July 1942: I catch myself making all sorts of minor but telling adjustments in anticipation of life in a labour camp. Last night when I was walking along the quay beside him in a pair of comfortable sandals, I suddenly thought, 'I shall take these sandals along as well, I can wear them instead of the heavier shoes from time to time. What goes on in my head at moments like that…? Later, when I have survived it all, I shall write stories about these times… I shall wield this slender fountain pen as if it were a hammer, and my works will have to be so many hammer strokes with which to beat out the story of our fate and of a piece of history as it is and never was before… a few people must survive, if only to be chroniclers of this age. I would very much like to become one of their number.
Esther 'Etty' Hillesum, whose father was a headmaster, was born in 1914 in Holland, growing up in Deventer with two gifted brothers. After reading law, Russian and psychology at the… (tovább)
July 1942: I catch myself making all sorts of minor but telling adjustments in anticipation of life in a labour camp. Last night when I was walking along the quay beside him in a pair of comfortable sandals, I suddenly thought, 'I shall take these sandals along as well, I can wear them instead of the heavier shoes from time to time. What goes on in my head at moments like that…? Later, when I have survived it all, I shall write stories about these times… I shall wield this slender fountain pen as if it were a hammer, and my works will have to be so many hammer strokes with which to beat out the story of our fate and of a piece of history as it is and never was before… a few people must survive, if only to be chroniclers of this age. I would very much like to become one of their number.
Esther 'Etty' Hillesum, whose father was a headmaster, was born in 1914 in Holland, growing up in Deventer with two gifted brothers. After reading law, Russian and psychology at the University of Amsterdam, she moved in to 6 Gabriel Metsustraat as official housekeeper to a widower, who became her lover. Here, in 1941, she began her diary. Julius Spier, the founder of psychochirology (the study of palms), also became her lover, and mentor, at this time. She went on studying Russian and giving lessons, and, in July 1942, the month Anne Frank began her diary, started typing for the Jewish Council, before opting to go to Westbork, the camp where Dutch Jews went before going 'east'. For some weeks she was able to travel to and from Amsterdam, but was sent to Auschwitz in September 1943 and died there in November.
