On 8 March 1941 a 27-year-old Dutch Jewish student living in enemy-occupied Amsterdam made the first entry in a diary that was to become one of the most remarkable documents to emerge from the Nazi Holocaust. Over the course of the next two & a half years an insecure chaotic & troubled young woman was transformed into someone who inspired those with whom she shared the suffering of the transit camp at Westerbork & with whom she eventually perished at Auschwitz. Through her diary & letters she continues to inspire those whose lives she has touched since: an extraordinarily alive & vivid young woman who shaped & lived a spirituality of hope in the darkest period of the twentieth century. This book explores Etty Hillesums life & writings seeking to understand what it was about her that was so remarkable how her journey developed how her spirituality was shaped & what her profound reflections on the roots of violence & the nature of evil can teach us today.