Miep Gies Quotes

#1. I don't want to be considered a hero ... Imagine [if] young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.

Miep Gies

#2. But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.

Miep Gies

#3. Real strength is being able to carry on when times are hard,

Miep Gies

#4. Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero?

Miep Gies

#5. We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need.

Miep Gies

#6. I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.

Miep Gies

#7. People should never think that you have to be a very special person to help those who need you.

Miep Gies

#8. Children who use the Internet are much better informed than when I was young. Use this to your advantage.

Miep Gies

#9. You are the heroes. You are the heroes everyday.

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#10. I am not a hero. I just did what any decent person would have done.

Miep Gies

#11. I certainly think that another Holocaust can happen again. It did already occur; think of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

Miep Gies

#12. Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

Miep Gies

#13. I myself am just an ordinary woman. I simply had no choice.

Miep Gies

#14. Too often, when people are in trouble they look for scapegoats.

Miep Gies