This collection contains a 1993 letter and card from Miep Gies to Janet Bower, a teacher at Ida Middle School in Ida, Michigan. Gies writes in response to letters she received from Bower's students. In the card, Gies thanks the class for reading The Diary of Anne Frank and offers additional resources about Anne Frank including Gies' memoir Anne Frank Remembered. In a separate letter, Gies offers her thoughts on helping the Franks, the van Pels (referred to as the van Daans), and Fritz Pfeffer (referred to as Dussel) hide from the Nazis. Gies explains that she did what "all human beings should do." Gies also recounts her interactions with Anne Frank and the others at the Secret Annex.
Miep Gies (born Hermine Santrouschitz) was born on February 15, 1909, in Vienna, Austria. The family experienced economic hardship. Unable to care for Miep, who was malnourished, in 1920, her parents sent her to live with the Nieuwenburgs, a foster family in Leiden, Netherlands. She remained with them for the rest of her childhood. In 1924, the Nieuwenburgs moved the family to Amsterdam. In 1933, Giese began to work for Opekta, a pectin and spice company managed by Otto Frank, a Jewish businessman. Giese became close friends with the Frank family-- Otto's wife Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne Frank.
Two years after the Nazis occupied the Nethelands, in 1942, Otto Frank approached Gies asking her to help hide his family, along with some of his friends. Gies agreed to help. Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank entered hiding on July 6, 1942. The van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer also went into hiding with the Franks. During the hiding, Gies provided the families with food. She witnessed Anne writing her diary, published later as The Diary of a Young Girl (Het Achterhuis) (Amsterdam: Contact Publishing, 1947).
On August 4, 1944, the hiding place, known as the Secret Annex, was discovered. All of the eight people in hiding were captured by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps. After the raid, Gies salvaged some of Anne's diary entries along with other personal items. In 1945, the Netherlands was liberated. Anne, Margot, and Edith Frank, the van Pels, and Pfeffer had all died while imprisoned. Unable to return the diary to Anne, Gies gave it to Otto Frank, the only person who survived. Otto published the diary in 1947.
In 1987, writer Alison Gold worked with Gies to produce her memoir Anne Frank Remembered (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987). Gies has been recognized for her courage and heroic actions during the Holocaust. She was bestowed with the Righteous Among the Nations title in 1972. The title is awarded by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial, to non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to aid Jews during the Holocaust. In 1994, Gies was awarded the University of Michigan's Wallenberg Medal, named after the U-M graduate Gustaf Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust. The medal is awarded to outstanding humanitarians whose achievements embody Wallenberg's selfless commitment. Also in 1994, Gies received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, followed by the Righteous Among the Nations medal from Yad Vashem in 1995. She was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1997. Gies passed away on January 11, 2010 at the age of 100.
