I knew I knew the name but couldn't think where from. Quite humbling to read that account. So many people have had extraordinary lives, demonstated incredible courage and endured unknown hardship with such good grace. It puts our own petty troubles into perspective every time you read such an account.
The chances she and her husband took to protect the Frank family and the others under the Nazi regime! Incredible! Difficult to find the right words to describe such courage and heroism. Rest in peace.
Had watched the documentary about her on the day she died and had also booked up to go to Auschwitz. I'd also just finished reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. Amazing that one young girls diary and one determined and brave husband and wife succeeded in influencing not only my tiny life, but a whole world. My very greatest respects and RIP.
In 1993 I also went to Auschwitz (open to the public, just outside the town of Oswiecim in Poland - about an hour from Krakow) and later wandered over the derelict ruins of nearby Birkenlau.
It's a totally sobering experience to be there - and tears at your heart when you realise what some people are capable of doing to fellow man.
However, what Miep Gies did for that family and others allows the pendulum to swing back the other way, and demonstrate the aspect of courage, unselfish giving and love of which humanity is equally capable.
No words can adequately express my admiration for Miep Gies.
Never been to Auschwitz but was staying in a hotel in Warsaw for work a few years back. I wondered what the big statue memorial outside was. Apologies for poor picture quality below.
Was very hard to get anyone to tell me but finally found a guide book saying it was a memorial to those poles, Jewish or otherwise, shipped to the camps from the train station that had stood on the site of the hotel.
The Poles we were with were more than slightly embarrassed by this as it appears it had been a big issue at the time of the construction.
One of the English people had been to Auschwitz before and said that her Buddhist boyfriend had refuse to visit the gas chambers part of the camp as they were "giving off a bad vibe". I had to bite my lip
I went there around 20 years ago....took me a couple of days before I could smile again.
Very depressing and sobering..............but never-the-less pleased (if that's the right word), that I went.
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Never forget, never again.
May she rest in peace.
That place sent a shiver down my spine when I visited.
In 1993 I also went to Auschwitz (open to the public, just outside the town of Oswiecim in Poland - about an hour from Krakow) and later wandered over the derelict ruins of nearby Birkenlau.
It's a totally sobering experience to be there - and tears at your heart when you realise what some people are capable of doing to fellow man.
However, what Miep Gies did for that family and others allows the pendulum to swing back the other way, and demonstrate the aspect of courage, unselfish giving and love of which humanity is equally capable.
No words can adequately express my admiration for Miep Gies.
Was very hard to get anyone to tell me but finally found a guide book saying it was a memorial to those poles, Jewish or otherwise, shipped to the camps from the train station that had stood on the site of the hotel.
The Poles we were with were more than slightly embarrassed by this as it appears it had been a big issue at the time of the construction.
One of the English people had been to Auschwitz before and said that her Buddhist boyfriend had refuse to visit the gas chambers part of the camp as they were "giving off a bad vibe". I had to bite my lip
Very depressing and sobering..............but never-the-less pleased (if that's the right word), that I went.