The new National Geographic biographical drama mini-series A Small Light brings about some new perspectives on the story of teenage diarist Anne Frank.
Those who have read The Diary of a Young Girl may remember certain key moments revolving around Anne’s sexual orientation, but that was never the only aspect of queer culture touched upon during the Holocaust years. Though Anne’s diary never explicitly mentions the iconic Amsterdam gay bar Café ‘t Mandje, the long-running fixture of queer Dutch culture is a fascinating parallel to Anne’s story.
The Holocaust is most remembered as a genocide of the Jewish people, but lesbian, gay, and transgender people were also persecuted and sent to horrifying concentration camps. Gay, Dutch artist Willem Arondéus is the main character of the new mini-series, which highlights his story of destroying public records to prevent Nazis from singling out Dutch Jews.
Executive producers Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, and Susanna Fogel explain in a Digital Spy interview that this duality is important to consider in framing the Holocaust through a queer-recognizing and progressive lens.
Fogel mentions that the three of them “liked just the idea that the accounts of Anne Frank’s particular story are told through her very unique perspective as a teenager. It’s what makes the story special. But also the lens through which she’s looking at these events is a teenage lens. Then we hear these very serious, historical accounts of the war that are sort of very adult and very staid and historical.”
The dichotomy of a portion of a life spent inside an attic vs. the harsh realities of the real world which go beyond a teenage instinct of what might be happening causes A Small Light to be a unique look into the politics of the Holocaust-era queer resistance.
Phelan continues “I read this quote because William was arrested afterward and put to death by the Nazis, and he said to his lawyer, ‘Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.’ He said this in 1944, and those people were an integral part of the story.”
Though Arondéus was actually reported to have passed in 1943, his last words ring true and are extremely timeless. In our early-2020s era full of existential dread and oppressive laws, it must be affirmed that we are a brave community with a brave history.
Rater also mentions that “Miep and Jan were just two people who were doing Resistance work, but in Amsterdam, a lot of people were, and we wanted to talk about a lot of different people doing that kind of work. So the idea of Café ‘t Mandje, where it was this homosexual bar, and in the basement they had guns… (and) were hiding people upstairs.”
Miep Gies and her then-boyfriend and future husband Jan were two goyishe Dutch helpers/family friends of the Franks and were touched upon in Anne’s diary. Though Anne never mentioned Arondéus in her diary, his impact as a gay man in the outside world is not to be forgotten.
Anne Frank died in a concentration camp at age 15 in early 1945. Willem Arondéus was executed in July 1943.
The eight episodes of A Small Light are available on streaming on the Disney+ and Hulu platforms.
