Etty Hillesum ~ A Free Bird ~ Jewish Mystics

Esther (Etty) Hillesum (15 January 1914 – 30 November 1943) was
the Dutch 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 murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp.
 Hillesum’s approach to spirituality was not about striving
for ecstasy. Rather, she longed to meet the depth of her own
interior and life itself. Her spirituality was not confined to
her intellectual understanding of a greater power and the depth
of her direct insights is reflected in her diaries. In the
concentration camp of Westerbork, she had unusual experiences of
spiritual awakenings and insight: "Those two months behind barbed
wire have been the two richest and most intense months of my
life, in which my highest values were so deeply confirmed."
 


These excerpts of her writings have been primarily sourced from
 the text: An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum
1941–1943


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