Etty Hillesum: a "heart thinking"
"In recent times happened to me in the street or wherever I was, to stop for a moment of breath and of having to ask: is this really my life? So full, so rich, so intense and so beautiful ?"...
"This afternoon, listening to Beethoven, I suddenly had to bow their heads and pray for those who are obliged to stop in icy concentration camps, I prayed to God to give them the strength to remember the happy moments of their lives, just like me in difficult moments, I will remember this day and many days last year, and I will draw the strength I need, try to avoid resentment toward life. We must ensure the strength to grow every day, that endure the times to come. "
"My God, these times are so distressing. Last night I was awake in the dark with eyes that burned in front of me passed images with images of human pain (...). I will try to help you so that you will not be destroyed inside of me, but I can not promise anything in advance. One thing is becoming increasingly clear to me, and that is that you can not help us, but we have to help yourself, and thereby help ourselves. The only thing we can save in these times, and also the only one that really counts, is a small piece of you in ourselves, my God (...). Almost every beat of my heart, my confidence grows: you can not help, but it is up to us to help you defend your home until the last in us.
There are people who care about the last minute to salvage vacuum, forks and spoons silver, instead of saving you, my God, and others, which are now reduced to mere repositories of many fears and sorrows, they want at all costs to save your body. They say: I do not get me. Forgetting that you can not be in the clutches of anyone if you are in your arms. "
Middelburg (Netherlands) January 15, 1914 - November 30, 1943 Auschwitz
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