Miep Gies dies - Jan 11, 2010

[Walt's Daughter]

Miep Gies (February 15, 1909 – January 11, 2010) was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II. She discovered and preserved Anne Frank's diary after the Franks were arrested. With her husband, and her colleagues, Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, and Bep Voskuijl, Miep Gies helped hide Edith and Otto Frank, their daughters Margot and Anne, Hermann and Auguste van Pels, their son Peter, and Fritz Pfeffer in a secret upstairs room that was not used in the spice company's office building on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht from July 1942 to August 4, 1944. Miep Gies lived in the Dutch province of Noord-Holland. According to Carol Ann Lee's biography of Otto Frank, The Hidden Life of Otto Frank, Gies stopped granting interviews after enduring a bout of severe ill health. On February 15, 2009, she celebrated her 100th birthday (At that time, according to her son, Gies was in good health and followed the news on a daily basis). Gies died on January 11, 2010, following a short illness. It was reported that this was caused by a fall.