Research Catalog

We lived with dignity : the Jewish proletariat of Amsterdam, 1900-1940

Title
We lived with dignity : the Jewish proletariat of Amsterdam, 1900-1940 / Selma Leydesdorff ; translated by Frank Heny.
Author
Leydesdorff, Selma.
Publication
Detroit : Wayne State University Press, [1994], ©1994.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance HD5818.5.J5 L4813 1994Off-site

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Details

Description
ix, 278 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm
Summary
  • 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 that were 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.
Uniform Title
Wij hebben als mens geleefd. English
Alternative Title
Wij hebben als mens geleefd.
Subject
  • Working class > Amsterdam > History > 20th century
  • Jews > Amsterdam > History > 20th century
  • Jews > Amsterdam > Social conditions
  • Amsterdam (Netherlands) > Social conditions
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 252-269) and index.
Contents
Introduction: The Story of Maurits -- Ch. 1. Methodological Considerations -- Ch. 2. The Jews and Amsterdam -- Ch. 3. The Old Neighborhood -- Ch. 4. Life in Various Neighborhoods -- Ch. 5. Working and Living in Poverty -- Ch. 6. Concern for the Poor, or Efforts to Preserve the Community -- Epilogue: Trust -- Appendix: A Brief Guide to Dutch Place Names.
ISBN
0814323383
LCCN
94030740
OCLC
  • 30971655
  • ocm30971655
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries