'More than twenty thousand 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.

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. When I was persuaded to tell my story, I had to think of the place that Anne Frank holds in history and what her story has come to mean for the many millions of people who have been touched by it. I’m told that every night when the sun goes down, somewhere in the world the curtain is going up on the stage play made from Anne’s diary. Taking into consideration the many printings of Het Achterhuis (“The Annex”) – published in English as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl – and the many translations that have been made of Anne’s story, her voice has reached the far edges of the earth.'

Quoted from the Prologue of the book Anne Frank Remembered. The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family. By Miep Gies with Alison Gold. Simon and Schuster, New York 1987. A new edition of the book is expected for early 2009.

Miep Gies reading the incoming letters, June 2001. Photo: Bettina Flitner.