Holocaust heroine honoured by CSL dies at 100

By Joel Goldenberg

Holocaust heroine Miep Gies, who helped shelter Anne Frank and her family for two years during World War II, died a week ago Monday at 100, not long before what would have been her 101st birthday.

Last summer, Gies was one of the few living people honoured by Côte St. Luc as an added name and marking on its Human Rights Walkway at Trudeau Park, honouring those who stood against oppression.

Previous honourees included anti-apartheid heroine Helen Suzman — who was also alive at the time of her honouring, Universal Declaration of Human Rights drafter René Cassin, former Hampstead resident and rights pioneer John Humphrey and Quebec Court of Appeal Chief Justice Jules Deschênes, among others. Gies could not attend last year’s ceremony, but a recording of her reflections of that time was played.

During the 2009 ceremony, Mayor Anthony Housefather said that Gies and others “put their lives on the line to stand up for what they believe in. All of us have read the diary of Anne Frank and we know what it meant to have someone like Miep Gies try to rescue them from the appalling cruelty and brutality of the Nazis during the Second World War.”

Contacted after Gies’ death, Housefather expressed sadness at her passing, and said Côte St. Luc will send condolences to her family.

“She was a woman who deserves great admiration for her bravery and her commitment to equality and human rights and she will be remembered by generations that read about her in the Diary of Anne Frank,” the mayor said.