Living and dying, sorrow and joy
Living and dying, sorrow and joy, the blisters on my feet and the
jasmine behind the house, the persecution, the unspeakable horrors: it
is all as one in me, and I accept it all as one mighty whole and begin
to grasp it better if only for myself, without being able to explain to
anyone else how it all hangs together. I wish I could live for a long
time so that one day I may know how to explain it, and if I am not
granted that wish, well, then somebody else will perhaps do it, carry on
from where my life has been cut short. And that is why I must try to
live a good and faithful life to my last breath: so that those who come
after me do not have to start all over again, need not face the same
difficulties. Isn't that doing something for future generations?
―
Etty Hillesum,
An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork
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