"A Small Light", Nat Geo Limited Series About Anne Frank's Protector, Ordered By Disney+

A Small Light, chronicling the story of my a Dutch woman who sheltered Anne Frank’s family from the Nazis and preserved her diary, has been orders as a limited series by Disney+, according to Deadline.

What’s Happening:

A Small Light, from Grey’s Anatomy’s Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, along with Susanna Fogel, ABC Signature and Keshet Studios, has been ordered as a Nat Geo Limited series by Disney+.
The series is set to follow twentysomething Miep Gies who, when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II, didn’t hesitate. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls (Otto Frank, his wife Edith and daughters Anne and Margot as well as four others) in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.
Last month, 60 Minutes aired a report about an investigation that revealed a suspect in the mystery of who betrayed the Franks over 75 years ago, naming a prominent Jewish figure. A Small Light was already in development, but the 60 Minutes revelation had no impact on the Nat Geo series.
The title for the series comes from a quote said by Gies late in her life, before she died at the age of 100 in 2010: “I don’t like being called a hero because no one should ever think you have to be special to help others. Even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can turn on a small light in a dark room.”
Casting for series is reportedly currently underway, with filming set to begin in Europe in the months ahead.
A Small Light is also the second Nat Geo scripted series set for Disney+, with the other being The Right Stuff, a drama series about the Mercury 7 astronauts that debuted on the streamer in 2020.
Susanna Fogel is set to direct several episodes of A Small Light, after earning a DGA Award and Emmy nom for her work on HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant. She has also worked on The Wilds for Amazon, and co-wrote feature comedies The Spy Who Dumped Me and Booksmart.