Miep Gies dies at 100; gave protection to Anne Frank

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Gies helped hide Otto Frank's family in an Amsterdam attic for 25 months. She gathered pages from Anne's diary and saved them after the family was captured by the Gestapo in 1944.

Miep Gies signs a program at the dedication ceremony for Anne Frank Elementary School in Dallas on Nov. 14, 1995. (Tim Sharp / Associated Press)

By Claudia Luther

Miep Gies, who played a pivotal role in introducing to the world the poignant diary of the young Anne Frank and in relating the Frank family's failed attempt to hide from the Nazis, has died. She was 100.

Gies died Monday after a short illness, according to an announcement on her website. No other details were provided.

The scattered papers Gies gathered up after Anne and her family were taken from their hiding place in Amsterdam to concentration camps were later compiled by Anne's father into one of the most widely read nonfiction books of all time.

According to the Anne Frank Center USA in New York City, "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" has been translated into more than 67 languages and tens of millions of copies have sold since its publication in 1947. For millions of young people, Anne's story is their initial exposure to the Holocaust.

The famous words from Anne's closing passage -- "I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart" -- have inspired hope and tolerance for the generations after World War II who have tried to grasp the horror of the annihilation of millions of Jews under Adolf Hitler.

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[Nagishkaw 510]

She lived to be a good old age.

[PhiLandShiR 18]

I never understood the fuss about Anne Frank when so many other millions were also killed...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I never understood the fuss about Anne Frank when so many other millions were also killed...

It was her remarkable writings in her diary that has intrigued and moved so many...especially being a firsthand account from an adolescent.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

It was her remarkable writings in her diary that has intrigued and moved so many...especially being a firsthand account from an adolescent.

yup.

Thanks for trying Meip.

[PhiLandShiR 18]

It was her remarkable writings in her diary that has intrigued and moved so many...especially being a firsthand account from an adolescent.

But how do we know many others did not also write equally moving accounts???

[LaL 418]

But how do we know many others did not also write equally moving accounts???

[PhiLandShiR 18]

My point being, if others also wrote accounts, even if we don't know about them or the Nazi's burned them its does not matter. They may still have been written.

Then why make a fuss about something that many other people have done?

Many holocaust survivors have written many books about all this....

[Beth wa Salim 0]

But how do we know many others did not also write equally moving accounts???

They very well may have, but few have come to light. I don't think that Anne Franck was any more extraordinary than most of her peers, but she did manage to record her history in a particularly poignant way. I think that more than being a singularly deserving person, she instead became the face of an enormous group of people who had little representation to the world during that horrific experience. I think it would be hard for anyone who read her diary to not be deeply affected by it; when you think not only of her family, but the countless others who tried desperately to avoid a grim fate, it stirs many emotions. I think Miep Geis deserves a fitting tribute for her part in trying to save a small piece of humanity.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

My point being, if others also wrote accounts, even if we don't know about them or the Nazi's burned them its does not matter. They may still have been written.

Then why make a fuss about something that many other people have done?

Many holocaust survivors have written many books about all this....

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank ( pronunciation (help·info); 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main – early March 1945 in Bergen Belsen) was a Jewish girl who was born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany, and who lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. By nationality, she was officially considered a German until 1941, when she lost her nationality owing to the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Anne and her family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the same year as the Nazis gained power in Germany. By the beginning of 1940 they were trapped in Amsterdam due to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. It has been translated from the original Dutch into many languages, has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films. Anne Frank has been acknowledged for the quality of her writing, and has become one of the most renowned and most discussed victims of the Holocaust.

link

[Staashi 371]

My point being, if others also wrote accounts, even if we don't know about them or the Nazi's burned them its does not matter. They may still have been written.

Then why make a fuss about something that many other people have done?

Many holocaust survivors have written many books about all this....

No, actually they haven't - not in first-person narratives. Furthermore, the difference is - she didn't survive, but through some miracle her writings (which were very well written) did. Meip gave them to Otto Frank as she didn't want anyone to read Anne's personal diary or writings. She figured they were personal and were for Anne's eyes only. Mr. Frank realizing what a valuable treasure (not monetary, but historically) was contained in those writings decided to put them out for people to read.

Moreover, any account from a survivor of the Holocaust is a treasure. The rarity of the people who survived and made a personal decision to tell their tale is one to be acknowledged. It took a lot of courage for survivors to discuss what happened as sometimes the horrors of their accounts were far too painful to retell.

One of my personal hobbies over the years is to study the Holocaust - firsthand accounts - especially written ones, was very difficult for quite some time.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Staashi

[Niels Bohr 72]

Who betrayed the group that was hiding? I never finished the book or the movie.

Edited January 12, 2010 by Niels Bohr

[Staashi 371]

Please forgive my ramblings at the end of my previous post. Trying to do too many things at one time.

[Twisted K 2]

RIP

[one...two...tree 2,762]

No, actually they haven't - not in first-person narratives. Furthermore, the difference is - she didn't survive, but through some miracle her writings (which were very well written) did. Meip gave them to Otto Frank as she didn't want anyone to read Anne's personal diary or writings. She figured they were personal and were for Anne's eyes only. Mr. Frank realizing what a valuable treasure (not monetary, but historically) was contained in those writings decided to put them out for people to read.

Moreover, any account from a survivor of the Holocaust is a treasure. The rarity of the people who survived and made a personal decision to tell their tale is one to be acknowledged. It took a lot of courage for survivors to discuss what happened as sometimes the horrors of their accounts were far too painful to retell.

One of my personal hobbies over the years is to study the Holocaust - firsthand accounts - especially written ones, was very difficult for quite some time.