Miep Gies

Miep Gies
Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer · Public domain · source
Name	Miep Gies
Birth date	15 February 1909
Birth place	Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Death date	11 January 2010
Death place	Hoorn, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Secretary, humanitarian
Known for	Aiding the Frank family; preserving Anne Frank's diary

Miep Gies Marie "Miep" Gies (15 February 1909 – 11 January 2010) was an Austrian-born Dutch citizen notable for sheltering Anne Frank and the Frank family during World War II, and for preserving Anne Frank's diary after the family's arrest. She worked as a secretary for Otto Frank and became a key figure in postwar efforts to make Anne Frank's writings widely known. Her actions have been commemorated by numerous museums, memorials, and literary histories of the Holocaust.

Early life and background

Born in Vienna in 1909, Gies emigrated to the Netherlands in 1920 amid post-World War I upheavals and economic hardship. She trained and worked as a secretary in Amsterdam, where she became associated with Dutch social circles and employers including Otto Frank's company, Opekta. Gies's early years intersected with broader European events such as the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rise of interwar politics, and migration patterns connecting Austria to the Netherlands.

Relationship with the Frank family

Gies joined Opekta in 1933 as a secretary to Otto Frank, developing a working and personal relationship that extended beyond the office to acts of trust and friendship. She became close to Edith Frank, Margot Frank, and Anne Frank, accompanying the family through the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and the increasing constraints on Jewish life enforced after Nazi Germany's invasion in 1940. Her rapport with the Franks reflected wider Dutch networks of assistance that included figures such as Victor Kugler and Jan Gies.

Hiding the Frank family and World War II activities

In July 1942, following orders to deport Jews in the Netherlands, the Frank family went into hiding in a concealed annex at premises owned by Opekta colleagues. Gies, together with associates including Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, and Johannes Kleiman, helped supply food, ration coupons, and news to those in the annex, operating under the shadow of the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Final Solution. Her clandestine efforts involved coordination with resistance-minded contacts, navigation of rationing systems, and frequent use of local knowledge in Amsterdam to avoid detection by Gestapo units and Dutch collaborators. The work of Gies and her colleagues is documented alongside other rescuers of Jews in the Holocaust.

Arrest, aftermath, and preservation of Anne Frank's diary

On 4 August 1944, the occupants of the annex were betrayed and arrested during a raid by German authorities assisted by Dutch informants; the hidden residents were deported to concentration camps including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Following the arrest, Gies and colleagues searched the annex and recovered personal papers, notably the notebooks that composed Anne Frank's diary. She kept the diary safe with the intention of returning it to Anne after the war, preserving the documents through liberation in May 1945. Upon learning of Anne's death in Bergen-Belsen, Gies gave the diary to Otto Frank, who later arranged its publication; the diary became a foundational text in postwar accounts of the Holocaust.

Later life, recognition, and legacy

After the war, Gies married Jan Gies and lived in the Netherlands, participating in efforts to support Holocaust remembrance, education, and the publication of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Over subsequent decades she received honors from Dutch and international institutions, and her story appears in exhibitions at the Anne Frank House and other museums of the Holocaust. Gies' preservation of primary testimony influenced scholars, educators, and cultural figures who have studied and commemorated the Holocaust, including historians of World War II and writers who translated and adapted Anne Frank's diary for global audiences. Her longevity allowed her to attend memorial events and contribute oral testimony to archives that inform contemporary understandings of rescue and resistance in occupied Netherlands.

Category:1909 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Dutch people of Austrian descent Category:Holocaust rescuers Category:People associated with Anne Frank