Anne Frank's Dutch protector fed hungry mouths and minds

The Boston Herald

Beverly Beckham

His obituary was short, just a few paragraphs in Thursday's paper: "AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Jan Gies, who risked his life to smuggle food to Anne Frank and members of the Dutch underground during World War II, has died at age 87."

"Risked his life." The words are too pat. They imply a one-time thing: A man dashes into a burning building and risks his life to rescue a person trapped on the third floor. A woman races into the street and risks her life to save a child from being run down by a car. Adrenaline and instinct fuel these actions. There is no time to think of the consequences.

Jan Gies had a lot of time to think about what could happen to him if he got caught. He'd be killed, so would his wife. It was as simple as that.

Knowing this, aware that every day people around him - his friends and fellow conspirators, the butcher, the greengrocer - got picked up and taken away for aiding Jews, he continued to play Russian roulette with his life, to help people he hardly even knew.

Jan Gies did more than smuggle food to the Franks and the van Daans and the old dentist in hiding at 263 Prinsengracht. Yes, he was responsible for getting the forged ration tickets, which his wife needed to purchase fresh food every day. But he also took on the responsibility of feeding their minds.

Every work day, he spent part of his lunch break in the secret hiding place, sharing news of the world with this group of people hungry for news about everything - about the war and the Allies and their neighbors and the color of the sky that day and the feel and the smell of the air.

He brought them books, but not just any books. He would ask them what they would like to read and seek out the specific titles they requested.

Sometimes, when he could, he'd bring cigarettes. Sometimes, when she could, Miep would bake a cake, made with not enough sugar - it was impossible to get sugar. But it was perfect just the way it was, delicious to a group longing for anything sweet.

Miep and Jan Gies celebrated their first wedding anniversary in the Annex. They didn't have to. They must have longed to pretend that everything was normal, at least for this one night.

But they didn't. They shared a dinner the group had prepared; and another time, when Anne begged them to spend the entire night and sleep over, they did.

"For the first time I knew what it was like to be a Jew in hiding," Miep wrote in her book, "Anne Frank Remembered."

Jan smuggled their radio into the Annex and left it there. It was the Gies' only radio. He could get the news anytime, he reasoned. They could not. This was a connection to the outside world.

In her diary, Anne always referred to Jan Gies as "Henk," to protect his identity in case her diary was found. "Henk brought a copy of the bishop's letter to churchgoers for us to read . . . Henk mended the hole in the door with some planks . . . At 11 o'clock we sat round the table with Henk."

In her book, Miep Gies called her husband "our backbone now, just as he was then."

A backbone is so strong that it supports the entire body. Jan Gies was that strong. He was a member of the Resistance. He did for others what he did for the Franks. He risked his life constantly.

"More than 20,000 Dutch citizens helped to hide Jews and others in need of hiding during those years," Miep wrote. "I willingly did what I could to help. My husband did as well. It was not enough."

It was not enough to save the Franks and the van Daans and Mr. Dussel and the thousands of other Dutch Jews Hitler's henchmen systematically eliminated.

But it was enough to save some lives. And it was enough to save Anne's diary. The Gieses bought the time for her to write it with their courage. It survived because of their courage. People all over the world know about Anne Frank and millions like her because of their courage.

"Jan was not a person to stand in the limelight," said a spokesperson for the Anne Frank Foundation. "He was throughout his lifetime a man of few words, but many deeds."

Jan Gies: a man of principal and courage. His unheralded life changed the world.