E T T Y H I L L E S U M

N E W E D I T I O N ” E T T Y ”

On September 2007, Publisher Balans re-ceived the text modifications of the fifth edition of the complete and unabridged edition of The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum in the Dutch language. This new edition of ‘Etty’ will be published in 2008! So, What's new? (i) In this new edition the introduction and bibliography are revised. (ii) Two newly found letters and two postcards, entrusted to us by Denise de Costa, are added to this edition; they are a significant contribution in understand-ing Etty Hillesum’s view on what was happening in Camp

Westerbork. The texts were transcribed by Rob Tempelaars and annotated by Klaas A.D. Smelik. Several annota-tions in the edition have been revised. With these modifications the fifth edition replaces all the previ-ous editions.

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7

Y E A R 1 . N U M B E R 3

I N T H I S N U M B E R :

Etty Hillesum 1

New edition

“Etty”

1

Etty Hillesum

Studies

2

Meins G. S.

Coetsier

3

New affiliated

members

3

Alexandra

Pleshoyano

4

Italian Etty Hille-

sum Studies

4

Q U O T A T I O N

‘It’s happened to me a ‘It’s happened to me a ‘It’s happened to me a ‘It’s happened to me a

few times recently few times recently few times recently few times recently ———— in in in in

the street or wherever I the street or wherever I the street or wherever I the street or wherever I

chance to be, I stop chance to be, I stop chance to be, I stop chance to be, I stop

with bated breath for a with bated breath for a with bated breath for a with bated breath for a

moment and have to moment and have to moment and have to moment and have to

ask myself, is this really ask myself, is this really ask myself, is this really ask myself, is this really

my my my my life? So full, so rich, life? So full, so rich, life? So full, so rich, life? So full, so rich,

so intense, and so so intense, and so so intense, and so so intense, and so

beautiful? I must just beautiful? I must just beautiful? I must just beautiful? I must just

go and sit quietly at my go and sit quietly at my go and sit quietly at my go and sit quietly at my

desk and look back on desk and look back on desk and look back on desk and look back on

the last few days.’ the last few days.’ the last few days.’ the last few days.’

The Letters and The Letters and The Letters and The Letters and Diaries, Diaries, Diaries, Diaries,

March 27, 1942.March 27, 1942.March 27, 1942.March 27, 1942.

EHOC

ETTY HILLESUM ONDERZOEKSCENTRUM

The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), edited by Prof. Dr. Klaas A. D. Smelik, have a special place among the Jewish-Dutch testimonies of the Shoah. They contain not only a description of Camp Westerbork during the Nazi occupa-tion, but also reflect Etty Hillesums impor-tant, though unfortunately interrupted existential search of an ethical, philoso-phical and literary nature. Since her death the diaries have received worldwide atten-tion and inspired thousands of readers.

A new Series Etty Hillesum Studies, titled Etty Hillesum in context,

edited by Ria van den Brandt and Klaas A.D. Smelik will come out

in March 2008 at Van Gorcum in Assen, the Netherlands. The fol-

lowing contributions in Dutch have been included in this collection:

Ria van den Brandt, Vriendschap op het tweede gezicht: Aantekenin-

gen bij de vriendschap van Etty Hillesum en Henny Tideman

Meins G.S. Coetsier, God? … Licht in het duister: Twee denkers in bar-

re tijden: de Duitse filosoof Eric Voegelin en de Nederlands- Joodse

schrijfster Etty Hillesum

Janny van der Molen, “Ik word alweer naar Jung getrokken”: Goed en

kwaad in het werk van Etty Hillesum en Carl Gustav Jung

Gerrit Van Oord, Etty Hillesum en Edith Stein: Over een ontmoeting

die nooit heeft plaats gehad

Klaas A.D. Smelik, De keuze van Etty Hillesum om niet onder te duiken

Ellen Vandenwalle, De invloed van André Suarès’ Dostojewski in de

dagboeken van Etty Hillesum

Yukiko Yokohata, Het beeld van Etty Hillesum in Japan

On Wednesday, June 20, 2007 in the late afternoon, the Council of the Research fund FWO-Flanders decided to support our EHOC staff member and research member, Meins G. S. Coetsier with an "aspirant" scholarship.

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N E W S E R I E S E T T Y H I L L E S U M S T U D I E S

M E I N S G . S . C O E T S I E R R E C E I V E S F W O

S C H O L A R S H I P A N D V I S I T S A M E R I C A

From August 30 till September 2, 2007 Meins G. S. Coetsier represented the EHOC on The 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science As-sociation (APSA)" in Chicago with a paper on Etty Hillesum

and the philosopher of History Eric Voegelin: "Heaven in Hell: A Voegelinian Ex-ploration of the life and Writings of Etty Hillesum."

M E L V Y N M A T T H E W S

Canon Matthews is Chancellor Emeritus of Wells Cathedral in Somerset, England, where, prior to his retirement he had responsibility for education and spirituality. He

was also the Acting Dean of the Cathedral for nearly two years. During his career he taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Nairobi in Kenya and was the Director of the Ammerdown Centre, a Conference Centre specialis-ing in interfaith dialogue, reconciliation and peace. He was also the Senior Chaplain to Bristol University for eight years. He has pub-lished widely in the sphere of modern theology and spirituality. His

two major books, ‘Both Alike to Thee – The Retrieval of the Mystical Way’ (SPCK 2000) and ‘Awake to God - Explorations in the Mystical Way’ (SPCK 2006), both include stud-ies of Etty Hillesum. In ‘Awake to God’ there is an extended treatment of her writing and an exploration of the links with the work of Paul Celan, the German poet of the Holocaust. Canon Matthews is at present working on the relationship between Etty and Julian of Norwich.

M A N J A P A C H

Manja Pach (Amsterdam, 1945) along with her husband Frits

Grimmelikhuizen took the initiative to found the Etty Hillesum

Centre in Deventer in a former Jewish school in 1994. Being en-

couraged, among others, by her father Werner Stertzenbach,

the initiative developed from a memorial week which they had

organized on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Hillesum’s death in November

1993. Stertzenbach had met Hillesum in Camp Westerbork. He was also the one who

encouraged Manja Pach in 1971 to promote the reading of the Two Letters from

Westerbork, when they ‘campaigned’ on the grounds of Camp Westerbork to keep the

memory alive.

F R I T S G R I M M E L I K H U I Z E N

Frits Grimmelikhuizen (Utrecht, 1937) studied philosophy and music in

Utrecht, Cologne and Cracow. His first contact with the letters of Etty

Hillesum was through their publication in magazine Maatstaf in 1959.

Since the foundation of the Etty Hillesum Centre in Deventer in 1995,

which he set up together with his wife Manja Pach, Grimmelikhuizen

lectured and wrote numerous texts on Hillesum. He is responsible for

the content of the Etty Hillesum exhibition in Deventer Centre.

N E W A F F I L I A T E D M E M B E R S

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On November 30, 2007, Alexandra Pleshoyano defended her doctorate dissertation, for the de-gree “Doctor of Theology,” at Nijmegen Univer-sity. Pleshoyano studied theology at Sherbrooke University, Canada. Her doctorate was guided by the Heyendaal Institute of Radboud University, Nijmegen and by the EHOC of Ghent University. Accompanied by her promoters Prof. dr. H. Häring and Prof. dr K.A.D. Smelik and her co-promoter dr. Ria van den Brand her work has turned out successful. Pleshoyano develops in her disserta-

tion a hermeneutical and theological reading of Etty Hillesum’s life and writings. In Hillesum’s works there is no systematic theology formulated but there are traces and contours of a theological thinking. Shortly before her deportation to Auschwitz, Hillesum was given a treatise with the title: “And yet God is love.” She recognized herself in these words. Love was “the only solution” to cope with evil. Hillesum in-tegrated, interpreted and updated everything she read and what attracted her at-tention. Her writings help us to see God precisely in the heart of evil. It is that what makes her Letters and Diaries fruitful for a contemporary theological reflec-tion, not bound by any religious conventions. Her Phd dissertation is entitled: L'amour comme ‘seule solution’. Une herméneuti-

que théologique au coeur du mal [LIT Verlag in Munster (e-mail: lit@lit-verlag.de;

ISBN 978-3-8258-0824-2; price: 34,90 EUR)].

In 2008, Gerrit van Oord will publish a new volume of studies on Etty Hille-

sum in Italian, entitled: “Etty Hillesum: Studi sulla vita e l'opera” with con-

tributions by Ria van den Brandt, Denise Costa, Gerrit Van Oord, Piet Schri-

jvers, Klaas A.D. Smelik, Ellen Vandewalle and Yukiko Yokohata.

More information on

http://www.korporalbooks.com/books/etty-hillesum.htm.

W WW . E H O C . U G E N T . B E

N E W S

Contact address:

Sint-Pietersplein 6

B 9000 Ghent, Belgium

EHOC@UGent.be

T 09 264 41 34

T 09 264 35 55

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