Etty Hillesum an Interrupted Life 1996 Term Paper

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Etty Hillesum's book An Interrupted Life is about a woman who is growing up in times of turmoil and despair. Reading a book that centers round the Holocaust, the reader knows that the woman's story will undoubtedly end in tragedy. Yet, when reading the book, the shadow of the impending future does not allow the woman's hope or faith to diminish. For those people who will never know the same kind of fear that Hillsum must have experienced in the concentration camps, her story makes us feel that we are extremely fortunate in our own lives. God willing we will never know the same kind of terror that Hillesum and her family were exposed to. We will more than likely not starve or work ourselves to death in the bitter cold or fear if it is our turns to be sent to the gas chamber for a "shower." Any problems we have just pale in comparison to hers. What makes her story so amazing is that even with all the violence and death and human degradation she was forced to witness, Etty Hillesum still held on tight to her faith in God. Her story inspires other people to continue believing and to persevere in times of trouble.

The beginning of the diaries introduces the reader to Hillesum. She is a direct woman who is full of life and enjoys her body and her soul and understands how the two are intertwined.

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This changes abruptly when the dangers of living in Holland begin to affect her life. "It is the problem of our age: hatred of Germans poisons everyone's mind" (11). Her initial impression of the group that would eventually murder her is that people hate them erroneously. She believes that though the German government may be in the wrong with their policies, it is still wrong to categorize them all as villains. If there is even one decent German person in the world, then hating them all is a sin. This is an important lesson Hillesum teaches to the readers of her diary, that it is easy to stereotype a whole group of people because of the actions of some of them; but, in doing so, the victims of the Holocaust become guilty of the same stereotyping as their enemies.

Much of the story concerns Hillesum's relationship with a man referred to only as S. She struggles with her feelings towards him, just as she struggles with her feelings of anger towards the Germans and her unfair treatment because she happens to be of the Jewish faith and heritage. Hillesum is a very sexual being, as evidenced in her descriptions of her erotic encounters with this same S. Although she feels….....

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"Etty Hillesum An Interrupted Life 1996" (2011, August 20) Retrieved June 5, 2026, from
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