Hermine Santrouschitz was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungry on February 15, 1909. Her earliest memories are of the start of what would become World War 1. As the war ravaged her country, it was a tough life in the city as food and work became scarce for her family. That situation became dangerous as malnourishment and tuberculosis hit young Hermine so much, that the only way to save her life was to send her to a foster family outside of Austria.
Norma Shearer (stop looking so confused, we talked about this.)
At the age of 11, and after a very confusing train journey, Hermine was sent to the Nieuwenburg family in the Netherlands. They didn’t speak German (her language) she didn’t speak Dutch (theirs) but the family was welcoming and helped her regain her health. They put her in school, encouraged her to join family discussions, and gave her the nickname, Miep. She flourished and, in her heart, became Dutch- something her birthmother realized when she reunited with Miep five years after she left Vienna.
In 1933, Miep took a job with a company called Opekta that was owned by a recent Jewish German immigrant, Otto Frank. Many years, a short move to the big city of Amsterdam, the start of another deadly war, and a marriage to Jan Gies, Meip was still working at Opekta when Mr. Frank had a extraordinarily serious question for her: would she help the Frank family, Otto, Edith, Margot, and little Anne, stay safe in hiding from the Nazis who had invaded most of Europe including Amsterdam? While it was the morally right thing to do, it was also illegal and very, very dangerous.
Miep didn’t hesitate, “Of course, Mr. Frank.”
The Opekta “family” circa 1945, Miep is on the far left, front row.
The film Miep starred in for Opekta:
We did have to break this subject into two episodes, and all of the media recommendations will be on the shownotes for Part Two.
End song: Softly to Myself by Kylie Dailey, used with permission from Epidemic Sound.
To leave you with a bit of lagniappe for Women’s History Month, we broke our usual format to sit down for a talk with Anne Sebba, author of the new book, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival. Anne tells us about some of the women in the orchestra, her process of learning about these women, organizing their stories into this book, and about other biographies she’s written in the past, about the past.
If you live in the UK or Australia, you’re in luck, this book is available now. The rest of us have to either wait or become resourceful to get our hands on a copy. But that doesn’t make the conversation Susan and Anne had about the remarkable survivors of the only all women’s orchestra in any Nazi prison camp any less interesting. Anne tells us the history of the orchestra, introduces us to Alma Rosé, an imprisoned celebrity violinist who became the orchestra’s main conductor, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, then a teenage cellist and, most recently, the last surviving member or the orchestra, and the extraordinary Hilde Grünbaum Zimche who recently passed away in 2024 at 100.
The fabulously named orchestra leader, Alma Rosé
Anne, the author of numerous biographies, also tells us about her process for writing the books that we, non-fiction readers, gobble up (hint: it’s a lot longer than it takes us to read them.) To read more about Anne’s work, visit this, her website.
Other things we discussed: The Shoah Foundation, formed after Schindeler’s List movie, whose mission is to “collect, preserve, and share survivor testimonies in order to increase knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust and to build a future for all that rejects antisemitism, hatred, dehumanization, and genocide.”
This book and movie it’s based on:
End music: Way, Way Back by Lvly with Megan Gifford, used with permission from Epidemic Sound
We wrap up our coverage of this brave, trailblazing woman who defied convention, governmental oppression, violence, and financial hurdles (to name a few) to begin the Greenbelt Movement which not only planted 40 million trees and counting, but helped empower women around the world work for bettering themselves and their own communities from the ground up!
Her funeral with glimpses of her unique coffin, her children, and some archival footage of Wangari herself.
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
Her memoirby Wangari Maathaiby Wangari MaathaiBy Namulundah Florence
So many kids’ books!!
by Eucabeth OdiamboPart of the Rebel Girls seriesBy Gwendolyn Hooks, Margaux Carpentierby Jeannete Winterby Maureen McQuerry and Robin Rosenthal
And off-topic but discussed (IYKYN) :
By Libba BrayBy Gwendolyn Hooks and Colin Bootman
Web!
The Green Belt Movement is still very active, here is their website with lots of information about their mission. their work, and their history, and the Wangari Maathai Foundation has a lot of information as well.
The Greenbelt Movement is still active around the world, here is a very recent article about how they are still standing up to the government of Kenya: The Nation (e-paper)
Here is some information on Sagana State Lodge in Kenya where Princess Elizabeth learned she was Queen Elizabeth while Wangari was in school nearby: Sagana Lodge
The Bowery Boys New York City History podcast has several episodes that discuss parts of Central Park, this is a good one to start with: The early years of Central Park.
***We don’t usually add things to our shownotes that we didn’t talk about on the show, but a lovely friend of the show, ELizabeth, shared the One Tree Planted organization with us which is part of the Trillion Tree program that we did talk about. Check them out and help plant trees all over the world!
Wangari Maathai understood the vital connections between living things and the Earth; of local communities and the wider world. It is true that many trees make a mighty forest, and Maathai’s Green Belt Movement made it clear to us all that the most important change for the greater good is one that each individual makes in their own backyard… a philosophy which would earn her the Nobel Peace Prize.
The map that Beckett found up high in an antique store.
