Amsterdam, 1942. The German occupation of Holland has commenced. The Nazi Gestapo oversees the deportation of Dutch Jews to concentration camps continuing implementation of the Final Solution. Hidden in an office annex, behind a secret door, eight desperate individuals seek to avoid capture by the Nazis. One brave young girl, Anne, chronicles the details of their confinement in a diary.
The world will always remember Anne Frank and her diary as a story of hope during the dark days of the Nazi rule. Still, this story may have never been shared if it were not for the courageous actions of one woman, Miep Gies. Gies had worked for many years for Anne’s father, Otto Frank. When his eldest daughter, Margot, received orders to report to a force-labor camp, Frank appealed to Gies for help. He had plans to hide his family, but he needed someone who could be trusted to bring them food and give them news of the outside world. Without hesitation, Gies made the decision to help the Franks and fight against the racist Nazi regime.
In her own words, Gies agreed to help the Franks, because she “was extremely concerned about (Frank) and his family”. By this time during the war, the Nazi Anti-Semitic policies were being ruthlessly enforced in local communities. Additionally, most Europeans were aware that the Nazis had established labor camps for prisoners of war across Europe. Within the occupied territories, there were whispers that the Nazi labor camps were in fact extermination camps as people who were deported simply disappeared. Geis recalled that, “Every day (she) saw trucks heading for the railway station, from where the train left for the camps. Nobody ever heard from them again…” Despite the oppressive nature of the Nazi regime, some sought ways to resist. Some, like Gies, made a decision to fight. Gies simply could not allow the Franks to disappear without a trace.
Gies risked helping the Franks, because it was the right thing to do and because she “saw no alternative”. At the time, she claimed she could “foresee many sleepless nights and an unhappy life” if she refused to act. For her, such a refusal would have led to “permanent remorse” having “fail(ed) to do (her) human duty”. Moreover, she believed this failure would have been “worse than losing her life”. Beyond solely helping her fellow man, Gies’s selfless decision to aid the Franks saved her from a lifetime of regret.
Ultimately, Gies was unable to save the Franks from the Nazis as their hiding place was discovered. The Gestapo ransacked the secret annex, and all of its inhabitants were sent to the labor camps. When Gies returned to the annex to assess what remained, she collected the pages of Anne’s diary. She kept the diary safe throughout the remainder of the war. At the war’s end, Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the Frank family, returned to Amsterdam. Upon being reunited with Gies, she shared with him his daughter’s diary. Frank made the decision to publish it contents, and the diary continues to be a source of inspiration for millions. Without Gies's heroic actions, Anne’s story may have never been told.
Gies serves as a role model for us all. Through her actions, she taught us the importance of standing up for others. She taught us that one cannot live in fear. She taught us that we must always strive to do that which we know to be right. People are worth fighting for. Justice is worth fighting for. Honor is worth fighting for.
Miep Gies died in January 2010 having lived 100 years.
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| "August 29, 2011. Refugees in Hagadera, Kenya, scramble to load their belongings onto trucks that will relocate them to a newly opened camp near Nairobi. About a thousand new refugees fleeing famine in Somalia continue to pour into Kenya each day." |
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| Art by Wassily Kandinsky 1909 |
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| "Ms Ghimire has published four volumes of poetry, two books of short stories and many newspaper columns." |
