‘We only did our duty, helping people in need. For us, there was no other way.’ Miep Gies, Harbored Anne Frank : WWII Act of Courage Bears Fruit as Priest Takes Vows

The Dutch couple’s names are not illustrious, but their simple act of courage more than 40 years ago is remembered throughout the world.

Now Jan and Miep Gies have traveled to the San Fernando Valley to witness the ordination as a priest of a man who says they gave him his spiritual inspiration.

The Gieses famous act was to harbor the family of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who wrote a diary about hiding from the Gestapo in a house in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.

The Gieses are not religious people. Friday morning, at a ceremony in their honor at Los Angeles City Hall, Miep Gies told a tearful audience that they had risked their lives to protect the Frank family because “for us there was no other way.”

‘Only Did Our Duty’

“We only did our duty, helping people in need,” she said.

In that spirit, Jan, 80, and Miep, 76, will be guests today at Our Lady of Grace Church in Encino when the young man whose spirit they have touched dedicates his life to helping others in need.

In that ceremony, Deacon John Neiman, 32, the scion of a prominent Valley business and political family, will prostrate himself before Archbishop Roger Mahony to accept the vows of the priesthood.

He will also prostrate himself metaphorically before the memory of the Jews who perished under Nazism. That act will express the unusual devotion that Neiman said has helped guide his life even before his conversion to Catholicism.

That devotion, Neiman said, is his lifetime interest in the story of Anne Frank, the girl who began writing her dairy when her family went into hiding on July 6, 1942, and wrote until they were betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo on Aug. 4, 1944.

“I first read the diary when I was in fifth grade,” Neiman said. “I was very much inspired and interested. I would go into libraries and get whatever was written about Anne Frank.”

Anne Frank died in Auschwitz. But Neiman learned that her father, Otto Frank, the only one of the eight-member family to survive, was still alive in Europe.

In 1974 Neiman wrote a letter to Otto Frank. Then several more.

Met in 1976

“In 1976 I had the opportunity to go to Europe and meet him,” Neiman said. “We formed a very close personal friendship.”

At that time, Neiman was in the process of becoming Catholic.

Neiman comes from a religiously mixed family. His father, Bob Neiman, co-owner of Neiman-Reed’s Lumber City, is a Jew, Neiman said. His mother, Suzette Neiman, serving her 13th year as a member of the Los Angeles Planning Commission, is a Baptist.

Neiman said he was raised as a Baptist.

He attended the Los Angeles Baptist High School in Sepulveda, an independent Bible school.

Then, out of curiosity, he attended a Mass. Soon he was going regularly.

“I just sort of fell in love with the church,” he said. “I felt, for me, it represented a fullness of the expression of Christianity, what it meant to worship and to live as Jesus wanted it to be.”

Neiman worked several summers as assistant personnel director in his father’s business.

“I loved it,” he said. “But I never really felt it was going to be a career.”

The story of Anne Frank was exerting a greater pull.

Neiman said he discussed his feelings with Otto Frank.

“He said, ‘It’s very good that you are thinking about my family and are mindful of it,’ ” Neiman said. “ ‘But if you really want to honor Anne and the other people who were killed, you have to live your life in service to other people.’ ”

Introduced to Gieses

Before Frank died in 1980, he introduced Neiman to the Gieses.

“I was impressed with their sacrifice, courage and humility,” Neiman said. “That’s what a true hero is.”

Neiman said he visited the Gieses five times from 1980 to 1985 and grew close to them.

“God speaks to us through people,” Neiman said. “The three of them have had a tremendous impact on the direction of my life.”

Eventually, Neiman turned toward the priesthood.

Invitation to Gieses

As his ordination drew near, Neiman sent an invitation to the Gieses.

“I wrote them, sort of begging, I guess,” he said. “I got a card about Christmas time. Of course, I was overjoyed. I think only if the Pope came would it be any better.”

On their first visit to the United States, the Gieses are staying with Alison Gold, who was introduced to them through Neiman and is writing a book on their lives to be published this fall by Simon & Schuster.

Speaking through Gold, they explained their attachment to Neiman in terms as simple and direct as their explanation of why they risked their lives to shelter the Franks.

“He’s a good man,” Miep said.