Etty Hillesum

Esther Etty Hillesum was a Jewish woman whose letters and diaries, kept between 1941 and 1943, describe life in Amsterdam during the German occupation. They were published posthumously in 1981.

Esther Hillesum was born onJanuary 1914 in her parents home at Molenwater 77 in the town of Middelburg, where her father Levie Hillesum had been teaching classical languages since 1911. In Amsterdam, onDecember 1912, he married Ettys mother, Riva Bernstein, who was also living in Middelburg at the time. Ettys father was born in Amsterdam onMay 1880, as the youngest of four children, to the merchant Jacob Samuel Hillesum and his wife Esther HillesumLoeza Etty was named after her paternal grandmother. The family lived at the time at Sint Antoniesbreestraat 31. Her father was teacher of classics and deputy headmaster in Winschoten. In 1924 he was appointed to similar positions at the gymnasium in Deventer, where he became headmaster onFebruary 1928. He remained there until his dismissal, onNovember 1940, ordered by the occupation government imposed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of The Netherlands.

Source: Wikipedia