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In the first academic book to describe the life of poor Jews in Amsterdam between the two world wars, We Lived with Dignity captures in poignant detail the unique qualities of that city's Jewish ghetto before Hitler's reign of terror. Interviews with more than ninety survivors who shared memories of living conditions in the ghetto and their feelings about the tremendous changes they lived through create an oral history that has not previously been recorded in formal descriptions and archives. The research in this book raises questions and challenges assumptions about what the past was like and how it can be portrayed. Selma Leydesdorff suggests that oral history may not always be an accurate measure. Because memories about the period before the war are veiled by the massive slaughter of the Jews by the Germans, survivors often idealize their circumstances, burying under layers of romantic nostalgia the reality of hunger, poor housing, poverty and filth, unemployment, and a lack of social stability - precisely of the sort depicted in present-day literature about the old Jewish quarter. She found that the processing of practically every interview, every "fact", involved a struggle between reality, distortion, and myth. We Lived with Dignity contains more than people's stories. Leydesdorff confirms events, exposes the truth, and explains distortions by reference to other material. To bring order into the world she hears about, she frames her interviews with critical information including a summary of the historical, economic, and demographic relationships within which the Amsterdam Jewish proletariat lived; an explanation of the changes in living conditions and the conscious attempts thatwere made to help the Jews - a cultural and religious minority - adapt to what was regarded as "modern" or "progressive"; and a description of the culture of poverty, the strategies for survival that characterized it, and the apparent impossibility of escaping it. Of the 140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands in 1941, eighty percent died during World War II. Although there are no exact figures, it is generally assumed that the slaughter was worst among the proletariat. The devastation can be seen from the fact that there is no Jewish proletarian culture left at all. In this sense, Leydesdorff's study of the history of the Jewish proletariat of Amsterdam is also a study of the consequences of World War II, and of the nature of the destruction brought about by the Holocaust.

'Outstanding... An elegant masterpiece... Wry but also warm and generous' Roxane Gay

'Frank, funny, enthralling... Think of it as rehab for road-weary romantics, inviting us to redefine what constitutes a love story' Observer

'Warning: you will WhatsApp multiple quotes to your friends from your sun-lounger' Independent

Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, she realised she had almost signed up to live somebody else's life.

In this intimate, frank and funny memoir in essays, CJ Hauser lets go of 'how life was supposed to be' and goes looking for more honest ways of living. She kisses internet strangers, officiates a wedding, visits a fertility clinic. She reads Rebecca in the house her new boyfriend shared with his ex-wife and rewinds Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. She writes about friends and lovers, ghosts and robots, grief and heartbreak, blood family and chosen family, and asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all.

The Crane Wife is a book for anyone whose life doesn't look the way they thought it would; for anyone trying, if sometimes failing, to find joy in the unexpected.

'CJ Hauser understands that there are so many different ways to love and live, and her words make all of them exciting possibilities.' Natasha Lunn, bestselling author of CONVERSATIONS ON LOVE

'Universal and exciting... The Crane Wife will satisfy and inspire anyone who has ever asked, 'How did I get here, and what happens now?' New York Times

'Funny, exciting, vulnerable - truly visionary' Alexander Chee

'Intimate, witty and beautifully crafted' Elle

'Intimate, wry, compassionate... a book you want to press into friends' hands' Irish Mail on Sunday

Bevat teksten uitgesproken bij de uitreiking van de  Verzetsprijs aan Dubravka Ugresic - en bij de presentatie van Bill Mincos boek -Koude voeten-. Het relaas van een joodse scholier uit het Geuzenverzet. 

3. Filmkunst als vlucht uit en overwinning van de werkelijkheid; 4. De 'film noir' ; 5. De aantrekkingskracht van de western