TUBMAN PROJECT #2: MIEP GIES

​“I’ve often been down in the dumps, but never desperate. I look upon our life in hiding as an interesting adventure, full of danger and romance, and every privation as an amusing addition to my diary. I’ve made up my mind to live a different life from other girls, and not to become an ordinary housewife later on. What I’m experiencing here is a good beginning to an interesting life, and that’s the reason—the only reason—why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.”

      Anne Frank in Anne Frank’s Diary: The graphic adaptation(2018). Adapted by A. Folman and Illustrated by D. Polanski. Pantheon Books. Page 129.


  Anne Frank’s story has intrigued me for the past forty years. Her sparkling personality has moved me in deep ways to think about hope, possibility, and courage. These qualities shine through in her diary and her short stories. In 1980, I had the chance to work with the Dutch foundation named for her and with the director of the international exhibit, Cor Suijk. Cor, a former Dutch diplomat, educator, and friend of Anne’s father, Otto, had created a traveling exhibit to tell Anne’s story and the history of the rise of Hitler as a warning about the dangers of intolerance. I had worked to bring the exhibit to Cincinnati and, in the process, Cor and I developed a friendship. We spent many amazing hours talking about the Frank family, the Netherlands during the war, Cor’s family as too frightened or prejudiced against Jews to take more than one person for hiding, Cor’s experience in the Dutch resistance, and Cor’s good friend, Miep Geis.


  The more I learned about Anne and her family’s survival, the greater my interest in how Anne survived and why she chose to write her journal. Cor had many answers and they all circled back to Miep and her husband, Jan. One day, Cor asked if I would Iike to visit with Miep and Jan and ask them these questions directly. I traveled to Amsterdam and, with Cor, went to a small apartment in the center of the city. I remember two rooms in the apartment: one, a small living room with a large table on which was a large plate of Dutch chocolates and an adjoining room, smaller, that was filled with boxes of letters from school children and their teachers from around the world. Cor was a very close friend of Miep and Jan and he arranged for us to have an afternoon of discussion. For the next 4-5 hours we talked and finished the plate of chocolates. We laughed a lot, cried some, and discussed so many aspects of their lives as members of the Dutch resistance durning World War 2, especially what it was like to bring food to the Franks and four or five other families in Amsterdam that were in hiding. Miep and Jan described getting up before dawn each day and visiting friendly farmers on their bicycles and then separating and going to deliver the food to the different hiding places. Slowly, our discussion returned to Anne and the day of her capture. Miep, with tears in her eyes, said that she had to close up her apartment every August just to meditate on what had happened that day. ”They just burst in; they knew where to go. And, they took everyone in the Attic except they didn’t take me, “ she said with quiet fury. “Take me, too,” she insisted, “I do not want to leave my friends.” Her request was ignored. “You are not a Jew but an Austrian,” she was told as the Nazis left the house. Dazed, Miep went back into the house and found the pages of Anne’s diary on the floor and rescued them.


  We were quiet for a while. Finally, I asked her about Anne’s energy, her desire to write her diary. Miep, now subdued by her memories, replied that Anne was so different, so amazing: “She was so energetic, so alive, so unwilling to be depressed and so interested in hearing the latest news.” Cor interjected a comment: “Yes, dear friend, she was all those things because of you, because of your friendship, because of your courage, because of your showing her that you and Jan would not be defeated by the Nazis.” Miep smiled and said nothing. Then she continued to describe Anne as the only one in the Attic that wasn’t afraid, depressed, or resigned to her fate. “Anne was different, almost crazy, alway alive,” Miep recalled with a smile and a loving look.


  Later on we looked at some of the letters from children and teachers that filled dozens of cartons in the next room. “I answer every one,” Jan said, “and it is important to share Anne’s story.” Anne, Miep, Jan, and Cor’s stories continue to illuminate the darkness of their time and now as well. I can feel the warmth of their friendship, almost taste their chocolates, and know that their strength can be a hand forward in these times of confusion and despair. May their memory continue to burn brightly.