Miep Gies

Miep Gies, who played a pivotal role in introducing to the world the poignant diary of the young Anne Frank and in relating the Frank family's failed attempt to hide from the Nazis, has died. She was 100. Gies died Monday after a short illness, according to an announcement on her website. No other details were provided. The scattered papers Gies gathered up after Anne and her family were taken from their hiding place in Amsterdam to concentration camps were later compiled by Anne's father into one of the most widely read nonfiction books of all time.

Miep Gies, who played a pivotal role in introducing to the world the poignant diary of the young Anne Frank and in relating the Frank family's failed attempt to hide from the Nazis, has died. She was 100. Gies died Monday after a short illness, according to an announcement on her website. No other details were provided. The scattered papers Gies gathered up after Anne and her family were taken from their hiding place in Amsterdam to concentration camps were later compiled by Anne's father into one of the most widely read nonfiction books of all time.

Miep Gies sees herself as an ordinary woman who simply did her part to help friends in need during extraordinarily dark times. But to others who have come to know her story, Gies is a rare heroine who risked her life to help hide Anne Frank and her family from Nazis during World War II.

Nearly 1,400 people, many survivors of the Holocaust or their descendants, packed the Freedom Forum Theater on Wednesday night to hear the woman who hid Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland. "People often ask why I found the courage to help the Franks," said Miep Gies, 87, of Amsterdam. "This question always surprises me, because I could not have done anything else."

The Dutch couple's names are not illustrious, but their simple act of courage more than 40 years ago is remembered throughout the world. Now Jan and Miep Gies have traveled to the San Fernando Valley to witness the ordination as a priest of a man who says they gave him his spiritual inspiration. The Gieses famous act was to harbor the family of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who wrote a diary about hiding from the Gestapo in a house in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.

Nearly 1,400 people, many survivors of the Holocaust or their descendants, packed the Freedom Forum Theater on Wednesday night to hear the woman who hid Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland. "People often ask why I found the courage to help the Franks," said Miep Gies, 87, of Amsterdam. "This question always surprises me, because I could not have done anything else."

Although it was titled "The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank," this TV movie was more about the courageous Miep Gies, who sheltered Anne, her family and other Jews during World War II. Mary Steenburgen did an excellent job of portraying Gies. Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Cypress

Rabbi Marvin Hier's commentary on the Holocaust (Jan. 19) raises some very important issues about Holocaust education. He is, of course, quite correct in calling on us all--Jews and Gentiles alike--to confront the "full memory" of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. It is critical to remember the "silence of the many." It is also critical to recognize how quickly civilized men and women allowed their ignorance, their fears, their prejudices and their hatreds to turn them into willing participants in one of the most horrendous crimes in human history.

West Germany is awarding its highest medal for civilians to a Dutch woman who helped hide Anne Frank from the Nazis, the West German Embassy said today. Miep Gies will receive the Federal Cross of Merit First Class on Friday because of her "crucial role" in hiding the world famous Jewish diarist and her family, the embassy said. Gies, 80, worked as a secretary in the Amsterdam canal house where the Frank family took refuge from 1942 to '44.

Miep Gies sees herself as an ordinary woman who simply did her part to help friends in need during extraordinarily dark times. But to others who have come to know her story, Gies is a rare heroine who risked her life to help hide Anne Frank and her family from Nazis during World War II.

Rabbi Marvin Hier's commentary on the Holocaust (Jan. 19) raises some very important issues about Holocaust education. He is, of course, quite correct in calling on us all--Jews and Gentiles alike--to confront the "full memory" of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. It is critical to remember the "silence of the many." It is also critical to recognize how quickly civilized men and women allowed their ignorance, their fears, their prejudices and their hatreds to turn them into willing participants in one of the most horrendous crimes in human history.

Although it was titled "The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank," this TV movie was more about the courageous Miep Gies, who sheltered Anne, her family and other Jews during World War II. Mary Steenburgen did an excellent job of portraying Gies. Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Cypress

The Dutch couple's names are not illustrious, but their simple act of courage more than 40 years ago is remembered throughout the world. Now Jan and Miep Gies have traveled to the San Fernando Valley to witness the ordination as a priest of a man who says they gave him his spiritual inspiration. The Gieses famous act was to harbor the family of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who wrote a diary about hiding from the Gestapo in a house in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.

Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of Miep Gies by Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold (Simon & Schuster: $17.95) When the television writer Alison Gold heard that Miep and Jan Gies, who had helped Anne Frank's family survive in Amsterdam, were still living in the Netherlands, she wrote to them asking for an interview, hoping the result might become a magazine article.

Jan Gies, who risked his life to smuggle food to Anne Frank and members of the Dutch underground during World War II, has died at 87. Gies died of kidney failure Tuesday at his home in the Dutch capital, a spokeswoman for the Anne Frank Foundation, Teresien da Silva, said Wednesday. He and his wife, Miep, gained international renown through Anne Frank's best-selling diary of her two years in hiding under Nazi occupation.