Terribly sad news from the Netherlands. Miep Gies died.

**Whitehouse** · January-11-10, 07:19 PM

Some terribly sad news from the Netherlands. Just an hour ago it was announced that the last surviving member of the Group that helped the Frank family in WWII , Miep Gies, has died at the grand old age of 100.
Report from the BBC.

When the family were found by the authorities, they were deported, and Anne died of typhus in the German concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen.
It was Mrs Gies who collected up Anne's papers and locked them away, hoping that one day she would be able to give them back to the girl.
In the event, she returned them to Otto Frank, who survived the war, and helped him compile them into a diary that was published in 1947.
It went on to sell tens of millions of copies in dozens of languages.
Mrs Gies became a kind of ambassador for the diary, travelling to talk about Anne Frank and her experiences, campaigning against Holocaust denial and refuting allegations that the diary was a forgery.
For her efforts to protect the Franks and to preserve their memory, Mrs Gies won many accolades.

She's done so much for the world. Anne wrote it, Miep was it's spiritual mother.
Rest in peace.

LodgeDodger · January-11-10, 07:42 PM

May she rest in peace.

**oldredfordette** · January-11-10, 09:07 PM

When in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, my husband and I visited Anne Frank house. It's an eerie experience, there are two moments that are the most amazing. One when you realize [[because they keep the signs in the house to a minimum) you are in Anne's bedroom and when you enter the annex next door and you see the actual diary on a pedestal in a plexiglass box. Chills abound. The diary survived because of the courage of Miep Gies and I hope her reunion with Anne was sweet. RIP.

**gibran** · January-11-10, 11:12 PM

we all should hope to be so brave when confronted by such evil....

**Lowell** · January-12-10, 12:08 AM

Likewise sad is the passing of Tsutomu Yamaguchi last week.

Yamaguchi, then an engineer for the shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing 80,000 people instantly and another 60,000 in the months that followed. The badly burned Yamaguchi, who was less than two miles from the blast, spent the night in an air raid shelter before returning home to Nagasaki, 180 miles away, two days later.
He was in Nagasaki on 9 August when a nuclear bomb devastated the city, killing an estimated 70,000 people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...-survivor-dies

Ravine · January-12-10, 03:23 AM

"Terribly sad news?" She lived for an entire century!! What is "sad?"

**Gistok** · January-12-10, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

"Terribly sad news?" She lived for an entire century!! What is "sad?"

.... when Britain's Queen Mother died at 104... it was also sad news... certainly you have empathy for old people, no matter how old!!

**Pam** · January-12-10, 12:26 PM

I have to agree with the town grump Ravine on this one. You can't do much better than 100.

**Whitehouse** · January-12-10, 01:16 PM

The sad thing in this news item is that the last living link to that terrible period in het achterhuis is gone now.

**gibran** · January-12-10, 03:54 PM

It's the totally unselfish act of courage that she represents...old age in itself is not...we need more people like her willing to stand up against oppression at all costs that makes her life so remarkable and yes sad to see it end.

smudge pot · January-12-10, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

"Terribly sad news?" She lived for an entire century!! What is "sad?"

Ravine, you're one of my buds [[and Pam, huge pass here from the Arnold Layne clip, I've watched it like a billion times, and on dial-up!). No one's mourning the length of this woman's life. Someone once commented on the "banality of evil". This woman demonstrated the "banality of good".

So, Ravine, if you can sap-up some sentimentality for our Leland friend, certainly you can achieve some understanding of what the rest of us are feeling upon hearing this sad news.

**Pam** · January-12-10, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by smudge pot

Ravine, you're one of my buds [[and Pam, huge pass here from the Arnold Layne clip, I've watched it like a billion times, and on dial-up!). No one's mourning the length of this woman's life. Someone once commented on the "banality of evil". This woman demonstrated the "banality of good".

So, Ravine, if you can sap-up some sentimentality for our Leland friend, certainly you can achieve some understanding of what the rest of us are feeling upon hearing this sad news.

Her life and deeds will be remembered though and serve as an example to others, so I still don't feel sad. She had a long life as well as one she could be proud of. Not everybody has that.

**Ray1936** · January-12-10, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ravine

"Terribly sad news?" She lived for an entire century!! What is "sad?"

When one passes, one should engage in a celebration of the deceased's life, especially for a woman such as Miep Gies. I just got back from Tonopah, NV, where I attended a wonderful memorial service for my brother, Dave, who died December 16 at age 66. I miss him, but I celebrated his life last weekend with warmth and humor with about half the town up there.

I gotta go with Ravine on this one.

**gibran** · January-12-10, 06:25 PM

sorry for your loss...66 is way to young...

smudge pot · January-12-10, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

Likewise sad is the passing of Tsutomu Yamaguchi last week.

Yamaguchi, then an engineer for the shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing 80,000 people instantly and another 60,000 in the months that followed. The badly burned Yamaguchi, who was less than two miles from the blast, spent the night in an air raid shelter before returning home to Nagasaki, 180 miles away, two days later.
He was in Nagasaki on 9 August when a nuclear bomb devastated the city, killing an estimated 70,000 people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...-survivor-dies

"Likewise"? I see no connection between this little bourgeois fascist and Mrs. Gies. Everything was hunky-dory with his ilk up until the nukes: the enslavement of Korea, the plundering of "Manchukuo", the rape of Nanking.

Would Yamaguchi have been better off being incinerated by the far more deadly firebombing campaign? Sorry, but an extraordinary sequence of bad timing doesn't quite elevate this man to the same level of heroism as is deservedly occupied by Mrs. Gies.

smudge pot · January-12-10, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

When one passes, one should engage in a celebration of the deceased's life, especially for a woman such as Miep Gies. I just got back from Tonopah, NV, where I attended a wonderful memorial service for my brother, Dave, who died December 16 at age 66. I miss him, but I celebrated his life last weekend with warmth and humor with about half the town up there.

I gotta go with Ravine on this one.

No sweat Ray, I'm toast, I pulled the tiger's tail

**oldredfordette** · January-12-10, 09:37 PM

Condolences to you and your family, Ray.

They sure don't make em like Miep anymore. 100 is a fantastically long life - folks like her were made of sterner stuff.

Ravine · January-12-10, 10:24 PM

Empathy, sympathy, sentimentality, gimme a break. All of those, I have [[two of them in a surplus which is a liability to me.)
Some of you are mis-understanding me. I will put it this way: If I live to be 100, or more, the sympathy & empathy [[and any new pathies that may have been discovered, by then) I may be hoping for will be of the "Oh my God, that poor Ravine, still alive, with his body rotting like a pumpkin on a picnic table" variety.
If I can be like George Burns, smoking cigars and grabbing the *ahem* upper thighs of young maidens, then that's a different matter, but given my current condition, and the distance between here & 100, I dunno.
But, wherever she is, I'm sure Miep Gies understands my inability to go with the "terribly sad" theme. Sorry, Whitehouse.

**oldredfordette** · January-13-10, 08:17 AM

Ravine, which one do you lack?

Ravine · January-13-10, 08:31 AM

Oh darlin,' not you, too.

No, I'm just playing with you, but I did say that I have all of them. Still, it's apparent that what you mean to ask is, Which one do I not have a self-hazardizing surplus of?

Sympathy, although-- probably-- I have more than enough of that, too.
Pam might argue otherwise!!

**Pam** · January-13-10, 09:06 AM

Pam might argue otherwise!!

We know you have a heart of gold, under the crusty exterior. What a cliche.

**oldredfordette** · January-13-10, 09:13 AM

Just poking at you, Ravine. You know I love you. Now give us a kiss...;-p

**Ray1936** · January-13-10, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by gibran

sorry for your loss...66 is way to young...

It is. Dave was an electronics technician at the Tonopah Test Site [[part of the Nevada Test Site), but decided on an early retirement two years ago....so at least he got two years of retirement which he was enjoying greatly.

Since I'm seven years older than my brother, it certainly rattled me. Given my male family history -- all heart problems -- I had a complete physical two weeks ago. All okay except for some heart fluttering during the stress test, so doc wants to do an angiogram, and if there's any blockages, he'll stent them right then. Sounds like good prevention to me, so I'll go with it.