While most people will have heard the story of Anne Frank, they may not know the other side of her incredible and sad diary, that of Miep and Jan Gies, who were responsible for hiding the Frank family, a tale depicted in National Geographic’sA Small Light. Premiering on June 21, 2025,A Small Lightrecounts the true story of a Dutch couple in the 1930s and 1940s, Miep Gies (Bel Powley) and Jan Gies (Joe Cole), who helped the Jewish Frank family hide from the occupying Nazis from 1942 to 1944.
There have been severalmovies and TV shows about Anne Frankbut almost none about the people who hid her.A Small Lightgives an account of the lead-up to the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, the Franks' time in hiding, and the aftermath when the Nazis uncovered their hiding place. The eight-episode miniseries has a 100% onRotten Tomatoesand earned a SAG nomination for Powley’s performance. WhileA Small Lightdoes take some liberties, it’s for the most part a factual account, and the feeling of the series hews to the real emotions and motives of that decade.
Miep And Jan Gies Were A Dutch Couple Who Were Close Friends Of The Frank Family
Miep Moved From Austria To The Netherlands During World War I
Miep Gies and Jan Gies were in fact a real-life Dutch couple and much ofA Small Lightis based on Miep’s 1987 autobiographyAnne Frank Rememberedand the 1995 documentary based on that book (viaSmithsonianMagazine). Miep was born in Vienna in 1909 and was originally named “Hermine Santrouschitz”. Because of the destruction brought on by WWI, Hermine’s family sent her to the Netherlands as part of a charity program to care for children affected by the war. She was eventually adopted by her foster family and given the Dutch name, “Miep”.
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It was in the Netherlands that Miep began working as a secretary for Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber) at his packaging company, Opekta. Otto had moved his family to the Netherlands from Germany in 1933 when the Nazis gained power and antisemitic hate began to grow exponentially (viaUSHMM). Jan also worked at Opekta, and it was there that the two met, later getting married in July 1941, shortly before the Franks went into hiding (viaDigitalSpy). While working together, Miep and Otto grew close, frequently discussing the worsening political crisis in Europe.
The Gies Family Hid Anne Frank And Her Family During WWII
The Gieses Ended Up Hiding Nine People In Their Home And In Otto’s Office
Despite fleeing his homeland, Otto Frank was unable to escapethe grasping hands of the Nazi apparatus. In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and defeated the Dutch army in just a few days. The antisemitism the Franks had fled was now at their front door, and in an even more evil state than it had been previously. Otto handed ownership of his company over to Jan and another colleague, Victor Kugler (Nicholas Burns), and served as an advisor in accordance with new anti-Jewish laws the occupying force established.
Then in the Spring of 1942,Otto suddenly approached Miep with a request to help his family while they were hiding. He gave no more of an explanation and Miep asked nothing else. She later recalled the moment,
“I asked no further questions. The less I knew, the less I could say in an interrogation. I knew when the time was right he would tell me … everything else I would need to know. I felt no curiosity. I had given my word.”
Shortly after that conversation, Margot Frank (Ashley Brooke), the eldest Frank daughter, received a notice to report to a forced labor camp with other Jewish people. Though it wasn’t totally understood at the time,Margot had just been ordered to submit herself to a concentration camp. While the exact nature of these camps wasn’t fully known, most people understood they were not somewhere anyone would want to be. Otto expedited his plans to hide his family and moved them into a room in his office building at Prinsengracht 263, hidden behind a bookcase.
The eight refugees in Otto’s offices were kept alive by the combined efforts of Jan, Miep, Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, Johannes Kleiman, and Johan Voskuijl.
Miep personally brought Margot to the room and Margot was quickly joined by her family. Otto’s business partner, Hermann van Pels (Andy Nyman) his wife and son, and Dr. Friedrich “Fritz” Pfeffer (Noah Taylor) later joined the family in hiding after coming to Miep, trusting her to find them a place to hide. The eight refugees in Otto’s offices were kept alive by the combined efforts of Jan, Miep, Kugler, Bep Voskuijl (Sally Messham), Johannes Kleiman (Ian McElhinney), and Johan Voskuijl (who does not appear in the series).
According toThe Diary of Anne Frank, Anne said about Miep,
“Miep is just like a pack mule, she fetches and carries so much. Almost every day she manages to get hold of some vegetables for us, brings everything in shopping bags on her bicycle.”
Jan was a member of the Dutch Resistance, and as a social worker, could move freely throughout the city, procuring ration cards and illegal papers when needed. While Miep was in charge of getting food,Jan visited the family nearly every day, bringing them books and news and keeping them company in a dark and lonely time. Unbeknownst to the Franks, the Gieses were also hiding Kuno van der Horst (Preston Nyman), a young man who refused to declare his support of the Nazis and who was in danger of being deported himself.
Van der Horst’s family hid the Gieses' Jewish landlady so the Gieses returned the favor with their son.
Then on July 05, 2025, Nazis arrived at the Opekta offices. How they were tipped off about the Franks is still a hotly debated question. They quickly found the secret annex and arrested everyone hiding, as well as Kugler and Kleiman. The Gieses and Voskuijls were left behind, however. Amazingly,Miep went straight to the Gestapo’s local headquarters and offered a bribe to the SS Officer in charge, Karl Josef Silberbauer (Daniel Donskoy), to free everyone. Though she was refused, somehow Miep was allowed to leave unmolested. She would never see any of them but Otto again.
What A Small Light Leaves Out From The Real Story
A Small Light Only Changes A Few Details From The Real Story
Whilemany World War 2 TV showschange certain events for the sake of drama,A Small Lightdoes not need to change too much from the incredible true story. There are, of course, a few changes here and there, however. In the series, Jan and Miep’s relationship is given a bit more attention, and their courtship involves Jan messing up a date at a bar and Miep adopting a kitten that happens to be from Jan’s landlord.
In real life, Miep was in the midst of a divorce when she met Jan at work. Otto actually helped vouch for the couple to their landlord who had an issue with a married woman living with an unmarried man.A Small Lightalso has a heavy focus on Jan’s operations as a member of the Dutch Resistance. In reality, no one knows exactly what Jan did for the Resistance, only that his involvement was extensive. Alison Leslie Gold, who co-authored Miep’s autobiography said about Jan (viaIndependent),
“[He was] like a double trouble, because you don’t even know what else he did—and you’ll never know [because] he was too modest to even tell anyone much of anything.”
Beyond those minor creative liberties,A Small Lightdoes an admirable job of keeping the show close to the reality of the story, never taking away or unnecessarily adding to the great deeds of everyone involved.
What Happened To Miep And Jan Gies After WWII?
Miep And Jan Both Lived Long Lives
Like many Holocaust moviesand TV shows, the results of that horrible part of human history are almost as important to depict as the lead-up and event itself.A Small Lightagain closely follows the real story of what happened after the war. Otto came to live with the Gieses for some time, the only surviving person from the attic. After Otto learned the rest of his family had died, Miep handed him Anne’s diary.She had never read it out of respect for the young girland out of hope of her returning.
Gies published her memoir in 1987, after which she began traveling to tell the story of Anne Frank and explain what she saw of the Holocaust.
Otto eventually moved to Switzerland and remarried, but he remained close with the Gieses until his death in 1980. Gies published her memoir in 1987, after which she began traveling to tell the story of Anne Frank and explain what she saw of the Holocaust. The Gieses lived in Amsterdam for the rest of their lives. Jan Gies died in 1993 at the age of 87 from kidney failure. Miep Gies died in 2010, a month shy of her 101st birthday. About Jan, Miep spoke on her 100th birthday about the “unnamed heroes” who helped Dutch Jews,
“I would like to name one, my husband Jan. He was a resistance man who said nothing but did a lot. People like him existed in thousands but were never heard.”
About herself, Miep was humble, writing in the prologue of her book,
“More than 20,000 Dutch people helped to hide Jews and others in need of hiding during those years. I willingly did what I could to help. My husband did as well. It was not enough. There is nothing special about me. I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.”
A Small Lightdepicts in uncomfortable detail the pain and terror of the Holocaust and the prelude to it. At the same time, it extols the virtues of not only people like Miep and Jan Gies who put their lives on the line for others, but also those people like the Franks, who had to put their trust in their friends and neighbors in an impossible situation.
A Small Light
Cast
A Small Light is a Disney+ and National Geographic mini-series set in World War II Germany. The series tells the story of Miep Gies, who helped Anne Frank and her family escape being captured by the Nazis and kept them hidden for over two years. The series stars Bel Powley as Miep Gies, Billie Boullet as Anne Frank, and Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank.
