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FALLING FOR ETTY HILLESUM

FALLING FOR ETTY HILLESUM Common Knowledge 12:2 DOI 10.1215/0961754X-2005-007 © 2006 by Duke University Press ful doctor (S.) engages the affections of his troubled patient (Etty) to convince himself of his ascendancy, her dependence. How odd, then, that Etty Hillesum takes this almost paradigmatic scene of paternal seduction and reads it instead as a scene of instruction. In a diary begun in March 1941, the month in which Woolf decided to kill herself (in part because of a threatened Nazi invasion of England), what was it that inspired Etty Hillesum to initiate—through therapy with a man some take to be a guru, others a charlatan—a spiritual alteration enabling her to face political circumstances that, she knew, would result eventually in her own demise? For Etty Hillesum, as for Virginia Woolf, a diary provided the opportunity to “get nearer feelings” that were elsewhere inexpressible.3 The genre’s consolations were clearly a boon during a period when the Jewish people were being targeted for extermination and Etty Hillesum was becoming increasingly aware of her impending removal to the transit camp in Holland from which she, along with 100,000 other Jews, would be deported to Poland. Less a Holocaust testimonial and more an introspective meditation by http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

FALLING FOR ETTY HILLESUM

Gubar, Susan
Common Knowledge , Volume 12 (2) – Apr 1, 2006
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2006 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-2005-007
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Common Knowledge 12:2 DOI 10.1215/0961754X-2005-007 © 2006 by Duke University Press ful doctor (S.) engages the affections of his troubled patient (Etty) to convince himself of his ascendancy, her dependence. How odd, then, that Etty Hillesum takes this almost paradigmatic scene of paternal seduction and reads it instead as a scene of instruction. In a diary begun in March 1941, the month in which Woolf decided to kill herself (in part because of a threatened Nazi invasion of England), what was it that inspired Etty Hillesum to initiate—through therapy with a man some take to be a guru, others a charlatan—a spiritual alteration enabling her to face political circumstances that, she knew, would result eventually in her own demise? For Etty Hillesum, as for Virginia Woolf, a diary provided the opportunity to “get nearer feelings” that were elsewhere inexpressible.3 The genre’s consolations were clearly a boon during a period when the Jewish people were being targeted for extermination and Etty Hillesum was becoming increasingly aware of her impending removal to the transit camp in Holland from which she, along with 100,000 other Jews, would be deported to Poland. Less a Holocaust testimonial and more an introspective meditation by

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Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2006

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