Seigal talk on World War II in Netherlands

Journalist Nina Siegal, who grew up in a family that had survived the Holocaust in Europe, had always wondered about the experience of regular people during World War II.

She had heard stories of the war as a child and Anne Frank’s diary, but the tales were either crafted as moral lessons — to never waste food, to be grateful for all you receive, to hide your silver — or told with a punch line.

The details of the past went untold in an effort to make it easier to assimilate into American life.

When Siegal moved to Amsterdam as an adult, those questions came up again, as did another horrifying one: Why did 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish community perish in the war, while in other Western European countries the proportions were significantly lower?

How did this square with the narratives of Dutch resistance she had heard so much about and in what way did it relate to the famed tolerance people in the Netherlands were always talking about? Perhaps more importantly, how could she raise a Jewish child in this country without knowing these answers?

Searching and singular, “ The Diary Keepers” mines the diaries of ordinary citizens to understand the nature of resistance, the workings of memory, and the ways we reflect on, commemorate, and re-envision the past.

Siegal is an author and journalist from New York who lives in Europe, and also is a Great Neck North High 1987 alumni.

She has been a regular freelance contributor to The New York Times from Amsterdam since 2012, and her writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including the Wall Street Journal, W. Magazine, Art in America, 1stDibs. com, ArtNews, and The Economist.

Shehas also published three novels, and is a 2021 recipient of the Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant, and a Humanity in Action Fellow. sponsibility through the arts. Levels productions are directed, produced and performed by students seventh grade through college-age under the guidance of Levels’ staff of accomplished adult artists.

The Great Neck author event is on Monday, Aug. 7, at 7:00 p.m. at the Great Neck Library at 159 Bayview Ave. in Great Neck. Registration is required; Great Neck cardholders and residents have priority for seating. Sign up online, in-person, or via phone. Non-residents are welcome as walk-ins, as space allows.

For more information, please contact the Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.

For more information please contact Levels at (516) 466-8055 ext. 216 or email Barry at bweil@greatnecklibrary.org.

“The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands” by Nina Siegal