On 3 February 1942, Etty Hillesum, Julius Spier, and Adri Holm celebrated Hillesum's “spiritual birthday.” Precisely one year prior, Hillesum had had her hands analyzed by Spier and a few of his students, including Dicky de Jonge. The report on Hillesum's hand analysis made by Holm in that session in 1941, was among the papers that De Jonge carefully safeguarded from her time as a student of Spier.

In this article, I will argue that Holm's report should be considered the prologue to Hillesum's diaries. To understand the importance of Spier's analysis, I will first examine the content of Holm's report on Hillesum's hands and then go on to present an amended, more easily readable version of this initial report.

Hillesum's protocol consists of a series of eighty-five statements

When a person attended Spier's course as the subject of study with the aim of having his/her hands analyzed by Spier and his students, one of the students present made a handprint of the “subject” for each student present at the meeting. Usually, the student making these handprints was the one who had invited the person to serve as a subject of study. Additionally, one of the students took notes during the session. At the time Hillesum attended, this was often Adri Holm, but Dicky de Jonge was also willing to do this task.