Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 [Hardcover]

Etty Hillesum (Author), Klaas A. D. Smelik (Editor), Arnold J. Pomerans (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Commissioned by the Etty Hillesum Foundation, Etty is the only complete, unabridged edition of the letters and diaries of a singular hero--and victim--of the Nazi Holocaust. This fascinating, profound, and often moving body of work reveals the interior life of a brilliant. Born in January 1914, Etty Hillesum began her diary in 1941, nine months after Hitler invaded her home country of the Netherlands. The record she kept for the next two years contains arresting personal reflections and chronicles her social, intellectual, and--most significantly--spiritual growth. In addition to her ongoing search for God and truth, one of the most noted and instructive features of Ettys development was her recognition of, and her struggle to overcome, the disorder within her own being. It was her success in finally transcending her own sense of captivity within that allowed her to rise above cruel and fearsome circumstances without. Indeed, in the midst of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, Ettys writings reveal a woman who celebrated life and remained an undaunted example of courage, sympathy, and compassion. Letters that she wrote to friends during her interment at the Westerbrook transit camp poignantly describe the day-to-day horrors that the Jewish prisoners faced. Nevertheless, Ettys courage and determination remained strong, allowing her to rise above the hate around her and express her irrepressible faith in humanity. As she wrote in her last letter, thrown from the train that took her to her death at Auschwitz, We left the camp singing. Through this splendid edition of Ettys writing, edited by Klaas A.D. Smelik and translated by Arnold J. Pomerans, readers will resonate with the spirit of this remarkable woman.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802839592
• ISBN-13: 978-0802839596
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I dare you to stay the same, July 26, 2003

By 

"gogoglo" (Rochester, Mn. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 (Hardcover)

Etty began life with the same silly angst and shallow aspirations that we endure each day. Then came the war and her experience as a Jew in Holland. The transformation of this young intellectual to a woman of great depth takes the reader on a soul journey of such transcendence that one's paradigms are forever changed.

Add to the story a great and musical quality of writing and a brilliant mind . You have Etty, my heroine, my mentor.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Etty: A intense young woman writes about life before her life is brutally taken at 29, September 13, 2005

By 

Elizabeth M. Boyle "eb!" (Sarasota, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 (Hardcover)

A young woman who is running out of time writes about her experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis in a concentration camp in World War II in 1940s Europe. She responds to the demands of society and of life as she finds it in both its pedestrian and hopeful forms, while also musing about what a distracted God might be doing up in heaven as so many innocent people perish at the hands of so many cowardly and sadistic oppressors. Ultimately she converts to Catholism and she dies in a concentration camp at the age of 29. Even with the crushing and depressing burden of a predatory society of captors constantly hovering over her, captors to whom she would soon sucuumb by her physical death, she wrote about life, social roles, her relationships with others and God prodigiously before her life was stolen from her in a dark place and a dark time by the human forces of evil. The strength she must have called upon to do this work while living in day to day oppresssion and unrelenting misery is stunning to imagine.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most inspiring books I ever read, February 2, 2008

By 

Shulamit Raz (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 (Hardcover)

This book is one of the most touching and inspiring books I ever read. This book will touch the heart of anyone - whether Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. and even an atheist!

The battle of a soul in those dark days (the German Occupation in the Second War World) trying to keep sane, asking herself how not to loose hope and remain human, avoiding hate, in spite of all what is going around her. This is a journey of a Soul from focusing in herself changing to focus in the world around her.

I bought the book also for 3 friends of mine as a New Year present!

P.S.: Since my English is NOT my mother tong (I'm an Israeli), I'm apologizing in advance for spelling (and other mistakes). Thank you for understanding.