Biography

Granted the title "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem.

Until her death in January 2010, she was the last survivor who helped Anne Frank hide from the Nazis in WW2. She died of natural causes, in West-Friesland Netherlands, where she lived for years, at the age of 100. The premier of Israel wrote a letter to Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, saying among other things, that it's a great loss.

She rescued Anne Frank's diary, and kept it safe until after the war when she was able to hand it over to Anne's father, Otto Frank, who survived the war, and helped him compile them into a diary that was published in 1947.

Used to live in Abbekerk, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands.

Was Dutch (was sent there at the age of 11 to recover from malnutrition).

People should never think that you have to be a very special person to help those who need you.

But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.

We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need.

You are the heroes. You are the heroes everyday.

During the hiding time I lived for the day that the war would end, when I would be able to go into the hiding place, throw open the doors, and say to my friends, "Now go home!" This was not to be. Perhaps when the time comes for me to join Jan and our friends in the hereafter, I'll push aside the bookcase, walk behind it, climb the steep wooden stairway, careful not to hit my head on the low ceiling where Peter nailed the old towel to it. Upstairs Jan will be leaning against the edge of the dresser, his long legs stretched out, the cat Mouschi in his arms. All the others will be sitting around the table and will greet me when I enter. And Anne, with her usual curiosity, will get up and rush toward me saying, "Hello, Miep. What is the news?" I doubt I have very long to wait. People ask me what it is like to have outlived almost everyone whose history I have shared. It is a strange feeling. Why me? Why was I spared the concentration camp after being caught helping to hide Jews? This I will never know.