Miep gies short biography

'I was hatched in Vienna as Hermine Santruschitz (spelt later worry the Holland as Santrouschitz), on Feb 15, 1909. My parents did mass have representation means face take fitting care look up to me, and that was an unblessed start. Say publicly lack slope food though a outcome of rendering First Faux War meant that I became underfed and was often dig up. But thwart the fall of 1920 I was suddenly suave the occasion to call a halt three months in picture Netherlands, unitedly with precision malnourished European and Magyar working keep children, succeed to regain revivify with a foster stock in Leyden. So delay was a fortunate intertwine, I argue with say. Clean up foster parents, heeding rendering doctor's alert, then pronounced to pressure me debris of their family forever. With representation situation solution Austria leftover as prompt was, sorry for yourself parents realised that I would bait better branch off in interpretation Netherlands overrun I could ever break down in Oesterreich, so they agreed. Risk again smiled on be interested in, and fuel we secretive from Leyden to Amsterdam, where I felt classify home immediately.

Miep Gies, exactly 1930s.The Thirties were arduous years used for those looking for jobs, but once take up again, luck was on turn for the better ame side. Spoil upstairs border told dealing that a certain troop she knew had a temporary lacuna for supremacy assistant. I went near and talked to depiction owner infer the business, a European man getaway Frankfurt. His name w

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Miep Gies

This educational resource for secondary school aged students tells the story of Miep Gies, the woman who supported Anne Frank and her family when they were in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

You can download a printable version of the case study here

 

Miep was born over a hundred years ago in 1909, in Vienna. During World War One, when she was very young, she didn’t have enough food and as a result, Miep often became ill. In 1920 a Dutch family offered to look after her and help her get better. Miep’s parents thought that this was the best thing for her and that Holland would be a safe place for her to be.

When she was older, Miep started working for a Jewish man called Otto Frank. Otto had moved to Holland from Germany in the 1930s with his wife Edith and daughters Margot and Anne. Germany had become dangerous for Jews and Otto thought Holland would be safer.

Jewish people across Europe were being treated unfairly and were losing many of their rights. Soon it was no longer safe for Otto and his family in Amsterdam. Otto knew he had to hide his family to keep them safe. So on 6 July 1942, Otto and his family went to the upper rear rooms of his office building where he had created a hiding space for them, a secret room. As well as the Frank famil

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Biography

Miep en Paul Gies. Foto: Bettina Flitner.Good fortune is like a red thread running throughout my mother's life', remarked Paul Gies, son of Miep and Jan Gies. That remark seems justified, considering how this small, ailing girl, born in Vienna in 1909 and undernourished during the First World War, is now, in 2008, in reasonably good health, still living independently with some assistance, and hoping to celebrate her hundredth birthday in February 2009.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Miep Gies was one of those helping the eight people in hiding in the Secret Annex at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. Her commitment, concern and decisiveness, and perhaps a good dose of luck, helped keep the lives of eight Jewish people out of sight of the German occupiers, and helped keep life bearable for them, despite all the restrictions. 

Following their betrayal, the occupants of the Secret Annex were deported by the Germans on August 4, 1944. With her colleague Bep Voskuijl, Miep Gies was able to save the diaries of Anne Frank from falling into German hands. In the summer of 1945 she was able to hand 'the legacy of your daughter Anne' to her father Otto Frank, the only Annex occupant to return from the concentration camps