I bought this book last year during my vacation at Persephone Books - Lamb's Conduit in London.
I was finally in the right mood to read Etty's diary and letters and once I started, I couldn't stop.
Etty was from Holland, living in the time when the Nazis were starting to deport the Dutch Jews east to Poland. She lived at the same time that Ann Frank was hiding and writing, but she was older and more aware of what was going on, because she was in her late 20s.
I think that if Etty had lived, she and I could have been friends. I like her style of writing and her thoughts. She had many academic degrees, was very smart and positive. Because she knew that death was a real possibility, she matured quickly and was making observations about life that an older person should be making.
There was no ghetto in Holland, like in Poland, but the Jews were sent to a transit camp called Westebork, which was still a nasty place, where lots of people got ill. She was employed by a Jewish organization to register the newcomers, a harrowing job, because everyone knew that the next stop was a concentration camp in Poland. As an employee, she had the opportunity to go back to Amsterdam and deliver farewell letters that her friends had entrusted to her at Westebork to give to friends or relatives in Amsterdam. And despite the lack of privacy, she managed to write something in her diary or a letter every day while at Westebork.
When the Jews were experiencing restrictions in where they could go and what type of work they could do, many hated all Germans. But Etty wrote in March 1941, "Hatred does not lie in my nature. If things were come to a such a pass, then I would know that my sould was sick and I should have to look for a cure.."
In late March, she reflects about her past, about anticipating the future, she "lives in the here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and life is worth living. And if I knew that I was going to die tomorrow, then I would say, it's a great shame, but it's been good while it lasted."
To survive the uncertainty of her situation, he started musing more about God and different religions. It's evident that she has read a lot about different religions, and she created her own "God" to help her get through the times. In a letter dated October 12, 1942, she writes, "..At your birth, the soul already has an age that never changes. One can be born with a twelve-year- old soul. One can be also born with a thousand-year-old soul...I think that Orientals 'live' their souls more fully. We Westerners do not really know what to do with them; indeed we are ashamed of our souls as if they were something immoral."
In one of her last letters before her deportation, she tells a friends in Amsterdam (June 8, 1943), about the train going to Poland, "The freight cars had been completely sealed, but a plank had been left out here and there and people put their hands through the gaps and waved as if they were drowning." Chilling!
You have to be strong to read this work. At some points, she mentions that many orphans, who need a little affection, are in Westebork. She gives what she can, but she is not well herself and her parents also need medical attention, and she just can't do anymore. And other women there either ignore the orphans and are so concerned about their own children, that they can't give anymore either.
The work has two introductions, which you should read beforehand. It gives a biography of Etty and her family and explains the times in which she lived and recounts all her friends. The only problem is that I had to keep going back and forth to keep track of all the Joops in the letters and dairy. It's a common Dutch nickname, applied to both women and men, and I kept getting confused about which Joop she was writing about.
If you want to learn more about her, click this site: Etty Hillesum Centrum
I need to reread this work. I don't think that I have understood everything.
This book also counts for the Chunkster Challenge.
I was finally in the right mood to read Etty's diary and letters and once I started, I couldn't stop.
Etty was from Holland, living in the time when the Nazis were starting to deport the Dutch Jews east to Poland. She lived at the same time that Ann Frank was hiding and writing, but she was older and more aware of what was going on, because she was in her late 20s.
I think that if Etty had lived, she and I could have been friends. I like her style of writing and her thoughts. She had many academic degrees, was very smart and positive. Because she knew that death was a real possibility, she matured quickly and was making observations about life that an older person should be making.
There was no ghetto in Holland, like in Poland, but the Jews were sent to a transit camp called Westebork, which was still a nasty place, where lots of people got ill. She was employed by a Jewish organization to register the newcomers, a harrowing job, because everyone knew that the next stop was a concentration camp in Poland. As an employee, she had the opportunity to go back to Amsterdam and deliver farewell letters that her friends had entrusted to her at Westebork to give to friends or relatives in Amsterdam. And despite the lack of privacy, she managed to write something in her diary or a letter every day while at Westebork.
When the Jews were experiencing restrictions in where they could go and what type of work they could do, many hated all Germans. But Etty wrote in March 1941, "Hatred does not lie in my nature. If things were come to a such a pass, then I would know that my sould was sick and I should have to look for a cure.."
In late March, she reflects about her past, about anticipating the future, she "lives in the here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and life is worth living. And if I knew that I was going to die tomorrow, then I would say, it's a great shame, but it's been good while it lasted."
To survive the uncertainty of her situation, he started musing more about God and different religions. It's evident that she has read a lot about different religions, and she created her own "God" to help her get through the times. In a letter dated October 12, 1942, she writes, "..At your birth, the soul already has an age that never changes. One can be born with a twelve-year- old soul. One can be also born with a thousand-year-old soul...I think that Orientals 'live' their souls more fully. We Westerners do not really know what to do with them; indeed we are ashamed of our souls as if they were something immoral."
In one of her last letters before her deportation, she tells a friends in Amsterdam (June 8, 1943), about the train going to Poland, "The freight cars had been completely sealed, but a plank had been left out here and there and people put their hands through the gaps and waved as if they were drowning." Chilling!
You have to be strong to read this work. At some points, she mentions that many orphans, who need a little affection, are in Westebork. She gives what she can, but she is not well herself and her parents also need medical attention, and she just can't do anymore. And other women there either ignore the orphans and are so concerned about their own children, that they can't give anymore either.
The work has two introductions, which you should read beforehand. It gives a biography of Etty and her family and explains the times in which she lived and recounts all her friends. The only problem is that I had to keep going back and forth to keep track of all the Joops in the letters and dairy. It's a common Dutch nickname, applied to both women and men, and I kept getting confused about which Joop she was writing about.
If you want to learn more about her, click this site: Etty Hillesum Centrum
I need to reread this work. I don't think that I have understood everything.
This book also counts for the Chunkster Challenge.
4 comments:
Oh I didn't realize there was an Etty Hillesum center. How interesting!
I really liked this one too.. Her writing felt so vivid and it was just so sad coming to the end of the book because we know what was going to happen to Etty.
I always think that I have no time to write. No more excuses! Etty managed to write even in the worst of conditions and mental atmosphere.
Her words (and the journaling book that you gave me) are the final push that I need.
I have this book, though it is not the Persephone edition--another publisher (am guessing its the same anyway). Like you I am waiting until I am in the right frame of mind to read it. It sounds really good, though!
Let me know whether the introduction is informative.
You will be inspired to journal or to be positive when you read her words.
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