Anne Frank Remembered

ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED

Anne Frank Remembered, is written by Miep Gies one of the Dutch citizens who hid the Frank family during the war. In this book, Miep describes how Holland was slowly overtaken by the Nazis. The main point of the book was describing how the Franks hid and what she did to help them survive during their long hard days of hiding.

The book starts out with Miep describing how she came to Amsterdam in 1914 at the age of five from Austria via a child transport for children during the First World War. Even after the war she remained in Amsterdam with her adoptive family because it would have been difficult for her to readapt herself to life in Vienna since most of her childhood was spent in Amsterdam.

Miep's first acquaintance with Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father was in 1933 when she was twenty four years old. She had been out of a job for several months when she was offered a temporary position in Travies and Company, which was run by Otto Frank. Otto had recently come over from Germany to start a division of his former business in Amsterdam a safer place for Jews to live. He wanted to make sure the business would build up before he brought over his wife and two children.

Miep started out as an assistant making jam for the company and eventually worked her way up to becoming the office manager. She became very close with Otto Frank and eventually his family when they arrived in Amsterdam. Miep details in the book how she spent many Sunday dinners with the Frank family in their apartment in South Amsterdam. She talks about Otto's two children Margot and Anne; Margot was six and Anne was four. Miep was able to communicate with Otto's wife and children because she herself was fluent in the German language which created a special connection between her and the Frank family. At the same time, Miep met her future husband Hank Giep who had the same outlook as her in life, he was also friendly with Jews and did not like the Germans.

Starting in 1939, the Dutch people became nervous that Hitler was very strong and they were afraid that he would try and attack Holland. Queen Wilhelmina, the queen of Holland constantly told the nation that she would hold on and never give into Hitler, on May 10, 1940 she tearfully told radio listeners that "the Germans had attacked our beloved Holland. We were being invaded; but we were fighting back." By the next day, the Queen and her family had fled to England to avoid persecution by the Nazi's. This was the start of the German occupation of Holland.

Miep describes the change in the atmosphere in the streets of Amsterdam. German soldiers in their uniforms would pace up and down the streets causing tension and fear. She describes how the Germans were nice at first to try and win over the Dutch people, but it didn't work. Even with the German occupation life at Travies and Company continued as usual although Miep could pick up the tension in the air that surrounded Otto Frank, and Mr. Vaan Daan, a Jew who joined Travies and Company a few months before. In the autumn of 1940, any Dutch Jew who held a public or government position was ordered to resign from their jobs. By October 12, 1940, Travies and Company had to register with the government along with any other businesses owned by Jews.

Slowly but surely life became harder and harder for Jews in Holland. At first they had to register with the census office as Jews, slowly signs were being hung that Jews were not allowed in different public places. In the beginning of 1941, the first of many transportation of Jews took place. Many Dutch citizens were outraged at how the German's were treating the Jews, they had lived with them happily side by side for many years. On February 25, 1941 the Dutch people went on strike for three days against the Germans to show the Dutch's solidarity with the Jews. After three days, the Nazi's brutality grew stronger due to the strike, so it ended. By this time, Miep and her fiancÐ"© Henk had stopped visiting the Franks because laws did not allow them to associate with Jews in their own homes.

In December of 1941, Otto Frank asked Henk to become the president of Travies and Company so that no Jew would be on the board of the company. This was only legally, Otto Frank continued to sit at the Helm of Travies and Company and run the every day affairs. In the spring of 1942, Otto Frank called Miep into his office to let her in on his plans, he had decided to go into hiding with his family and the family of Mr. Vaan Daan. Their hiding place was to be in the attic of the Travies and Company office building. He asked Miep if she would be willing to put herself in danger and be their connection to the outside world, like doing their food shopping and any errands that they needed. Miep wrote in the book that she did not even hesitate and answered yes right away, her husband Henk agreed to help her in this dangerous ordeal. Mr. Kraler, a partner in the business was another person who would help the Frank's in hiding. Together Miep and Mr. Kraler would shoulder the responsibility of caring for the families in hiding. Otto Frank told Miep that they were making plans but he didn't know when they would be moving into the hiding place.

One Sunday in July of 1942, the Frank's suddenly decided to go into hiding because Margot, the older of their two daughters was summoned to appear for a forced labor shipment to Germany. Miep and Henk helped the Frank's move whatever possessions they had not brought yet to their hiding place. The Vaan Daan's were still living their normal lives and decided to wait a little longer before moving into the hiding place.

Miep details the long two years of hiding the Frank's and Vaan Daan's went through. She and Henk did all they could for the two families to try and make them as comfortable as possible, bringing them whatever they could find because the stores had little food due to the Germans sending most of the food to Germany.

She talks about Anne Frank, and how the little twelve year old tried to make the best of the situation.