Anne Frank protector dies at 100

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(CNN) -- Miep Gies, who ensured the diary of Anne Frank did not fall into the hands of Nazis after the teen's arrest, has died. She was 100.

Gies was among a team of Dutch citizens who hid the Frank family of four and four others in a secret annex in Amsterdam, Netherlands, during World War II, according to her official Web site, which announced her death Monday. She worked as a secretary for Anne Frank's father, Otto, in the front side of the same Prinsengracht building.

The family stayed in the secret room from July 1942 until August 4, 1944, when they were arrested by Gestapo and Dutch police after being betrayed by an informant. Two of Gies' team were arrested that day, but she and her friend, Bep Voskuijl, were left behind -- and found 14-year-old Anne's papers.

"And there Bep and I saw Anne's diary papers lying on the floor. I said, 'Pick them up!' Bep stood there staring, frozen. I said, 'Pick them up! Pick them up!' We were afraid, but we did out best to collect all the papers," Gies said in a 1998 interview with The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

"Then we went downstairs. And there we stood, Bep and I. I asked, 'What now, Bep?' She answered, 'You're the oldest. You hold on to them. So I did."

The girl had chronicled two years of the emotions and fears that gripped her during hiding, as well as candid thoughts on her family, her feelings for friend-in-hiding Peter van Pels, and dreams of being a professional writer. Mixed into the entries were the names of the Dutch helpers, who risked their lives to keep the family's secret.

"I didn't read Anne's diary papers. ... It's a good thing I didn't because if I had read them I would have had to burn them," she said in the 1998 interview. "Some of the information in them was dangerous."

The diary was sheltered in Gies' desk drawer and later turned over to Otto Frank when he returned after the war as the only surviving resident of the annex. Anne died at northern Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

Her father published her diary, titled "The Secret Annex," in 1947.

Despite the legendary hardship she endured during the German occupation, Gies never embraced the label of a hero.

"More than 20,000 Dutch people helped to hide Jews and others in need of hiding during those years. I willingly did what I could to help. My husband did as well. It was not enough," she says in the prologue of her memoirs, "Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family."

"There is nothing special about me. I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time."

Gies' husband, Jan, whom she married in 1941, died in 1993. The couple had a son together.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01 ... index.html

May her rest be ever blessed.

That's sad.

This is sad for her family and friends. I don't find it sad, since she lived a long life which was very meaningful. She symbolizes the 20,000 others who showed such courage and compassion in the face of absolute evil which at one time must have seemed insurmountable. I find her story sad, because of the capture of the Franks and others, but her story is also inspirational.

She and all those like her were amazing people and the true 'heroes' of the war. I read Anne Frank's diary only a few months ago and I was just astounded by the prejudice and hatered (we didn't study THAT aspect of the war at school) to the point where I wanted to cry. I hope she can now rest in peace.

A Righteous Gentile topic

I hope there is is a whole forest of trees planted in her memory in Israel.

"Who saves a life saves the world".....Jewish Proverb.

In addition, according to traditional Chinese classics like Huang Di Nei Jing, it should be normal that people live until 100. But as most of us have disobeyed Nature's laws, we tend to struggle to live with aging at age 50. I personally think that good karma really enabled Anne Frank's protector to live to a ripe old age of 100. I hope I can do more good things in life like him.

We read it in the 7th grade and that part of the war was never glossed over in my history classes, but I had some unusual teachers. I hope she had a good a fruitful life she earned it and she's resting in piece .

It's painfully ironic though that in the Netherlands, where Anne Frank and Mrs. Gies lived, more Jews didn't survive the war than in any other occupied western European country. Several causes have been suggested, such as the excellent accuracy of Dutch civil records at the time, but it also seems that a larger proportion of the population actively collaborated with the Nazis than in most other countries.

This is does nothing to demean Mrs. Gies though, who was a true hero. May she rest in peace,

May she rest in peace and may the world has lesser wars...

Peace!