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Miep Gies was born in Vienna, Austria, on 15th February 1909. When she was ten years old she arrived in Holland as a WWI refugee, and it was there that she later met Otto Frank and became employed as a secretary at his spice company, Opekta. She and her husband Jan helped to hide the Franks in the sealed-off backrooms of the company offices from July 1942 until August 1944, when they were betrayed by an anonymous informant. Miep found Anne's discarded diary and saved it for her return, but after Anne died at Bergen-Belsen, she gave the diary to Otto Frank, who was the sole survivor from the Secret Annex. In the decades after Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was published, Miep and Jan Gies chose to remain out of the spotlight until the publication of Anne Frank Remembered, when they became celebrities in the Netherlands and around the world. Miep's courage has been recognised with awards and medals from countries and international organisations. She still does not consider herself a hero.