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Born Hermine Santrouschitz on February 15, 1909, in Vienna, Austria, Miep Gies came from a Catholic family facing financial hardship after World War I. Malnourished as a child, she was sent to the Netherlands in December 1920 through a relief project for Austrian children. Placed initially with a foster family in Leiden, she later moved with them to Amsterdam. Her biological parents eventually agreed she should stay permanently in the Netherlands due to her strong adaptation to Dutch life.
As an adult, Miep worked as a typist before joining Otto Frank’s Opekta business in 1933, having lost her previous job during an economic crisis. She managed customer service, explaining jam-making processes to clients. Her fluency in Dutch and German aided the Frank family’s integration. She married Jan Gies on July 16, 1941, securing Dutch citizenship to avoid deportation after refusing to join a Nazi women’s association. The couple lived near the Frank family in Amsterdam.
When Otto Frank revealed plans to go into hiding in spring 1942, Miep immediately agreed to help. Following Margot Frank’s call-up notice on July 5, 1942, Miep cycled with Margot to the Secret Annex the next morning while the rest of the Frank family walked. She became responsible for procuring meat, vegetables, and other supplies for all eight people in hiding, transporting goods discreetly by bicycle and shopping bag. She also sourced books and news from the outside world, though she selectively filtered distressing updates on Jan’s advice to protect morale. Anne Frank described her as resembling "a pack mule" due to her heavy loads.
Miep and Jan additionally sheltered a 23-year-old anti-Nazi student, Kuno van der Horst, in their own home starting May 1943. Miep knew Anne kept a diary and supplied her with writing paper but respected her privacy. Once, after accidentally interrupting Anne during her writing, Miep encountered an uncharacteristically furious reaction; Anne declared she was "writing about you, too."
On August 4, 1944, during the arrest of those in hiding, an Austrian-born police officer recognized Miep's origins and released her. She later entered the ransacked annex with Bep Voskuijl, gathering Anne’s scattered diary pages and notebooks from the floor. Miep stored these papers unread in her desk drawer, intending to return them to Anne. She attempted to bribe German officers to release the prisoners, an action that risked her life but proved unsuccessful.
After the war, Miep gave the preserved diaries to Otto Frank upon confirming Anne’s death. She initially refused to read the papers, believing children deserved privacy and later noting she would have "had to burn them" due to dangerous details about helpers and suppliers. Otto convinced her to read the published version years later. Miep and Jan housed Otto for over seven years. She dedicated her later life to sharing memories of Anne and the war, co-authoring the memoir *Anne Frank Remembered* in 1987. Annually, she commemorated the arrest on August 4 with Jan until his death in 1993.
Miep received numerous honors, including recognition as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1972, the German Order of Merit in 1994, and Dutch knighthood in 1997. She consistently rejected heroic labels, stating she only performed her "human duty" and that "any decent person" would have acted similarly. She died on January 11, 2010, at age 100.
As an adult, Miep worked as a typist before joining Otto Frank’s Opekta business in 1933, having lost her previous job during an economic crisis. She managed customer service, explaining jam-making processes to clients. Her fluency in Dutch and German aided the Frank family’s integration. She married Jan Gies on July 16, 1941, securing Dutch citizenship to avoid deportation after refusing to join a Nazi women’s association. The couple lived near the Frank family in Amsterdam.
When Otto Frank revealed plans to go into hiding in spring 1942, Miep immediately agreed to help. Following Margot Frank’s call-up notice on July 5, 1942, Miep cycled with Margot to the Secret Annex the next morning while the rest of the Frank family walked. She became responsible for procuring meat, vegetables, and other supplies for all eight people in hiding, transporting goods discreetly by bicycle and shopping bag. She also sourced books and news from the outside world, though she selectively filtered distressing updates on Jan’s advice to protect morale. Anne Frank described her as resembling "a pack mule" due to her heavy loads.
Miep and Jan additionally sheltered a 23-year-old anti-Nazi student, Kuno van der Horst, in their own home starting May 1943. Miep knew Anne kept a diary and supplied her with writing paper but respected her privacy. Once, after accidentally interrupting Anne during her writing, Miep encountered an uncharacteristically furious reaction; Anne declared she was "writing about you, too."
On August 4, 1944, during the arrest of those in hiding, an Austrian-born police officer recognized Miep's origins and released her. She later entered the ransacked annex with Bep Voskuijl, gathering Anne’s scattered diary pages and notebooks from the floor. Miep stored these papers unread in her desk drawer, intending to return them to Anne. She attempted to bribe German officers to release the prisoners, an action that risked her life but proved unsuccessful.
After the war, Miep gave the preserved diaries to Otto Frank upon confirming Anne’s death. She initially refused to read the papers, believing children deserved privacy and later noting she would have "had to burn them" due to dangerous details about helpers and suppliers. Otto convinced her to read the published version years later. Miep and Jan housed Otto for over seven years. She dedicated her later life to sharing memories of Anne and the war, co-authoring the memoir *Anne Frank Remembered* in 1987. Annually, she commemorated the arrest on August 4 with Jan until his death in 1993.
Miep received numerous honors, including recognition as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1972, the German Order of Merit in 1994, and Dutch knighthood in 1997. She consistently rejected heroic labels, stating she only performed her "human duty" and that "any decent person" would have acted similarly. She died on January 11, 2010, at age 100.