Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum was a Dutch-Jewish writer whose diaries and letters offer a profound intellectual and spiritual chronicle of life under Nazi occupation in Amsterdam. A graduate of law and Russian literature, she began documenting her inner transformation and external realities in 1941 under the guidance of psychotherapist Julius Spier. Refusing opportunities to go into hiding, she volunteered at the Westerbork transit camp to support fellow Jews destined for deportation. Her writings reflect extraordinary spiritual resilience, empathy, and humanity amidst horror. In September 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered at age 29.

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