Kde domov můj – “Where is my home?” The beginning of the Czech national anthem is an appropriate opening for this contribution about the longing of a Jewish woman for her home: the familiar desk where she would write her diaries, but which she had to say goodbye to when she went to work in the Westerbork transit camp. That woman is Etty Hillesum.

Hillesum's birth house on the Molenwater in Middelburg carries a plaque with an inscription that offers a partial answer to the question “Where is my home?”. It is a quotation from her diary:

It is no surprise that Etty Hillesum could feel at home anywhere. As a child, she did not have much opportunity to be rooted in one place. With clock-like regularity, father Hillesum changed from one appointment as a teacher of classic languages, to another: Middelburg, Hilversum, Tiel, Winschoten, and finally, Deventer. Etty was ten years old when she moved to the city of Geert Groote where her father finally found a working environment that suited him.

As well, during her days as a student in Amsterdam, Etty Hillesum continuously changed address.