We Left the Camp Singing

2018 marks the tenth anniversary of an International Congress that gathered in Ghent to celebrate and discuss the work of Etty Hillesum, a woman who died in Auschwitz, whose diaries and letters have been translated into 67 languages. In her home country, Holland, there is a major research centre and a museum devoted to her work, there is a monument to her, and secondary schools are name after her. She is unquestionably one of the most singular voices from the Shoah (the Holocaust). But most in our country have never heard of her. So, who was Etty Hillesum? She was a Dutch Jew who died at the age of 29, leaving behind deeply moving, intellectually profound diaries and letters written during the last two years of her life under Nazi occupation. We only have these works because she threw them from a train on her way to the death camp, along with a postcard on which she had written: “The Lord is my high tower. In the end, the departure came without warning… We left the camp singing… Thank you for all your kindness and care.” The Hillesum writings have deeply affected readers around the world, especially women. Two are Canadians—one the remarkable poet, Janice Kulyk Keefer, the other a singular artist, Claire Wilks. This volume, We Left the Camp Singing, is their visionary responses to Etty Hillesum.