She inspired Benedict XVI: Vatican remembers Etty Hillesum
Some 80 years ago, Etty Hillesum died in Auschwitz at the age of 29. She had been born into a Jewish family but had been far from any religious practice. Murdered by the Nazis, she left a legacy of writings that bear witness to her search for a “new language” to speak of God “in the hell of the camps.”
This was emphasized on Wednesday, November 29, by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, at a seminar dedicated to the young woman organized in Rome under the auspices of the Dutch Embassy to the Holy See. The Portuguese cardinal himself suggested that the Dutch ambassador to the Holy See, Annemieke Ruigrok, celebrate the birthday of the woman he considers a great mystic.
The 57-year-old prefect, who is close to Pope Francis, is co-author of the 2018 book In the Footsteps of Etty Hillesum (Nos Passos de Etty Hillesum), produced with photographer Filipe Condado during a pilgrimage to Amsterdam.
Etty Hillesum became world-famous thanks to her diary, which records her spiritual and existential journey.
It’s the young woman’s “spiritual strength” that touches the cardinal personally. Hers is a strength that doesn’t suggest “fleeing,” but “urges us to stay” despite the horror. It “doesn’t allow us to give up, but allows us to keep knocking on the door, in season and out of season,” he said during the seminar at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
