Côte Saint-Luc to honour women who protected Anne Frank during the Second World War at Human Rights Walkway on July 1

Côte Saint-Luc, June 16, 2009 – The City of Côte Saint-Luc will unveil a plaque honouring Miep Gies on the city’s Human Rights Walkway on Wednesday, July 1 at 5:30pm. Miep Gies is one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands during the Second World War. After Anne’s arrest and deportation, Gies discovered and preserved her diary, which was published after the war.

“Miep Gies risked being shot or sent to a labour camp by the Nazis for her role in hiding the Frank family,” Mayor Anthony Housefather said. “Like others we have honoured on the Human Rights Walkway, Miep Gies risked her own safety to help others and, in her own way, to fight against a great evil.”

Miep Gies was born in Vienna in 1909. At age 11, she was sent to live with a foster family in The Netherlands because of food shortages is Austria. In 1933, businessman Otto Frank hired her as an office worker. Frank, who was Jewish, had fled Germany with his wife, Edith and daughters Margot and Anne to escape discriminatory laws against Jewish citizens.

In May 1940, The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany. During the years of occupation, Miep Gies refused to join local Nazi associations, even though such non-conformity put her at risk. Like in Germany, the Nazis enacted discriminatory laws against Jews and in July 1942 began deporting Jews to concentration camps.

It was within this context of discrimination and violence that Otto Frank asked Miep Gies if she would take care of his family while they went into hiding in the sealed-off back rooms of his company's office building. She agreed in spite of the risk to her and her fellow helpers. The Frank family and five others remained in hiding until August 4, 1944, when an anonymous informant told the Nazi secret police about hiding spot. All the hiders were transported to Nazi concentration camps.

On May 5, 1945, Canadian troops liberated The Netherlands. Otto Frank survived the concentration camps and returned to Amsterdam. When he learned that his wife and daughters had been killed, Miep Gies gave him Anne’s diary, which she had discovered and kept in her desk, unread. In 1947, Otto Frank published Anne’s diary it Dutch. It was released in 1952 in English as Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl.

After the war, Gies worked for Otto Frank as he compiled and edited the diary, then devoted herself to talking about the diary and answering letters from around the world. After Frank's death in 1980, Gies continued to campaign against Holocaust-deniers

“There would have been no Diary of Anne Frank had it not been for the courage of Miep Gies and those like her,” said Councillor Ruth Kovac, who is the co-chairperson of the Human Rights Walkway ceremony with councillors Mike Cohen and Steven Erdelyi.

The Human Rights Walkway was inaugurated in 2000 and is located at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park (6975 Mackle Rd.), and is dedicated to men and women who have promoted human rights.

The public can learn more about the past honourees at www.CoteSaintLuc.org/en/Walkway.

For more information: Darryl Levine, Director of Public Affairs and Communications, 514-485-8905, dlevine@cotesaintluc.org