Etty Hillesum - Matthew 2: 13-18

Les écrits d'Etty Hillesum. Journaux et lettres 1941-1943 (The writings of Etty Hillesum. Diaries and letters 1941-1943. Complete edition). Paris: Seuil, 2008, 1081 p.

13 Now, when the magi had gone away, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Get up; take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him." 14 So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went away to Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet who said, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son." 16 Then, when Herod saw how he had been deceived by the magi, he fell into a furious rage. He sent into Bethlehem and the regions all around it and massacred all the boys of two years of age and under, according to the exact time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Thus was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah who said, 18 "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud mourning, Rachel crying for her children; and she would not be consoled, because they are no more."

Letter to Han Wegerif and others. Westerbork, Tuesday, August 24, 1943. (excerpt)
"God in heaven, what is going on here, what do you want to do?" I cry out in spite of myself. I'm standing in front of a woman from the slums of Rotterdam, a small, affectionate woman. She is in her ninth month. Two nurses are trying to dress her. She leans her deformed body against the bed of her child. Drops of sweat trickle down her face. Her eyes stare into the distance where I cannot follow her, and she says in a white, worn voice: "Two months ago I was ready to voluntarily accompany my husband to Poland. At the time, I was prevented from doing so because I always have difficult deliveries. And now they are forcing me to go... because someone ran away last night..." The moans of the newborns swell, they fill the smallest nooks and crannies, the smallest cracks of this shack with ghostly lighting; it is almost unbearable. A name comes to my lips: Herod.

While she was being carried to the train on a stretcher, she felt the first pains; only then did the authorization arrive to take this woman back to the hospital instead of hoisting her onto the freight train, which, that night, can be counted among the most remarkable gestures of humanity...

p. 907-908