Woman who preserved the legacy of Anne Frank dies
Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi regime of World War II, died Monday. She was 100.
Gies is the woman who saved Anne Frank’s diary. Working as a secretary for Otto Frank, Gies along with a few others chose to help hide the family when the Holocaust began. After 25 months of hiding, the Franks were discovered and taken away to concentration camps. After their capture, Gies collected the scattered remains of Anne Frank’s diary papers — which she had been keeping for the two years she was in hiding — and locked them safe in a drawer, intending to return the papers to Frank when she returned. Tragically, Anne Frank died just two weeks before she would have been released to return home.
Instead, Gies gave the papers to Otto Frank, Anne’s father, and over the next two years helped him compile the papers and prepare them to be published as The Diary of Anne Frank. The diary remains one of, if not the most, popular accounts of the Holocaust to date, especially among school children.
Once the book was published, Gies used the rest of her life to promote tolerance and support Anne’s diary. Gies later followed with her a book of her own, Anne Frank Remembered.
Since then, many people have deemed her a hero, but she refuses to accept the honor. For Gies, she was simply doing her duty as a human, a duty she acknowledges many others fulfilled with greater risk during the war.
Gies is survived by her son and three grandchildren.
[photo: Schindler, Karl-Heinz]
Tags: Anne Frank, Holocaust, Miep Gies, The Diary of Anne Frank, WWII
