![]() “Miep is an ordinary person who history has mythologized like Anne Frank,” Rater tells the Daily Beast’s Jacqueline Cutler. Instead of ending with Anne’s final diary entry, written three days before her arrest, the series dramatizes the aftermath of World War II, showing how Otto grieved for his murdered family and friends before resolving to honor Anne by publishing her writings. Anne (played by Billie Boullet) is a supporting character, with more attention paid to the Gieses’ “terror as they smuggle people and food, talk to soldiers, and hide from bombs,” all while agonizing “over whether they’re ever, truly, doing enough,” writes Mira Fox for the Forward. Starring Bel Powley as Gies, Joe Cole as Jan and Liev Schreiber as Otto, “A Small Light” draws heavily on Gies’ memoir and the showrunners’ original research. Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank (left) and Bel Powley as Miep Gies (right)ĭusan Martincek / National Geographic for Disney “When we started digging, we started putting together these pieces that I don’t know that anybody had ever put together before,” Phelan tells the New York Times’ Claire Moses. They discovered that Gies and her husband, Jan, had hidden more people than previously known, including two nurses. Working with a local researcher, the couple set out to examine Gies’ life beyond her 1987 autobiography, Anne Frank Remembered, and a 1995 documentary of the same name. The series’ creators, husband-and-wife duo Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, started working on the project six years ago after a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can turn on a small light in a dark room. ![]() I don’t like being called a hero because no one should ever think you have to be special to help others. Its title is taken from one of Gies’ most famous quotes: Titled “ A Small Light,” the show follows Gies’ transformation from a carefree young woman to an individual who risked everything to help others. Thirteen years after Gies’ death at age 100, a limited series from National Geographic that’s streaming on Hulu and Disney+, focuses on the life of Anne’s protector. Later in life, Gies traveled widely, sharing Anne’s story with students and other members of the public. In addition to helping the Franks, the van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer, she and her husband hid a Dutch university student who refused to sign a loyalty oath to the Nazis. But preserving Anne’s diary was only one part of Gies’ legacy. Without her intervention, the young writer’s words-which “gave a child’s face to the incomprehensible truths of the Holocaust,” according to National Geographic’s Erin Blakemore-might never have reached the wider world. Aside from Otto himself, Gies arguably deserves the most credit for bringing Anne’s diary to a global audience.
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