Etty Hillesum

a young Jewish girl who kept a journal during her stay at Auschwitz.

"Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised towards Your Heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. And I want to be there right in the thick of what people call horror and still be able to say: life is beautiful. Yes I lie here in a corner, parched and dizzy and feverish and unable to do a thing. Yet I am also with the jasmine and the piece of sky beyond my window. For once you have begun to walk with God, you need only keep on walking with God and all of life becomes one long stroll-- a marvelous feeling."