The hiding place

Miep Gies

Hermine (Miep) Gies-Santrouschitz was born in Vienna in 1909. Her parents sent her to the Netherlands after World War I along with other children who came to recuperate from tuberculosis and malnutrition. She liked the Netherlands so much that her parents gave her permission of her parents to stay on with her Dutch family.

In 1933 she began working as Otto Frank’s secretary at Opekta, his trading company in gelling agents for making jam. Shortly afterwards Miep met Otto’s wife Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne. Miep and her boyfriend Jan Gies visited the Frank family frequently, and became friends.

Miep helps the people in the Annex

When Otto approached Miep in the spring of 1942 to ask her to help his family go into hiding, she did not hesitate. She made sure that Otto, his wife Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne, the Van Pels family and later Fritz Pfeffer were supplied with food and other essential provisions daily. Meanwhile she continued to work for Opekta and contributed to keeping the business going. On weekdays Miep Gies sometimes comes into the secret annexe several times a day.

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Miep saves Anne’s diary

After everyone in the Annex was arrested, Bep and Miep were left behind. They picked the pages of Anne’s diary off the floor and hid them in a drawer in Miep’s desk. Shortly afterwards, the Germans completed emptied the hiding place. In the summer of 1945, when Otto Frank finds out that Margot and Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Miep gives him Anne's diary.

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Involved right up to the end

Miep Gies was involved in the activities of the Anne Frank House right up to the end of her life. In 2007 Miep said: ‘I think it’s a great thing that the Anne Frank House has existed for 50 years. I hope that the organisation can carry on its work for many years to come; as proof that Anne Frank lived and that I knew her.”

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February 15, 1909

Hermine Santrouschitz is born in Vienna (Austria).

1918

End of the First World War.

1918

End of the First World War.

December 1920

Hermine comes to the Netherlands with a group of Austrian children for convalescence. She lives with a foster family in Leiden and is given the name Miep.

1922

Miep moves to Amsterdam with her foster family.

1933

Miep becomes a secretary with the Opekta company.

July 16, 1941

Miep marries Jan Gies.

Jun 1942

Otto Frank asks Miep if she will help if he and his family go into hiding.

August 4, 1944

The people in hiding are arrested. Miep and Bep are not taken with them. They find Anne Frank’s diary in the secret annex.

August 1944

Miep goes to the SD (Nazi security police) offices in Amsterdam to try to get the people in hiding released.

June 1945

Otto Frank has survived the war and comes to live with Miep and Jan Gies. When they hear that Anne and Margot have died, Miep gives Anne’s diary to Otto Frank.

July 13, 1952

Miep and Jan Gies have a son, Paul. Miep stops working at Opekta.

1987

Miep writes a book: ‘Memories of Anne Frank’.

January 26, 1993

Jan Gies dies.

February 15, 2009

Miep celebrates her 100th birthday.

January 11, 2010

Miep Gies dies at the age of 100.

Jan Gies

Jan provides the people in the Annex with coupons for food and clothing.

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Bep Voskuijl

Bep is a secretary for Otto's company Pectacon.

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Otto Frank

Otto sets up a business in the Netherlands. After that, his family can come over too.

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Anne writes

Miep often says she envies us, because we have such peace and quiet here. That may be true, but she's obviously not thinking about our fear.