I read "Memories of Anne Frank ", Part III: Dark Days, by Miep Gies, on　4th of August.

Read Memories of Anne Frank, Part III: Dark Days, by Miep Giesh, 4 Aug.

4 August was the day in 1944 when eight people, including Anne Frank, were arrested and taken away by the Gestapo from a safe house in Amsterdam.

Thus, the Diary of Anne Frank, which today has a worldwide circulation of more than 25 million copies and is recognised as a Memory of the World Heritage Site, was last written on 1 August 1944.

Knowing that the day they were arrested and taken away was 4 August, I felt a pang of pain while reading the Diary of Anne Frank as the August diary approached, so I wondered how much horror these women had actually experienced.

It is from 'Part 3: Dark Days' onwards in the same book that the day in question is clearly described.

On the morning of that day, too, when Miep turned up at the 'safe house' people's to pick up her shopping list, 15-year-old Anne, as usual, asked her a lot of questions and invited her to 'have a chat with them for a while'.
Miep responded by saying that when she delivered the shopping in the afternoon, they could sit down and talk at their leisure, so she would have to wait until then.
However, that supposedly pleasant 'chat time' never came.

I will not go into detail, as I urge you to read the book in person, but I predicted that the eight people in hiding and the Miepes who were helping them were unilaterally overrun by the Gestapo that day, and had no choice but to do what they could.
At the time, there was no guarantee of life simply because they were hiding Jews.

But that was not the case at all.
Ellie, one of the two women who helped, followed the instructions of her other supporters to escape, but Meep refused and did not flinch at all from the threats and taunts of the secret police man.
She pointed out that the man happened to speak German with an Austrian accent, Miep's native tongue, and flinched at him.
The next day, at the suggestion of a work colleague, he went alone to the Nazi Gestapo headquarters and asked, "How much do I have to pay you to return the eight men?" and even went into a sort of conference room.

Reading Parts 1 - 2 also shows that Miep Gies and her husband Jan had more than just the eight Jews they helped, but kept it a secret because they didn't want them to worry.
And it was not only people they helped.
A Jewish woman who lived in the same flat brought a cat to him before she was taken away, asking him to keep it, and he gladly took it in and looked after it for a long time afterwards.

If we were to describe her in one word, it would not be "a man of justice", but rather "a man who continuously hated discrimination, respected life and lived a quiet life with integrity".
In this respect, it can be said that Miep Giese and Anne Frank share the same paradigm (a way of thinking, feeling and seeing that entails value).

I feel that this is the reason why Anne, who was particularly closed-minded towards her mother Edith and Mrs van Daan, who discriminated against her by treating her as a child, did not use a pseudonym in her diary, only for Meep.

Miep Gies, knowing that the Gestapo would confiscate all their property after taking the eight away, saw an opportunity and collected Anne's diary and scattered scribbles from the floor.
Thanks to this, the 'Diary of Anne Frank' will live on in the future after her death, as Anne had wished before her death.

However, even after Meep's 'Diary of Anne Frank' attracted international attention and was treated heroically at home and abroad, she still rejected that kind of 'special treatment', a kind of discrimination, and remains unknown (compared to Anne Frank).
And although "Memories of Anne Frank" is, to my surprise, now out of print in Japan, I would certainly list it, together with the Diary of Anne Frank, enlarged and revised edition, among the three best books I have encountered so far in my life.

Finally, I would like to include part of an interview with Meep Heath on the Anne Frank House website.
And we hope that this book will be read by many of the younger generations who will be living in the future.

Were you very scared while you were hiding Anne Frank? Wouldn't it have been easier to just live your life as a German without this burden? What can you tell us today about caring for others instead of only thinking about yourself?

Of course, life is more comfortable if you don't go out at first.
You might silence your concerns about injustice or cruelty happening to other people by telling yourself that those people should solve their own problems.
That is a very selfish attitude, but as I said earlier, it is safe at first.
However, it was foreseeable that one day their conscience would become bothersome.
This will be a burden of sorts.
Just as many people around the world are unhappy and restless today because they did not help Jews during the Holocaust.
Consider, for example, the boats carrying Jews who were turned away when they tried to enter the USA.
My conclusion, therefore, is that to take yourself seriously, it is often better to make some sacrifices today than to lead a miserable life later.
I regret that I could not give help to those who need you.
By the way, I was born Austrian, not German.

What message should young people today receive about Anne's story?

The message they should take from Anne's story is that prejudice and discrimination should stop from the very beginning.
Prejudice starts when we talk about Jews, Arabs, Asians, Mexicans, Blacks and Whites. This leads to the feeling that all members of each such group think and act the same.
This creates prejudice.
To lump whole groups of people together is racist.
It is racist because it denies the fact that everyone is an individual.
Even our own brothers and sisters and parents are not exactly the same as us.
So how can we bring whole groups of people together?
If a German had ever asked Anne to tell us something about herself, she would still be with us.
But no one asked that she was just a Jew.
Therefore, we should not base our opinions about others on the colour of their skin or the passport they hold.

What is your most wonderful memory about Anne Frank and the horrors of war?

My most wonderful memory about Anne is meeting her in the morning when I visited the hiding place to pick up my shopping list. Anne stood at the top of the stairs and said, "Hello, Meep, what's the news today?" I will never forget hearing her cheerful voice saying, "What's the news today?". The most profound horror of war I experienced was the day the Nazis came to arrest the Frank family and their friends. Every year, I stay home on 4 August, the day of the arrests.

When you read Anne Frank's diary and saw your name and realised she had mentioned you, what came to mind?

I was moved to read that my name was in Anne Frank's diary and what Anne had said about me. I was surprised that she had changed everyone's name except mine. Did she feel too close to me to give me another name? I will never know, but it is really touching.

Do you miss Anne Frank?
Of course I miss her very much.
She always listened to me very carefully.
I liked her intelligent questions.
Therefore, I am grateful for her diary. It is as if I could hear her voice again.

What is the proudest thing you have done to remember Anne?
Where have you moved to since the house you shared with Anne was turned into a museum?
The most enjoyable thing I have done was being able to preserve Anne's diary. Through Anne's diary, Anne will be remembered by millions of people.
In her diary, she said that she wanted to live after her death.
Through her diary, this actually happened.

Anne Frank House website.
Hunze Straat, Amsterdam, where Meep Heath and her husband Jan lived at the time.
If you look on google, you can see her name "Miep Gies" on a sign in the central green belt, although as Miep stated, there is no over-the-top information board.