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34th out of 130 books
—
64 voters
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork
For the first time, Etty Hillesum's diary and letters appear together to give us the fullest possible portrait of this extraordinary woman. In the darkest years of Nazi occupation and genocide, Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to A...more
Paperback, 376 pages
Published
November 15th 1996
by Owl Books
(first published September 1981)
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The writing is wonderfully alive. It is like having a conversation.
That Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman suffering the terrors of Nazi occupied Holland and finally the death camp, that she was engaged in the most peculiar relationship with therapist Julius Spier, that her age, circumstance, background and education are so different from my own, I feel makes no impact on the sense of my conversing with a contemporary. Her psychological insights, particularly her guards against vanity, self...more
That Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman suffering the terrors of Nazi occupied Holland and finally the death camp, that she was engaged in the most peculiar relationship with therapist Julius Spier, that her age, circumstance, background and education are so different from my own, I feel makes no impact on the sense of my conversing with a contemporary. Her psychological insights, particularly her guards against vanity, self...more
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If I could only take 10 books with me to a deserted island, this would be one. Sort of "Anne Frank" for adults, it is the journals of a young Dutch Jew caught up in the Holocaust. She is brilliant and outgoing and living life to the full, when Hitler's ugly shadow begins to fall over her world. The struggles and dramas that ensue highlight the development of her soul into a loving and courageous being,who was able to write, even as the net drew tighter around her: "I know that those who hate hav...more
Sep 07, 2007
Lord Beardsley
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Introspective disappointed optimists
I'm glad I finally got to read her diaries after reading her letters. I have to say, start with the diaries. I actually read "An Interrupted Life" but goodreads wouldn't let me add it twice for some damned reason.
Reading her diaries is like having a conversation with a close friend. She was an amazing, interesting person. The same things she talks about twentysomethings are still grappling with. She had such a tender, sweet soul. All the time I was reading this, it just kept hitting me that she...more
Reading her diaries is like having a conversation with a close friend. She was an amazing, interesting person. The same things she talks about twentysomethings are still grappling with. She had such a tender, sweet soul. All the time I was reading this, it just kept hitting me that she...more
It's a shame Etty Hillesum is not as well known as Anne Frank. She's the Anne Frank for girls in their 20s-30s. She was someone I wish I could be friends or make out with. She was a cool, complicated, intellectual Jewish Dutch girl who died in the gas chambers. She was recomended to me by a friend a long time ago, and this was the first book of hers I was able to get my hands on. I wish that I could have gotten her diaries before I read the letters. While these were interesting, they weren't (I'...more
I took this book out of the library in Amsterdam when I had a couple of weeks to spend there. Man! Out of nowhere it blew me away. Or rather, it wasn't even on such a large outward scale. It was the story of someone going deep inside their own soul, in the hardest of hard time, to open up to all of her life. Because it's written without pretension (because it is a diary she was just keeping for herself), and because she writes through the ups and downs, it feels like a very real journey and ther...more
I loved this amazing book taken from the diaries of Etty Hillisum, a Jewish woman living in Nazi Germany. It starts out with a very introspective, maybe self-absorbed woman living her life in difficult times. She talks about the little details of her life. Somewhere, we experience a developing spirituality that only grows as life worsens. Etty actually has a chance to leave, but she refuses. "I want to be in the middle of it," she says. If even one person is affected by these circumstances,then...more
I am not into diaries / biographies that much but Etty's diaries are a worthy exception, to the point of having become the guiding-book I go back to each time I face a difficult moment. Or just wish to remind myself that strenght is never enough when grounded on faith - that sort of faith, note, in the own inner resources. Mine (and I dare to say, ours) difficulties are nothing in comparison to those Etty and the Dutch Jewish community went through at the time of deportation, here wonderfully na...more
Etty Hillesum a young Jewish woman living in wartime Amsterstam not far from Anne Frank, also kept a diary of her experiences. Unlike Anne who was 15 years younger and still living with her family, Etty was on her own, living a rather bohemian life filled with friends, intellectual and artistic pursuits and love affairs that were was as natural and normal a part of her life as her increasingly mystical approach to spirituality. But it is her spiritual development as it unfolds over the two year...more
Etty Hillesum was "discovered" dozens of years after her death, when her diaries were recovered and published.
I would advise everyone to read this book, which includes both her diaries and a number of letters exchanged by her and her friends.
This is an INCREDIBLE HUMAN BEING, someone who's Soul opened up in the midst of the terrible persecutions during the second world war.
A mystic of a kind, Etty made her incredible spiritual development during two plus years, from the age of 27 till her death,...more
I would advise everyone to read this book, which includes both her diaries and a number of letters exchanged by her and her friends.
This is an INCREDIBLE HUMAN BEING, someone who's Soul opened up in the midst of the terrible persecutions during the second world war.
A mystic of a kind, Etty made her incredible spiritual development during two plus years, from the age of 27 till her death,...more
Jun 08, 2011
Pam Meserve
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
If you're looking for a traditional story format here..this is not it..and rather it is an extraordinary collection of journal entries and letters during an incredible time in our history that was WWII.
It's about the woman she becomes through a discovery of self awareness and the power of our mind and heart and it's interconnections with everything.
As you read, you will experience 'with her' her transcendence into a spiritual awareness of herself, where she passes from a prolonged time of emot...more
It's about the woman she becomes through a discovery of self awareness and the power of our mind and heart and it's interconnections with everything.
As you read, you will experience 'with her' her transcendence into a spiritual awareness of herself, where she passes from a prolonged time of emot...more
May 04, 2010
Margaret
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
autobiography,
biography,
diaries,
history,
european-history,
letters,
wwii,
persephone,
authors-gh
Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew from Amsterdam; she studied Russian, gave Russian lessons, and kept a diary, focusing mainly on her love affair with psychologist Julius Spier and her efforts to deal personally with the effects of the Nazis taking control of the Netherlands. In 1942, she went to Westerbork, the camp where Dutch Jews were assembled for deportation to other concentration camps; she wrote letters to friends back in Amsterdam, before she was eventually sent to Auschwitz, where she died...more
For most of the book, I kept waiting for it to start. Who wants to read page after page about that feeling of being 28 and all sexed up over some guy you can't have? Tedious. There was a nice paragraph on page 70, beginning with "Then something dawned on me." in which she explains how she came to an understanding about her father. Also, I liked the passage on page 87 that starts "There was one bright spot." about taking responsibility for rooting out the evil within and not letting ourselves off...more
The record of a beautiful, questioning soul who sees life as whole and meaningful, even when it's most visibly divided and meaningless. She kept the diary in the two years before she was sent to Westerbork camp and then sent letters from the camp in the year before she was sent to Auschwitz and died there. She is humble and proud and fearless and scared and yearning, entirely human and brimming over.
“But I still suffer from the same old complaint. For the one word that sums up everything within...more
“But I still suffer from the same old complaint. For the one word that sums up everything within...more
I read this book in my undergraduate philosophy class and was absolutely blown away because I felt like I knew Etty Hillesum. I identified so much with her and she was able to express feelings that I had but couldn't express myself. She was Jewish and living in the midst of a Nazi occupation. Not something I can identify with at all, yet we had so much in common. I wanted to know her.
I have finally finished reading Etty's diary and letters, and it has been a profound experience. I was as moved as I ever have been. I know that some people refrain from indulging in the holocaust genre because it is too depressing. I understand that. I do not dwell on the horror; there is no point in that.
Yet, Etty herself was never depressed. Spiritually and psychologically, she rose above her circumstances. In the weeks over which I was reading the book, it impacted my mind significantly. I l...more
Yet, Etty herself was never depressed. Spiritually and psychologically, she rose above her circumstances. In the weeks over which I was reading the book, it impacted my mind significantly. I l...more
This is the diary (and letters) of a young, sensitive, intelligent, loving Dutch Jewish woman during the Nazi occupation, living in Amsterdam and ultimately dying In a concentration camp. Sounds familiar? Yes, but Etty is older than Anne Frank, more mature, more complex. She is highly spiritual in a completely personal way. Her mind and heart continue to shine even as the Nazi net around her slowly closes, and ultimately kills her. I'll never forget this book, though I find it hard to re-read it...more
always free-thinking through the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of life. ultimately uplifing in the face of insanity and death through the Holocaust. Etty is alive through these words exploring relationships, love, work, study, survival, sex, literature, God, and what's happening in the world. She has an ability to clearly and gently and powerfully express her complex emotions and thoughts to her pages (and to us). I weep out laughter with her diaries and letters, and her sex and soul...more
Among Holocaust literature, one of the most hopeful; EH is a sensual, compassionate, honest & nonreligious woman of prayer. One of her prayers:
"the jasmine behind my house has been completely ruined by the rains and storms of the last few days; its white blossoms are floating about in muddy black pools on the low garage roof. but somewhere inside me the jasmine continues to blossom undisturbed, just as profusely and delicately as ever it did. and it spreads its scent round the house in which...more
"the jasmine behind my house has been completely ruined by the rains and storms of the last few days; its white blossoms are floating about in muddy black pools on the low garage roof. but somewhere inside me the jasmine continues to blossom undisturbed, just as profusely and delicately as ever it did. and it spreads its scent round the house in which...more
This was a really interesting read and an amazing story of inner strength. This is the diary of Etty, a woman in her late 20's and living in Holland in 1941. The war was sort of on the outskirts of her life at first, and her early diary entries do not focus on it. Rather she relates an interesting story of a single 20-something living through this period as the realities of war come closer and closer until finally she ends up in a concentration camp. Her writing is engaging and the way she focus...more
I was craving a holocaust-era book, and stumbled across this on one of my bookshelves. I don't remember ever seeing it before. Clearly I have too many books. Or just enough?
Most of the book is Etty's diary while living in Amsterdam during the war. If you're not into spiritual struggle, you'll probably find it a little repetitive and perhaps even melodramatic at times. (I'm deeply interested in spiritual struggle, and even I found myself wanting to skip over a few pages.) But after all, it is a d...more
Most of the book is Etty's diary while living in Amsterdam during the war. If you're not into spiritual struggle, you'll probably find it a little repetitive and perhaps even melodramatic at times. (I'm deeply interested in spiritual struggle, and even I found myself wanting to skip over a few pages.) But after all, it is a d...more
Etty Hillesum’s diary and letters written between 1941 and 1943 give an extraordinary portrait of a woman with an open loving heart and a vivid picture of the repression of the Jewish people during the 2nd world war. She is the adult counterpart to Anne Frank. Her diary portrays her spiritual growth and her love for God and her fellow man. She did not hate her oppressors.
She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine.
I’d like to share a quote from one of Etty’s last letter written in Au...more
She died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of twenty-nine.
I’d like to share a quote from one of Etty’s last letter written in Au...more
Mar 08, 2009
Susann
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
persephone,
did-not-finish
I'm glad I got this Persephone book from the library, because I didn't even get halfway through it. I'm giving it two stars, though, because I don't actively dislike it; it's just not for me. Etty was a Jewish woman in her late 20s living in Amsterdam during WWII. A number of online reviewers describe Etty as the grown-up version of Anne Frank, but I think that's unfair to both Anne & Etty.
Etty was on a spiritual quest which I just can't relate to in any way. Her diary entries are infused w...more
Etty was on a spiritual quest which I just can't relate to in any way. Her diary entries are infused w...more
Beautiful, incredible book! Basically an older Anne Frank, Etty is a super modern woman in her late-twenties in Amsterdam. Her diaries make her feel so present, with her evocative writing style and intelligent, ahead-of-her-times kind of life. She lives in a house with roommates from all over, takes lovers of both sexes, and works as a Russian teacher and assistant psychologist. What's most spell-bounding is the way in which the Nazi regime appears in her diary: slowly, through comments such as...more
Not a book that would have caught my attention were it on the shelves - I read this one entirely at a friend's suggestion. And even if I had picked it up on my own, I'm pretty sure that I would've given up in the first fifty or so pages, her relationship with 'S' seeming to dominate the story and truth be told, generating more than a few eye rolls on my part. However, that aspect of the book made what came that much more powerful. To see so much love, kindness, and strength in someone whom I jud...more
Wow. This is one of the most moving, and definitely haunting, books I have read in a long time. It evoked so many emotions in me. Anger, sadness, a feeling of helplessness, yet also wonder and joy at the beauty and the meaning of life. I wish the last diary hadn't been lost. In case you haven't heard of Etty Hillesum (I hadn't), she was writing diaries in Holland just a couple of miles away from Anne Frank, at the same time, during the WWII years. A truly remarkable book by a remarkable person.
1 like · like · see review
I read it in Dutch, but that book is not in the Wordpress list: Het verstoorde leven van Etty Hillesum. It is a book for everybody. A book about Life and what for others might feel as despair: it is not for Etty! She is a highly inspiring soul and triggering in you that same source of Wisdom as where she has been nourished with and from.
I first became aware of this book when I heard our pastor at the time mention it in a homily. He lent me his copy to read, and afterward, I got one of my own. I found Etty's diaries very moving- tracing her growth from a frivolous party girl into a young woman beginning to test the boundaries of her spiritual faith.
For the first time, Etty Hillesum's diary and letters appear together to give us the fullest possible portrait of this extraordinary woman. In the darkest years of Nazi occupation and genocide, Etty Hillesum remained a celebrant of life whose lucid intelligence, sympathy, and almost impossible gallantry were themselves a form of inner resistance. The adult counterpart to Anne Frank, Hillesum testifies to the possibility of awareness and compassion in the face of the most devastating challenge to...more
Nov 20, 2008
Mary Helene
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Mary Helene by:
Gordon Cosby
Shelves:
bestofshelves
One of the 10 best books I've ever read. It is in translation, so this rating is for content and not lyric quality. An adult parallel of Anne Frank, Etty resolves "I will not hate the Germans." Her love is gritty and practical. I reread this text regularly for insight.
Mon livre de chevet depuis mes 14 ans , un éveil spirituel avec des mots de tous les jours , une démonstration d amour et de courage au plus sombre de l histoire. Cela commence comme un journal intime de jeune femme et se termine en l un des ouvrages spirituels les plus importants du 20e siècle
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Esther 'Etty' Hillesum was a young Jewish woman whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943 describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation. They were published posthumously in 1981, before being translated into English in 1983.
Etty spent her childhood years in Middelburg, Hilversum (1914–16), Tiel (1916–18), Winschoten (1918–24) and Deventer, from July 1924 on, where she entered...more
More about Etty Hillesum...
Etty spent her childhood years in Middelburg, Hilversum (1914–16), Tiel (1916–18), Winschoten (1918–24) and Deventer, from July 1924 on, where she entered...more
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“It is sheer hell in this house. I would have to be quite a writer to describe it properly. Anyhow, I sprang from the chaos and it is my business to pull myself out of it.”
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4 people liked it
“Sometimes I long for a convent cell, with the sublime wisdom of centuries set out on bookshelves all along the wall and a view across the cornfields--there must be cornfields and they must wave in the breeze--and there I would immerse myself in the wisdom of the ages and in myself. Then I might perhaps find peace and clarity. But that would be no great feat. It is right here, in this very place, in the here and the now, that I must find them. ”
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4 people liked it
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