Een nieuwe gedichtenbundel van Manja Croiset in twee talen: oorlog of vrede vernietiging of wederopbouw mitrailleur of drilboor of het nu oorlog of vrede is leven is er altijd op tweeërlei wijze An anthology from Manja's poems in English I never had a vacation because I never felt free Manja Croiset was born in July 1946 in Amsterdam as the youngest of three daughters of Holocaust survivors. Her father, half Jewish, was in concentration camps during the war because of underground printing, including printing for the famous Dutch newspaper Het Parool. Her mother lost her entire family - grandparents, parents, brother and sister - during this tragic period of history. As a girl, Manja felt invisible, with no right to fear or sorrow because of the tragedies her parents had survived - always so much worse than anything she was going through or ever could go through. But she has been through a lot, particularly the time she spent in traditional mental hospitals that never seemed to help, but actually made her situation and condition worse. Through her writing, she has become less invisible, but the trauma remains.