World War II took place eight decades ago, but it’s not so far in the past that the lessons of that war aren’t applicable today. The vast majority of the people who lived through that conflict and the Holocaust in Europe are no longer with us, but their stories live on in TV shows like Hulu‘s new miniseries, We Were the Lucky Ones.
Joey King and Logan Lerman star in We Were the Lucky Ones as siblings Halina and Addy Kurc, both of whom are members of a financially successful Jewish family who are initially shielded from the Holocaust. But even the Kurc family is not immune from the horrors that follow, as Halina, Addy, and their siblings Genek (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Jakub (Amit Rahav), and Mila (Hadas Yaron) are scattered as they attempt to survive.
New episodes of We Were the Lucky Ones will be streamed weekly on Hulu through May 2. But if you like We Were the Lucky Ones, you should also watch these three World War II shows.
A Small Light (2023)
The story of Anne Frank (Billie Boullet) and her Jewish family became famous in the decades after the war. But A Small Light adds more context to the story by retelling it from the perspective of Miep Gies (Bel Powley), the secretary of Anne’s father, Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber). In the early years of World War II, Miep befriends Otto and his family, and she agrees to help them hide from the Nazis in secret apartments above their office.
Miep initially hides her role in helping the Frank family from her husband, Jan Gies ( Joe Cole), who later supports her. Jan has his own anti-Nazi agenda as a member of the Dutch resistance, but he’s forced to keep his wife in the dark about that for her own protection.
Watch A Small Light on Disney+.
All the Light We Cannot See (2023)
There’s nowhere far enough to run from the war in Steven Knight’s adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s popular World War II novel, All the Light We Cannot See. Newcomer Aria Mia Loberti stars as Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French teenager who accompanies her father, Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo), as they take refuge with her great uncle, Etienne LeBlanc (Hugh Laurie).
To help the French resistance, Marie-Laure begins sending out radio transmissions with coded messages, which attract the attention of a young German soldier, Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann). Werner is so taken by Marie-Laure that he goes to great lengths to protect her from his superiors. But even those measures may not be enough to save either of them.
Watch All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix.
Passport to Freedom (2021)
Passport To Freedom is inspired by the story of Aracy de Carvalho (Sophie Charlotte), a woman who worked for the Brazilian consulate in Germany during the 1930s. Aracy is so disturbed by the persecution of the Jewish people that she undertakes a risky plan to issue them Brazilian visas in order to escape.
Aracy’s superior, João Guimarães Rosa (Rodrigo Lombardi), wasn’t initially part of Aracy’s plan, but he becomes convinced it’s the right thing to do. The biggest obstacle in their path is Thomas Zumkle (Peter Ketnath), a Nazi SS captain who is obsessed with Aracy and determined to discover what she is hiding from him.
Watch Passport To Freedom on Prime Video.
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