Lisette Lewin

Lisette Lewin (14 August 1939 – 27 August 2024) was a Dutch journalist and writer.

Lewin was born in 1939 in The Hague to a Jewish family. During World War II she stayed in various hiding places. She and her father survived the war. Her mother was murdered in a German camp. After the war, the Lewin family lived in Indonesia for several years. Lewin started working as a freelance journalist for newspapers and magazines, including de Volkskrant and Vrij Nederland. In 1983, she published a book Het clandestiene boek 1940-1945 where she inventoried books that were published illegally during the World War II. Lewin wrote about the war in her debut novel Voor bijna alles bang geweest (translated: Been afraid of almost everything), containing many elements of her life. For that book she won the Gouden Ezelsoor in 1990, the prize for the best-selling literary debut. Other books she wrote include the war novel Een hart van prikkeldraad (translated: A Heart of Barbed Wire) (1992), Vorig jaar in Jeruzalem (translated: Last Year in Jerusalem) (1996), an report of her trip to Israel, and a report of her own search for her Jewish identity. Although her Jewish identity and her family's war story figured prominently in her books, Lewin did not want to be seen solely as a victim of World War II.

Lewin died in Amsterdam on 27 August 2024, at the age of 85.

References

Category:Dutch journalists
Category:Dutch writers
Category:1939 births
Category:2024 deaths
Category:People from The Hague