A mystic's disposition toward Atrocity: Etty Hillesum (1941-1943)
The following quotes are taking from a collection of the journals and letters of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jewish mystic who recorded her life in depth, in the months leading up to her deportation to a transit camp, then to a death camp where she was murdered by the Nazis. Her writings reveal how she viewed her fate; the fate of Jews collectively; her ideas of love and hate, and most importantly, how she prepared herself mentally and spiritually for the ordeal she knew was to come. I take her writings as a guide in today's parallel universe of global chaos, the rise of fascism, and extreme barbarity. Her body may have been killed, but her voice wasn't stilled; her spirit not defeated. "More arrests, more terror, concentration camps, the arbitrary dragging off of fathers, sisters, brothers. We seek the meaning of life, wondering whether any meaning can be left. But that is something each one of us much settle with himself and with God. And perhaps life has its ...
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