Is ‘A Small Light’ on Hulu Based on a True Story?

The dramatic limited series A Small Light recently landed on Hulu, National Geographic and Disney+. From the people behind Grey’s Anatomy comes this stunning tale about a Dutch woman trying to survive and help others during the Holocaust.

A Small Light tells the story of “a fairly ordinary person who was pushed to extraordinary acts,” as Decider’s Joel Keller writers in his Small Light review.

The miniseries, which is just eight episodes long, stars a strong cast that includes Bel Powley, Liev Schreiber, Ashley Brooke, and Billie Boullet.

Here’s everything you need to know about the buzzy new show:

What is A Small Light about?

A Small Light tells the story of Miep Gies, a Dutch woman who leads an ordinary life in Amsterdam until she takes a job at a pectin-producing company, where her employer eventually asks her to help hide his family after Hitler rises to power.

Though they initially believe the Nazis will not be able to gain control in a neutral area like Amsterdam, their fears quickly come true when her employer’s daughter is selected to go to a “work camp,” or concentration camp.

Is A Small Light based on a true story?

A Small Light is a dramatized biography of the life of Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank, her family and others during World War II in the annex above Otto Frank’s business.

Gies provided them with food and supplies while they hid from 1942 to 1944. She had become a trusted friend of the family while working at Otto’s company, during which he asked for her help.

The family was eventually discovered by the authorities and sent to separate concentration camps. Gies kept Anne’s diary safe and had hoped to return it to the young girl upon her return. But, after Anne died from Typhus at the age of 15 in a concentration camp, Gies eventually returned the rescued diary to Otto instead when he returned from Auschwitz in 1945.

Otto published the book in 1947, launching what would go on to become one of the most famous accounts of the war.

Gies died in January 2010 at the age of 100. She received multiple awards and honors for her work during the war, which she later captured in the book Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family.

“This is very unfair,” she previously told the Associated Press. “So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work.”