Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum
Born	Esther Hillesum (1914-01-15)15 January 1914 Middelburg, Netherlands
Died	30 November 1943(1943-11-30) (aged 29) Auschwitz, Poland
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Writer
Notes
She wrote a diary before her stay and letters during her stay in camp Westerbork

Esther "Etty" Hillesum (15 January 1914 – 30 November 1943) was the author of confessional letters and diaries which describe both her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943 she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.

Esther (Etty) Hillesum was born on 15 January 1914 in her family home in the town of Middelburg, the oldest of the three children – she had two brothers, Jacob or 'Jaap' (1916–1945) and Michael or 'Mischa' (1920–1944) – of Levi Hillesum (1880–1943) and Riva Bernstein (1881–1943). After completing school, she went to Amsterdam to study law, where she met Hendrik (Hans) J. Wegerif with whom she had a relationship that she describes in her diaries.

Etty Hillesum began writing her diary in March 1941, possibly at the suggestion of her analyst Julius Spier, whom she had been attending to for a month. Although his patient, Etty also became his secretary and friend and eventually his lover. His influence on her spiritual development is apparent in her diaries; as well as teaching her how to deal with her depressive and egocentric episodes he introduced her to the Bible and St. Augustine and helped her develop a deeper understanding of the work of Rilke and Dostoyevsky.

Her diaries record the increasing anti-Jewish measures imposed by the occupying German army, and the growing uncertainty about the fate of fellow Jews who had been deported by them. As well as forming a record of oppression her diaries describe her spiritual development and deepening faith in God.

When round-ups of Jews intensified in July 1942 she took on administrative duties for the Jewish Council, voluntarily transferring to a department of "Social Welfare for People in Transit" at Westerbork transit camp. She worked there for a month, but returned in June 1943, by which time she had refused offers to go into hiding in the belief that her duty was to support others scheduled to be transported from Westerbork to the concentration camps in Poland and Germany. On 5 July 1943, her personal status was suddenly revoked and she became a camp internee along with her father, mother and brother Mischa.