Session Nine
(pages 257-276 December 1942 - June 1943 Letters from Amsterdam and Westerbork)
Etty has met a new friend, Osias, with whom she had very little in person contact, but with whom she has a warm written correspondence.
In Westerbork Etty has a job via the Jewish Council to “look out after hundreds of people.”
Etty continues to describe the horribly crowded and muddy conditions in the camp. There is a great deal of suffering and sometimes the people who arrive on the trains are quite mauled and otherwise in terrible shape.
Etty suffers sadness and even fits of despair and depression, yet she also finds reasons to smile. A doctor with whom she is acquainted tells her that he thinks it is “unforgivable to smile in times like these.” Etty disagrees. She is connected to her source. She is not the things that are happening to her or her people.
“The sky is full of birds, the purple lupins stand up so regally and peacefully, two little old women have sat down on the box for a chat, the sun is shining on my face - and right before our eyes, mass murder. The whole thing is simply beyond comprehension.” p. 274
Etty is trying very hard through her Jewish Council connections to keep her family together and off of the train to Poland.