Miep Gies, Hid Anne Frank, Dead at 100

By Ami Eden (JTA) January 12, 2010

Miep Gies, the woman who recovered Anne Frank’s diary, has died at 100.

Gies, who died Monday in the Netherlands, was the last surviving member of the small group that hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. After the arrest of the Frank family by the Gestapo in 1944, Gies returned to the attic where they had been hiding, and found the diary.

“Miep Gies was a beacon of light during the dark days of the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“Without her, the world would never have known about Anne Frank and hundreds of millions of people would never have been inspired by her story.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO