I am excited to announce that the book about my childhood in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during WWII was published by SheWritesPress in August of 2019.
The story in this book has been gnawing at me for decades, but for a long time I hesitated putting it out into the world. Writing about my childhood always felt somewhat self-indulgent. I have lived a long and richly-textured life, where so many others suffered unspeakable torture and did not survive the brutality of those years. However, when I began to see torch-bearing neo Nazis displaying swastikas on my television screen this year and again saw women’s stories of abuse being dismissed, I realized that those of us who survived tyranny and oppression in any form have an obligation to tell our stories.
The title of my book is: When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew…
The images in my title spring from true events described in the memoir. Born in a time of tyranny and violent bigotry, when traditional gender roles expected women to be domestic and obedient as a toy dog and gently reflective as the feminine moon, I was given a great gift. I would witness the fierce power of female disobedience and the mystery of the light that could pierce the darkness of oppression and light a path for a little girl to discover the woman she could one day become.