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Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family

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I think many of us would like to think that if a family that we know well is in dire need, we would go to extreme measures to help them in any way we can. But if it came down to a life-and-death decision, I wonder how many people would have made the same decision that brave Miep Gies made to help out the Franks. She details this decision, and her years of helping the Franks hide in the little apartment behind her office, in her well-told book "Anne Frank Remembered".

Part memior, part rememberance of Anne herself, this book details the life of Miep, from a little girl born in Vienna, to her migration to Amsterdam. She becomes an office worker in Otto Frank's pectin business, and her history is now set. Soon, due to Hitler's oppresive policies against the Jews, the Franks must go into hiding to survive.

Miep recounts details of her assistance in helping keep the Franks, the Van Daans and Albert Dussel alive. In fact, this book is a brilliant piece of writing to accompany Anne Frank's diary. While Anne details life inside the Annex, we find out from Miep what she was doing outside. Together, they paint a complete picture of the horror and danger of their daily lives. And when Anne's diary stops before that faithful day, Miep's story continues. She bravely tries to bribe the Franks out of captivity to no avail.

Whereas Anne is probably the most "famous" Frank, Miep does talk about her from time to time, knowing that we would want to know her impressions of the little girl. She offers some touching, poignant insights to Anne, making her seem more real, if that's possible. Detailing Anne growing out of her clothes, which Anne domcuments herself in her diary, is a particular moment that shows us Anne having to grow up, imprisioned becuase of her religion and for her safety.

Without a doubt, Miep and all of the people who aided the Franks in the Annex are heroes. This time of history had many thousands of heroes, many of them unsung. Fortuantely, we have a well-documented life of Anne and we can spend as much time as possible with them, thanks to these books.

I was deeply moved and touched by this book. Miep Gies is perhaps the last person alive who knew the Frank family well during that pivotal time when the family were in hiding. As someone who has followed the Anne Frank story all my life it was something special to read this story about someone who could add more pieces to the puzzle of Anne's life.

Miep and her collaborator Alison Leslie Gold have done a wonderful job in bringing to life in clear crisp prose Miep's role in helping the family during that terrible time when barbarity had stood the world on its head. One point of interest is the inconsistency of Miep's report of events, with others, on that awful day of the family's arrest in August 1944. Chapter 15 of Miep's book should be read closely with the very precise account of that day contained in "The Diary of Anne Frank: the Critical Edition."

This is not to imply that Miep was in anyway involved in the betrayal of the family. Clearly, she wasn't. Miep's inconsistences just make her book more realistic, more readable, more earthy. Her book becomes an account not of a hero, a saint or a fighter for a cause. Miep was simply a friend who cared.

Miep Gies has done an astounding job and written a really wonderful book. I own this book, originally having bought it when it first came out 14 years ago. I read it then, put it away, and recently got it back out when the Anne Frank miniseries was on t.v. I reread it, and it was just like reading it for the first time! You get to know more about the Frank family and those in hiding with them. You learn more about them on a personal level. Miep also tells us about herself and her background. She really helps us feel what it was like to be a Jew in hiding. And she describes the days before, during and after the war so vividly. It's a great lesson in the circumstances and political atmosphere of how Hitler's Third Reich came to power. Miep says that she is not a hero; that she only did what a lot of people did, but after reading this book I cannot agree with her. What she and her husband did was extremely heroic and the Frank family was truly blessed to have them. She and her book are truly a treasure.

Many people are familiar with the story of Anne Frank and her family during the Holocaust. But in the book Anne Frank Remembered, you get the unique opportunity of hearing the story from the woman who helped to hide the Frank family during this horrible time, Miep Gies. Mr. Frank and his wife and two daughters, Anne and Margot, moved to the Netherlands to escape the Nazis. Miep was an employ of Mr. Frank in the Netherlands. When the Nazis entered the Netherlands, they began to get worried. So Miep and her husband agreed to hide the family in the attic of Mr. Franks office building. They had to be very secretive about all of this. All of the trash that the Frank family accumulated had to be burned, and they couldn't walk at all during the day in case someone heard their footsteps. There was also a small window in the attic that they couldn't go near in case someone saw them. Even with all the precautions, they were still eventually caught, but never forgotten by Miep. I thought that this was an outstanding book. It tells a familiar story in a way that it has never been told before. Hearing it from the woman who helped hide the Franks was amazing. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read.

This wonderful book perfectly captures the feeling of desperation and fear that pervaded all German occupied lands. Reading the Diary of Anne Frank, I never cried because Anne herself seemed so resilent, so full of hope. Reading Anne Frank Remembered, I wept at the desperation that these people endured and at the magnificent beauty of Miep Gies and her strength. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Miep Gies should be remembered as one of the greatest women of all time. Out of sheer love, love for people, she helped in hiding the Frank family along with a few others.

The book tells the entire story of Miep Gies, from her first employment by Anne's father until the final liberation of Holland. The story is told honestly and without a feeling of ego or of her deliberately sounding like the brave woman she was. And it's told in such a way, that you feel a kind of suspense as if you didn't know of the tragedy coming.

Miep is unrelenting in her portrayal of the grimness of life during the German occupation of Holland. It was worse of all for the Jewish people, but it was also hard on the Dutch people. Reading this is an education for those of us who have no idea of how it is to live in an occupied country.

However, you feel the hope in the ending. Also, one realizes how truly important a book that Anne Frank's diary was. This is a very moving and a most important book on its own.

There is no question that the reader can remain spellbound by the risk and sacrifice which Miep Gies undertook on behalf of the Frank family, and that underlying theme is inspirational, bordering on awe inspiring. Yet I found the overall work to be poorly written and unexpectedly boring.

I shall admit that I assumed that Miep's book would have the richness of detail which I found in the excellent DVD by the same name - one which I would highly recommend. That documentary, which includes ample interviews with Miep herself and various others, truly did show a 'larger picture' of Anne and her family. Most of even Miep's own contributions to the documentary are not contained in this book.

Most of Miep's reflections give a vivid, though hardly unique, picture of the hardships of the war years, focussing on herself, her husband, and several others who were providing or seeking 'hiding places.' There actually was little to 'flesh out' a picture of Anne Frank. Apparently no one had a clue as to much of what Anne was thinking as she composed her diary, and about all one learns of Anne from Miep is that she enjoyed celebrations, wrote a good deal, and had a vivacious nature.

Much of Miep's text deals with such difficulties as trying to obtain food - tragic, but very repetitive. There is hardly any information about those in hiding, and the general impression is that, though Miep was dedicated to her 'boss' Otto Frank and his family, she did not know them well, before or during the time of their hiding. This would seem unusual, since Miep does mention previous social contacts with the Franks, as well as her extended employment in their business - she probably knew much that was not shared. There are rare passages when Miep can capture tension, such as when her overnight stay at the Annex gives her some idea of the fright of those in hiding. But there is no insightful information about any of the Frank family or other inhabitants. We see Mrs Frank as pessimistic and somewhat taciturn - know that the dentist was disliked by Anne but cannot discover why - hear several references to Margot as very pretty. Full stop. Though Miep refers to daily visits and to Anne's speaking with her, the conversations must have been peripheral (nor is any content shared.) Apparently Miep knew nothing of, for example, Anne's infatuation with Peter, so prominent in the diary.

Despite the honourable loyalty Miep and Henk demonstrated, my admiration for this stemmed from knowing the circumstances, not from the book itself, which was largely dull. I suppose I had hoped for an extended picture of Anne and family based on the memories of one who knew them, but the information was often banal.

Be prepared. This book will take your mind and body back to the war years. You will feel the suffering, not only of the Jews, but the Dutch people under German occupation.

It also serves as an independent witness to many of the events Anne described in her Diary. This was dramatized in a made for television movie about 10 years ago.

Miep and her husband Henk opened their home and hearts to Otto Frank for seven years after the war. They helped preserve his post-concentration camp sanity and gave him strength to live.

Had Miep read the Diary after Anne's capture, she states that she'd have had to burn it since it implicated people as hiders of Jews. Thankfully, Miep did not read it until years later. Even with Otto Frank's post-war encouragement, it was simply too painful for her to read. The miracle of the Diary's survival and gift to the world is due to Miep's remarkable courage and mysterious fate.

The late Miep Gies was more than a courageous hero when she agreed to help the Frank family hide in the attic of Mr. Frank's business. She ran a great risk of deportation and/or death by helping them, but she never questioned doing the right thing for a second. Although Anne's name is in the title, the memoir is more about Miep's story and fills in some of the blanks from the girl's iconic diary.

Born in early 1900s Vienna, little Miep was sent to live with a foster family in Holland because of the local food shortages caused by the First World War. She came to love her foster family and considered herself a proud Dutch citizen. By her early 20s, she worked as a secretary for Otto Frank's spice business Opekta. The small staff (including Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, and Bep Voskuijl) viewed each other as family with Otto representing their father.

The rise of Hitler and increasing anti-Semitism that followed sparked the idea for the Frank family to go into hiding. With the help of Miep, her husband Jan, and the other employees, the Frank and Van Pels family along with local dentist Fritz Pfeffer were kept safe in the attic for about 2 years until their fateful capture. Miep's description of that day is equally heart wrenching and suspenseful.

Anne and the other attic members are metioned several times, but Miep's story gives voice to the helpers. The fear and anxiety of keeping everyone safe. Making sure you can feed everyone despite the dwindling numbers of ration cards and widespread starvation. The many close calls that could've ended in capture. Anne's story will live on forever, but let us not forget about the woman who tried her best to keep her safe and saved her diary so that generations will never forget. Miep, you were a hero and then some.

I had the pleasure of actually meeting Miep Gies in person when she came to Long Island in 1995. I brought my then 11-yr son to hear her story. I said to him "that is the face of courage!" He was VERY inspired. When he got home, he wrote a poem about Anne Frank that night. A diminutive lady, Miep Gies spoke with a broken English. We listened to her amazing story, told in a matter-of-fact way. (As I found out later, this was very much her character - very non pretentious!) She wrote this book (along with Alison Leslie Gold) in the same manner. It started out with: "I am not a hero. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did or more..." The book was written without any malice - just a straightforward account of what she went through in that dark, dark period of mankind. It is very easy to read and, surprisingly, not depressing as one would expect. Highly recommended for people of any age.

Miep Gies passed away on January 11, 2010. She was 100 years old. This remarkable lady encompassed what human spirit was all about.