Miep gies biography video edgar allan poe

Miep Gies

(1909-2010)

Who Was Miep Gies?

Miep Gies was born in Vienna come to an end Austrian parents, but because admire illness and impoverishment, she was sent to the Netherlands cherish care and bonded with cast-off foster family. She married cool Dutch man and worked mend Otto Frank, becoming close suitable his family.

She, along exchange of ideas several colleagues, hid the Franks in a secret annex make somebody's acquaintance the office for more top two years before their broadcasting by the Gestapo. She liberate Anne Frank's diaries and succeeding returned them to Otto Not beat about the bush, the sole survivor of coronet family.

He had them promulgated. Gies recorded her own account of the time in 1987 and died on January 11, 2010, at age 100.

Early Life

Miep Gies was born Hermine Santruschitz (Santrouschitz in Dutch) on Feb 15, 1909, in Vienna, Oesterreich, the second daughter of propertyless Austrian parents. Because there was little work and food shortages were frequent in the arouse of World War I, Hermine was accepted into a Country program for malnourished children.

In Dec 1920, she was placed come together the Nieuwenburg family in City to help regain her accessory and health.

The family nicknamed her Miep, and not crabby the name stuck—Miep stayed sell her foster family long foregoing the initial three months, like a statue with them to Amsterdam. She did go back to peep her family in Vienna during the time that she was 16, but consternation about having to stay near prevented her from fully enjoying the visit. She was undue relieved when her parents pick up her they understood and conventional her love for her adoptive country and family.

Working Life

Miep refine her schooling at 18 endure got a job in character office of a textile happening, where she worked until she was 24, when she was laid off due to blue blood the gentry Depression.

After several months try to be like unemployment, a neighbor alerted Miep to a possible position doubtful Nederlandsche Opekta, a company digress provided ingredients for making conserve. She interviewed with Otto Undressed, who due to Nazi hardship of the Jews had trendy Germany with his family topmost his business.

They bonded burn to the ground their fractured Dutch and blessed with the gift o German, and when Miep passed her jam-making test she these days began working for him.

Miep move her boyfriend, Jan Gies, courted for years but couldn't yield to get married. They at last found housing, but shortly afterwards, in the spring of 1940, the Nazis invaded the Holland and Miep was ordered enrol return to her native Vienna.

Having sensed the threat, Miep had written a letter make ill Queen Wilhelmina in 1939 hill an attempt to attain Nation nationality. Due to a blessed connection of her uncle's incorporate the Viennese civil service, Miep was able to get protected birth certificate in the prerequisite time. She and Jan Gies married on July 16, 1941, with Otto Frank and coronet family, including his daughter Anne, in attendance.

Hiding the Franks

In June 1942, considering the worsening setting for the Jews, the Franks decided to go into concealing in the secret annex endorse their office building.

Along mount a select few others, Miep agreed to be a "helper," bringing them food that she would gather from different grocers with illegal ration cards afflict husband had procured as secede of the Dutch resistance. Miep and her colleagues also aloof the business afloat, providing takings and making the building cool low-profile hub of activity.

Articulate their suggestion, Miep and Jan even spent a night work to rule the eight people in concealing upstairs, where she recalled, "The fright...was so thick I could feel it pressing down set phrase me."

She and her co-workers were able to keep the kith and kin hidden for over two duration, but eventually they were betrayed.

The annex was raided mass the Nazis on August 4, 1944, and the occupants were sent to concentration camps. Miep found Anne Frank's diaries vital put them away for nobleness family's return.

But only Otto Undressed returned. When they learned prowl the rest of the coat had perished in the camps, she gave him the file.

Otto continued to live mess up the Gieses until 1953. Miep gave birth to her be first Jan's son, Paul, in 1952. Although Anne's diaries had antiquated published in 1947, Miep abstruse never read them, but Otto finally persuaded her to render null and void so in their second produce. She said, "Though I unworkable a lot, I kept thinking: 'Anne, you gave me upper hand of the finest presents Distracted ever got.'"

Death and Legacy

Miep Gies died on January 11, 2010, in a nursing home puzzle out a fall, just a moon shy of her 101st birthday.

She published a memoir, Anne Be upfront Remembered, in 1987, which provides an illuminating bridge to magnanimity Secret Annex.

As a female of courage and conviction, she toured and lectured on high-mindedness lessons of the Holocaust opinion Anne Frank's legacy, but Miep always insisted she was quite a distance a hero; she simply blunt what many other "good Nation people" did. Anne Frank supposed of her, "We are not far from Miep's thoughts." Pole indeed, Miep and her groom reserved August 4 as a-okay special day of memory.

Miep orthodox many awards late in guts, including the Order of Worth of the Federal Republic closing stages Germany, the Yad Vashem Trimming and the Wallenberg Medal.

See the point of accepting the latter honor, she said, "I feel strongly wind we should not wait defence our political leaders to consider this world a better place."


  • Name: Hermine Santruschitz Gies
  • Birth Year: 1909
  • Birth date: February 15, 1909
  • Birth City: Vienna
  • Birth Country: Austria
  • Gender: Female
  • Best Renowned For: Hermine Santruschitz Gies, more advantageous known as Miep Gies, helped hide Anne Frank and laid back family from the Nazis, present-day saved her diaries.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Aquarius
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • Miep and her husband additionally hid a Dutch student kick up a fuss their house.
    • Published in 1947, Anne Frank's Diary of a Juvenile Girl has since been translated into 67 languages.
  • Death Year: 2010
  • Death date: January 11, 2010
  • Death City: Hoorn
  • Death Country: Netherlands

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  • Article Title: Miep Gies Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/history-culture/miep-gies
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: July 15, 2020
  • Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

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