Etty Hillesum quotes

Etty Hillesum photo

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Etty Hillesum

Birthdate: 15. January 1914
Date of death: 30. November 1943

Esther "Etty" Hillesum 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 killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. Wikipedia

Photo: Unknown photographer, GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL), Gahetna.nl etty hillesum / Public domain

Quotes Etty Hillesum

„It is sometimes hard to take in and comprehend, oh God, what those created in Your likeness do to each other in these disjointed days. But I no longer shut myself away in my room, God; I try to look things straight in the face, even the worst crimes, and to discover the small, naked human being amid the monstrous wreckage caused by man’s senseless deeds.“

— Etty Hillesum

„And if God does not help me to go on, then I shall have to help God.“

— Etty Hillesum

The surface of the earth is gradually turning into one great prison camp, and soon there will be nobody left outside. … I don't fool myself about the real state of affairs, and I've even dropped the pretense that I'm out to help others. I shall merely try to help God as best I can, and if I succeed in doing that, then I shall be of use to others as well. But I mustn't have heroic illusions about that either.
11 July 1942, p. 484-85
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

„There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then He must be dug out again.“

— Etty Hillesum

26 August 1941, p. 91
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

„Dear God, these are anxious times. Tonight for the first time I lay in the dark with burning eyes as scene after scene of human suffering passed before me. I shall promise You one thing, God, just one very small thing: I shall never burden my today with cares about my tomorrow, although that takes some practice. Each day is sufficient unto itself. I shall try to help You, God, to stop my strength ebbing away, though I cannot vouch for it in advance. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear to me: that You cannot help us, that we must help You to help ourselves. And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves. And perhaps in others as well. Alas, there doesn't seem to be much You Yourself can do about our circumstances, about our lives. Neither do I hold You responsible. You cannot help us, but we must help You and defend Your dwelling place inside us to the last.“

— Etty Hillesum

12 July 1942, p. 488-89
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

Help, Time, Suffering, God

„Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.“

— Etty Hillesum

„My ideas hang on me like outsize clothes into which I still have to grow. My mind lags behind my intuition.“

— Etty Hillesum

„I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.“

— Etty Hillesum

„The inner world is as real as the outer world. One ought to be conscious of that. It, too, has its landscape, contours, possibilities, its boundless regions.“

— Etty Hillesum

„I am ready for everything, for anywhere on this earth, wherever God may send me, and I am ready to bear witness in any situation and unto death that life is beautiful and meaningful and that it is not God’s fault that things are as they are at present, but our own.“

— Etty Hillesum

Beauty, Death, Life, God

„That is probably the hardest thing a person can learn, as I so often find in others (and in myself as well in the past) to forgive one’s own mistakes and lapses.“

— Etty Hillesum

Personality, Learning, Past, Forgiveness

„I really see no other solution than to turn inwards and to root out all the rottenness there. I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we first change ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned.“

— Etty Hillesum

Change, Learning, World

„The sky is full of birds, the purple lupins stand up so regally and peacefully, two little old women have sat down on the box for a chat, the sun is shining on my face — and right before our eyes, mass murder. The whole thing is simply beyond comprehension.“

— Etty Hillesum

8 June 1943, p. 602
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

Box, Sun, Bird, Women

„Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.“

— Etty Hillesum

Peaceful, Peace, World

„Sometimes my day is crammed full of people and talk and yet I have the feeling of living in utter peace and quiet. And the tree outside my window, in the evenings, is a greater experience than all those people put together.“

— Etty Hillesum

Tree, Feeling, Peace, People

„Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.“

— Etty Hillesum

Source: Lettres De Westerbork

„Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.“

— Etty Hillesum

„And if God does not help me to go on, then I shall have to help God. — The surface of the earth is gradually turning into one great prison camp, and soon there will be nobody left outside. … I don't fool myself about the real state of affairs, and I've even dropped the pretense that I'm out to help others. I shall merely try to help God as best I can, and if I succeed in doing that, then I shall be of use to others as well. But I mustn't have heroic illusions about that either.“

— Etty Hillesum

11 July 1942, p. 484-85
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

Help, Fools, God

„Through me course wide rivers and in me rise tall mountains. And beyond the thickets of my agitation and confusion there stretch the wide plains of my peace and surrender. All landscapes are within me. And there is room for everything. The earth is in me, and the sky. And I well know that something like hell can also be in one, though I no longer experience it in myself, but I can still feel it in others with great intensity. And that is as it should be, or else I might grow too complacent.“

— Etty Hillesum

Feeling, Hell, Peace, Mountain

„We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.“

— Etty Hillesum

„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.“

— Etty Hillesum

Age, Wisdom, Peace

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