Miep Gies, who helped Anne Frank hide from the Nazis and saved her diary, dies at 100

[a kennedy]

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Without Miep Gies, the story of Anne Frank might never have been known.

The former office secretary who helped hide the Jewish teenager from the Nazis for two years gathered up the scattered diary pages after the Frank family was arrested and sent to concentration camps. She locked the papers — unread — in her desk until Frank's father Otto returned, the only family member to survive.

Gies died Monday from a neck injury suffered when she fell last month, the Anne Frank House museum said. She was 100 and had been one of the few people still alive who knew Anne Frank.

Gies (whose full name is pronounced 'Meep Khees') was the last of the "helpers," the six non-Jews who smuggled food, books, writing paper and news of the outside world to the secret attic apartment of the canal-side warehouse where Anne, her parents, sister and four other Jews hid during World War II.

Condolence messages poured in to an online registry at the rate of about 100 per hour Tuesday, said museum spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker. Neither Queen Beatrix, who knighted Gies in 1995, nor the Dutch government immediately issued a statement, however.

<http://www.startribune.com/world/81220437.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUss>

[elocs]

1. Yes, its' too bad, but this has been posted numerous times since last night. n/t

[peace frog]

2. It's the first I've read of it, so thanks for posting

RIP.

[Obamanaut]

3. Thanks for posting this. Even though it may have been posted previously,

it is better for multiple posts of this nature than seeing 'Palin goes to Fox' 10 times in one day.