Pages:
430
Original
date of publication: 1982
My
edition: 2010
Why
I decided to read:
How
I acquired my copy: September 2011, Persephone shop
I’ve
been putting off and putting off writing a review of An Interrupted Life,
mostly because I wanted everything to sink in and also because I really didn’t
know what to say about this wonderful, albeit heartbreaking book. There I go
again, using clichés to describe this book, but I loved it from start to
finish.
Etty
Hillesum was born in January 1914 in Holland and lived in Amsterdam working as
a translator of Russian and Russian teacher. Even still she aspired to be a
writer, and kept a journal to that effect during WWII. As a Jew, Etty’s life
became increasingly circumscribed by the restrictions placed upon her; she was
later given a job as a typist in the Jewish Council, an organization that
sought to mediate between the Nazis and Dutch Jews. Etty later volunteered to
help accompany Jews to Westerbork, a detention camp that was the last stop to
Auschwitz; and eventually ended up in Westerbork herself.
Etty’s
journals and letters cover the period of November 1941-summer 1943, several
months after she met Dr. Julius Spier, a Jungian psychoanalyst who figures
largely in her journals as both a friend and mentor. Etty was outgoing and
social in real life, yet her journals show a rich internal life as well, one in
which Etty was given to a lot of introspective thought. Etty was well read and
intelligent, and she had knowledge of not only literature but of psychology as
well (she is constantly reading Jung and Remarque throughout). Every single
page of her book is filled with insights both from her head and about the world
around her. She was skilled at questioning herself, of criticizing what she
knew. As the diary progresses, therefore, we start to see how Etty embraces her
self-doubt and fears. The result is an acceptance of what she knew would happen
to her eventually.
At
one point she wonders if it was escapist of her to look so much into herself
when the outside world eclipsed individuals’ lives; her answer was no. I think
one of the most powerful lessons of Etty’s diary is that she thought it was
important for people to look inwardly, to wage the war within first. Even at
Westerbork, her writings about life in the camp are matter-of-fact, rational. As
an effect of insights like this and many others, Etty’s diary is electrifying
in its intensity. I thought the diary portion of this book was much stronger
than the letters she wrote from Westerbork; her letters are more trivial and
give you less of a sense of who Etty was.
This
is Persephone no. 5.
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