Anne Frank and Miep Gies story to be told in NZ

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The Anne Frank and Miep Gies story to be told in New Zealand

The recent death of Miep Gies, the last surviving and best-known helper of Anne Frank and her family, is a poignant reminder of the Anne Frank story. New Zealanders will soon be able to learn more about Anne Frank and Miep Gies when the Anne Frank travelling exhibition, Anne Frank - A History for Today, opens at Te Papa in February as the first stop of a three-year national tour.

Miep Gies died on Monday in the Netherlands aged 100. Mrs Gies, along with three other people, kept Anne Frank and her family supplied with food for two years as they hid in a secret annex to avoid being captured and deported by the Nazis during the Second World War.

The Frank family went into hiding in 1942 in a series of cramped rooms at the back of Anne’s father’s
offices. They relied on four helpers to bring them their food and other necessities. Mrs Gies was one of these people, risking her life everyday to help the Jewish Frank family keep safe during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.

It was while she was in hiding that Anne wrote her famous diary, which has become one of the most well known and lasting accounts of the Holocaust. The diary would not have been known today were it not for Miep Gies, who found it in the annex after the family had been arrested by the Nazis. Mrs Gies picked up the diary for safekeeping, always intending to give it back to Anne one day. However, Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just a few weeks before the war ended, so Mrs Gies instead gave the diary to Otto, Anne’s father. Today, the Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into 70 different languages and is one of the most read books in the world.

Boyd Klap QSO is heading up the team bringing the Anne Frank travelling exhibition over from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. “The passing of Miep Gies this week at the age of 100 years is a reminder of the heroism of a person who helped Anne Frank go in to hiding and thereby risking her own life” said Boyd.

The exhibition becomes even more important now that we have lost such a special link to Anne Frank. Miep Gies remained deeply involved with the remembrance of Anne Frank and spread the message of Anne’s story for the rest of her life. Every day she received letters from all over the world with questions about her relationship with Anne Frank and her role as a helper. Boyd said “Her story will live on in the upcoming Anne Frank Exhibition which will travel right through New Zealand for the next three years, starting with the first showing at Te Papa from 11 February”.

More information on Miep Gies can be found at http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?PID=463&LID=2
More information about the travelling exhibition can be found at
www.annefrankexhibition.co.nz

ENDS

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