This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

Miep Gies is a perfect example of your real-life everyday 

superhero. Born on February 16, 1909 in Vienna, Austria as 

Hermine Santruschitz, Miep was only five years old when 

the very first World War erupted and left the country 

starving with its vast amount of food shortages. Her parents, 

being unable to support two children, sent Miep to the 

Netherlands in 1920 to live with the Nieuwenburg family. 

She quickly became attached to her new family and the 

Dutch culture. She was given the name Miep by her new 

family as more of a common name. So much, in fact, that 

she did not want to go back and live with her real parents 

and sister in Vienna when given the choice when she was 16 

in 1925. During her years growing up she became fascinated 

with writing, but she quickly gave it up and tore up 

everything she wrote. She loved the city life and politics. At 

18, she looked for a new path in life, and began working as 

an office assistant.   

In 1933, Miep lost her job because of the Great Depression, 

a time in history where it became very difficult to get a job. 

Luckily, a neighbor of hers set up an interview with a 

company called the   Nederlandsche Opekta company, 

where Opekta is a substance used to make jam. There she 

met her boss Otto Frank, the company director. For the first 

few weeks, she made jam until she was an expert at it. Otto 

Frank even had her starin his jam commercial. She was 

then moved to a desk where she took complaints from 

household women whose attempts at making jam with the 

Opekta jam kit failed. Miep's job was to calm these ladies 

down and correct them on their failures. Miep considered 

herself very lucky for finding such a nice job in such a 

pleasant setting.

Otto Frank and Miep Gies became very good friends, and 

Otto Frank admitted to Miep that he was very lonely and 

waiting for his family to come to Amsterdam in the 

Netherlands from Aachen, Germany. He had a wife named 

Edith, as well as two daughters, Margot and Anne. In 1933, 

the Frank family was able to purchase a house in 

Amsterdam south near where Miep lived. Frank was able to 

move from his tiny little hotel room in to be with his family 

again. Miep and Frank could also discuss politics at a great 

length as they both opposed Adolf Hitler, who had been 

inaugurated as the German Chancellor. Hitler had a very 

bad outlook on the Jewish people living around Germany 

as he didn't think they belonged in Europe, so he vowed to 

get rid of them. Frank's family was of Jewish descent, but 

Miep's was not.   

Despite her success at work, Miep had a very busy social 

life. She loved to dance, listen to music, but most of all she 

loved Jan. She met Jan working a a textile company while 

she was working as a typist. They both lived in the same 

district and saw each other very often at work. This is how 

Jan became affiliated with Otto Frank and his family. Jan 

and Miep would often go to the Frank's home for dinner 

and eventually became acquainted with the entire family, 

including their two daughters. The couple wanted to get 

married very badly, but lacked the money to do so. They 

wanted to take a very big risk in 1939 and move in 

together, but so many people were occupying Amsterdam 

to escape Adolf Hitler in Germany.  

You've previewed 10 of 16 pages.

To read more: