Brandt Etty Hillesum

ETTY HILLESUM AND HER “CATHOLIC WORSHIPPERS”:
A PLEA FOR A MORE CRITICAL APPROACH TO ETTY
HILLESUM’S WRITINGS*
Copyright 2011. Brill.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.
Ria van den Brandt
(Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
“The reception of Etty Hillesum is clearly a complicated story,” Solange
Leibovici declares in a Dutch newspaper.1 In the same text—a comment on Sylvie Germain’s Etty Hillesum2 and De moed hebben tot zichzelf
(“Having the Courage towards Oneself”) by Ton Jorna, Denise de
Costa and Marijn ten Holt3—Leibovici presents a simplification of this
complex story. According to Leibovici, from the beginning Hillesum’s
texts arrived at “the wrong quarter,” meaning: “predominantly Catholics and former Catholics, followers of mystical movements or at least
people seeking religious and ethical principles appropriate to presentday life.” Leibovici remarks that the readers of Etty Hillesum are not
Jewish and that her diaries have been received in Jewish circles “with
suspicion and even hostility,” certainly by the Jewish commentator
Henriëtte Boas.4 Leibovici herself looks at Etty Hillesum’s personality
from a more psycho-analytical perspective, namely as “a fascinating
woman, full of contradictions, a glutton, hysterical, hypochondriacal,
* This article is a revision of my Dutch article “Etty Hillesum en haar ‘katholieke
vereerders’: Pleidooi voor een meer kritische benadering van een bijzonder document,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, Etty Hillesum Studies 1, eds. Ria van den Brandt
& Klaas A.D. Smelik (Budel: Damon, 2003), 57–75. The revised text is translated by
Erik Dyckhoff.
1
Solange Leibovici, “De belle juive: Etty Hillesum als Soefi-meesteres,” De Groene
Amsterdammer (19 January 2000) [the quotations are translated from Dutch into
English].
2
Sylvie Germain, Etty Hillesum, Chemins d’éternité (Paris: Pygmalion 1999). Dutch
translation: Etty Hillesum: Een spirituele biografie (Amsterdam: Balans, 2001).
3
Ton Jorna, Denise de Costa & Marijn ten Holt, De moed hebben tot zichzelf: Etty
Hillesum als inspiratiebron bij levensvragen (Utrecht: Kwadraat, 1999).
4
Cf. Henriëtte Boas, “Etty Hillesum in niet-joodse en joodse ogen,” in: Neveh
Ya‘akov: Jubilee Volume presented to Dr. Jaap Meijer on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, eds.
Lea Dasberg & Jonathan N. Cohen (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1982), 255–279. Regarding
the Jewish reception of Etty Hillesum in the Netherlands in general, see: Piet Schrijvers, “Etty Hillesum in joodse contexten,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 37–55.
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Conference at Ghent University, November 2008
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someone with an obsessive, almost masochistic, passivity, but also with
an incredible lust for life, and with an enormous sexual drive and
curiosity.” Choosing to live being “the ultimate and only form of resistance” according to Leibovici, Etty Hillesum chose death.
Leibovici’s evaluation of both Etty Hillesum’s œuvre and its reception is based on a clear supposition, namely: life has “objectively no
meaning.” With that, the literary critic ridicules in advance every
religious or ethical discourse about Etty Hillesum. Leibovici criticizes
both the half-hearted canonization by her “Catholic worshippers” and
the interest in Hillesum shown by Dutch humanistic circles. Leibovici
does not even accept the more humanistic approach, Etty Hillesum’s
writings as a “source of inspiration concerning vital questions.” She
thinks that all tendencies to paint Etty Hillesum as “guru, Zen teacher,
Sufi master, high priest and cult figure of the New Age movement” are
to be rejected. While busily condemning the more religious as well as
the humanistic reception of Etty Hillesum’s work, Leibovici ironically
ignores the complexity she herself observes. To obtain insight in one
of the aspects of this complexity, I direct my attention in this contribution to a number of publications from Dutch and Flemish authors of
Catholic theological origin during the nineties of the last century.
Twofold “Canonizing”
The reception of Etty Hillesum in Dutch-language Catholic theological discourses5 happened in a twofold partly overlapping manner. We
can distinguish a so-called double ‘canonization.’ On the one hand,
Etty Hillesum’s legacy has been inscribed in mystical canons, on the
other hand her work has been inscribed in feminine canons as a
work of empowerment.6 An example of the first form of ‘canonization’
5
The terminology ‘Catholic theological discourses’ is not to be interpreted in a
strict sense. It is not referring to severe orthodox Roman-Catholic discourses, but
rather to spiritual reflections, written by Dutch and Flemish authors, disciplinary
trained in Roman-Catholic theology.
6
At all events, the works of Etty Hillesum have also got this significance of empowerment in the Italian and American reception. See the contributions by Gerrit Van Oord
(“Italiaans enthousiasme: Het dagboek van Etty Hillesum in Italië”) and Anouta de
Groot (“Aandacht voor identiteit, spiritualiteit en verbondenheid: Centrale thema’s in
de Amerikaanse literatuur over Etty Hillesum”) in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 111–127,
129–151.
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is the title of the book of theologian and journalist Arjan Broers: Van
Hadewych tot Hillesum: Dwarsliggers in naam van God (“From Hadewych to
Hillesum: Troublemakers in the Name of God”). This publication was
combined with a Dutch television series about mystics.7 An example of
the second form of ‘canonization’ is God in de beleving van vrouwen (“God
in the experience of women”), a work written by the theologian Annie
Imbens-Fransen.8 This theologian wrote her study after many years of
counselling women and noticing the frequently negative influence of
patriarchal images of God on women’s self-experience and self-esteem.
She pleas for a ‘spirituality of women,’ that is to say: a spirituality that
is experienced, depicted or expressed by women and having a rulebreaking, humanizing and liberating value. In that specific context,
the work of Etty Hillesum acts as an example of empowerment: reading Etty Hillesum’s positive personal and religious development could
yield ‘new impulses’ for women to give life ‘meaning and direction’ in
their own way.
It should be noted, by the way, that in the Dutch-language cultural
domain Etty Hillesum’s writings are especially popular among women.
Indeed, Etty Hillesum seems to be—as Gerrit Van Oord postulates
about the Italian reception of Etty Hillesum—a “female affair”9 and
in fact theologians prove this rule. Within theological faculties, a strikingly high number of master theses about Etty Hillesum are written by
women.10 It is obvious that female students of theology identify more
often with texts written by Etty Hillesum than their male colleagues
do. Etty Hillesum’s texts sometimes seem to be a primary source of
inspiration for female theologians and form an essential part of the
7
Arjan Broers, Van Hadewych tot Hillesum: Dwarsliggers in naam van God (Baarn: Ten
Have, 2002). This publication, although published in 2002, can be considered as representative of the nineties. Cf. the chapter about Etty Hillesum: 125–131. The Dutch
television series was broadcasted by the KRO (= Katholieke Radio Omroep).
8
Annie Imbens-Fransen, God in de beleving van vrouwen (Kampen: Kok, 1995). See
the text about Etty Hillesum: 60–64.
9
“Etty Hillesum in Italy: A Female Affair.” Title of Gerrit Van Oord’s lecture at
the conference Lire Etty Hillesum in Metz (4–6 April 2002). Cf. Van Oord, “Italiaans
enthousiasme.”
10
For example: T.G.M.G. Brouns-Wewerinke, Liefhebben in vrijheid: Het volkomen leven
van Etty Hillesum (thesis Theology, Catholic University Tilburg, 1985); A. Lagerwey,
Een vrije vogel vogelvrij: Etty Hillesum: spiritualiteit in dialoog? (thesis Theology, Catholic Theological Institute Amsterdam, 1986) and J. van der Molen, Goed en Kwaad: Een studie
naar de vraag in hoeverre dagboekschrijfster Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) in haar denken over goed
en kwaad geïnspireerd en beïnvloed is door literatuur van psychiater Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961)
(thesis Theology, University of Amsterdam, 2001).
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personal canon of many women. Concerning this form of canonization, the theologian Jonneke Bekkenkamp remarks : “Women/human
beings need stories that give sense and cohesion to their life, stories that
contribute to the formation of their identity, stories that can be read
‘religiously’ without them at first being obliged to decode or translate.”
According to Bekkenkamp, “texts of faith” are “texts or books that
inspire, that express a value of faith, that possess a kind of ‘revelation
merit.’ ”11 The posthumous work of Etty Hillesum possesses, in that
sense, a ‘revelatory power,’ not only limited to women and/or theologians. The theologian Maria ter Steeg points out that the writings
of Etty Hillesum are also highly attractive to young people who, like
Etty Hillesum, were not socialized or educated in a religious way. She
writes: “The sources are not opened to them. They learned neither the
words nor the symbols, which give direction and expression to certain
experiences. They experience ‘something’ (something ‘more’, something ‘greater’ ) and they cannot name it, it remains ‘anonymous’.”12
The texts of Etty Hillesum offer them a tool, a religious vocabulary
that articulates their experiences.
Most of the Dutch-language Catholic theological authors of the
1990’s confine themselves to a retelling of Hillesum’s spiritual journey,
considering the Christian or mystical tradition as the most important
referential framework for interpretation. Frequently, their writings
appear to be strongly motivated exegeses of Etty Hillesum’s texts as
a bible du savoir vivre for a broad circle of readers, where secondary
literature about Etty Hillesum does not play an important role. Many
of these theologians refer again and again to the first selection of texts
by Etty Hillesum, the edition of Het verstoorde leven (‘The Interrupted
Life’ ),13 even after the Dutch publication of the complete and scholarly
edition in 1986.
11
J. Bekkenkamp, Canon en keuze: Het bijbelse Hooglied en de Twenty-one love poems van
Adrienne Rich als bronnen van theologie (Kampen: Kok Agora, 1993), 46, n. 1. [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.]
12
M. ter Steeg, “Etty Hillesum,” in: M. ter Steeg, and others, De verlokking van de
liefde: Eenzaamheid en erotiek bij mystieke vrouwen (Aalsmeer: Dabar/Luyten, 1994), 26.
[The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.]
13
Etty Hillesum, Het verstoorde leven: Dagboek van Etty Hillesum 1941–1943 (Haarlem:
De Haan, 1981). Regarding the peculiarities of this publication, see the contribution
of Geurt Gaarlandt in this volume. Cf. also Klaas A.D. Smelik, “Gedenken is doen:
Van een bundel cahiers tot een wereldwijde publicatie,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten,
21–35, esp. 26–29.
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The publication of the Het verstoorde leven was an overwhelming success, but it was also a very selective and suggestive one, feeding hagiographic clichés of Etty Hillesum. Most Dutch and Flemish theological
authors, reading the introduction of Het verstoorde leven, accepted the
alleged biographical facts, which fit well with the aura of a female
mystic. And many of them stated—as if they had known Etty Hillesum
personally—that ‘Etty’ (not: Etty Hillesum or Hillesum, but always:
Etty) followed her “summons” for Camp Westerbork “without hesitation,” that she was a “shining personality” in Camp Westerbork and
that she had consciously chosen—as a real martyr—her own death.14
She acted like a female sacrificing mystic: she went, completely selfless, full of God and divine love, her sacrificing way of compassion.
Hillesum’s historical and complicated biography was reduced to a
manageable and simplified framework: she became a two-dimensional
cliché. This paradigm implicitly informed many theological discourses
and hampered—for some time—a critical and scholarly reception of
Etty Hillesum’s texts. In the following paragraphs, I pay attention to
a number of Catholic theological discourses that approach and articulate Hillesum’s work from within the referential framework of Christian mysticism.
14
Cf. Gaarlandt’s introduction in: Het verstoorde leven, 8. Whoever studies the texts of
the integral edition, will be confronted with very different comments of Etty Hillesum
about her future. Next to texts about the certainty of her death are many other texts
about her future and her expectations. Based on her textual heritance we cannot postulate—as Leibovici does without any reticence—that Etty Hillesum wittingly made
the choice to die. See the contribution of Manja Pach in this volume and of the same
author: “Een dierbaar woord uit het werk van Etty Hillesum: ‘later,’ ” in: Praktische
Humanistiek 9 (1999) 1, 47–51, esp. 49: “Although Etty Hillesum is convinced that the
national-socialists aim at destroying the Jews and she also reckons with enduring that
fate herself, she does not stop creating an image of a future for herself in a world
after the war: ‘after a great many years I’ll be a matron.’ ” See also Schrijvers, “Etty
Hillesum in Joodse contexten,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 49: “Contrary to some
allegations in the Dutch press [. . .] I do not believe that Etty completely understood
and could foresee the crimes the Nazi’s planned to offend the Jews. [. . .] It is impossible that she could completely imagine the reality of the total, systematic, industrial
genocide.” [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] A full discussion
of this topic can be found in: Klaas A.D. Smelik, “De keuze van Etty Hillesum om
niet onder te duiken,” in: Etty Hillesum in context, Etty Hillesum Studies 2, eds. Ria van
den Brandt & Klaas A.D. Smelik (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2007), 59–73.
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Etty Hillesum and the Christian Mystical Tradition
Dutch and Flemish theologians who explicitly use the mystical tradition as a referential framework, frequently consider ‘mysticism’ as a
way of criticizing dominant traditions of culture and religion. Mystical
experiences, they say, turn everything upside down. They consider
mystical texts as disturbers of order and breakers of dogma. The same
assumption is also present in the valuable text of the theologian Frans
Maas. In his study Spiritualiteit als inzicht: Mystieke teksten en theologische
reflecties (‘Spirituality as Insight: Mystical Texts and Theological Reflections’ ), he dedicates a chapter to Etty Hillesum.15 The other chapters
are dedicated to Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, Theresia of
Lisieux and Dag Hammarskjöld; Eckhart and Saint John defined as
being “great men of the mystical tradition,” Theresia of Lisieux and
Dag Hammarskjöld and Etty Hillesum as “readers of mystical literature.” Maas writes about the last three authors:
These three authors stand closer to us in time. Current questions of
meaning, especially concerning suffering, influence the framework in
which they viewed quality of life. While the last two are from Jewish
and Lutheran backgrounds respectively, they too can be seen as representative of the mystical tradition. In their writings, one can see an
unmistakable growth to an extraordinarily intensive experience of God
which enables them to face life with a more than ordinary power and
inspiration.
Maas defines a mystical text as
an expression in language of that which overflows from an overwhelming and life-changing experience. This experience interrupts the familiar
way of life. The language itself carries the traces of this interruption so
that: the idea of the unequivocal nature of language is no longer possible. Paradoxes and even contradictions become inevitable. Through
metaphor and the displacement of meaning, the text is stretched and
acquires the power to undermine our previously obvious understanding of how things are so that the new experience can accompany us.
In Christian mysticism, this experience is seen as related to God. This
15
Frans Maas, Spiritualiteit als inzicht: Mystieke teksten en theologische reflecties (Zoetermeer: Meinema, 1999). See the chapter concerning Etty Hillesum: 112–140, and the
introduction of this study: 12–19. This book was translated by Cia van Woezik & sr.
Magan Macrina Walker of Kooningsoord Abbey: Spirituality as Insight: Mystical Texts
and Theological Reflection (Leuven: Peeters, 2004). Chapter concerning Etty Hillesum:
112–145; introduction of this study: 1–13.
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new experience of existence which comes to us through the text can
take on many contours: a consciousness of overwhelming abundance, of
being transformed, being fully alive with hardly anything to sustain us,
an intense desire, an unprecedented courage to withstand suffering and
adversity, thriving in a limitless love.
Mystical texts possess the ability to offer the reader insights about all
of existence:
These texts can speak to our often latent suspicions that our outlook
on our life’s project, of its purpose and meaning, although not untrue
is nevertheless only half the truth. These texts can magnify a crack in
our respectable existence, which we had hardly noticed until this point.
Through it, the light can shine. What was seen as good order, comes to
be seen in another light and becomes very relative.
According to Maas, this lighting and deregulating force is a characteristic of Hillesum’s work.
Hence, Maas’ referential framework for interpreting the writings
of Etty Hillesum is the Christian mystical canon, especially the above
mentioned authors. One could interpret this as a premature reduction of the text, but for Maas this form of canonization shows the
exceptional power of Hillesum’s writings: they bring about extreme
spiritual insights. These insights are by no means a confirmation of
proper order; they disturb the order, and show us the relativity of traditional truths. From this viewpoint, the ‘canonization’ of Etty Hillesum
in the mystical canon can signify a revitalization of religious insights.
This does not imply that Maas considers Hillesum a Christian mystic.
Hillesum’s thoughts obviously fit into a religious-anarchistic discourse.
Hence, Maas stresses that for Hillesum—as for Theresia of Lisieux
and Dag Hammarskjöld—images of God and doctrinal tradition are
not central themes. The role of the more traditional doctrines is in the
first place mediating: they make the power of faith accessible, without being the centre of faith. And in the case of Etty Hillesum, we
are, according to Maas, dealing with “the possibility of human dignity
exceeding natural forces.” And that “possibility of human dignity” is
the central point of his story about Etty Hillesum. Maas wants us to
see how Hillesum “out of her relation with God remains upright during the devastations of the holocaust.” The attitude of Etty Hillesum
towards suffering is, according to Maas, a mystic-inspired answer. In
the mystical tradition, such answers of great inner resistance to evil
are to be found and insights on the subject of “the quality of life” are
given. The writing of Etty Hillesum is a testimony to this.
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Maas offers us a valuable retelling of the diary and the letters, using
the Christian mystical tradition as a model for interpretation. The
theologian gives a detailed and delicate description of the personal
development of Etty Hillesum, at first indicating how Etty Hillesum
found an “inner form” by writing her diary. Secondly, he describes
“the religious dimension” of this inner form, referring to the resemblance between Meister Eckhart and Etty Hillesum, as other authors
did before him.16 Both Eckhart and Hillesum write about the divine
presence in the deepest layers of the soul. According to Maas, Etty
Hillesum belongs to the mystics who seek God in their innermost
being, and thus stands “in a sound mystical tradition.” The author
almost seamlessly interweaves the vocabulary of Etty Hillesum into
the vocabulary of a mystical process: the process of introspection, letting go, exercising, learning to kneel and pray, the discovery of God
within and the resulting power and love for all people. Maas describes
how Etty Hillesum mobilizes a firm inner strength and resistance in a
short time span. According to him, Hillesum’s inner resistance to suffering is constantly present in her writings. Hillesum’s answer to this
suffering—she does not choose hatred, but love—stands once more in
the mystical tradition. So Maas says, with a reference to the terminology of Meister Eckhart:
Etty is convinced that something—‘their better nature’—is present in
every human being, and that this is a strength that enables people not
to succumb to outward suppression. This is a conviction that she shares
with the mystical tradition, which refers to it as the soul, the ground of
the soul or the spark of the soul. That is where a person touches upon
God’s infinite love and power. Most people ignore this possibility within
themselves, this ‘deeper rhythm.’
It is her inner strength that makes Hillesum resistant against evil and
suffering. In his argument, the theologian stresses that Etty Hillesum
never loses sight of her sense of reality nor the “Suffering of Mankind.”
On the contrary, being in the mystical nearness of God and confronted
with the God-filled space in her soul, she can accept this reality and
16
See Loet Swart, “Etty Hillesum en de mystieke traditie,” in: ‘Men zou een pleister
op vele wonden willen zijn’: Reacties op de dagboeken en brieven van Etty Hillesum, ed. J.G.
Gaarlandt (Amsterdam: Balans, 1989), 133–145; Ria van den Brandt, “‘Ik heb hem
gebracht de schriften van Meister Eckehardt’: Het Eckhartbeeld van Etty Hillesum,”
De Gids 159 (1990), 3, 182–192.
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the “Suffering of Mankind,” and even more: she wants to be “a balm
for many wounds.” She becomes a fellow-bearer of the suffering.
The discourse of Maas fruitfully articulates the spiritual vocabulary of Etty Hillesum in the context of the Christian mystical canon
but also shows how his interpretation subtly creates an implicit myth
shaping of Etty Hillesum. The theologian starts his chapter on Hillesum with a citation about “dignified human suffering” and thereafter
poses that Etty Hillesum chose the “cruel fate” of the Jewish people.
Apart from the questionable validity of this supposition,17 his claim
produces a strong rhetorical effect. It evokes the image of a young
woman sacrificing herself and voluntarily choosing to suffer for her
people. A woman with a “boundless dedication to others,” regardless
of the threat of her own death. Maas reads and unintentionally interprets Hillesum’s legacy in the light of an implicit martyrdom and as an
interpreter goes ‘beyond’ the ambiguous textual data. He repeats this
very clearly, when he recalls a good deed attributed to Etty Hillesum.
He is confident that the person Etty Hillesum has indeed been “a balm
for many wounds” and dealt in the suffering of other people.18
Maas echoes without hesitation the hagiographic elements of the
introduction of Het verstoorde leven. That introduction has for some time
disturbed the critical sense of many interpreters and created clichés
of Hillesum. Many interpreters of the 1990’s had no further questions about the historical person and circumstances. There was no
critical and close reading of the (at that time available) complete and
scholarly edition of Hillesum’s work in Dutch and there was no dialogue with other (different) discourses on Hillesum. Therefore, Maas’
valuable text evokes a non-historical and simplified image of Hillesum.19 Unfortunately, this one-sided image undermines his nuanced
discourse on Hillesum’s attitude towards suffering. As I mentioned
before: underlying hagiographic clichés of the self-sacrificing Hillesum
have hampered for some time a more serious and scholarly reception of Hillesum’s rich and many-layered textual testimony. In public
debates, Catholic theologians have been often accused of Christian
Cf. note 14.
Hillesum herself (as ‘worker’ of the Jewish Council, in this way for some time
‘protected’ ) is not without self-criticism concerning her ‘helping’ role in Camp Westerbork. Moreover, not all witnesses of Camp Westerbork think highly of Hillesum’s
help.
19
Frans Maas assured me that it has not been his intention to create a hagiographic
image of Hillesum.
17
18
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appropriation of Hillesum’s legacy. The Dutch translation of Sylvie
Germain’s Etty Hillesum—a fascinating French study that nevertheless
evokes a rather hagiographic image of Hillesum in Camp Westerbork20—did not really help to nuance these public debates on Hillesum. Neither did the Dutch translation of Paul Lebeau’s interesting
Etty Hillesum: Un itinéraire spiritual (“Etty Hillesum: A Spiritual Search)
in which the Belgian Jesuit Lebeau compares (the meaningfulness
of ) Hillesum’s suffering with the (meaningfulness of the) suffering of
Christ.21 It is not unreasonable that some “Catholic worshippers” of
Etty Hillesum have been criticized. Nevertheless, valuable theological
discourses on Hillesum’s spirituality have been written.
Etty Hillesum and the Theme of Mystical Love
The theological retellings of Etty Hillesum within the referential framework of mystical traditions focus on the theme of love. Etty Hillesum’s
attitude toward life is not one of hatred, but of love. So for his booklet
about Etty Hillesum, published in 1993, the Flemish theologian Jos
Snijders chose the title: Ik heb zo lief (‘I love so much’ ).22 Snijders is convinced that a mystical experience was present in Hillesum’s life. For
him, a mystical experience is “the conscious, acute, passive experience
of God’s presence” and he recognizes this experience in Etty Hillesum’s life of prayer. Through divine touch and transformation, she
entered a process of release and unlimited loving at all times. Snijders
would not label Etty Hillesum a saint, but—concluding his story—
suggests a bit of a saint grew in her during this transformation.
A second example of attention to the theme of love in Etty Hillesum
is De verlokking van de liefde: Eenzaamheid en erotiek bij mystieke vrouwen (‘The
Enchantment of Love: Mystic Women’s Loneliness and Eroticism’ )
20
Cf. Ria van den Brandt, “Sylvie Germain, Etty Hillesum et le mal,” in: Mariska
Koopman-Thurlings (ed.), Sylvie Germain: Les essays, CRIN (Cahiers de recherches des
instituts néerlandais de langue et littérature française) vol. 56, 2010.
21
Paul Lebeau S.J., Etty Hillesum: Un itinéraire spirituel (Brussels: Éditions Racine,
1998), 225. Dutch translation: Etty Hillesum: Een spirituele zoektocht, tr. Jeroen De Keyser (Tielt: Lannoo & Baarn: Ten Have, 1999), 181. See also the contribution of Paul
Lebeau in this volume.
22
Jos Snijders, Ik heb zo lief: De menselijke en gelovige groei van Etty Hillesum (Averbode:
Altiora & ’s Hertogenbosch: KBS, 1993).
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from 1994.23 In this publication, Etty Hillesum appears as a mystic
between Hadewych, Teresa of Avila and the Song of Songs. The volume
was written by four female theologians. Though a definition of mysticism is missing in the introduction, the religion-critical aspect of mysticism is once again emphasized, namely that mystics mostly experience
“that the beaten tracks were flattened, and that religiosity so to say
had been degraded.” “Mystic persons,” according to the writers of the
introduction, are persons who “have been lured away from their safe
homes—their living patterns and models of imagination—and have
gone a new way. And they took their own responsibility for their love,
without having a safe and coherent framework of this love.”
While the introduction occasionally strikes a rather dramatic tone,
the chapter by the theologian Maria ter Steeg about Etty Hillesum
is marked by soberness. She states at the very beginning of her text
that—since the publication of the diary—there has been “a rather
exaggerated idolization” and she abstains from further beatification.
Although the context of the study stresses the notion of mysticism, this
notion is scarcely present in the vocabulary of this author. She does
not explicitly name Etty Hillesum a “mystic woman,” but admits—
following the conclusions of Loet Swart—that there are some mystical elements in her writings, such as the motive of replacement: the
willingness to take over or to share the suffering of other people. The
comparison of Etty Hillesum to a mystic such as Teresa of Avila is
justifiable, says Ter Steeg: the resemblances between both women are
greater than the differences. According to Ter Steeg, they resemble
each other in temperament and spiritual development. For both, eros,
the desire for love, is a central theme. In her chapter, the author pays
attention—along with other themes—to Hillesum’s notions of love.
According to Ter Steeg, Etty Hillesum, partly by the disciplining of
her sexual feelings, discovers the meaning of “transcendence,” namely:
“rise up, expect something more, something else than the usual.” And
so, concludes the author, Etty Hillesum at the end discovers a form
of love “not being something you get, or that you expect from other
people. But love is something that is inside yourself, available for others, in spite of these others being lovable or not.”
Ter Steeg, De verlokking van de liefde. See for citations of the introduction (written
by Lia Koppens, Piet Leenhouwers and Frans Maas): 6–8; see for citations of the
chapter by Maria ter Steeg about Etty Hillesum: 9–27. [The quotations are translated
from Dutch into English.]
23
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Ter Steeg does not explicitly connect her analysis of Hillesum’s love
to Hillesum’s religious experiences. The theologian Grietje Dresen, on
the contrary, makes this explicit connection in her essay “De vrijheid
van een grote liefde, of: De paradox van de overgave” (“The Freedom
of a Great Love, or: The Paradox of Surrender”).24 Her text explains
clearly the theological relevance of Hillesum’s spiritual legacy. Using
technical terms of the Christian mystical tradition, Dresen is able to
articulate the vocabulary of Etty Hillesum as having mystical potential, without annexing Hillesum’s world view as a Christian world
view. Based on the Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, Dresen
describes the phenomenon of the religious or the mystical surrender
(in French: abandon) and the theme of love.25 Next, she shows how this
mystical form of surrender is applicable to the narrated experiences
of Etty Hillesum. According to the Dictionnaire, Dresen says, real surrender arises from love.
Love does not only ask to let go from oneself, the own attachments,
but [is] a real donation, as is implied in the French word abandon [. . .].
The spiritual attitude of surrender is not just a rational letting go or setting free from the own attachments, originating from a stoical view on
avoiding suffering, but a generous gift or surrender of oneself, from the
confident conviction that the reality to which one has surrendered—in
the Dictionnaire called the will of God—finally aims at goodness, is set
out to be good.
Based on the Dictionnaire, Dresen stresses that in mystical surrender the
“purpose” exists to make room
in one’s own heart, for the activity of love as a higher or more vigorous
power; a power that comes to meet or conquer us, but is already present in the heart of ‘people of goodwill,’ and wanting to be roused. The
process of mystical surrender concerns not a unique action or development, but a laborious, lengthy process of learning to let go (one’s own
fears and anxieties), and at the same time a susceptibility (to the vocation
and the grace coming from outside). All mystical and spiritual literature
deal mainly with that process, that never goes automatically or without
struggle.
24
“De vrijheid van een grote liefde, of: De paradox van de overgave.” Introduction of Overgave in vriendschap, mystiek, lijden en politiek, ed. Greetje Dresen (Baarn: Gooi
& Sticht, 1998). This booklet was published, in collaboration with the Thomas More
Academy (Nijmegen). See for the citations of Greetje Dresen: 7–26. [The quotations
are translated from Dutch into English.]
25
The lemma ‘abandon’ can be found in the first volume of the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Ascétique et Mystique (Paris: Beauchesne & fils, 1937), 1–49.
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The consequences of this surrender are, according to the Dictionnaire,
not only detachment, but also freedom and joy and the mystical literature
witnesses this state of mind. Based on this description, Dresen concludes that Hillesum’s texts are about a religious and mystical form
of surrender. She considers Hillesum’s texts a great testimony of a
“difficult but impressive growth to surrender as an attitude toward
life.” The development experienced by Etty Hillesum can, according
to Dresen, be described as a progression from a situation in which
she is dominated by strong desires of physical nature, to a form of
mental surrender borne by love and compassion. Dresen says: “The
most striking feature in her writings is the combination of kneeling and
strength, of detachment and flooding of ‘that great feeling of love that
is in me.’ ” Utterances of Etty Hillesum that refer to an overflowing
feeling of love, are, according to Dresen, not signs of a stoic mind-set,
but of a mystical form of surrender, and Dresen interprets the gesture of kneeling as crucial. Just like Maas and others, Dresen refers to
the resemblance between Etty Hillesum and Meister Eckhart, as they
both talk about the unity with the divine being the deepest element
of the soul.
As previously stated, it was not Dresen’s aim to appropriate Hillesum’s thinking into the Christian tradition. Rather, she rather wanted
to articulate Hillesum’s attitude toward a life of surrender as a mystical
attitude.26 Dresen is very explicit in her thesis that Etty Hillesum’s
image of God is not reducible to a specific religious background and
that she was not at all oriented to the person of Jesus. According to
Dresen, Etty Hillesum’s unfinished image of God, among other things,
added to her popularity in the 1980’s, a period where familiar images
of God crumbled and new forms of spirituality became attractive again.
Positively stated, Etty Hillesum’s texts offered and offer room for new
religious vocabularies about the divine. Dresen gives an important
comment concerning the reception of Etty Hillesum. According to her,
the writings of Etty Hillesum could not really have become popular
in the first decades after the Second World War. The essential values
of emancipation, participation, autonomy and the making of society
26
This articulation of the mystic attitude can, of course, also be discussed on the
base of other vocabularies, perspectives and religious traditions. Cf. the contribution
of Frits Grimmelikhuizen in this volume and Yokohata’s essay on Hillesum’s image
in Japan, especially the Buddhist reception; cf. Yuhiko Yokohata, “Het beeld van Etty
Hillesum in Japan,” in: Etty Hillesum in context, 95–115, esp. 101–106. See also the
contribution of Meins Coetsier in this volume.
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probably would have collided with the values of love and surrender in
the texts of Etty Hillesum. Simultaneously, the after-the-war theological discourses were rather reluctant to talk about surrender, not only
because it could be a perversion within the Christian culture, but also
because the traditional ‘object’ of surrender, namely the will of God,
had become very problematic after Auschwitz. Dresen’s perception
(again) confronts the actual reader of Etty Hillesum with the question
of Hillesum’s relevance today. Is contemporary society in urgent need
of mystical stories about love and surrender? Is it necessary for theologians to interpret the story of Etty Hillesum as such or do they have
to read her story in a completely different way?
Reading in a Different Way
First of all, theologians should read the works of Etty Hillesum differently. They should also read more relevant secondary literature, such as
the dissertation of Denise de Costa (1996), not because this study tells
the final truth about Hillesum, but because it offers different and challenging perspectives on Hillesum’s legacy. In the 1990’s, Dutch and
Flemish theologians were inclined to neglect this work. With her book
Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality,27 De Costa
challenges the common and more traditional images of Etty Hillesum.
She focuses on the complexity and the richness of Hillesum’s manylayered texts. Inspired by philosophies of ‘sexual difference’—like the
philosophies of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous—De
Costa analyzes Hillesum’s texts, starting from the context of the persecution of the Jews as well as the female subject position. An important starting point of De Costa is that Etty Hillesum represents ‘the
other’ in two different ways, namely as being Jewish and as being
a woman. She shows us, besides other things, how Hillesum, originally not educated in the Jewish nor in the Christian faith, develops
a “nomadic consciousness” and—not being member of any—relates
liberally to the different cultural traditions and uses them as a source of
inspiration. Cixous, De Costa quotes, calls this voler (‘stealing,’ ‘flying’ ):
Denise de Costa, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality,
trs. Mischa F.D. Hoyinck & Robert E. Chesal (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers
University Press, 1998); original Dutch edition: Denise de Costa, Anne Frank en Etty
Hillesum: Spiritualiteit, schrijverschap, seksualiteit (Amsterdam: Balans, 1996).
27
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mostly outside of the dominant cultural inheritance, a woman has no
other choice than to relate to it as an intruder and a thief. Etty Hillesum, by origin and education, was a very special outsider and “thief.”
Her “stolen booty” became a very special mosaic of texts originating
from different traditions. Concerning the spiritual development of Etty
Hillesum, De Costa uses the notion of ‘becoming divine’ invented by
the Walloon philosopher Irigaray. Luce Irigaray postulates that the
female species can unfold a free, autonomous and sovereign subjectivity only with the assistance of the divine, but only if the infinity can
be experienced as an ideal infinity. In the Jewish-Christian tradition,
mainly men have seized the chance to project their ideals onto God
as the unknown Other; women must now get the chance to project
their ideals onto (their) God. According to De Costa, we could say that
Hillesum ‘becomes divine’ in the sense of Irigaray, that is to say: the
God of Etty Hillesum is born at the moment Etty Hillesum chooses
herself. And De Costa adds: “This God is not perceived as a fatherfigure, but as her own essence, her deepest self.”28 These and other
findings of De Costa’s book are relevant to theological discourses on
Hillesum’s spirituality.
My suggestion to start reading Etty Hillesum in a different way is a
recommendation addressed not only to theologians. When Leibovici
says that the reception of Etty Hillesum is a “complicated story,” she
is right. But in a paradoxical way, this complexity has been nourished
by simplifications of Etty Hillesum—a practice not only reserved for
interpreters of the “wrong quarter,” as Leibovici remarks. If there is
a “wrong quarter,” as Leibovici argues, then the demarcation line is
not between interpreters who know that life “objectively has no sense,”
and all other interpreters who are not yet aware of that thesis. No, if
there is such a boundary, then it exists between careful reading and
careless reading, between the use of the integral scholarly edition and
the use of selections, between the readiness to involve other discourses
about Etty Hillesum in one’s own study and the refusal to do so. The
complexity of the reception of Etty Hillesum is maintained by “the
conflict of interpretations”29 caused by often rigid positions or fixed
opinions. In that sense, Leibovici’s review offers its own unique chapter to this “complicated story.”
28
29
Denise de Costa, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, 281.
Free after ‘Le conflit des interprétations’ by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur.
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For theological interpreters, the suggestion to read Etty Hillesum
in a different way means, first of all,: being more sensitive to textual
complexities and resisting the temptation to read the texts within a
framework of supposed and unverifiable biographical facts. In daily
research, this implies, I repeat, that both the study of the complete
and scholarly edition and of the relevant secondary literature have to
be taken seriously. These elements are necessary for a critical, serious
and scholarly reception within theology and other disciplines.30
Most contemporary Catholic theologians will certainly agree that
the theological relevance of Hillesum’s legacy is not limited to the
resemblance of Hillesum’s vocabulary to traditional mystical vocabularies of introspection, surrender and love, and the revitalizing power
that results from this vocabulary. Hillesum’s theological relevance also
largely concerns her own way of reporting and expressing her inner
search, her looking for the ‘always valid words,’ her eclectic and liberal
use of texts from very different sources. She was a voleuse par excellence.
She nourished herself with different textual traditions. The texts in her
diary notebooks are like mosaics, made up of diverging fragments of
wisdom. These fragments provided Hillesum a source of recognition,
confirmation and liberation.31 Said another way, for Etty Hillesum
herself writing functioned as empowerment. She wrote herself an identity.
Also for other people, the reading of her texts turns out to be an act of
empowerment: present-day readers feel nourished and strengthened by
her words and insights. They often recognize their own way of gathering texts of wisdom. What Etty Hillesum in her texts shows, can be
understood as a pioneering act of religious individualization. This fact
is one of the reasons why her posthumous writings are so recognizable
in our contemporary society and why theologians and non-theologians
should be obliged to read her texts: not as an implicit confirmation of
one’s own religious tradition but as an example of a very successful
30
The first decennium of the 21th century is characterized by a more scholarly
theological reception of Hillesum at Dutch and Flemish universities. Cf. the theological dissertation of Alexandra Pleshoyano: Etty Hillesum: l’Amour comme ‘seule solution’:
Une herméneutique théologique au cœur du mal (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2007). See also: Meins
Coetsier, Etty Hillesum and The Flow of Presence: A Voegelin Analysis (Columbia, MO:
University of Missouri Press, 2008).
31
Regarding Etty Hillesum’s texts as a mosaic: Ria van den Brandt, “ ‘. . . comme
dans mille éclats d’un miroir’: Le ‘bricolage’ d’Etty Hillesum,” in: Religiologiques
26 (2003), 1, 163–174. Cf. also the contribution of Alexandra Pleshoyano in this
volume.
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and creative form of religious or philosophical individualization.
Beyond that, the testimony of Etty Hillesum is not an arbitrary private
‘text of faith,’ but a text that has been given a universal significance by
many readers. The broadness of this appreciation is not only attributable to Etty Hillesum’s unfinished or open image of God but also to the
finished aspects of that image of God, through which many readers with
different backgrounds can identify with her texts.32
Cf. Jan Oegema, Een vreemd geluk: De publieke religie rond Auschwitz (Amsterdam:
Balans, 2003). Oegema’s perceptions of Hillesum’s images of God (233–270) may
be a new and challenging starting point for a culture-critical and theological debate
about Etty Hillesum and her images of God. Oegema: “Without any doubt, this open
image of God contributes to the fact that in the Netherlands Hillesum has become
the greatest saint and mystic (in that order) of the public religion around Auschwitz.
Her God was a marvellous answer to the democratic demands of a public religion. He
[Hillesum’s God] managed to satisfy almost perfectly the needs of different groups.”
But Oegema also writes: “Her [Hillesum’s] God was least of all ‘without object’ [. . .]
Hillesum maintained several images of God.” (251) [The quotations are translated
from Dutch into English.] See also the contribution of Klaas A.D. Smelik in this
volume.
32
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