Miep Gies has died

Sad news, but I was expecting it to happen around now as the woman was 100 years old! Glad she lived a long, fulfilled life. Here's an article from The Times:

Miep Gies who helped hide Anne Frank dies at 100



The last surviving member of a group who helped to shelter Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis in Amsterdam died last night.

Miep Gies, the woman who rescued Anne's diary after the family was arrested in 1944, died at a Dutch nursing home aged 100 after suffering a fall.

Mrs Gies and several other employees of Anne’s father provided food and other necessities to the Jewish family while they hid in a concealed apartment.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands she had spent 25 months in hiding with her sister, parents, and four other Jewish people in the attic above her father’s office.

Their hide-out was raided on August 4, 1944, and they were sent to concentration camps. Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, aged 15. Only Anne’s father, Otto, survived. Mrs Gies, who found the diary, gave it to the girl’s father.

The Diary of Anne Frank, the poignant journal in which the Jewish teenager chronicled her days in the attic, was published in 1947.

Mrs Gies became an ambassador for the diary, travelling to talk about Anne and campaigning against Holocaust denial. Speaking last year as she celebrated her 100th birthday, Mrs Gies played down her role, saying others had done far more to protect Jews in the Netherlands.

Very sad to hear. She was a very brave lady.

Even though she lived a long life, it's still sad news. I greatly admire her for everything she did- I don't think I would have the guts to do that.

So sad, she was very brave.