Still on the subject of letter-writing, there is another omission from Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s anthology which I blogged about earlier this week, which merits inclusion: the Letters from Westerbork by the Dutch Jew, Etty Hillesum.
I was reminded of her Letters and Diaries – first published together in 1996 – when I was recently in Groningen, in the north of Holland. Visiting the Jewish synagogue there, lovingly restored after having been used as a laundry for many years, I found a pamphlet about the 100,000 or so Jews interned at Westerbork before being sent in cattle trucks to die in Sobibor and Auschwitz. Groningen is not far from Westerbork in Drenthe province but I lacked the transport and time to get there; thus remembering Etty’s Letters is one way to keep her spirit alive.
