you must continue to take yourself seriously, you must remain your own witness, marking well everything that happens in the world, never shutting your eyes to reality. You must come to grips with these terrible times and try to find answers to the many questions they pose. And perhaps the answers will help not only yourself but also others.
– Etty Hillesum, diary entry on a Wednesday between July and August, 1941, in An Interrupted Life & Letters from Westerbork, trans. Arnold J. Pomerans, Henry Holt & Co., N.Y., 1996, p. 41
