In honor of the ongoing Hanukkah celebrations, National Geographic has just released a first-look image from their upcoming limited series A Small Light. The series, which is set to be released to National Geographic and Disney+ in the Spring of next year, will tell the story of a Hanukkah shared by the Frank, van Pels, and Gies families as they observed the holiday during their time in hiding during World War II.

The new image, released today, shows the families gathered together at a table, with two candles of the Menorah lit. The new image, striking for its historical context, reflects on the holiday’s themes of resistance, resilience, and courage. These themes certainly meant more for the families gathered at the table as they celebrated in secret, hiding from Nazi forces. The image shows Miep and Jan Gies, the Frank family, along with the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer as they gather to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights in their secret annex.

The eight-episode limited series will tell the extraordinary story of Miep Gies, a 20-something secretary who helps to hide her boss Otto Frank and his family from the Nazis during World War II. For two years, Miep and her husband Jan, along with several other brave souls, helped to watch over the eight people hiding in the secret annex. Miep would go on to find and preserve Anne Frank's diary so that her father could later share the extraordinary text with the whole world.

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Image via Showtime

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The title of the series, A Small Light, comes from a quote from Miep Gies, who said of her time spent assisting the Franks, "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.” And the image of the small light certainly resonates with the new first-look image, which shows the families in hiding gathered by their small lights, trying to maintain their lives and their faiths, even as so much has been and would be stripped from them.

The series will star Liev Schreiber as Otto Frank, Ashley Brooke as Margot Frank, Rudi Goodman as Peter van Pels, Billie Boullet as Anne Frank, Amira Casar as Edith Frank, Caroline Catz as Mrs. van Pels, Noah Taylor as Dr. Pfeffer, Joe Cole as Jan Gies, Bel Powley as Miep Gies, and Andy Nyman as Mr. van Pels.

No exact release date has yet been set for the series, however, it is expected to premiere on National Geographic and Disney+ in the spring of 2023.