Etty Hillesum

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1914 — 1943

Royaume des Pays-Bas

SpiritualityLiteratureÉcrivain(e)Religieux/se20th Century

Seconde Guerre mondiale Droits de l'Homme

Émotions disponibles (6)

Neutre

par défaut

Inspirée

Pensive

Surprise

Triste

Fière

Key Facts

Works & Achievements

Diary (Het verstoorde leven / An Interrupted Life) (1941-1943 (published 1981))

Diary written between March 1941 and September 1943, covering her inner life, her relationship with God, love, and the rise of persecution. It is one of the major spiritual and literary testimonies of the Holocaust.

Letters from Westerbork (Het denkende hart van de barak) (1942-1943 (published 1982))

Correspondence sent from the Westerbork transit camp to her friends in Amsterdam, describing the daily life of detainees with striking lucidity and humanity.

Letters and Diaries (complete edition) (1986)

Complete edition gathering the eight notebooks of the diary and the full correspondence, allowing an exhaustive reading of Etty Hillesum's work.

Anecdotes

Etty Hillesum began keeping her diary in March 1941, at the suggestion of her therapist Julius Spier, a chirologist and disciple of Carl Jung. This act, intended to help her better know herself, became one of the most profound testimonies of a young woman's inner life under the Nazi Occupation. She had no idea then that these pages would endure across the decades.

Although she had several opportunities to flee the Netherlands and go into hiding, Etty Hillesum refused to leave. She deliberately chose to join her fellow Jews at the Westerbork transit camp in July 1942, initially as an assistant to the Jewish Council, in order to bear witness and help those who were suffering. This radical ethical choice sets her apart among the figures of the Shoah.

From the Westerbork camp, Etty Hillesum regularly sent letters to her friends in Amsterdam, describing with shattering clarity the daily life of the deportees, the Tuesday trains departing eastward, and her own spiritual transformation. These letters circulated clandestinely and were read in secret by resistance circles.

On September 7, 1943, Etty Hillesum was deported to Auschwitz along with her family in a freight convoy. According to the testimony of a survivor, she threw a postcard out of the wagon window, which was picked up by a farmer who mailed it. It read: 'We left the camp singing.' She died on November 30, 1943.

Primary Sources

Diary (Het verstoorde leven) (1941-1943)

"One must accept death in order to be able to live fully. And if one accepts death, then life becomes more precious, not less precious."

Letter to Maria Tuinzing, from Westerbork (August 1943)

"I do not feel like a prisoner... I live freely on the inside, even if I am surrounded by barbed wire."

Letters from Westerbork (Het denkende hart van de barak) (1942-1943)

"Despite everything, I find life beautiful and I find meaning in this life. Yes, even here, now, at this very moment."

Diary, entry of July 3, 1942 (3 juillet 1942)

"I do not want to slip away. I cannot. If I were to hide, I would lose my reason for being. I must stay where I am and share the fate of those who share the same destiny as me."

Key Places

Amsterdam (Gabriël Metsustraat house)

Etty lived in a large shared house in Amsterdam where she gave lessons and wrote her diary. It was there that she met Julius Spier and began her inner transformation.

Westerbork Transit Camp (Drenthe)

The main Dutch transit camp, from which convoys departed every Tuesday bound for Auschwitz and Sobibor. Etty lived and worked there from July 1942 to September 1943, bearing witness to the living conditions through her letters.

Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland)

The Nazi extermination camp to which Etty Hillesum was deported on 7 September 1943 along with her family. She died there on 30 November 1943 at the age of 29.

University of Amsterdam

Etty studied law there, then Slavic studies from 1932 onwards. It was in this intellectual environment that she developed her literary and philosophical sensibility.

Middelburg (Zeeland, Netherlands)

Etty Hillesum's birthplace, where she was born on 15 January 1914 into an intellectual Jewish family. Her father was the headmaster of a secondary school there.

Typical Objects

Personal diary (notebooks)

Etty filled school exercise books with her intimate, philosophical, and spiritual reflections. These eight handwritten notebooks, saved by her friend Maria Tuinzing, make up the core of her work.

Fountain pen

An indispensable tool of her existence, the fountain pen accompanied Etty everywhere, even to Westerbork, where she continued to write despite the precarious conditions.

Bible and works of Rilke

Etty read the Bible assiduously (particularly the Psalms) and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, which deeply nourished her spiritual life and her writing.

Yellow star

The distinctive badge imposed on Jews by the Nazi occupiers from April 1942 onwards. Etty wore this star sewn onto her clothing, a symbol of the persecution she was subjected to.

Postcard thrown from the train

Etty's last sign of life was a postcard thrown from the deportation wagon on 7 September 1943, picked up by a farmer and posted — a final testament to her inner freedom.

Wool blanket

At Westerbork, detainees slept in overcrowded barracks under extreme cold; blankets were precious possessions that inmates took with them on their deportations.

School Curriculum

LycéeHistoire

LycéePhilosophie

Vocabulary & Tags

Key Vocabulary

Daily Life

Morning

Etty rose early in the shared house on Gabriël Metsustraat in Amsterdam. She often began her day with a writing session in her diary, seeking to clarify her thoughts before the day began. She had a simple breakfast — bread, tea — in the communal kitchen.

Afternoon

In the afternoon, Etty gave private lessons in Russian and other languages to support herself. She also received patients of Julius Spier or took part in chirology sessions with him. She read intensely — the Bible, Rilke, Dostoevsky, the philosophers — in her room or in libraries still accessible to Jews.

Evening

In the evenings, Etty wrote at length in her diary, recording her reflections on love, God, and the human condition. She met with friends for intellectual or philosophical discussions, sometimes over a frugal meal. The threat of raids hung over every evening, imposing a silent vigilance.

Food

Under the Occupation, food was rationed and Jews subject to additional restrictions. Etty lived simply — bread, vegetables, staples — often sharing meals with the housemates in the large shared house. At Westerbork, rations were even more reduced, distributed collectively in the barracks.

Clothing

Etty wore the modest, functional clothing of Dutch female students in the 1940s: straight dresses or skirts, sweaters, a dark coat. From April 1942 onwards, she was required to sew the yellow star onto her clothes, a visible and humiliating marker imposed by the Nazis on all Jews in the occupied Netherlands.

Housing

Etty lived in a large shared bourgeois house at 27 Gabriël Metsustraat in Amsterdam, where Julius Spier also held his consultations. Several people cohabited there in an intellectual and sometimes bohemian atmosphere. At Westerbork, she slept in overcrowded communal barracks, on bunk beds, in rudimentary conditions.

Historical Timeline

1914Naissance d'Esther (Etty) Hillesum le 15 janvier à Middelburg, aux Pays-Bas, dans une famille juive cultivée.

1932Etty s'installe à Amsterdam pour étudier le droit à l'université, puis la slavistique et les langues slaves.

1939Début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Europe : invasion de la Pologne par l'Allemagne nazie le 1er septembre.

1940Occupation allemande des Pays-Bas à partir du 10 mai 1940 ; début des persécutions antisémites progressives.

1941Etty commence son journal intime en mars, sur conseil de Julius Spier. Les Juifs néerlandais sont soumis à des restrictions de plus en plus sévères (port de l'étoile jaune dès avril 1942).

1942Début des déportations massives des Juifs néerlandais vers les camps d'extermination nazis, principalement Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1942Etty entre comme employée du Conseil juif d'Amsterdam, puis rejoint volontairement le camp de transit de Westerbork en juillet.

1942Mort de Julius Spier le 15 septembre 1942 à Amsterdam — une perte profonde pour Etty.

1943Intensification des convois de déportation depuis Westerbork ; Etty y vit et témoigne jusqu'à sa propre déportation.

1943Etty Hillesum est déportée à Auschwitz le 7 septembre avec ses parents et son frère Mischa. Elle y meurt le 30 novembre 1943.

1981Publication posthume de son journal en néerlandais sous le titre Het verstoorde leven, révélant son œuvre au monde entier.

1983Traduction française de son journal (Une vie bouleversée), qui rencontre un grand succès en France et en Europe.

Period Vocabulary

Jodenster / Yellow Star — A yellow fabric badge in the shape of the Star of David bearing the inscription "Jood" (Jew), imposed by the Nazis on Jews in the occupied Netherlands from April 1942. Refusing to wear it risked arrest.

Joodse Raad (Jewish Council) — An organization imposed by the Nazis on Jewish communities to serve as an administrative intermediary. In the Netherlands, the Jewish Council of Amsterdam managed deportation lists and exemption permits, in a tragically ambiguous position.

Razzia — A common term under the Occupation for the raids organized by the SS and Dutch police to arrest and deport Jews. Razzias often took place at night or at dawn.

Doorsturen — Dutch term meaning "to send further" or "to transfer", used bureaucratically to refer to the deportation of internees from Westerbork to the extermination camps in the East.

Lager — German word meaning "camp", used to refer to Nazi concentration and extermination camps. At Westerbork, internees knew that the "Lager" in the East meant near-certain death.

Sperre / Exemption — A provisional authorization exempting certain Jews from deportation, granted by the Nazis to specific categories ("useful" workers, Jewish Council employees). These protections were temporary and could be revoked at any time.

Dinsdag (Tuesday) — Tuesday was the fixed departure day for deportation convoys from Westerbork to Auschwitz, Sobibor, and other camps. This day of the week became in Etty's letters a symbol of programmed death.

Chirology / Chirologist — The practice of analyzing character and personality through the study of the hands, popularized by Julius Spier, a disciple of Jung. It was through this therapy that Etty met Spier and began her inner transformation.

Bezetting (Occupation) — Dutch term referring to the military occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany from May 1940 to May 1945. The Bezetting imposed progressive antisemitic laws leading to the deportation of 75% of Dutch Jews.

Gallery

20150630 Het verstoorde leven door Arno Kramer Deventer

Etty Hillesum

EttyHillesum

Etty Hillesum 1939

Deventer19

Mevrouw mr. A. C. M. Vestdijk van der Hoeven Etty Hillesum , kop, reproduktie , Bestanddeelnr 933-8216

OJ C 343 of 2023 - CS Czech

OJ C 343 of 2023 - FR French

OJ C 343 of 2023 - SK Slovak

OJ C 343 of 2023 - SL Slovenian

Visual Style

Style visuel intimiste inspiré des intérieurs hollandais et de la photographie documentaire des années 1940 : tons atténués, lumière douce, contraste entre chaleur domestique et austérité des camps.

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AI Prompt

A young Jewish Dutch woman in 1940s Amsterdam: intimate portrait in muted tones, soft natural light through tall narrow windows, cream and ochre walls of a bourgeois apartment, stacks of books and papers, an ink pen resting on an open notebook with handwritten pages. Wartime palette: faded greys, dusty browns, pale yellow light, deep navy and black shadows. Contrast between indoor warmth and the cold bleak landscape of a transit camp in northern Netherlands — flat heathland under a grey sky, barbed wire fences, wooden barracks. Inspired by Dutch Golden Age intimism and 1940s documentary photography.

Sound Ambience

Ambiance sonore d'Amsterdam occupée et du camp de Westerbork : une tension entre la vie quotidienne ordinaire et la menace sourde de la persécution nazie, ponctuée du silence de l'écriture intérieure.

AI Prompt

Amsterdam in the 1940s under Nazi occupation: distant church bells over silent canals, trams scraping iron rails on cobblestones, muffled voices speaking Dutch and German, the creak of wooden floors in a shared student house, pages turning and a pen scratching paper in a quiet room, rain on a window, the distant sound of boots marching, a gramophone playing classical music softly, the whistle of a train departing from a transit camp at dawn, wind across flat Dutch heathland, barracks doors closing in the night.

Portrait Source

Wikimedia Commons — domaine public — Unknown photographer — 1930