1. Wat is your best memory about the time of the hiding and what is your worst (except the capture)?
Answer Miep Gies: "The best memory was on D-day; the morning that I brought the
news of the invasion. The day that thousands of your fathers sacrificed their lives to bring us freedom again. The joy of the hiders can't be described. Tears and laughs for hours!
The most difficult moment I had the day that I came to the Attic and entered the room where Anne was writing in her diary. From the way she looked up, I saw she felt disturbed. Her mother came into the room too and grasping the tense situation, she tried to solve it by saying: "Yes, Miep, you should know Anne keeps a diary (as if I did not know, since she always asked me for paper!), whereupon Anne angrily stood up, closed her diary with a snap and snarled "and about you I write too!". Just before she dashed out, I managed to say "I am sure that will be something nice" Many hours I needed to recover from this incident. One thing I knew from this: Anne demanded her privacy to be respected."
27. Did Margot also keep a diary?
Answer Miep Gies: "There are rumours, she did, but we never found any evidence of that. Neither could Otto confirm this."
26. Besides Anne's diary what else did you take from the Attic?
Answer Miep Gies: "We took her little dressing-jacket and her mother’s powdercompact while Jan took the library books."
28. What were the other hiders like?
Answer Miep Gies: "For the answer to this question I suggest you read the book I wrote together with author Alison Gold, titled "Anne Frank Remembered".
Details 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.
Click here to read some quotes by Miep Gies about all the hiders.
29. What was the hardest part of keeping the secret?
Answer Miep Gies: "Most difficult was that you could not tell your family members, not even look for the support of your own parents. Any risk that the secret could leak out, had to be avoided."
30. Was it hard to procure cigarettes and other supplies?
Answer Miep Gies: "For everything you wanted to buy, you needed vouchers. One voucher entitled us to a really small quantity. Jews, after they were called to report for "work camp", did not get vouchers any more. So, I would have been forced to go to the black market, but since my husband Jan worked with the City, he could secretly obtain those vouchers, enabling me to buy vegetables, bread, potatoes, some butter, meat, textiles and cigarettes. Just enough to keep in reasonable shape!"
31. How old were you when it all started?
Answer Miep Gies: "In 1942, two years after Hitler occupied the Netherlands and the Franks went into hiding, I was 33."
32. Did Otto, after the war, keep his office?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes he did, he kept his office from 1945 till 1951. In that year Otto moved to Switzerland where he still had some family. From then onwards Mr. Kleiman (Koophuis in the Diary) continued the business till his death in 1980."
Answer Miep Gies: "No, he died 91 years old, in 1980."
34. Were you and Anne close?
Answer Miep Gies: "Well, I thought so, but reading her diary, I noticed a sharp disappointment. Her father had the same emotion. We both thought we had been very intimate with Anne, but from her diary we learned, to our dismay, that she had not shared her deeper feelings with us. Otto assumed, that this was because we considered her being just a child. Thus, she might have been afraid we would not accept her ideas. So, she kept them for herself. Therefore Otto told parents, whenever he wrote them, to enter into every effort to read the minds of their kids by listening very carefully and paying them respect, "because otherwise", he said, "your child may be just as lonely as once my daughter Anne"!"
35. Why did Otto never appear in a movie?
Answer Miep Gies: "Otto was not an actor. He only appeared in documentaries and in interviews."
36. What movie or play is closest to the real thing?
Answer Miep Gies: "Actually none of them. Playwright and movie producers always add or change something to acquire copyrights of their own. Dramatically, play and movie are correct, but the bread-stealing by Mr. Dussel (Van Daan in the diary) and the suggestion that the hiders were all alone in the hiding place, when the police came, is sheer fantasy. We, the helpers, were all in the office at the time the place was raided."
37. You brought food and games to the Annex. So, while this happened the outside world was still normal?
Answer Miep Gies: "The non-Jews could still go after their work, do shopping and attend school. But is wasn't really normal. People didn't have cars anymore, nutrition was extremely scarce and regularly we had airraid alarms. Then you had to run for one of the public shelters, constructed throughout town. The allied airforce did not bomb Amsterdam city, except some of its factories and military quarters, but the Germans were shooting like mad at the allied planes and quite often hit one of them, that then could fall on us such as still be seen at the flowermarket near the Mint tower where a modern building now stands on the spot where an English plane crashed in to several buildings."
38. Do people treat you differently, because you are famous?
Answer Miep Gies: "Not the people I know, but the general public, as always, is curious and therefore not really pleasant. Thus, I avoid them and the media."
39. Was it your idea to get the Diary published?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, it was fully Otto Frank's initiative."
40. Whose idea was the Secret Annex?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was Otto Frank's idea."
41. What was it like being with Anne for that long?
Answer Miep Gies: "Anne's presence those two years was a tremendous stimulus for the helpers. Her cheerful and grateful attitude made every day again our effort rewarding. She made our task lighter."
42. How did you respond to having only Otto Frank come back?
Answer Miep Gies: "Of course, I was very shocked. I could not believe that Margot and Anne, who were strong and healthy at the time of their arrest and who were, according to survivors, still in excellent shape, when they left transit camp Westerbork one month later, in less than six months were turned into human wrecks and subsequently died."
43. What had happened if they had not been helped to hide?
Answer Miep Gies: "They would have been sent to the camps without any delay. As a first result of that Anne could not have written her wonderful diary, the source of hope and inspiration for millions of people all over the world."
44. Do you stille have Anne Frank's manuscript?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, I gave it to Otto Frank at the moment that the Red Cross told him about the death of his daughters. He, at his death, left it with the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation."
45. How you feel about the German people?
Answer Miep Gies: "That depends. Those who were cruel, I hate. However the many other Germans, who were not involved, I do respect. I always look at the individual, before I decide, because every human being makes his own decisions. I am Austrian born and many of my fellow countrymen were ruthless Nazi's. It was an Austrian policeman who arrested my dear friends! From this you understand never to condemn a whole nation."
46. Was it hard to provide for the hiders and also for yourself?
Answer Miep Gies: "My responsibility, next to my office duties, was to take care of food for eleven people; eight hiding in the Attic, besides a student (Kuno van der Horst, who had refused to sign a statement from the Germans in which the student promised to be loyal to the occupying forces), wanted by the Germans, whom we harboured in our home and, last but not least, for my husband Jan and me. Most of the food I could buy with food vouchers. Jan obtained them illegally for me from the City Hall, where he worked. It became gradually more and more difficult to find shops that had sufficient food in store. So, every morning I left my home with shopping bags and as soon as I saw people lined up in front of a shop I would join them, whatever the shop was, because also clothing, shoes, tobacco etcetera were all rationed. My next problem was that I could not buy everything for all my friends in one shop, because that would raise suspicion. I also could not bring more than one bag could hold, to the office, (where the hiding place was), because then the other workers may start to wonder. Only the two directors and Elly, my office colleague, knew about the hiding place in the building attached to our office. So, I was a good part of the day busy to walk from shop to shop and then back to the office. Food you could get during the war was simple: potatoes, bread, vegetables, butter, meat, cheese, sugar and jam, but really very small portions. At the end of the war we were truly starving, because of no electricity, water daily only one hour, not anything to heat our homes, and no salt, fat, sugar, meat or butter at all."
47. How is it to be the only one, still living?
Answer Miep Gies: "It surely is a painful experience to be the only survivor of the eight people in hiding and their five helpers, I miss them dearly, because I can no longer exchange memories and no longer enjoy their friendship."
48. Miep, how are you doing?
Answer Miep Gies: "Well, it may be somewhat surprising that I, 99 years old, mentally and physically in good shape, still run my own 3-room apartment, often enjoying the company of my son Paul, his wife Lucy and their three kids. I feel a very blessed woman!
49. Could the neighbours not hear all the fighting and yelling?
Answer Miep Gies: "I, working in the office, near the attic, never heard any noise. The hiders had their conflicts, but were aware that their disputes should be solved at low voice."
14. Do you have any friends from the time of the Holocaust that are still living today?
Answer Miep Gies: "The people in hiding and also my fellow helpers all died."
2. Did you ever think you were going to be captured?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, on the one hand the workload did not allow any time for worrying and on the other hand we had the satisfaction doing the right thing. It may be unrealistic, but a feeling of being untouchable did dominate."
3. Was it hard to meet everyone's needs?
Answer Miep Gies: "Well, let me say first that their wishes were modest, but sometimes their wishes could not be met, because of the rampant scarcity during the war. That made it hard for the helpers, when they could not provide truly simple things."
4. Was it worth risking your life by helping the Jews?
Answer Miep Gies: "I would believe so. Think of Anne Frank. Because of the help she received, she did live another two years, during which she wrote her diary, giving hope and inspiration to milllions of people. If I think of the 750.000 Jewish children killed by the Nazi's, I can't avoid believing that some of them could have invented the cure against cancer and aids."
5. What were the Nazi's like, were they nice or rude?
Answer Miep Gies: "First of all, they were deceiving. They told the Jews:"You will not like what we do to you. You will lose your bikes, you can't visit the parks and beaches, you are not allowed to use public transportation, you can shop only between 3 and 5 pm, you can't visit a restaurant or cinema, but if you listen, we promise: families will stay together" ..Indeed, they stayed together till the gaschamber!!"
6. While in hiding, was Anne afraid or sad a lot?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, as a matter of fact, most of the time she was cheerful and optimistic. Also the Diary reflects a positive attitude. At the same time she made a thoughtful impression, not a worrying one but a wondering one."
7. Did you ever visit a death camp?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, I did and the emotion overwhelmed me."
8. Did you ever sit down with Anne and talk about the war?
Answer Miep Gies: "Anne's greatest interest was to hear what was going on in the streets of Amsterdam and how her friends were doing. Cautiously I told her what I knew, trying to avoid information that could upset her, but Anne had a very persistent way of asking. At the end I told her all, which you find reflected in her diary."
9. What made you risk your life to help the families?
Answer Miep Gies: "An important factor in taking this load on my shoulders was my personal history. My home country Austria engaged itself in a war, that lasted from 1914 till 1918. It lost everything it once had. Food became very scarce and I, eleven years old, fell ill with tuberculosis. My parents could not give me the nourishment and medicine I needed. Therefore, they accepted the offer from a Dutch family to take me in on a temporary basis. I remember sitting lonely and crying in a train with a cord around my neck and a sign hanging from it, stating my name: Hermine Santruschitz. After a 700 mile train ride I arrived in the Netherlands, welcomed by a family that spoke a strange language. They already had five kids and had to live on a modest salary. Still they shared everything they had with me and sent me to fine schools. In return for this good fortune, I was now able to help other people!
I further foresaw, that if I would not help, my conscience, later, would torture me. So, I helped, hoping that all, who would meet the same dilemma, would understand my reasoning and will reach out too."
10. Did only you and Mr. Kugler know about the hiders?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, also Mr. Kleiman, Elly, my colleaque, and my husband Jan, who as a City employee could "organize" the ration booklets, knew about it."
11. What was life like in that time? We have read stories from the Jewish perspective, but how was it for non-Jews?
Answer Miep Gies: "The answer to this fills a book. This book I wrote, assisted by author Alison Gold, called "Anne Frank Remembered".
Details 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.
12. Have you ever been to the USA?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, many times. From 1989 till 1996 I came to several American communities to speak at the opening of the large exhibition "Anne Frank In The World, 1929-1945". With BBC producer Jon Blair I stood on the stage of the Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles to receive an Oscar for the BBC documentary "Anne Frank Remembered"."
13. Are you still married and where do you live now?
Answer Miep Gies: "In 1993, at the age of 87, my beloved husband Jan died. It may be somewhat surprising that I, at my age of 99, mentally and physically in reasonable shape, still run my own 3-room apartment in a small Dutch village, with some necessary domestic and typing assistance, my extensive correspondence. Whenever time is left, I like to read and to follow the news in my daily paper and on TV. Regularly I am visited by my son Paul, his wife Lucy, who live a few blocks away from my place. Also my three grandchildren visit me from time to time. I feel a much blessed woman!"
51. Is there something you will never forget?
Answer Miep Gies: "Of course the heartbreaking arrest of the families on that day in August 1944 on which both the hiders and the helpers thought that they all would made it up to liberation. A couple of weeks before, the helpers had discussed the possibility of moving the hiders to another place because of frequent events (burglars). The outcome was that it was considered to be impossible to move eight people either in daytimes or nighttimes through town. All hoped that the liberation was at hand. The blow was enormous when the arrests came."
15. What was the hardest part of the whole thing?
Answer Miep Gies: "That we could not provide the children with more freedom to move around, to meet with friends, to be on a beach, walk through a forest or play in the sun. Their fate, to live in fear and uncertainty, was truly heartbreaking."
16. Did you help other people during the war?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, a young man, wanted by the Germans, we hid in our home."
17. Did you return to the Attic and have you seen death camps?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, I did, although those places made me very emotional."
18. What was it like knowing Anne and her family?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was like the feeling you have when being with very good friends. I knew the Frank family and the other hiders already for years and a great friendship and intimacy had developed. The years in hiding were therefore a continuation of an already existing confidentiality."
19. Did you know about Anne's diary when she was in hiding?
Answer Miep Gies: "Sure I knew, Anne always asked for paper."
20. Do you think Anne and Peter would later have married?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, after being shortly in love, Anne realized their differences. Her diary tells us about her changing mood."
21. Why did you never return to live with your real family in Austria?
Answer Miep Gies: "That was not a deliberate decision. It grew over the years. The first few years my health was still fragile and the situation in Austria unstable. So, my mother felt it would be better for me to extend my stay in the Netherlands. In that way, I got adapted to the Dutch and to the high school I had been put to. I also had made new friends. Subsequently it was decided I should first graduate, which did prepare me for a Dutch job. It was a gradual development, also influenced by the early death of my parents and my only sister."
22. Was Margot always the quiet one?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, she was an extremely pleasant and patient girl, but at the same time a brilliant student and strongly socially minded, wishing to become a doctor or a nurse."
23. Did you enjoy your wedding?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was a wonderful day. I married, at the age of 32, quite late with Jan, the man of my careful choice. He gave me over 50 years of sheer happiness!"
24. Was Anne an extraordinary child?
Answer Miep Gies: "Anne was only four years old, when I first met her. She was so curious that it became tiring to answer all her questions. She further visited with her friends the office, where I worked as Otto Franks secretary, to play with the phones and throw water on passers-by from the upper floor, till I had to stop that. Honestly, I found her a bit loud. This changed when she, at the age thirteen, went into hiding. She had developed a strong interest in the conduct of people. Though she liked to talk, she kept quiet as soon as anyone else spoke, closely observing that person. This is why she could describe the hiders so well. First I refused to read the diary, afraid of more pain. When I gave in to Otto's wish at last and began to read, I could not stop! Anne brought my friends back to life. Again I heard their voices, laughs and arguments. Though I wept a lot, I kept thinking: "Anne, you gave me one of the finest presents I ever got"."
25. Were the hiders nice people?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, they were. Their laughs, their humor, their gratitude, their tears, even their arguments, it was all so warm human, amusing and entertaining, I still miss them badly."
Click here to read some quotes by Miep Gies about all the hiders.
89. What would have been the punishment for hiding Jews?
Answer Miep Gies: "That would have been six month concentration camp."
77. Did you put "The Diary of Anne Frank" together with Otto Frank?
Answer Miep Gies: "Together with Elly (Bep) I rescued the manuscript, which I gave to Otto on the day I learned that Anne had died. Otto did all the further editing."
78. Was it hard to get to the hiding place?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was mentally not easy to meet people who live in fear and long for freedom."
79. How many languages you know?
Answer Miep Gies: "Dutch, German and some English."
80. Is any of the helpers or of Anne's friends still alive?
Answer Miep Gies: "I am the last helper, but her friends Hanneli, Jopie and Laureen are still alive."
81. Where and how long did you go to school?
Answer Miep Gies: "I went 5 years to Elementary School in Vienne, then one year more in the Netherlands, followed by 4 years advanced education resulting in a certificate."
82. How many letters you get?
Answer Miep Gies: "Every year 650 from individuals and 30 from schools with an average of 35 letters each."
83. Were you ever in a concentration camp?
Answer Miep Gies: "Only after the war, I did visit camps."
84. Did you like to read and write when you were a kid?
Answer Miep Gies: "I loved to read, but writing not that much."
85. Did Anne and Peter really kiss?
Answer Miep Gies: "I never saw it, but I do assume so."
86. When did you meet Anne the last time?
Answer Miep Gies: "The morning of her arrest, August 4, 1944. I came to the hiding place to pick up the shopping list and was welcomed by Anne's usual "Hello Miep, what is the news?"
87. Were your duties sometimes overwhelming?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was a tremendous good thing that we were actually a group of five helpers; the two directors, my colleague Elly (Bep), my husband and me."
88. Have you met discrimination as a child?
Answer Miep Gies: "I came as an eleven year old Austrian, German speaking girl to the Netherlands, not knowing one word Dutch. So, I did encounter a lot of surprise and curiosity but nothing worse than that."
76. Did the Dutch government try to rebel against the Nazi's?
Answer Miep Gies: "Our Queen and her Cabinet ministers, after a short and uneven war, went in exile to London and coordinated as good as possible the resistance against the Nazi's. It also had soldiers who fought with the allies."
90. Was anyone suspicious?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes. The warehouse chief. He tried to find out if there were people in the building after closing time. However there was no proof of him being the person that betrayed the hiders."
91. How did the police find the hiding place?
Answer Miep Gies: "It is through betrayal, but who did this and how many others were involved, is still unclear.There are several theories (see The Betrayal)."
92. Have you ever heard from Anne after her arrest?
Answer Miep Gies: "The person who spoke with Anne in Bergen-Belsen where she died,is Hannah Goslar who lives in Jerusalem. She told me the conversation she had with Anne, who was already very sick at that time"
93. In spite of all dedication Anne was arrested. Was it worth the effort?
Answer Miep Gies: "It is true that to my greatest sorrow we were unable to save Anne but the helpers did succeed to extend her life with two years and in that period she has written the Diary with her message of tolerance and understanding."
94. How did you manage to give the hiders a feeling of safety and what was your impression of their personalities?
Answer Miep Gies: "You could write a book about that and that is what I have done together with the author Alison Gold under the title: Anne Frank Remembered."
Title information: 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.
95. Wat was your involvement with Anne’s diary?
Answer Miep Gies: "I knew that she kept a diary and that fact alone, under those terrible circumstances, was an achievement.For me,being able providing her with paper, was satisfaction enough.Together with my colleaque Bep (Elly) Voskuijl we were lucky to find the diary and the loose papers. For the rest we only saved her shawl and her mother’s powder compact.Bep and I decided that I should keep the diary till she came back and I put the diary and the loose pages in my office desk without reading it.But the day of her return would never come and when Otto Frank got word from the Red Cross that Anne and Margot would not return I gave him the diary saying: This is the legacy of your daughter Anne.That ended my involvement. It was Otto Frank himself who dealt with all other issues such as editing her text, finding a publisher and so on.The manuscript he donated the manuscript to the State and the copyrights went over to The Anne Frank Foundation in Basel under the leadership of Buddy Elias, Anne’s cousin."
96. What do you know about the five missing papers?
Answer Miep Gies: "In 1998, Cor Suijk, in the past connected to the Anne Frank House and a long friend of Otto Frank, came forward with five pages out of the Diary. Otto Frank did not want the pages to be published as long as he and his second wife were alive. On the pages Anne shows understanding for the bitterness of her mother because, according to Anne, Otto could not forget his first love.The marriage did not take place because the girl’s family considered him to be too poor.The State bought the papers. I can not belief that more pages will emerge."
97. I admire your bravery and courage. I probably could not do it.
Answer Miep Gies: "I am afraid that if people feel that I am a very special person, a sort of heroine, they may doubt whether they will do the same I once did. Not many consider themself very talented or courageous and thus would refrain from helping endangered people. This the reason that I want everyone to know that I am a very common and cautious woman and definitely not a genius or dare-devil.I did help like so many others who ran the same or more risk than me.It was necessary so I helped."
"It is always better to try than to do nothing, because not trying secures complete failure."
"Never lump entire groups of people together, everyone is an individual, making his own decisions. Even my own family members are not like me."
"Helping people who are in danger is not a matter of courage but from making a decision that every human being has to make in his life when he or she distinguishes between good and bad."
63. You were propably relieved at the arrest of the hiders?
Answer Miep Gies: "This question really shocks me. Whatever the amount of work involved with caring for them, I would have preferred ten times that work load, if that could have saved them."
52. Do we know where Anne and the other victims are buried?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, we don't know. Their bodies disappeared in mass graves."
53. Was there ever a moment you wanted to give op?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, never!"
54. What was Margot's personality like?
Answer Miep Gies: "She was a lovely person. Very considerate, always friendly and polite, very knowledgeable and quiet. I never saw her agitated."
55. Did Otto ever share any of his opinions regarding the Diary?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, all the time, he expressed his admiration for Anne's writings, showing me entries I should read, because of Anne's intelligent observations."
56. How did the experience affect your life?
Answer Miep Gies: "I came to the sad conviction that innocent people can be the victims of cruel injustice. This dominates my thinking."
57. Could the Frank family still have gone to Switzerland?
Answer Miep Gies: "This would have been better, but the Germans forbade it."
58. Is it true that a burglar betrayed them?
Answer Miep Gies: "There is not any evidence so far that this understandable fear of the hiders ever took place. On the other hand, a rising number of people got the impression that there was human activity on nr. 263."
59. Did you read the Diary?
Answer Miep Gies: "After I found it, I did not read it, because I felt it to be Anne's privacy. After it became published, I first refused to read the diary, afraid of more pain. When at last I gave in to Otto's wish and began to read, I could not stop! Anne brought my friends back to life. Again I heard their voices, laughs and arguments."
60. Did your family know and agree about your hiding people?
Answer Miep Gies: "I didnt' tell anybody. Out of concern they might be opposed to the risk I did not even tell my foster parents."
61. How were the teenagers kept occupied and quiet?
Answer Miep Gies: "From Anne's diary you can read that she very well understood the importance of avoiding any noise during the day. They further continued to study by postal correspondence. Elly, my colleague, faked to be the student and mailed the home work of the children. Further they had the books that Jan, my husband, weekly got for them from the public library."
62. Did you hide, exept the student Kuno, anybody else?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, but I did not do the job by myself. Since the summer of 1941 my husband, Jan Gies, had become a member of a resistant group at his work and it was his task to find hiding places for those who, for whatever reason, had to hide from the Germans. These places could be in the city as well as in the countryside."
50. What was it like to live under the conditions of the Second World War?
Answer Miep Gies: "It was frightening, because of the thousands of bombers that flew over our country to get to Germany, with the Nazi's shooting at them like mad and attacking them with their fighters. Many planes were shot down and could hit us. On top of that came the fear, that you could not trust your fellow people. Several of them collaborated with the Germans, for money or other benefits. You could become arrested or shot without proper reason. Also the food scarcity grew alarming. The last year, in that part of the Netherlands that was still in German hands, we had no sugar, no fat, no salt, no heating, no electricity, no gas, water only one hour a day, very little bread, potatoes and vegetables. We call it the hunger winter with ten thousands of people dying!"
64. What happened to the garbage of the hiders?
Answer Miep Gies: "What they could not burn in their stove, we took home."
66. Did you ever search abandoned places for valuables?
Answer Miep Gies: "Such idea did not even occur to me."
67. What did your husband think of your help?
Answer Miep Gies: "He fully supported me. Jan worked in the municipal office and provided me with the ration cards to buy food and other necessities, so I did not have to go to the black market."
68. Was Otto Frank a German officer in World War I?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, he served on the western front near Cambrai and St.Quentin."
69. How did the Nazi's treat the non-Jews?
Answer Miep Gies: "Initially they were rather friendly, but soon they started, at first on a voluntary basis, to interest Dutch people to work in Germany (German men were needed at the various fronts). When the number of workers remained low they conducted razzia's, taking people off the street and from home, (these razzia’s were simular to the ones who picked up Jews although the Jews were sent to the death camps), marching them to the railway station and shipping them to the factories and other workplaces in Germany to do forced labour for the Germans."
70. How did the people find out about the concentration camps?
Answer Miep Gies: "Firstly through the censored papers, secondly with the help of the in increasing numbers distributed illegal papers and thirdly by listening to the B.B.C. who conducted broadcasts in Dutch. The Germans forbade the use and the possession of radio sets but most people kept one secretly stored in there homes. "
71. Was your husband supportive?
Answer Miep Gies: "Yes, and how! He worked at the city hall and arranged for the vouchers, needed to buy food and other supplies. He also got the books the hiders chose from the public library every week."
72. Do you like the world today, compared to before World War II?
Answer Miep Gies: "One thing has improved. We receive more information and see more international solidarity. However, war and human misery is still rampant."
73. Was the student Kuna, you did hide at your home, arrested?
Answer Miep Gies: "No, he was safe! After the war he left for the United States."
74. Did the hiders ever get stressed?
Answer Miep Gies: "From the diary, we know, they did. However they never showed it in my presence. Obviously Otto told them to be restrained, since the helpers also had it difficult."
75. Did you ever want to go back to Vienna?
Answer Miep Gies: "I went back twice in the nineteenthirties but I did not want to live there anymore. Neither did I liked the atmosphere."
Since decades, Miep Gies has been receiving mail from all over the world. People write to thank her for her book, to share their own life story, and to ask questions. Before Miep's book was released in the Netherlands, it was published in the United States in English. Many of those asking questions live in America, and they include many children.
