Etty Hillesum's Complete Diaries Published by Seuil

The French publisher Éditions du Seuil has released the complete edition of Etty Hillesum's diaries and letters, previously only published in excerpts in the 1980s. The eleven notebooks, written from March 1941 to October 1942 by the 27-year-old Jewish woman, document the inexorable progression of the Holocaust. Beyond literary value, the writings offer a concrete understanding of sainthood through a 20th-century inner experience. Hillesum, who read Christian authors and the New Testament, has not been beatified by any church. The diaries describe her work with the controversial Jewish Council in Amsterdam, her decision not to flee but to accompany deportees to Westerbork transit camp, and her eventual death at Auschwitz alongside her parents and brother. A central figure is the psychoanalyst Julius Spier, who practiced 'psychochirology' and engaged in perverse games with Hillesum, including sexual acts short of intercourse. Her complex view of men is detailed, as is her eventual turn toward God. The final pages describe deportation conditions and her prayer for both victims and executioners. Her last line: 'I have broken my body like bread and shared it among men.' The essay 'La Vie parfaite' by Catherine Millot (Gallimard) also examines Hillesum alongside Jeanne Guyon and Simone Weil.