Bettine Siertsema
About Bettine
Dr. Bettine Siertsema (PhD) was born in Haarlem, a medium sized town, west of Amsterdam, in The Netherlands on October 8th, 1955. Her father worked as a judge and members of his family were involved in hiding Jews in The Netherlands during German Occupation. Her mother taught cooking at an all girls’ school, before marrying. According to Dutch society in the 50s, a woman could not marry and keep their jobs. Her mother became a housewife on her wedding day, what Bettine calls, “a great injustice.” Bettine’s mother raised three children, making Bettine the youngest of her family. Bettine married J.M.J Groot in September of 1981 and raised three sons.
She is currently a professor and researcher at VU University. Her area of expertise is studying the Holocaust through literature.
She considers herself an expert on the writings of Etty Hillesum and Abel Herzberg. In addition to Holocaust literature, the field of poetry greatly interests her.
Education and Work
After grammar school, Bettine studied Dutch Language and Literature at VU University and graduated cum laude. In 2007 she received her PhD in the memoirs and diaries in Dutch on the concentration camp experience- always a special interest of hers. Bettine then worked as an editor at Uitgeverij Heideland-Orbis in Hasselt, Belgium in 1982. From 1983 to 1999 she served as a policy advisor of the College of Deans at VU Univeristy. For fifteen years after that, she worked as a staff member for Study and Liturgy of the Bezinningscentrum, [Centre for Science and Religion] in Amsterdam. From 2005 to 2010, Bettine worked as a researcher at Blaise Pascal Institute (formerly Bezinningscentrum) VU University. The following three years she served as a free-lance assistant for the description project of the Visual History Archive at the Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum), in Amsterdam. She worked for fifteen years at the Center of Reflection at VU University compiling research and experimenting with new liturgical forms of expression through poetry, dance and the visual arts- in an effort to revive the University’s religious origins. She currently works as a researcher and lecturer at VU University, transferring from a faculty of philosophy to a faculty of humanities. In addition, she continues to work, since 1985, as a free-lance pastor in Ekkelsia Amsterdam.
Holocaust Literature
Bettine speaks Dutch and English and maintains publications in both languages. Her work and research centers around the philosophical and religious questions posed in diaries and memoirs from the Holocaust. The question that interests her study of spirituality and the Holocaust- “How can you still maintain your faith in God when something like this has happened to you? I found a lot of different answers and none of them were completely satisfactory for myself. The root of the interest is,” (Bettine).
Her Work on Etty Hillesum
Etty’s diary and letters stand out to Bettine because of Etty’s unique image of God and religion. Etty’s literature helped Bettine get closer to answering her question of how one manages to maintain their faith in God, during such horrific experiences. “Well that’s where her originality is so great. I think that in those times in the 40s that she let go of the image she had of had as the almighty one who raised the world and decides what’s going to happen to you and to me and to all [of] the world. Instead of that image she develops an image of God who needs to be protected within herself,” Bettine said. Bettine also noted that Etty saw God as “vulnerable and not almighty,” making her, “an autonomous thinker that she didn’t adhere to all the viewpoints in Judaism or Christianity, but well maybe developed something of her own and her image of God is one that is viable now for our times as well." Etty read very often and read the New Testament and St. Augustine and a German poety, reli and Christian toll stories.
Most notably, Etty’s writings display significant inner growth in a short period of time. Bettine explained that she felt annoyed with the beginning of her diary because she’s very self-absorbed and because of her relationship with her therapist, Spear, a German who had fled to the Netherlands. “That’s a complicated side of her diary and not always very easy to like,” Bettine elaborated. “It’s quite clear that Spear was also a great and important influence on her development and spirituality, so maybe we shouldn’t judge him or her too harshly. [laughs] But it’s part of the diary that itches, so to say.” Bettine further explained that she grows from a self-absorbed woman to a very balanced and loving individual. She begins to think about ideas impressively and achieve awareness. Etty’s writings seem to encapsulate literary form, historical context and psychological implications. According to Bettine, it’s also very possible that she kept a diary in Auschwitz.
Some of her most notable publications are:
- Uit de diepten. Nederlandse egodocumenten over de nazi concentratiekampen (diss.). Vught: Skandalon, 2007. [Out of the Depths. Dutch ego documents on the Nazi concentration camps]
- Etty Hillesum and Abel Herzberg: Two Dutch Chroniclers of the Shoah. In: Klaas A.D. Smelik, Ria van den Brandt, Meins G.S. Coetsier (eds.), The Spirituality in the Writings of Etty Hillesum. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010, pp. 297-312.
- ‘The Burden of Responsibility and Guilt. Memoirs and Fiction on the “Grey Zone” In: Charlene P.E. Burns (ed.), Mis/Representing Evil. Evil in an Interdisciplinary Key. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009, pp.149-168
- ‘Moral lessons from monstrosity. The Kindly Ones and the reader’ in: A. W. Musschenga and A. van Harskamp (eds.), What Makes us Moral? On the capacities and conditions for being moral. New York/Berlin: Springer, 2013, pp.287-307.
- ‘Beauties as Beasts: The female Holocaust perpetrator in memoirs and fiction’ in A. Patterson and M. Zackheos (eds.), Vile Women. Female Evil in Fact, Fiction and Mythology. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2014, pp. 75-96.
About Bettine
Dr. Bettine Siertsema (PhD) was born in Haarlem, a medium sized town, west of Amsterdam, in The Netherlands on October 8th, 1955. Her father worked as a judge and members of his family were involved in hiding Jews in The Netherlands during German Occupation. Her mother taught cooking at an all girls’ school, before marrying. According to Dutch society in the 50s, a woman could not marry and keep their jobs. Her mother became a housewife on her wedding day, what Bettine calls, “a great injustice.” Bettine’s mother raised three children, making Bettine the youngest of her family. Bettine married J.M.J Groot in September of 1981 and raised three sons.
She is currently a professor and researcher at VU University. Her area of expertise is studying the Holocaust through literature.
She considers herself an expert on the writings of Etty Hillesum and Abel Herzberg. In addition to Holocaust literature, the field of poetry greatly interests her.
Education and Work
After grammar school, Bettine studied Dutch Language and Literature at VU University and graduated cum laude. In 2007 she received her PhD in the memoirs and diaries in Dutch on the concentration camp experience- always a special interest of hers. Bettine then worked as an editor at Uitgeverij Heideland-Orbis in Hasselt, Belgium in 1982. From 1983 to 1999 she served as a policy advisor of the College of Deans at VU Univeristy. For fifteen years after that, she worked as a staff member for Study and Liturgy of the Bezinningscentrum, [Centre for Science and Religion] in Amsterdam. From 2005 to 2010, Bettine worked as a researcher at Blaise Pascal Institute (formerly Bezinningscentrum) VU University. The following three years she served as a free-lance assistant for the description project of the Visual History Archive at the Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum), in Amsterdam. She worked for fifteen years at the Center of Reflection at VU University compiling research and experimenting with new liturgical forms of expression through poetry, dance and the visual arts- in an effort to revive the University’s religious origins. She currently works as a researcher and lecturer at VU University, transferring from a faculty of philosophy to a faculty of humanities. In addition, she continues to work, since 1985, as a free-lance pastor in Ekkelsia Amsterdam.
Holocaust Literature
Bettine speaks Dutch and English and maintains publications in both languages. Her work and research centers around the philosophical and religious questions posed in diaries and memoirs from the Holocaust. The question that interests her study of spirituality and the Holocaust- “How can you still maintain your faith in God when something like this has happened to you? I found a lot of different answers and none of them were completely satisfactory for myself. The root of the interest is,” (Bettine).
Her Work on Etty Hillesum
Etty’s diary and letters stand out to Bettine because of Etty’s unique image of God and religion. Etty’s literature helped Bettine get closer to answering her question of how one manages to maintain their faith in God, during such horrific experiences. “Well that’s where her originality is so great. I think that in those times in the 40s that she let go of the image she had of had as the almighty one who raised the world and decides what’s going to happen to you and to me and to all [of] the world. Instead of that image she develops an image of God who needs to be protected within herself,” Bettine said. Bettine also noted that Etty saw God as “vulnerable and not almighty,” making her, “an autonomous thinker that she didn’t adhere to all the viewpoints in Judaism or Christianity, but well maybe developed something of her own and her image of God is one that is viable now for our times as well." Etty read very often and read the New Testament and St. Augustine and a German poety, reli and Christian toll stories.
Most notably, Etty’s writings display significant inner growth in a short period of time. Bettine explained that she felt annoyed with the beginning of her diary because she’s very self-absorbed and because of her relationship with her therapist, Spear, a German who had fled to the Netherlands. “That’s a complicated side of her diary and not always very easy to like,” Bettine elaborated. “It’s quite clear that Spear was also a great and important influence on her development and spirituality, so maybe we shouldn’t judge him or her too harshly. [laughs] But it’s part of the diary that itches, so to say.” Bettine further explained that she grows from a self-absorbed woman to a very balanced and loving individual. She begins to think about ideas impressively and achieve awareness. Etty’s writings seem to encapsulate literary form, historical context and psychological implications. According to Bettine, it’s also very possible that she kept a diary in Auschwitz.
Some of her most notable publications are:
- Uit de diepten. Nederlandse egodocumenten over de nazi concentratiekampen (diss.). Vught: Skandalon, 2007. [Out of the Depths. Dutch ego documents on the Nazi concentration camps]
- Etty Hillesum and Abel Herzberg: Two Dutch Chroniclers of the Shoah. In: Klaas A.D. Smelik, Ria van den Brandt, Meins G.S. Coetsier (eds.), The Spirituality in the Writings of Etty Hillesum. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2010, pp. 297-312.
- ‘The Burden of Responsibility and Guilt. Memoirs and Fiction on the “Grey Zone” In: Charlene P.E. Burns (ed.), Mis/Representing Evil. Evil in an Interdisciplinary Key. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009, pp.149-168
- ‘Moral lessons from monstrosity. The Kindly Ones and the reader’ in: A. W. Musschenga and A. van Harskamp (eds.), What Makes us Moral? On the capacities and conditions for being moral. New York/Berlin: Springer, 2013, pp.287-307.
- ‘Beauties as Beasts: The female Holocaust perpetrator in memoirs and fiction’ in A. Patterson and M. Zackheos (eds.), Vile Women. Female Evil in Fact, Fiction and Mythology. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2014, pp. 75-96.