Mourning A Hero
I think hero is a word that is overused in our society. A hero is not someone who can throw a football far or a well-off person with a chronic disease. In my mind, a hero is an ordinary person who does an extraordinary thing, usually at great risk to themselves. One person who fits that definition to the letter is Miep Geis, who died yesterday at age 100.
Mrs. Gies sought no accolades for joining with her husband and three others in hiding Anne Frank, her father, mother and older sister and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. But she came to be viewed as a courageous figure when her role in sheltering Anne Frank was revealed with the publication of her memoir. She then traveled the world while in her 80s, speaking against intolerance. The West German government presented her with its highest civilian medal in 1989, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted her in 1996.
When the Gestapo raided the hiding place in the annex to Otto Frank’s business office on Aug. 4, 1944, and arrested its eight occupants, it left behind his daughter Anne’s diary and her writings on loose sheets of papers. The journals recounted life in those rooms behind a movable bookcase and the hopes of a girl on the brink of womanhood. Mrs. Gies gathered up those writings and hid them, unread, hoping that Anne would someday return to claim them.
“Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” is perhaps one of the most important books ever written, in my opinion. It made the Holocaust, its horror and its cruelty, real in the eyes of people because of Anne Frank. Anne Frank was just a regular girl with an extraordinary gift of writing that helped personalize the trauma.
Miep Gies was born Feb. 15, 1909, as Hermine Santrouschitz, a member of a Roman Catholic family in Vienna. When she was 11, she was sent to Leiden to be cared for by a Dutch family, being among the many Austrian children suffering from food shortages in the wake of World War I. She was given the Dutch nickname Miep and later adopted by the family.
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Miep became a trusted employee and friend of the Frank family and joined in its alarm over the persecution of German Jews. In May 1940, the Netherlands fell in Germany’s invasion of the Low Countries. In July 1942, when thousands of Dutch Jews were being deported to concentration camps, the Frank family went into hiding in unused rooms above Mr. Frank’s office. He asked Mrs. Gies if she would help shelter them, and she unhesitatingly agreed.
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Having married a Dutch social worker, Jan Gies, in 1941, Miep Gies joined with him and three other employees of Mr. Frank’s business in sheltering the eight Jews and caring for their daily needs. The protectors risked death if caught by the Nazis.
Mrs. Gies, while continuing to work for Mr. Frank’s business, which remained open under figurehead Christian management, played a central role in caring for the hidden. She found food for them, brought books and news of the outside world and provided emotional support, bringing Anne her first pair of high-heeled shoes and baking a holiday cake. On one occasion, Miep and Jan Gies (he is referred to in the diary as Henk, one of many pseudonyms Anne used) spent a night in the annex to experience the terror there for themselves.
Thank you, Ms. Geis for risking your life to help people. Thank you for being a hero. You are missed.
Tags: Anne Frank, Heroism, Holocaust, Miep Geis
Here, here
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Israel, named her a “Rightous Gentile” for her efforts to save the Frank family and the others who hid in the annex. She did what thousands of others, including some of our fellow Americans, refused to do during this horror.
May she be of blessed memory. I will say Kaddish for her for the next year.
thousands? try millions. As a government, pushed by isolationist republicans, the US refused to stop the genocide. As did the catholic church.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCTrtXfXBx0&feature=PlayList&p=1883C78B5B33F630&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2
An unsung saint amidst unspeakable horrors, thankfully blessed with the longevity so many others were denied and now gone to her reward.
(a.price, your comments are quite unfortunate in this post. Do you ever take even a minute off from it?)
not really, no. Part of making sure it never happens again is remembering all the evil that allowed it to happen. We can never forget WHY someone like Ms. Geis had to exist in the first place. I wonder how many people like her are in Darfur now while america ignores yet another genocide.
We should be asking ourselves how we can be inspired by her to make the world better. not patting ourselves on the back because we agree on a blog how great she was. im SURE she would rather the former.
not really, no. Part of making sure it never happens again is remembering all the evil that allowed it to happen. We can never forget WHY someone like Ms. Geis had to exist in the first place. I wonder how many people like her are in GAZA now while america ignores yet another genocide.
We should be asking ourselves how we can be inspired by her to make the world better. not patting ourselves on the back because we agree on a blog how great she was. im SURE she would rather the former.
jews in 1930s germany never strapped bombs to their kids and sent them into schools and bus station.
Palestinians never strapped bombs to themselves until the jews from gemany, US and elsewhere began to rob the Palestinians of their lives and country.
And by the way, it’s not the 1930’s anymore. hitler’s dead. So get over it.
get over it?! how bout you go with your westboro baptist hate filled brothers. I’ve often wondered, but now I am convinced. You are a raging anti semite, just like Liz from way back. And a bit of a history lesson, the palestinians left what was mostly a desert. The israelis irrigated placed like Arad, Hiafa, and Tel Aviv. The palestinians then got kicked out of Jordan for starting a civil war and, yes.. strapping bombs to their kids and sending them into schools. learn your damn history you Nazi loving son of a bitch.
“Nazi loving son of a bitch” ? “westboro hate filled brothers” ?
“raging anti-semite” ?
I suggest you read what you just posted, and ask which one of us is really “raging” and “hate-filled” ?
And here’s a “bit of a history lesson” for you. The Palestinians were cultivating olive and orange groves in “the desert” long before there was “Israel”.
So much for this thread being about mourning a hero.
I was thinking the same thing, Pandora.
I said my piece. This thread is neither the time nor place for this argument.
http://WWW.OPEDNEWS.COM/ARTICLES/IS-IT-ANTI-SEMITIC-TO-DEFE-BY EDWARD-CORRIGAN-100112-428.HTML.
Is it anti semitic to defend Palestinan rights?
It is an inappropriate forum for it. Consider this a warning JK. You have been banned before, and may be again.
Perhaps we can do a Israel/Palestine thread tomorrow, but everyone should chill out about it on a thread dedicated to a hero’s memory.
ok the unfortunate direction this thread has taken is my fault. delcrat, you said “get over it” in reference to the holocaust. i hope it was just to get under MY skin, and those thoughts aren’t really in your heart.
I am also disappointed in the direction that this comment thread went. I can’t tell you how many times my finger lingered over the delete button.
Man I was at that house a few months ago. Really brings it home.
It sort of helps that the house is about a block from a coffee shop too.
Awesome post, UI. Ms. Geis so much more than fits your definition of hero. Her story needs to be told more often, and louder.