Etty Hillesum

Esther “Etty” Hillesum was born in Middelburg, the Netherlands. At age eighteen, Hillesum enrolled in university in Amsterdam, earning her degree in law before moving on to study Russian. Her letters and diaries, which she began writing in 1941, detail life in Amsterdam and at the Westerbork transit camp during the German occupation. In 1943, Hillesum, her parents, and her brother were sent from Westerbork to Auschwitz and murdered.