Miep Gies

Miep Gies
Miep Gies (1987)
Born	Hermine Santruschitz 15 February 1909 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	11 January 2010(2010-01-11) (aged 100) Hoorn, North Holland, Netherlands
Known for	Hiding Jews such as Anne Frank and family from the Nazis
Spouse(s)	Jan Gies (m. 1941; d. 1993)
Children	1
Website	http://www.miepgies.com

Hermine Santruschitz (15 February 1909 – 11 January 2010), better known as Miep Gies (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmip ˈxis]), was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family (Otto Frank, Margot Frank, Edith Frank-Holländer) and four other Jews (Fritz Pfeffer, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels) from the Nazis in an annex above Anne's father's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family to whom she became very attached. Although she was initially only to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which she chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands. In 1933 she began working for Otto Frank, a businessman who had moved with his family from Germany to the Netherlands in hopes of sparing his family Nazi persecution because they were Jewish. Gies became a close, trusted friend of the family and was a great support to them during the two years they spent in hiding. She retrieved Anne Frank's diary after the family was arrested and kept the papers safe until Otto Frank returned from Auschwitz in 1945, and learned of his younger daughter's death. Together with Alison Leslie Gold, Gies authored the book Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family, first published in 1987.

Born Hermine Santruschitz in Vienna to Mathias and Genofeva (neé Jakuschitz) Santruschitz , (later spelled as Santrouschitz in the Netherlands), Gies was transported to Leiden from Vienna in December 1920 to escape the food shortages prevailing in Austria after World War I. The Nieuwenburgs, a working-class family who already had five children of their own, took her as their foster daughter, and called her by the diminutive "Miep" by which she became known. In 1922, she moved with her foster family to Gaaspstraat 25 in Amsterdam. Gies was an honour student, and described herself as "reserved and very independent"; after graduating high school, she worked as an accountant and then in 1933 as a secretary with the Dutch branch of the German firm Opekta. "But the office was not the only thing in my life. My social life at this time was very lively. I loved to dance and belonged like many young Dutch girls, to a dance club" - wrote Miep.