In the reception of Etty Hillesum's work, her refusal to go into hiding is a recurring theme. For many, that choice is difficult to digest. In Jewish circles, especially, it has been met with a lack of understanding, sometimes bordering on indignation. This is understandable because Hillesum's deliberate choice to share the fate of her people, as she put it, could be considered an implicit denunciation of the many others who chose to go into hiding. And sometimes the denunciation was not only implicit; Etty Hillesum said as much to Klaas Smelik Senior, the friend who did everything he could to convince her to go into hiding,

Hillesum's refusal to go into hiding

Hillesum decided not to hide, and she also pressed others, like her friend Leonie Snatager, to report for Camp Westerbork instead of fleeing to a hiding place. Even without being aware of it, her attitude towards hiding affected the lives of those near her. The Mennonite pastor of Makkum, San van Drooge, who had been a student of Louis Hillesum, related that he, together with the resistance group C6, had devised a plan to smuggle the Hillesum family out of Amsterdam with the help of a reliable ferryman, so that they could go into hiding at his presbytery.