' Rest Within Self '...

We try to save so many things in life with vague mysticism, but the mysticism has to stand on a base of total frankness and on a cold and piercing examination of things.

Most people only see in life what it's permissible to see, but we must free ourselves from all existing ideas... then life becomes rich and abundant even in moments of deep suffering.

The distress here is really terrible [Auschwitz].

And still, in the evening, when the day recedes, I walk with bright footsteps by the wire fence, and from my heart arises always the feeling that Life is wonderful and grand...

I find rest within myself. And this "Self", this deepest and richest part of me, I call God.



- Ethy Hilthum, from the journal of a young Jewish girl who died in Auschwitz