Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank, dies

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Miep Gies, without whom the world would never have known about the poignant diary of the young Anne Frank or of the Frank family’s failed attempt to hide from the Nazis, has died. She was 100.

Gies’ death was confirmed today by officials at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.

The scattered papers Gies scooped up from the floor after Anne and her family were taken from their hiding place in Amsterdam to concentration camps in Germany were later compiled by Anne’s father into one of the most widely read nonfiction books of all time.

According to the Anne Frank Center USA in New York City, ‘Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl’ has been translated into more than 67 languages with more than 31 million copies sold since its publication in 1947. For millions of young people, Anne’s story is their initial—and in many cases, only—exposure to what happened during the Holocaust.

We’ll have a more complete obituary soon at latimes.com

--Times staff reports