage to care.
Her full name was Hermine Santrouschitz. She was a member of a Roman Catholic family in Vienna. During the Nazi occupation of Holland, the Austrian-born Dutch woman risked her life for more than two years, helping the Franks and four others, hide from the Gestapo.
In 1933, Gies was 13. Her family moved to Amsterdam where she worked as a secretary for Otto Frank. She was a trusted employee and friend of the Frank family. In July 1942, when the Dutch Jews were deported to concentration camps, the Frank family went into hiding. Otto asked Gies if she would give them shelter. She agreed without hesitation.
Miep and her husband Jan Gies, who is referred to in the diary as Henk, spent a night in the hiding place to experience the terror first-hand.
She saved the diary found in the debris left behind by the Nazis. She was determined that Anne Frank”s name was known worldwide.
Gies was humble. She said she was simply helping friends who needed her.
Everyone should be so lucky to have friends like that.
She fed eight people and brought them comfort from the outside world. She brought them the news, but withheld the worst of it; the kind of news about Jews sent to concentration camps, shot, tortured, gassed and friends killed.
She brought books and birthday presents.
She was also the one who picked up the shattered pieces and the scattered pages of Anne”s diary on the day the families were arrested and taken away. She gathered up the writings and hid them. She didn”t read it at the time. She hoped Anne would return to claim them. Otto Frank returned at the end of World War II. He was the only survivor in the family. Anne died in a concentration camp three months before her 16th birthday. Her sister died at age 19 and their mother died at Auschwitz.
After Anne”s death, Gies gave the diary to Otto.
The writings were first published in the Netherlands in 1947 — “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.”
Gies said she was not a hero.
I firmly disagree.
Miep Gies” memoir, “Anne Frank Remembered,” was published in the late 1980s. She continued to educate and inspire long after that though, as a speaker, well into her late 80s. She lived pretty anonymously. She died last month at 100 years old, but not without leaving a solid impact on the world.
Gies lived a life with meaning, fierce and unwavering courage. She tackled a century like a Super Bowl middle linebacker ? now that truly is living.
“There”s never a wish better than this, when you”ve only got 100 years to live.”
? Five for Fighting
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee news editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 Ext. 32.
