Years ago I stumbled upon a paperback book, that my small town library borrowed so I could read it. At the time back in the 1990s it was out of print and I couldn’t find a copy for myself. I did what some people couldn’t believe, I copied every page of this paper back, put it in a notebook and kept it with me for more than 10 years. I lent it to a few people to read, with the specifications that it was to be protected.

You may ask why this book moved me so? I have always been moved the Holocaust and the people who survived and died under the hands of Hitler and the Nazis in and out of concentration camps. I knew even before I became a Baha’i (shortly before reading this book), the religious persecution has been around since the beginning of man. The Diary of Anne Frank was moving, but nothing in comparison to An Interrupted Life, The Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-43. I could only slightly relate to Anne Frank, even as a young girl, but reading Etty’s words touched my inner soul. You follow Etty from a big round up in Amsterdam, where she chose not to flee but to go with the other Jews to Westerbrook Camp. Etty worked with The Jewish Council in Westerbrook, where she worked in the hospital and traveled back and forth between Amsterdam and Westerbrook Camp.

Friends tried to convince Etty to go into hiding or flee, but she refused. There was even an attempt by friends to kidnap her and take her with them. On September 7 of 1943 Etty and her family (Mother, Father and brothers) were sent to Auschwitz. In Etty’s true style she threw a note out the window of the train stating “We have left the camp singing.” Red Cross reported Etty Hillesum died in Auschwitz on November 30, 1943. Her brother Jaap was the only survivor, but sadly died on his way back to Holland.

On October 1of 1981, a number of Etty’s friends made it back to Concertgebouw in Amersterdam and Etty’s diaries were presented to the public. Etty made sure before her death that her diaries would be taken care of, she gave her diaries to a good friend and asked that they be given to a writer friend in hopes that they would be published. It was a long time before Etty’s diaries made it into print, almost forty years after her death.

I highly recommend that you find a copy of An Interrupted Life, The Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-43 and even possibly Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943. I know that you will be moved, by Etty’s diaries. I must advise you that Etty does discuss her sexual encounters in some detail and you might, take that in mind when letting your children read it. It is a darker than the Diary of Anne Frank, and I found it much more moving. You can find copies of both books at Amazon. I plan on replacing my copier copy of the book for a hard cover soon. I believe that it is a book of value and insight that should be in every public library.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it . . . ”
George Santayana

Amazon (offsite link)