'A Small Light' on National Geographic: Who is Bel Powley's Miep Gies?
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Let's be real, who hasn't read or heard about Anne Frank today and her epic yet deeply saddening stories? This time National Geographic is bringing us a limited biographical drama series regarding Frank and her family. To be more specific it depicts the story of Miep Gies, who is asked by her employer Otto Frank to shelter his family during World War II. In this interesting new series, we will see Bel Powley as Miep Gies. However, before we know who Miep Gies was, let's focus on the actress who will be seen bringing her to life in the upcoming biographical drama series.
In recent times, Powley played a lead role as Holly Morten in the BBC 'One drama Informer'. Amidst Covid-19, back in 2020, Powley appeared in 'The King of Staten Island' as the love interest of Pete Davidson's character. In 2022, Powley played Birdy, one of the main characters in the TV series 'Everything I Know About Love' where Emma Appleton was seen as Maggie. Nevertheless, read more to find out about Powley's new character in the upcoming National Geographic series.
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Who is Bel Powley's Miep Gies?
Miep Gies was born on 15 February 1909 in Vienna (Austria) as Hermine Santrouschitz. The Santrouschitz family was Catholic and not well-off. Because there was not a lot of food available after World War I, Miep even became malnourished which is why in 1920 her family put 11-year-old Miep on the train to the Netherlands to become healthier. Regardless, Miep had met Jan Gies at her first job. The two got romantically involved and on 16 July 1941, the couple married. At that point, Jan was working as a social worker with Social Services of the municipality of Amsterdam. They found a house near the Merwedeplein, where the Frank family lived. One fine day Otto called Miep in and informed her of the plans to go into hiding. He asked Miep if she would be willing to help him and his family if they had to go into hiding in the Secret Annex. Miep did not hesitate for one second, that is how she became famous as she was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family (Otto Frank, Margot Frank, Edith Frank), and four other Dutch Jews (Fritz Pfeffer, Hermann van Pels, Auguste van Pels, Peter van Pels) from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II.
What is Miep Gies' legacy?
Gies had stored Anne Frank's papers in the hopes of returning them to the girl but gave them to Otto Frank, who compiled them into a diary first published in June 1947. In collaboration with Alison Leslie Gold, Gies wrote the book 'Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family' in 1987.
'A Small Light' is set to premiere May 1, 2023, on National Geographic and stream on Disney+ and Hulu the following day.
