Ceremony Commemorates Anne Frank, Honors Woman Who Saved Her Diary

Miep Gies, the Dutch woman responsible for rescuing Anne Frank’s diary from the secret annex where the Frank Family hid in German occupied Holland, was honored in an emotional ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Frank’s death.

The filled-to-capacity crowd — make up mostly of New York schoolchildren – – rose as Gies, now in her 80s, slowly made her way to the podium of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Even reporters and news photographers at the March 9 ceremony had tears in their eyes as Gies recalled how she found the diary after the Frank family and four other Jews who are in hiding with them were deported. Anne Frank died at Bergen-Belsen at 15, only one month before the liberation of the death camp.

The annex was made up of several rooms, with a hidden entrance behind a staircase, in what had been the office building of Frank’s father. “The annex had been ransacked by the Nazis,” Gies said. But despite orders to stay out of the hiding place, Gies entered after the family was deported to try and retrieve anything that might be of value.

Gies recognized the cover of Frank’s diary, which was on the floor of her parents’ bedroom in the annex with its pages scattered.

“I collected all the pages and thought that I will keep everything safe for Anne until she comes back,” Gies said. “I wanted to see her smile, to hear her say, `Oh Miep! You saved my diary.'”

Gies kept the diary pages in an unlocked desk drawer in her office, thinking that the locked drawer would arouse more suspicion if the office were searched.

When Anne’s father, Otto, the only surviving family member returned, Gies gave him the dairy.

“In a very moving moment, I gave it to Otto, who gave it to the world. And I think he made the right decision,” she said.

Gies’ comments came after actors, writers, Broadways entertainers and schoolchildren read more than 30 excerpts from the diary.

With a large photograph of Frank mounted above the wooden pulpit, her words were brought to life by dramatic readings by such personalities as Jerry Stiller, Michael Moriarity, Marilyn Michaels, Gay Talese and Martha Plimpton.

Schoolchildren read one entry sentence by sentence in which Frank critically described her classmate, eliciting laughter from the audience.

But the laughter ceased as later entries told of life in captivity, and Frank’s longing for the simple pleasures of being able to feel the wind and see the sky.

Both the first and last entries were read by a young actress named Jennifer Roberts, who is currently playing Anne Frank in a Washington production of the play, based on Frank’s diary.

Roberts read one of Frank’s last entries, in which she says, “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are good at heart.”

The readings were broken up by song, with performances by singer Odetta and the cantor, Amy Goldstein. Odetta’s soulful renditions of “Let My People Go” and “Motherless Children” echoed throughout the church, as tears streamed down her face.

Gies was given a proclamation by the lieutenant governor of New York, Betsy McCaughey, and a letter was read on behalf of the United Nations, honoring her for her bravery.

The commemoration coincided with the publication of the new version of Frank’s dairy by Doubleday. It will include parts originally omitted by Otto Frank, who did not wish to include some of his daughter’s more critical passages about her mother and about her own emerging sexuality.

The diary has been translated into 55 languages. Due to Frank’s extraordinary maturity and insight, it has become one of the definitive literary works about the Holocaust.

The ceremony, at which blank diaries were given to the children in attendance, was sponsored by Stanely Tannen’s Free Theater Project/TIPA, the Anne Frank Center USA, the Actors Studio, PEN American Center, Doubleday and the Teachers and Writers Collaborative.