Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of The Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family

By Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold

For more than two years, Miep Gies and her husband Henk helped to hide the Frank family and four others from the Nazis.  Gies worked downstairs with others who were in on the secret, while her husband worked for the Dutch Resistance.  We have Miep to thank for Anne's book, since she gathered her journals after soldiers discovered the annex and sent the hidden away to Auschwitz.

While the story has its problems, it was very interesting.  There are many stories about the suffering of the Jewish people, but I hadn't read a book about general suffering of citizens conquered by the Nazis.  It started out slowly, and I sometimes wished for more details. For example, towards the end, their Jewish landlady returned from hiding.  In the next chapter, there's one line about a minor disagreement and the Gies family found a new apartment.  Really?  They took care of her belongings and home for two years, and that's all the explanation we get as to why they moved? I have heard that a DVD with interviews of Miep is more detailed, and I wanted to hear more about the people in the annex.  How could they not have more to say about people they spoke with and worried over everyday?