The true story of Miep Gies, the woman who risked her life to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.
In 1942 Amsterdam, office worker Miep Gies (Mary Steenburgen) is asked by her employer, Otto Frank (Paul Scofield), for a secret and dangerous favour: to help conceal his family from the occupying German forces. Along with her husband Jan (Huub Stapel), Miep agrees without hesitation. She becomes the vital link to the outside world for the eight people hidden in the secret annex, including Otto’s wife Edith (Eleanor Bron) and his daughters Margot (Georgia Slowe) and Anne (Lisa Jacobs). For two years, Miep sources food on the black market, brings news, and maintains a façade of normality, all under the constant threat of discovery. The story culminates in the Gestapo raid that leads to the residents’ arrest, and Miep’s fateful decision to preserve Anne’s diary.
This telefilm distinguishes itself from other dramatisations of the Anne Frank story by shifting the narrative perspective. Based on the memoir “Anne Frank Remembered” by Miep Gies, the script by William Hanley is constructed not from the enclosed world of the diary but from the viewpoint of the protector. The drama therefore resides in the logistical and emotional pressures of Gies’s quiet heroism: the daily struggle to find food, the constant fear of a careless word leading to betrayal, and the psychological burden of her secret. The production draws its power from this focus on the courage of ordinary citizens, anchored by a measured performance from Mary Steenburgen and a dignified, restrained portrayal of Otto Frank by Paul Scofield.
Broadcast: ITV – Yorkshire, 1 Episode, 4 September 1988
Written by: William Hanley
Director: John Erman
Executive Producers: David Cunliffe, Michael Lepiner
Music: Richard Rodney Bennett
Main Cast: Mary Steenburgen (Miep Gies), Paul Scofield (Otto Frank), Huub Stapel (Jan Gies), Eleanor Bron (Edith Frank), Frances Cuka (Petronella Van Daan), Victor Spinetti (Herman Van Daan), Miriam Karlin (Mrs Samson), Lisa Jacobs (Anne Frank), Georgia Slowe (Margot Frank), Ian Sears (Peter Van Daan), Jeffrey Robert (Albert Dussel), Tom Wilkinson (Silberbauer)
