Sieg Maandag: Leven en Kunst na Bergen-Belsen / Life and Art in the Aftermath of Bergen-Belsen (Lecturis, 2020) is a new book, co-authored by BPSI Affiliate Scholar Member, Dawn Skorczewski, PhD.
Sieg Maandag (1937-2013) was seven years old when he was released from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His father was killed there, his mother survived camp Beendorf and was reunited with him. A photo of Sieg walking along a row of bodies in liberated Bergen-Belsen on 9 May 1945 shocked the world when it appeared in Life magazine.
Sieg’s family were diamond dealers. After the war he lives a rich life. He learns the craft of diamond, travels the world, falls in love, sings in night clubs, paints hundreds of paintings and makes ceramics. He also becomes a father and joins an ashram, a Hindu community.
This book focuses on the paintings and ceramics of Sieg Maandag. His work cannot be viewed separately from his trauma of Bergen-Belsen. Maandag’s art is troubled and beneficial at the same time. Like all good art, the paintings and ceramics make a deep impression on the viewer who is unfamiliar with the background of the maker.
Sieg Maandag has often commented on his own work and his comments are included in the book. That makes this monograph an unique document.
About the Author
Dawn Skorczewski, PhD, is BPSI Affiliate Scholar Member and Silberger Paper Prize Award Winner (2015), Research Professor of English Emerita at Brandeis University, and Lecturer at Amsterdam University College. Her books and articles explore intersections of pedagogy, poetry, psychoanalysis, and trauma. Her earlier books include Teaching Writing One Moment at a Time: Disruption and Repair in the Classroom (2005), An Accident of Hope: The Therapy Tapes of Anne Sexton (2012), Pursuing Happiness (2016, 2019).
