"Anne Frank Remembered" by Giep Mies

Giep Mies, together with her husband and other individuals, supported Otto Frank's family and other individuals who went into hiding at the business office in Amsterdam, now known as the Anne Frank House. Ms. Mies gives a very profound, heartbreaking and personal account of her experiences during those bitter, black days. It is very heartbreaking, disturbing and I will never forget it. I read it through all last night and this book is still with me today.

Ms. Mies gives an account of her attempt to buy back the Frank family at a Nazi unit office in Amsterdam. The Nazis eventually cut off all shipments of food into Amsterdam. Ms. Gies related horrowing incidents of biking to the countryside in pitch darkness to search for food from farmers. (If she wan't back by curfew, she could have her bike impounded and be arrested.) At one point, the Nazis announced that each person would be allowed 500 calories a day. The day-by-day psychological cruelty of the Nazis served to break the spirit. Once Jewish families were forced out of their homes and taken away, a special moving van would remove furniture from the vacant homes. Eventually, those close associates of the Nazis would be allowed to live in these homes. As time wore on, food, clothing -- all of the materials need to live day by day became scarce. The Nazis started a program that handed out cash rewards for people who gave up information about the locaitions where Jews were in hiding.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/01/books/books-of-the-times-878187.html

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Frank-Remembered-Helped-Family/dp/1416598855/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442986108&sr=1-1&keywords=Anne+Frank+Remembered

Miep Gies.

I read this book and what a story! Not only does it give a very interesting other angle to the Anna Frank story but the detailed remembrances of life in The Netherlands under the Nazi's is eye opening.

chopin said:
Miep Gies.

+

I visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam this spring. I had always associated the terror of WWII in Europe with Germany and Poland, but life in The Netherlands was horrific as well.