Miep Gies, Who Helped Hide Anne Frank, Dies

Miep Gies, the last survivor of the group who helped hide Anne Frank and her family for two years during the Holocaust, has died. She was 100 years old. It was Gies who rescued Anne Frank’s famous diary—which chronicled Anne’s life in hiding from 1942-1944—after the family was found and deported by German police. NPR writes that “Gies gathered up Anne’s scattered notebooks and papers and locked them in a drawer for her return after the war.” Gies, who has been called a true hero by many and was given the title of “Righteous Gentile” by the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, put herself in danger to help protect Anne and her family. As Anne Frank’s cousin, Bernd Elias, said, “ ‘If they had caught her, she would have been put in a concentration camp herself.’ ” But Gies, who “tirelessly promoted causes of tolerance” after the diary was published, and, as BBC News reports, traveled to “talk about Anne Frank and her experiences, campaigning against Holocaust denial and refuting allegations that the diary was a forgery,” did not want to be thought of as a hero. NPR states that in her book “Anne Frank Remembered,” Gies recalls going to the police station after the family was arrested “to offer a bribe for the Franks’ release, but it was too late.” Miep Gies will be remembered for her courageous and caring acts. As Anne wrote in her diary, “ ‘It seems as if we are never far from Miep’s thoughts.’ ”