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Portrait of Miep Gies

Miep Gies

(1909–2010) Writer

16 quotes in 87 categories

Miep Gies was a writer, best known for Anne Frank remembered.

Quick Facts About Miep Gies

Born: February 15, 1909
Died: January 11, 2010
Profession: Writer
Notable works: Anne Frank remembered

About Miep Gies

Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Miep Gies

“It is often said that Anne symbolizes the six million victims of the Holocaust. I consider this statement wrong. Anne's life and…

Life and death

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I don't want to be considered a hero.... Imagine [if] young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to…

Duty

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I myself am just an ordinary woman. I simply had no choice.

Choices

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Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I…

Afraid

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I certainly think that another Holocaust can happen again. It did already occur; think of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

Bosnia

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Children who use the Internet are much better informed than when I was young. Use this to your advantage.

Advantage

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Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

Duty

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You are the heroes. You are the heroes everyday.

Everyday

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Real strength is being able to carry on when times are hard,

Able

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I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at…

Attention

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We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need.

Duty

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People should never think that you have to be a very special person to help those who need you.

Helping

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I am not a hero. I just did what any decent person would have done.

Decent

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But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light…

Dark

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“Any attempt at action is better than inaction. An attempt can go wrong, but inaction inevitably results in failure”

Failure

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Too often, when people are in trouble they look for scapegoats.

Looks

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