Miep Gies

Hermine "Miep" Santruschitz was born in Vienna and sent to Amsterdam as a child. She worked as a secretary for Otto Frank at Opekta, a pectin company. In July 1942, when the Frank family was forced to go into hiding in the Secret Annex at 263 Prinsengracht, Miep and her husband Jan Gies helped shelter them along with four others.\n\nFor 25 months, Miep and four other helpers — Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, and Jan Gies — provided food, clothing, books, and news to the eight people hiding in the annex. Miep visited every day, often bringing the latest news. She kept the radio on to hear BBC broadcasts.\n\nOn August 4, 1944, the annex was raided by the Gestapo. After the eight occupants were taken away, Miep rushed to the annex and collected Anne's scattered diary pages, notebooks, and loose papers from the floor. She locked them in a desk drawer, hoping to return them to Anne after the war.\n\nAnne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, just weeks before liberation. When Otto Frank — the sole survivor of the annex — returned to Amsterdam, Miep gave him the papers. "Here are your daughter's writings," she told him. "I collected them and kept them safe. I wanted to give them back to you after the war."\n\nAnne Frank's diary became one of the most widely read books in the world. Miep always insisted: "I am not a hero. I do not want to be called one because so many people were killed for doing the same thing or less. I only did what was human." She died on January 11, 2010, age 100.