1. Miep Gies was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached.
24 Facts About Miep Gies
1. 2.
In 1933, Miep Gies began working for Otto Frank, a Jewish businessman who had moved with his family from Germany to the Netherlands in the hope of sparing his family from Nazi persecution.
3.
Miep Gies became a close, trusted friend of the Frank family and was a great support to them during the twenty-five months they spent in hiding.
4.
Miep Gies had stored Anne Frank's papers in the hopes of returning them to the girl, but gave them to Otto Frank, who compiled them into a diary first published in June 1947.
5.
In collaboration with Alison Leslie Gold, Miep Gies wrote the book Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family in 1987.
6.
Miep Gies was an honors student, and described herself as "reserved and very independent"; after graduating high school, she worked as an accountant and then in 1933 as a secretary with the Dutch branch of the German spice firm Opekta.
7.
Miep Gies did not tell anyone, including her foster parents, about the people in hiding whom she was assisting.
8.
When purchasing food for the people in hiding, Miep Gies avoided suspicion in many ways: for example, by visiting several different suppliers in a day.
9.
Miep Gies never carried more than what one shopping bag could hold or what she could hide under her coat.
10.
Miep Gies's husband helped by providing ration cards that he had obtained illegally.
11.
The next day, Miep Gies went to the German police office to try to find the arrestees.
12.
Miep Gies offered money to buy their freedom but did not succeed.
13.
Miep Gies recognized his accent and told him they had the same hometown.
14.
Miep Gies was amazed, then started pacing and cursing at her, finally deciding to let her stay.
15.
Miep Gies remained safe with her husband in Amsterdam throughout the rest of the war.
16.
Miep Gies did not read the diaries before turning them over to Otto and later remarked that if she had, she would have had to destroy them because the papers contained the names of all five of the helpers as well as of their black-market suppliers.
17.
Miep Gies was persuaded by Otto Frank to read the diary in its second printing.
18.
Miep Gies had assured Anne Frank's biographer Melissa Muller repeatedly that she did not think the main suspect, Willem van Maaren, was the culprit in the betrayal.
19.
Miep and Jan Gies were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem on 8 March 1972.
20.
In 1994, Miep Gies was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan.
21.
The minor planet 99949 Miep Gies is named in her honor.
22.
On 11 January 2010, Miep Gies died, aged 100, in the city of Hoorn after suffering injuries from a fall.
23.
Miep Gies was interviewed about her memories of hiding the Frank family for the 1995 documentary film Anne Frank Remembered by Jon Blair.
24.
Miep Gies' story was adapted into a 2023 miniseries, A Small Light, with Bel Powley as Gies.