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Ethics as Transformative Love: The Moral World of Etty Hillesum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Francis T. Hannafey
Francis T. Hannafey
Affiliation:
Fairfield University
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Abstract

Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew who died at Auschwitz at the age of twenty-nine, left behind a diary and letters written during the last two years of her life. In An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork, Hillesum tells a deeply moving story of religious experience, evil and suffering, spiritual growth, and interior and exterior moral transformation. While current scholarship on Hillesum focuses almost entirely on her personal life and religious journey, this essay examines the moral vision that emerges in her writings. Hillesum's diaries and letters present an engaging vision of the moral life—one that points with clarity to the importance of love of God and love of neighbor. This essay proposes that a love ethic is at the center of Hillesum's worldview and examines major influences on her religious and moral thought.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Spring 2001 , pp. 68 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 2001

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References

1 I am especially grateful to my colleagues Nancy A. Dallavalle, Elizabeth A. Dreyer, Andrew J. Garavel, S.J., and to anonymous Horizons reviewers, for their helpful suggestions to improve this essay. An early version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics in Arlington, Virginia, January 8, 2000. I wish to thank those present who offered recommendations for improvement.

2 O'Connor, Elizabeth, “The Thinking Heart: A Feminine Spirituality From the Holocaust,” Sojourners 14/9 (October 1985): 41.Google Scholar

3 See, e.g., Aggeler, Maureen, “Women's Metaphors For Freedom,” Supplement to The Way 74 (Summer 1992): 20–30Google Scholar; Bedient, Calvin, “Outward from the Camps Themselves” in Martyrs: Contemporary Writers on Modern Lives of Faith, ed. Bergman, Susan (San Francisco: Harper, 1996), 169–81Google Scholar; Weinstein, Bernard, “Etty Hillesum's An Interrupted Life: Searching for the Human” in The Netherlands and Nazi Genocide, ed. Jan Colijn, G. and Littell, Marcia S. (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992).Google Scholar For useful studies of the importance of writing and the spiritual life in Hillesum's life and work, see Costa, Denise De, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality, tr. Hoyinck, Mischa F. C. and Chesal, Robert E. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; see also Brenner, Rachel Felday, Writing As Resistance: Four Women Confroning the Holocaust (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997).Google Scholar

4 See, e.g., Baum, Gregory, “The Witness of Etty Hillesum, The Ecumenist 23 (January-February 1985): 24–28Google Scholar; Beattie, Tina, “Love Without Limit,” The Tablet 253 (24 July 1999): 1014–15Google Scholar; Cunningham, Lawrence S., “Letters From The Kingdom of Night: The Legacy of Etty Hillesum,” Commonweal 114 (22 May 1987): 316–18Google Scholar; Gaillardetz, Richard R., “Etty Hillesum: Suffering and Sexuality, Reflections on Passionate Living,” Spirituality 6 (May/June 2000): 148–52.Google Scholar

5 A number of authors have studied the transformative development in Hillesum's writings. These studies have directed most of their attention to the personal, religious, and spiritual changes discernable in these documents. See, e.g., Cannato, Judy, “Transformation in Etty Hillesum: From Chaos To Order,” Spiritual Life 40 (Summer 1994): 88–96Google Scholar; Downey, Michael, “A Balm for All Wounds: The Spiritual Legacy of Etty Hillesum,” Spirituality Today 40 (Spring 1988): 18–35Google Scholar; Liebert, Elizabeth, “The Thinking Heart: Developmental Dynamics in Etty Hillesum's Diaries,” Pastoral Psychology 43/6 (1995): 393–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Hillesum, Etty, An Interrupted Life and Letters From Westerbork (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), 44.Google Scholar Throughout this essay, references to the diaries and letters will be drawn from this volume that brings these documents together under one cover in English translation. References to Hillesum's writings will be cited as from the diaries or letters.

7 Diaries, 28.

8 Ibid., 135.

9 Ibid., 3.

10 Ibid., 7.

11 Ibid., 8, 26.

12 Ibid., 64.

13 Ibid., 66.

14 Ibid., 70.

15 Ibid., 33.

16 Ibid., 53.

17 Ibid., 63.

18 Ibid., 66.

19 Ibid., 84.

20 Ibid., 89.

21 Ibid., 110.

22 Ibid., 195.

23 Ibid., 71.

24 Ibid., 92.

25 Ibid., 95.

26 Ibid., 129.

27 Ibid., 129.

28 Ibid., 130.

29 Ibid., 130.

30 Ibid., 11, 97.

31 Ibid., 109.

32 Ibid., 180–81. On various occasions, Hillesum describes conversations shared with friends about hate of those persecuting the Jewish people. In one diary entry, Hillesum recalls a conversation shared with her friend Klaas Smelik, during which she explains her view that hate leads only to moral chaos. She observes, “[w]e shan't get anywhere with hatred, Klaas” (Diaries, 210). Further, “we shouldn't even be thinking of hating our so-called enemies” (Diaries, 211). She told Klaas that “every atom of hate we add to this world makes it still more inhospitable” (Diaries, 212).

33 Penzenstadler, Joan, “Attentive to Transcendence: The Life of Etty Hillesum” in Wagering on Transcendence: The Search for Meaning in Literature, ed. Carey, Phyllis (Kansas City, MO: Sheed and Ward, 1997), 43.Google Scholar

34 Diaries, 198.

35 Ibid., 204. Further, Hillesum writes, “I have learned to love Westerbork.” See Diaries, 205.

36 Ibid., 209. In this same entry, Hillesum also writes that in the camp she has still discovered “how lovely and worth living and just—yes, just—life really is.” See Diaries, 209.

37 Ibid., 223.

38 Ibid., 227.

39 Ibid., 216.

40 Ibid., 218.

41 Ibid., 208.

42 Letters, 250. This letter was composed in Amsterdam (18 December 1942), and is one of two letters by Hillesum that were published illegally by the Dutch Resistance in 1943. In it, Hillesum responds to a request to describe in some detail life at Westerbork.

43 Ibid., 256. This reference appears at the conclusion of the letter composed in Amsterdam, 18 December 1942, cited above.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid. See also 1 Cor 13.

46 Ibid., 334. This is a fragment of a letter to Father Han and others, undated, after 18 August 1943.

47 Ibid., 287. This letter written from Westerbork is addressed to Little Father Han, Kathe, Maria, Hans, and is dated 29 June 1943.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid., 294. This letter written from Westerbork (3 July 1943) is addressed to Jopie, Klaas, and to “dear friends.”

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid., 323. This letter from Westerbork (7 August 1943) is addressed to Maria.

52 Judy Cannato, “Transformation in Etty Hillesum: From Chaos to Order,” 95.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Hauerwas, Stanley, “Love's Not All You Need” in Vision and Virtue: Essays in Christian Ethical Reflection (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 126.Google Scholar

56 See, e.g., the Diaries, 108, 110, 213, 215. In these entries, Hillesum refers to her reading of this Gospel or quotes parts of the biblical text directly.

57 See, e.g., Diaries, 66. See also Matthew 22:37–40.

58 See Diaries, 67, 98, 201, 212.

59 See Diaries, 112, 113, 114, 115.

60 See Diaries, 134, 139, 146, 228.

61 Diaries, 228.

62 Pope, Stephen J., in a helpful study of love in contemporary Christian ethics, uses these terms to describe various approaches to love ethics. See his “Love in Contemporary Christian Ethics,” Journal of Religious Ethics 23/1 (Spring 1995): 167–97.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., 167; 181–83.