A Small Light

A New Perspective On World War II?

Here’s How A Stellar Cast And Superb Writing Made It Possible.

By Zhanna Slor

A Small Light

Mondays beginning May 1 on NAT GEO NEW SERIES!

National Geographic’s limited series about the Dutch woman who risked it all to shelter Anne Frank’s family is like a punch to the gut — in a good way. Somehow managing to show Nazi-occupied Europe from a new perspective without oversentimentalizing or repeating similar hard-worn tropes from previous Holocaust-era productions, this eight-episode historical drama is one you’ll definitely want to watch.

“I think it’s important to make it different,” said Bel Powley, who plays the star of the series, Austrianborn secretary to Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber) and hider of the Frank family Miep Gies. “Another sepiatoned, kind of dusty re-creation of this part of history … what would be the point?”

This is no dusty re-creation of World War II. Nor is it a mere biopic. Everything about it is compelling — a true feat considering what happened to Anne Frank and her family is general knowledge to most. But the focus here is broader. It’s about everyday citizens living through one of the worst moments in time, but it’s really about humanity — what they are capable of, both good and bad. Gies is a fascinating, awe-inspiring example. The show is based on her life and the memoir she wrote, Anne Frank Remembered.

“Tony [Phelan] and Joan [Rater], our amazing showrunners, they’ve been researching and preparing for this show for many, many years,” Powley told us (and this is evident from the first episode). “It’s pretty damn accurate. Every time we got a new episode, I would always read it and be like, ‘There’s no way that could be true. No one would do that.’ And every time they’re like, ‘No, no, it’s pretty accurate,’ which was completely astounding.”

It’s not only astounding to follow the daily high-stakes travails of Miep and her husband Jan (Joe Cole) — who worked with the Dutch resistance — Miep’s character is also very relatable and enjoyable to watch; she is at times silly, at times funny and charismatic. Prior to the German invasion, she likes clothes and shoes and parties like anyone in her 20s. War doesn’t stop a girl from becoming a woman — but it surely makes it harder. Miep still must navigate friendships and love all while keeping Otto Frank’s company afloat and his family and friends safe upstairs. She does it all with bravery and focus, but she is human, so she also has moments of rage, moments where she nearly gives up. “Can I not just be angry for one second before I look on the bright side?” Miep asks during one scene, after a stressful day where nothing goes right. When her husband finds out she decided to hide the Frank family without consulting him, they have the most wonderfully poignant argument. Take the war out of the equation and it could be a fight between any couple on Earth.

That’s what the show does best: It makes you remember that what you see as history now was once just regular everyday life. It brings the past out of black and white, out of simplistic overtones; it’s gritty, and it resonates. Sure, a lot of characters come off oafish, arrogant or just as horribly misguided as their leaders. But most folks were trying to survive. This meant very different things in 1942. Sometimes this meant working with or joining the Nazi party. My grandparents were all Holocaust survivors, and this show was able to address Nazis in a nuanced way without being offensive to their memories or simplifying all Germans and all Dutch citizens into twodimensional monsters. Most people were Nazis; we forget this. This means most individuals are capable of being one. It also means that they are capable of some humanity, and several examples of this are scattered throughout the show, when soldiers look the other way. Every scene reminds you that these were all people like us who had to make very hard choices during very hard times; it’s just that their actions and choices had major historical ramifications, ones that still echo nearly 80 years later (the Jewish population has still not returned to its pre-World War II numbers). Therefore, these stories are still important to show onscreen, and it’s important to do them well. World War II is a case study for how terrible things can get, and how to, perhaps, avoid getting there again.

Hermann van

Pels (Andy Nyman),

one of the men hiding in the annex with the Franks, phrases it perfectly in what is probably my favorite line of this series: “We don’t want to believe people are evil. That makes us good. But that also makes us stupid. So — we need to stop being stupid.”