Pictured together above, Alison Leslie Gold and Miep Gies, the woman who helped to hide
the Frank family, co-authored this international bestseller that has been translated into
eighteen languages. It was also included as one of the "Best of Best" one hundred young
adult books in the past twenty-five years by the American Library Association.
Since its initial publication forty years ago, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank has
become a modern classic. Now, in this moving book, we learn another side of the Anne
Frank story.
Miep's relationship with the Franks began when she came to work for Anne's father in 1933,
shortly after he emigrated from Germany to Amsterdam to escape the Nazis. Following the
wartime German occupation of the Netherlands and the increasingly harsh measures the
Nazis imposed on Dutch Jews, the Frank family decided to go into hiding in 1942. Along with
her husband, Jan, Miep became one of the Frank's key links to the outside world, supplying
food, news and emotional support--at great personal risk—for more than two years.
Written with an honesty and a simplicity that are devastating, this vivid and heartbreaking
story of life under Nazi occupation includes several startling revelations. Miep recalls the
terrible events of the tragic day that the Franks were seized, including her finding Anne's
diary--which she did not read, out of respect for Anne's privacy, until it was published three
years later. She describes her chilling trip to Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam after the
Franks were arrested, where she attempted to bribe the Nazis into releasing her friends. And
she tells of the last winter of the war, the "Hunger Winter," when she had to travel far outside
Amsterdam in search of food even as she saw others dying in the streets from starvation.
A powerful testament to the courage and sheer indomitability of all those who refused to
sacrifice their humanity in the midst of one of history's darkest hours, this book, like the Diary
itself, is a classic work affirming the nobility of the human spirit.
the Frank family, co-authored this international bestseller that has been translated into
eighteen languages. It was also included as one of the "Best of Best" one hundred young
adult books in the past twenty-five years by the American Library Association.
Since its initial publication forty years ago, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank has
become a modern classic. Now, in this moving book, we learn another side of the Anne
Frank story.
Miep's relationship with the Franks began when she came to work for Anne's father in 1933,
shortly after he emigrated from Germany to Amsterdam to escape the Nazis. Following the
wartime German occupation of the Netherlands and the increasingly harsh measures the
Nazis imposed on Dutch Jews, the Frank family decided to go into hiding in 1942. Along with
her husband, Jan, Miep became one of the Frank's key links to the outside world, supplying
food, news and emotional support--at great personal risk—for more than two years.
Written with an honesty and a simplicity that are devastating, this vivid and heartbreaking
story of life under Nazi occupation includes several startling revelations. Miep recalls the
terrible events of the tragic day that the Franks were seized, including her finding Anne's
diary--which she did not read, out of respect for Anne's privacy, until it was published three
years later. She describes her chilling trip to Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam after the
Franks were arrested, where she attempted to bribe the Nazis into releasing her friends. And
she tells of the last winter of the war, the "Hunger Winter," when she had to travel far outside
Amsterdam in search of food even as she saw others dying in the streets from starvation.
A powerful testament to the courage and sheer indomitability of all those who refused to
sacrifice their humanity in the midst of one of history's darkest hours, this book, like the Diary
itself, is a classic work affirming the nobility of the human spirit.
The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family
Anne Frank Remembered
Excerpt:
I was twenty-four in 1933. It was a difficult year for me. I had been without a job for
several months, fired, along with another employee, from the textile company where I’d had
my first and only job as an office worker. Times were bad and unemployment was high,
especially for the young. Jobs were hard to come by, but being a young woman with an
independent spirit, I was longing to be working again.
My adoptive family and I lived several floors above an older woman, Mrs. Blik, who
occasionally had coffee with my adoptive mother. Mrs. Blik had a rather unusual job for a
woman, even though it was not unusual for Dutch women to work outside the home. She was
a traveling saleswoman and often would be away from home all week—until Saturday, that
is—demonstrating and selling household products to farmers’ wives and to clubs made up of
housewives.
Every Saturday she would return with her empty sample case and report to the firms that
employed her in order to refill her demonstration kit and submit her orders. One Saturday, at
one of her steady places of employment, she heard that one of the office girls was sick and
the firm was looking for a temporary replacement.
That very afternoon, straight from the streetcar, she trudged up the extra steps to our
apartment and knocked on the door. My adoptive mother called me in from the kitchen and
enthusiastically told me about the job. Mrs. Blik handed me a sheet of paper, saying, “First
thing Monday morning…”
I thanked her, becoming excited about the prospect of asserting my independence by
working again…that is, if I could get there early enough and get hired. Where was the
office? I glanced at the paper. Easy, I thought, not twenty minutes by bicycle. Fifteen
perhaps, the way I usually rode—fast. The paper read:
MR. OTTO FRANK
N.Z. Voorburgwal 120-126
I was twenty-four in 1933. It was a difficult year for me. I had been without a job for
several months, fired, along with another employee, from the textile company where I’d had
my first and only job as an office worker. Times were bad and unemployment was high,
especially for the young. Jobs were hard to come by, but being a young woman with an
independent spirit, I was longing to be working again.
My adoptive family and I lived several floors above an older woman, Mrs. Blik, who
occasionally had coffee with my adoptive mother. Mrs. Blik had a rather unusual job for a
woman, even though it was not unusual for Dutch women to work outside the home. She was
a traveling saleswoman and often would be away from home all week—until Saturday, that
is—demonstrating and selling household products to farmers’ wives and to clubs made up of
housewives.
Every Saturday she would return with her empty sample case and report to the firms that
employed her in order to refill her demonstration kit and submit her orders. One Saturday, at
one of her steady places of employment, she heard that one of the office girls was sick and
the firm was looking for a temporary replacement.
That very afternoon, straight from the streetcar, she trudged up the extra steps to our
apartment and knocked on the door. My adoptive mother called me in from the kitchen and
enthusiastically told me about the job. Mrs. Blik handed me a sheet of paper, saying, “First
thing Monday morning…”
I thanked her, becoming excited about the prospect of asserting my independence by
working again…that is, if I could get there early enough and get hired. Where was the
office? I glanced at the paper. Easy, I thought, not twenty minutes by bicycle. Fifteen
perhaps, the way I usually rode—fast. The paper read:
MR. OTTO FRANK
N.Z. Voorburgwal 120-126