A woman of great character

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maytagbear

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Miep Gies, 1909-2010.

She was the last surviving Gentile helper of the Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne Frank family. Also the Van Pels family, and (I forget the real name of the other man, in the book, I believe it to be Van Dussel.)

She died Tuesday, reportedly of complications of a fall.

She, her husband, Jan Gies, and four others did all they could.

Miep is survived by her son, and three grandchildren.

So much courage for such a dark time in human history. However, (NOT a direct quote, but close:) "It was the correct thing to do."

I hope that if I am ever faced with such horror, I can help. Or, at least, not block the way.

Last night, when I went to bed, there was a small article about her on the Yahoo front page. When I checked about 15 minutes ago, not a trace of the article on the front page.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Its on UK MSN

At least it is this afternoon, I did not notice it this morning. However our morning news programme on BBC Radio 4 did a feature on her and it was also mention in the news braodcasts.
Apparently after WW2 Anne Frank's father returned to Holland and lived with Mr. & Mrs Gies for many years. Mrs Gies had been an employee of Mr Frank before the family went into hiding, and when he returned (having survived the concentration camp) she resumed employment with him when he re-established his business.
Al


 
Today

For those that are interested the link below is to "Listen Again" this mornings edition of Today (BBC R4). I was listening in the car and not paying that much attention to the time, but I think it was somewhere between 75 mins & 105 mins into the programme
Al

 
Miep Gies certainly wasn't the only one who helped jews during the German occupation, but she was lucky to find the Anne Frank diary that made her famous.

Only recently, while looking for information about an appartment opposite mine that was for sale, I found a website (I selected the English version but only a few words appear to be in English) with data about the deportation of jews during the German occupation. For my current address I couldn't find any data and I suppose that no jews were living there during the war, but on both sides of my address families were removed from their homes and transported to Auschwitz, Sobibor and other places to be murdered. This was in 1942 and 1943. On one side of my address four out of four families were deported and later yet another family that was temporarily living there after the previous family had been murdered. On the other side two out of four families were deported. I was saddened to learn about these tragedies that happened so close to where I am sitting right now.

 
Update

I just tried the link again and there is more English text than I initially thought. When a Dutch page appears, select "Engels" in the menu for an English version.
 
I still have a difficult time even begining to understand or even comprehend how just one man can be so hatefull and distructive.I see a paralell between Hitler and Husane.Both of whom used religion as their weapon,hitler being jealous of the so called control that the Jews suposedly had in financial,real estate,art and retail.The way I look at that is some people have a "nack" for different things and can focus on them more than others.I constantly heard people who claimed to be religious say negative things about Jewish people and I couldn't understand how they could claim to be Christians and hate Jews.hello,isn't Jesus Jewish???!!! What's wrong with that picture??
 
It's truly amazing isn't it?

That folks can hate so much, and also take such action on it.

Never again. I will do everything needed in my power to fight shit like this.

Hunter
 

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