By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Somewhat later than others, I recently completed watching the eight-part National Geographic series A Small Light, which currently is streaming on Disney and Hulu among other services.
Many of us grew up with the story of Anne Frank. I read her diary, saw a movie and plays about her, read books by people who knew her, even interviewed one of her contemporaries. Although I was quite familiar with the important role Miep Gies had played in Anne Frank’s life, it was not until I watched this dramatization that I came to understand the intensity of Miep’s experience and the vast contours of her bravery as well as that of her husband Jan.
So, I’m thankful to actors Bel Powley who portrayed Miep and Joe Cole who played the part of Jan and am also grateful to the writers and producers of this memorable series.
They, along with the rest of the cast and crew, enabled me to enlarge upon my perspective of the Holocaust, so I now comprehend not only the trauma of the Holocaust victims but also how frightened their rescuers were every day, not only for their own lives but also for those of the people with whom they had forged such deep emotional attachments.
Commercials are necessary to finance television – either in the form of advertisements such as you will see interrupting this fine series, or in the form of donor acknowledgments, such as we have become used to seeing on the Public Broadcasting System.
I don’t wish to appear an ingrate, but I recorded all eight episodes of A Small Light before watching the series, so that I could speed through the commercials and concentrate on the well-told story about the perils Miep and three of her coworkers faced as they attended Anne (Billie Boullet), her sister Margot (Ashley Brooke), her mother Edith (Amira Casar) and her father Otto (Liev Schreiber) and four others who hid with them in the Secret Annex adjacent to what had been Otto Frank’s place of business in Amsterdam, Holland.
Miep, who had been Otto’s secretary, had to tell people convincingly that he had moved with his family to Switzerland, but exactly where in that neutral country she really didn’t know. In a time when every family was watched by Nazis and their sympathizers to see if any were buying more food than they needed—perhaps to feed hidden Jews—she and her office colleagues had to shop for eight additional people at various markets throughout the city without arousing suspicion.
Husband Jan, a social worker, worked with the Dutch resistance. Among his jobs was smuggling Jewish babies to foster families in other parts of the Netherlands. He also lived on tenterhooks, never knowing if his missions would be interrupted by the ever-present Nazi patrols. Although Miep kept Jan informed about the Franks, for a while Jan was under orders from the Dutch resistance to inform no one, not even Miep, about what he was doing, adding to the tension in their small quarters.
Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl ends prior to the time of her family’s capture and subsequent transport to concentration camps, where all but Otto died either by gassing or from sickness. On the other hand, A Small Light continues beyond the day in August 1944 when the Franks, the three members of the Van Pels family (Andy Nyman, Caroline Catz, and Rudi Goodman), and Dr. Pfeffer (Noah Taylor) were torn from their group hiding place. We see the deer-in-the-headlights tension that froze Miep and coworkers Johannes Kleiman (Ian McElhinney), Bep Voskuji (Sally Messham) and Victor Kugler (Nicholas Burns) whenever there was a knock at the front door or noises from the annex.
When the Franks and companions were captured, Kleiman and Kugler were arrested and sent to a prison camp as political prisoners. Bep was able to escape while the Nazis searched the offices and annex, and Miep was let go by the Nazi officer in charge of the raid after she, recognizing his accented German, identified herself as a fellow Austrian from Vienna.
After the capture, Miep was consumed by guilt. Could she have inadvertently tipped off someone that she was hiding Jews? Should she have been more careful? No matter how much Jan reassured her that it wasn’t her fault, she kept accusing herself.
We also see Miep’s and Jan’s daring to hope after the concentration camps were liberated. Could it be possible that the Franks might return as a family? They questioned arriving concentration camp survivors whether they had any knowledge of Otto, Edith, Margot and Anne. They scanned Red Cross lists for the names of Amsterdam Jews who had been murdered by the Nazis, breathing relieved sighs when the names of the Franks did not appear.
Then one day Otto, and Otto only, returned. Edith was dead, he told them. He was unaware of what had happened to his daughters. Together they continued their quest for news, sending out letters and circulars. Eventually, a survivor from Bergen-Belsen came to their office and said yes, she knew Anne and Margot, and they had not survived.
It was during that visit that Miep remembered hiding away Anne’s diary which she found on the floor after the Nazis had ransacked the annex. She gave the diary to Otto, who read it carefully and emotionally, and decided to have it published.
Eight two-hour episodes (including the commercials) are very well worth your time and viewing. The meaning of the series’ title, “A Small Light,” is explained at the end.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com