Opekta and Gies & Co after the 4 August 1944 raid

After the August 4 raid, the firms Gies & Co and Opekta were left without management. The staff, Bep Voskuijl and Miep Gies in the office and warehouse manager Willem van Maaren and his casual workers nevertheless kept the businesses running. And of course Jan Gies, who was still the supervisory director of Gies & Co.

It was all rather improvised. Initially, German policeman Silberbauer gave the keys to the property to Miep, and she passed them back to Van Maaren. In 1963, Miep told the National Criminal Investigation Department that Van Maaren came to her for the keys because "they" (i.e. the SD) said he should have them. According to Van Maaren, she did it of her own accord. He also gave a practical reason: Kugler always opened the doors to the warehouse staff at eight-thirty, while Miep only came to the office at nine.^[1]

Kugler stated in September 1945 that representative Hendrik Pieter Daatzelaar had wanted to try to buy the freedom of the management, i.e. Kugler and Kleiman, on Euterpestraat at the time.^[2] In a conversation with the journalist Ernst Schnabel in the late 1950s, Miep Gies confirmed Daatzelaar's initiative.^[3] She referred at that time to the 'Verhafteten'. In 1963, she told the National Criminal Investigation Department again that she wanted to use money to buy the freedom of 'those arrested', without mentioning Daatzelaar at that time.^[4] To what extent there was a real hope of also buying the freedom of the people from the Secret Annex is impossible to say. The directors had been arrested for what they had done, the people in hiding for who they were.

In the days following the raid, Van Maaren went to the Detention Centre to ask Kugler for some preparation methods. When Kleiman and Kugler left the Detention Centre, it was initially unclear where they went. On 29 August, Miep Gies wrote to an aid worker in Camp Vught asking whether they might have been taken there. She also mentioned that one of them had stomach problems, referring to Kleiman.^[5] An answer is not known, but it would later emerge that the pair had been imprisoned in Camp Amersfoort.

On 18 September, Johannes Kleiman was released from Camp Amersfoort. Because of his stomach problems, the Red Cross had worked to secure his release.^[6] He reappeared at Prinsengracht to take up his duties. Thus, the two companies slowly entered the last winter of the war.

Although none of the people in hiding knew Van Maaren, they regularly talked to the helpers about him. His possible involvement in thefts from the premises came up during these converstations. However, no police reports from the period in hiding are known. That changed in the later winter months. On 16 January 1945, representative Broks reported the theft of 70 kilos of sugar to the criminal investigation department at Singel police station on behalf of Gies & Co. Broks said he had 'no suspicions' regarding the culprit.^[7] However, when Otto Frank and his associates filed a case against Van Maaren in 1948, it turned out he had been a suspect. His house had been searched by detectives, apparently in the presence of Broks.^[8] That search yielded nothing.

There are few records of how the businesses got through the last winter. On the personal front, it is worth mentioning that Jan Gies' mother died in December and Johannes Kleiman's father died in February. On the business front, sources are scarce. Opekta's 1944 annual report stated: 'The good relationship and cooperation with the firm of Gies & Co. remained as steady as ever'. It also mentioned that the air war had brought numerous German industries to a standstill, including pectin producer Pomosin.^[9] Only after the liberation could serious work start on rebuilding the businesses - and the country.