Jan and Miep Gies, played by Joe Cole and Bel Powley, are visited by Mr. Van Pels, played by Andy Nyman. Photo: National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek

A trailer was released this Sunday for the upcoming limited series A Small Light about Miep Gies, the Dutch secretary of Otto Frank — Anne Frank’s father — who helped hide the Jewish Frank family from the Nazis during World War II.

“People tend to think that they know history, especially with very famous stories like Anne Frank’s story, but with Miep you’re coming at it from a sideways angle that forces to see it from another lens,” Susanna Fogel, the Emmy-nominated director of the show’s first three episodes, said at the start of the trailer.

Gies was a newlywed when she agreed to hide the Frank family in Amsterdam after Otto asked if she would. For two years, Gies, her husband Jan and several others risked their lives on a daily basis to protect the eight people living in the hidden annex of Otto’s office building. Gies was also the one who found Anne’s diary, after the Frank family was arrested by the Nazis, and returned it later to Otto, who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. Otto shared Anne’s diary with the world and it has become a global bestseller.

The eight-episode limited series stars British Jewish actress Bel Powley as Gies, Jewish actor Liev Schrieber takes on the role of Otto and Billie Boullet plays Anne. The show was partially filmed outside the Frank family’s real apartment in Amsterdam.

A Small Light also highlights Gies’ personal struggles as a young woman and newlywed.

“These incredibly banal issues that come up just in the life of being a young woman are juxtaposed with these really high stakes,” said Fogel.

“What you’ve got to remember is that even though these big historical events were going on, Miep’s marriage problems were not going to wait until the war was over. Experiencing growing from a girl into a woman was not going to wait until the war was over,” said Powley. She added that Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, the show’s executive producers and creators, “have really captured the humanity of the situation; the realness of what these people were actually going through.”

The show ultimately aims to “tell the story of the ordinary people who did these extraordinary things,” said Rater.

Phelan added: “Miep’s message was always, I am not special. You can do this as well. Anybody has it within them to make a difference in someone’s life.”

A Small Light will premiere this spring on National Geographic and Disney+ although a set release date has yet to be announced.

Watch the trailer below.