- Oct 9, 1999
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Miep Gies Dies @ 100
Protector of Anne Frank
Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Franks protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.
Miep Gies displayed a copy of her book Anne Frank Remembered at her apartment in Amsterdam in 1998.
The Miep Gies Web site said Mrs. Gies died after a short illness but provided no other details.
I am not a hero, Mrs. Gies wrote in her memoir, Anne Frank Remembered, published in 1987. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more much more during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.
Mrs. Gies sought no accolades for joining with her husband and three others in hiding Anne Frank, her father, mother and older sister and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. But she [...] remained largely anonymous until an American writer, Alison Leslie Gold, persuaded her to tell her story and worked with her on Anne Frank Remembered.
[...]
She then traveled the world while in her 80s, speaking against intolerance. The West German government presented her with its highest civilian medal in 1989, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted her in 1996.
[...]
Every Aug. 4, the anniversary of the raid on the annex, Miep and Jan Gies remained at their Amsterdam home. They withdrew from the world and reflected on the lost.
[...]
In her memoir, Mrs. 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 Annes voice would never be lost. My young friend had left a remarkable legacy to the world.
But always, every day of my life, Ive wished that things had been different. That even had Annes diary been lost to the world, Anne and the others might somehow have been saved.
Not a day goes by that I do not grieve for them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hers was a genuine profile in courage, and a reminder to us all that despite the pervasive "banality of evil" there are, and always have been, scores upon scores of everyday people ready and willing to risk their lives for what they simply know is right.
Here's to you, Miep.
Protector of Anne Frank
Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Franks protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.
Miep Gies displayed a copy of her book Anne Frank Remembered at her apartment in Amsterdam in 1998.
The Miep Gies Web site said Mrs. Gies died after a short illness but provided no other details.
I am not a hero, Mrs. Gies wrote in her memoir, Anne Frank Remembered, published in 1987. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more much more during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.
Mrs. Gies sought no accolades for joining with her husband and three others in hiding Anne Frank, her father, mother and older sister and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. But she [...] remained largely anonymous until an American writer, Alison Leslie Gold, persuaded her to tell her story and worked with her on Anne Frank Remembered.
[...]
She then traveled the world while in her 80s, speaking against intolerance. The West German government presented her with its highest civilian medal in 1989, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted her in 1996.
[...]
Every Aug. 4, the anniversary of the raid on the annex, Miep and Jan Gies remained at their Amsterdam home. They withdrew from the world and reflected on the lost.
[...]
In her memoir, Mrs. 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 Annes voice would never be lost. My young friend had left a remarkable legacy to the world.
But always, every day of my life, Ive wished that things had been different. That even had Annes diary been lost to the world, Anne and the others might somehow have been saved.
Not a day goes by that I do not grieve for them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hers was a genuine profile in courage, and a reminder to us all that despite the pervasive "banality of evil" there are, and always have been, scores upon scores of everyday people ready and willing to risk their lives for what they simply know is right.
Here's to you, Miep.
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