The Lasting Significance of Etty Hillesum’s Writings

The Lasting Significance of Etty Hillesum’s Writings contains the proceedings of the third international Etty Hillesum Conference, held in Middelburg in September 2018. It brings together the work of 33 experts from all over the world to shed new light on life, works, inspiration and vision of the Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), one of the victims of the Nazi regime. Hillesum’s diaries and letters illustrate her heroic struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of the Holocaust. This volume revives Hillesum research with a comprehensive rereading of her texts but also by introducing new sources about her life. With the current rise of interest in peace studies, Judaism, the Holocaust, inter-religious dialogue, gender studies and mysticism, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars in a range of disciplines.

Klaas A.D. Smelik (Hilversum 1950) studied Theology, Semitic Languages and Ancient History in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Leiden. He taught Old Testament and Hebrew in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Brussels, Ancient and Jewish History at the K.U. Leuven, and Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Ghent University. In 2006, he founded the Etty Hillesum Research Centre (EHOC).