¶ … Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork
Throughout my academic career, I avoided dealing with the monumental human tragedy known as the Holocaust. History classes required that I read sterile, chronicled information, learn names and dates, and understand the causes and results. History classes have never required that I read a first-hand account of the horrors of a Jewish woman in this inhuman and appalling era and reflect upon it.
As I read, there were moments that I had to put the book aside and get my mind on something else. It is inconceivable that such suffering and carnage was accepted, supported, or denied by the people of the world. I was sometimes nauseous and sometimes tearful. However, along with the misery and bloodshed of the Holocaust, Etty Hillesum is able to convey a joy in living, appreciation for the moment, and love of humanity in her book An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork.
Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew from Amsterdam. Her life might have been unremarkable and her story might never have been told had she not been an aspiring writer. Through these letters and diary entries, I watched a young woman in her mid and late twenties for almost three years until she died at Auschwitz in 1943. Her book begins about nine months after Hitler's Germany invaded the Netherlands. In addition to her diary, she wrote letters to her loved ones from Westerbork Detention Camp, where Jews were confined before being taken to the death camps. "If I have one duty in these times," she asserted, "it is to bear witness.
Etty Hillesum wrote about the little things in her life, like eating breakfast. She also wrote the same things that all young women write about -- men and romance. Considering her circumstances, I expected that much of her day was spent anticipating her empty future and contemplating when she was going to die. Her optimism and her gentle spirit, particularly under these dire circumstances, were astonishing.
She wrote a great deal about her love for a man she identified as S. Although many of her romantic passages were comparable to any young woman in love, this relationship...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now