By Danny Minton

“I don’t like being called a hero because no one should ever think you have to be special to help others. Even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can turn on a small light in a dark room.” Miep (Meep) Gies

Hermine Santrouschitz was born to a struggling Catholic couple in February of 1909 in Vienna, Austria. Because of the lack of food, Hermine suffered from malnutrition. The government of Austria had a relief program for helping children, so for her health, her parents packed their 11-year-old daughter and sent her to a foster family in Leiden, where she was accepted to live in the home of the Nieuwenburg family.  In 1924, the family moved to Amsterdam. Hermine didn’t sound like a Dutch name, so the family called her Miep. She did so well in the Netherlands that her parents decided, with the foster family’s approval, to leave her there for her health. 

When Miep was 24, she found a job at Opekta, a jam-making company located at Prinsengracht 263. She learned to make jam and then worked in information services. While working at the company, she met a social worker named Jan Gies. The two would marry in July 1941. The company’s owner was a Jewish man named Otto Frank.

One day in early 1942, Otto Frank called Miep into his office with a dangerous request. He told her he was planning on him and his family going into hiding in an upstairs secret area of the factory. He asked Miep if she would help them while they were in hiding from the Nazis. Without hesitation, Miep said, “Yes.” In July, Otto Frank, his wife, Edith, and daughters Margot and Anne went into hiding. They were joined by Hermann and Auguste van Pels and their son, Peter. Later, an eighth member, a friend, Fritz Pfeffer, would join the group.

Front: Victor, Bep, Miep (Photo Collection: Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam)

For twenty-five months, Miep, along with three others in the company, Bep Voskuijl, Victor Kugler, and Johannes Kleiman, would take care of the needs of the families in hiding. Miep became close to the family, ensured there was food, and kept the family informed of what was happening. With the help of her husband, Jan, who had joined the resistance, she could obtain ration books to buy extra food for those in hiding. In addition to the families in hiding, Miep and Jan had taken other Jews into their homes and found ways to sneak Jewish children out of Amsterdam to safety. For the rest of the war, in the face of the danger of being arrested and sent to forced labor camps or even killed, Miep and Jan Gies tried to save as many as they could. 

In August of 1944, an informant turned the group in, and the families in hiding were discovered and arrested by the Nazis. Victor and Johannes were also arrested, while Miep was questioned but was able to avoid being detained by the Nazi invaders. She quietly watched as the eight she had sheltered were forced to leave for transportation to one of the Nazi camps. She was helpless for the first time in two years to help those to whom she had grown so close. The group sent Bep during the questioning to take a message to the families and was not present during the arrest. Otto Frank would be the only one of the group to survive. Miep regretted that she wasn’t able to save the seven.

Jesus taught, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends.”  John 15:12-13 (NASB) Everywhere you turn in the life of Jesus, He will find a way to encourage us to love our fellow man. He teaches us to love men, women, children, enemies, friends, and strangers on the road. Loving someone is one of the easiest things we can do for each other. True Christian love is also one of the most challenging actions to accomplish. When we have that love, we are willing to put the needs of others ahead of our personal agendas. Jesus was the ultimate example of true love to the point of physically dying for us all.

After the Franks were arrested, Miep and Bep discovered Anne Frank’s diary in the rubble of the room. Miep kept the diary, expecting Anne to return after the war to retrieve her memories of hiding. She eventually returned it to Anne’s father, Otto, who later published the book to encourage others. Anne wrote this about Miep, “Miep is just like a pack mule. She fetches and carries so much. Almost every day she manages to get hold of some vegetables for us, brings everything in shopping bags on her bicycle.” Miep viewed herself as a secretary doing what she could to help someone in need. 

Miep lived to be a hundred years old. She would lecture about the times in the Nazi-held Amsterdam, and others also helped, trying to save the Jews being rounded up by the soldiers. It didn’t take strong soldiers to save people; it took ordinary men and women who were willing to put the needs of others ahead of their own. As she said, anyone can flip a light switch in a dark room and bring the light of hope. 

Miep would never forget those she had helped. She wrote, “In that dark time of the war, we did not stand on the sidelines, but extended our hands to help others. Risking our own lives. We could not have done more.”

Do we have the kind of love that will lay down our lives for those in need, whether physically or by putting the needs of others ahead of personal desires? Maybe we should ask ourselves, “Can I do more?” “Am I willing to turn on a light for someone whose light is in the dark?”

(Note: Miep’s story can be seen in the National Geographic Mini-Series, “A Small Light.”)

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ