ETTY HILLESUM: INNER STRENGTH AND OVERFLOWING LOVE BASED ON ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Abstract

This article aims to discuss how ethics is present in the writing of Etty Hillesum’s diary. She, a non-practicing Jewish woman, in the context of the Second World War, perceives herself as part of the subjugated Jewish people and, from then on, reveals in her diary an ethical thought aimed at the collective of her group, in addition to her relationship with the figure of Jesus Christ. Based on some theoretical notes on the subject, with authors such as Deleuze (1993), Ferrière (2014) and Russ (1999), we perceive a growing notion of ethics in the diary of Etty Hillesum, written in the early 1940s. In this way, we analyzed excerpts from the diary, in order to highlight positions that reveal the search for this meaning of life in communion with others. Thus, even in a historical setting in which death seemed to be the only end, Etty sought meaning for her existence, translating into words her constant yearning for dignity and peace for all. Certainly, in order to obtain this level of consciousness, it was necessary to have a great inner strength capable of sustaining it in the midst of the anguish that is clear in her diaries, whose testimony reveals her dedication to God and to her people, even emphasizing her contribution to humanity as a whole.