Miep Gies :: Obtaining the Dutch nationality

Obtaining the Dutch nationality

Both Anne and Miep came to the Netherlands at a young age. Anne was four at the time and had the German nationality, while Miep had come thirteen years earlier as an eleven-year old from Austria. Both quickly felt at home in the Netherlands, learnt the language, went to school and made friends. They both retained the nationality of their homeland, but both were also eager to obtain the Dutch nationality.

Anne writes that, after the war's end, she is prepared to write the Queen to request the Dutch nationality. Miep actually wrote such a letter in 1939. She always kept a carbon copy of that letter.

'Make me Dutch!' wrote Anne

On Sunday evening, April 9, 1944, the office at the Prinsengracht was again broken into. This time it was a lot more terrifying than previous times, with the sound of footsteps in the house, in the private office, in the kitchen and on the stairs toward the Secret Annex. The hiders could even hear someone fumbling with the swiveling bookcase that hid the entrance to their hiding place.

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Miep Gies's letter to the Queen

When Miep's homeland of Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, she wrote a letter to Queen Wilhelmina requesting to be granted the Dutch nationality. That effort was not successful, but when she married Jan Gies on July 16, 1941, she obtained the Dutch nationality nevertheless.

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