The+Story+of+Miep+Gies

While millions of people all over the world know about Anne Frank, far fewer are aware of Miep Gies, the woman who sustained Frank and her family in hiding during World War II. The humanitarian actions of Gies more than fifty years ago in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam have had a special and enduring impact. Were it not for Miep Gies, the world would never have met Anne Frank. (Anne Frank) Miep was born 1909 February 15th, Vienna, Austria. At the age of eleven, recovering from tuberculosis and suffering from poor nutrition, she was sent to live with a family in Amsterdam in 1922. Her Dutch foster parents already had five children. Despite their modest income they welcomed her into their family, sharing with her everything they had. The love and compassion she received from her new family impressed Miep extremely and she decided to make Holland her permanent home. Miep was influenced by the values of her foster family.

Miep Santrouschitz married her boyfriend**,** Jan Gies, a social worker and member of the Dutch underground. She married Jan Gies on July 16th, 1941 after she refused to join a Nazi women's association and was threatened with deportation back to Austria. Her only child, Paul Gies, was born on 13 July 1950. She was evacuated to Leiden in the Netherlands from her city of birth, Vienna. There in 1933 she met Otto Frank when she applied for the post of temporary secretary in his spice office, Opekta. She became a close friend of the family with her husband and colleagues, Miep helped hide Edith and Otto Frank, their daughters, Margot & Anne Frank, Hermann and Auguste Van Pels, and their son Peter. She hid them in the sealed off back rooms of the company's office building on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht from July 1942 until August 4th 1944. Her only child, Paul Gies, was born on 13 July 1950.

Miep, Jan, and three others risked their lives daily and acted as helpers for the people in the annex, and brought them food, supplies and news of the world outside the darkened windows. In theory, Miep and the other helpers could have been shot if the had been caught hiding Jews. However people who had been caught saving Jews were commonly sent four to six months in hard labor camp. Miep's friendship with Anne Frank was very intense, Anne just treasured her, trusting her with her biggest secrets. When she wrote the diary, Anne changed all the names of the people in it, to protect them from Nazi retribution, except for Miep, whose first name continued to stay the same. One night, Anne persuaded Miep to sleep over in the attic. Miep spent a suffocating, sleepless night on Anne's small, hard bed. She listened to the church clock across the garden chime at 15-minute intervals, listened to her own heart pound. She became aware of what it meant to be imprisoned in those small rooms and felt a taste of the helpless fear these people were forced to endure day and night.

The franks and the van daans were reported to the gestapo on the mourning of August 4, 1944, by an anonymous informer. By being arrested in hiding, they were considered criminals and were sent to the barracks for hard labor. The Frank family was taken to the Dutch Transit Camp of Westerbork, by this time more than 100,000 Jews had passed through it. Then later on they were transferred to Auschwitz, where Otto was separated from his wife and two daughters. In my opinion, I believe that Otto was one of the luckiest people to have survived Auschwitz. Auschwitz was one of the biggest death camps to be known. When Otto & his family arrived to the death camp, everything was taken from them, and then they we're separated. All of their belongings were taken, everyone's head was shaved, no one was able to bathe, and no one was fed. After a long desperate time of sorrow, but still having hope, the War ended and everyone was released from the camps. Otto had made it through, and he was very fortunate, because out of 405,000 registered prisoners, only 65,000 survived Auschwitz. After the war, Otto headed home and went to try to find information about his wife and two missing daughters. That summer, he was informed that the rest of his family had been killed, and he was the only one left.

(Otto Frank) Hermann van Pels was deported to Auschwitz. Following an injury to his hand, he was transferred to a group in another section of the camp which was subsequently selected for the gas chambers and exterminated in early October. Auguste Van Pels date and place of death are unknown but witnesses testified that she was with the Frank sisters during part of their time in Bergen-Belsen, but that she was not present when they died in February/March. She is therefore assumed to have been transferred before March 1945, to Buchenwald, then to the Theresienstadt ghetto. She is believed to have died either en route to Theresienstadt, or shortly after her arrival there. (Hermann Van Pels) (Auguste Van Pels) On October 30 another selection separated Edith from Anne and Margot. Edith was selected for the gas chamber, and her daughters were transported to Bergen Belsen. She escaped with a friend to another section of the camp, where she remained through the winter, but died of exhaustion and malnutrition in January 1945 at the age of 44, twenty days before the Red Army liberated the camp. Margot and Anne were transferred to Bergen Belsen on October 30, where both contracted typhus in the winter of 1944. According to the testimony of Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper, a nurse who had been arrested for her work in the Dutch Resistance and had met the Frank family in Westerbork, Margot Frank died shortly before Anne on 9 March, 1945. (Margot Frank) (Peter Van Pels) September 3rd Peter & the rest of the group were deported on what would be the last transport from Westerbork to the Auschwitz concentration camp. They arrived after a three-day journey, and were separated by gender, with the men and women never to see each other ever again. Peter Van Pels went on the death march and thought he would have a better chance of survival. Peter was sadly mistaken, he died at the age of eighteen which occurred three days before the liberation of Mauthausen.

Miep has continued her humanitarian work since then. Her husband Jan Gies died in 1993 from diabetes. Miep personally is an inspiration to people of all ages. She is a perfect example of how wonderful some people can be. She risked her life everday, which is truly amazing. Miep is currently; 99 years old. She resides in Dutch province of Noord, Holland. Since the Nazis arrested the Frank family after their hiding place was betrayed in 1944, Miep Gies has worked tirelessly to keep their memory alive. She has traveled to many countries to give speeches at schools throughout the world. She does not consider herself a hero for what she did in trying to save the Franks, and each year, on August 4, the anniversary of their arrest, she mourns their passing. As recently as 1995, when she was 87, she came to a school in Long Beach, California to share her insights and experiences with a group of students at-risk. That story is told in the 2007 movie "Freedom Writers".