LEWISTON — A sensitive and uplifting interpretation of the diaries and letters of a WWII holocaust victim will be presented through poetry and music in a performance of “The Thinking Heart: the Life and Loves of Etty Hillesum” on Friday, June 24, at the Lewiston Public Library.

It’s an original arrangement of the luminous diary and 70 letters of Etty Hillesum, an extraordinary Dutch woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. The journal and letters document her vibrant life in Amsterdam and her subsequent internment by the Nazis. She died at Auschwitz in 1943.

Etty’s indomitable spirit is given voice by poet Martin Steingesser and Judy Tierney, with cello improvisation by Robin Jellis.

Steingesser, Portland’s first poet laureate (2007-2009), said he read Etty Hillesum’s diary and letters when they were published in 1983.

“There was something about her that called to me,” he said. “It affected me very deeply.”

In the following years, Steingesser adapted her words in poetry, accumulating 138 verses drawn from the woman’s writing. The title comes from a line written by Etty … “Pray, let me be the thinking heart … of a whole concentration camp.”

“Lines, phrases began to leap out at me from the pages. It took over my whole life,” Steingesser said.

Steingesser wanted to find a way to conclude his work, but he realized, he said, that “I was holding this woman’s life in my hands and when I was finished, she would be dead.” That led to the idea of performing the material with two voices and cello. The performance piece includes 36 of the verses Steingesser wrote; and upon publication of new material about Etty Hillesum in 2002, he added both a prologue and an epilogue, which are included in the Lewiston performance.

“The Thinking Heart: the Life and Loves of Etty Hillesum” will be presented free of charge in conjunction with this weekend’s Artwalk Lewiston-Auburn. Conversation among audience members and The Thinking Heart Ensemble concerning the work will follow.

“People need the opportunity to experience poetry,” L/A Arts Executive Director Odelle Bowman said.

In “The Thinking Heart,” the audience will hear the Dutch woman’s positive message and will understand that even under extremely cruel circumstances, “we have a choice about how we will experience life,” Bowman said.

“The Thinking Heart” performance is made possible by grants from the Maine Humanities Council and Maine Arts Commission. Bowman said it precedes next spring’s finals of Poetry Out Loud in Lewiston.

Steingesser was selected to receive the 2006 Maine Alliance for Art Education’s Bill Bonyun Award “for exemplified talent and professionalism as an artist and for being an inspiration to students, teachers and the community.”

Tierney has been presenting poems in Maine for several years. She was creator and host of the weekly radio program “Walking in the Air,” celebrating poetry and its voices, on WRFR, Rockland’s community radio station.

Jellis has performed in Maine for more than 10 years and has played with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. She is on the faculty of the Portland Conservatory of Music. Her music for “The Thinking Heart” is mostly improvisational meditations inspired by the poems. There are quotes from Earnest Bloch’s “Schelomo” and other influences include folk songs and J.S. Bach’s “Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.” The final movement is an original piece by Jellis.

“The Thinking Heart: the Life and Loves of Etty Hillesum,” presented by Lewiston Public Library and L/A Arts, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Callahan Hall at the library.

Poet Martin Steingesser, left, cellist Robin Jellis and Judy Tierney will interpret the diaries and letters of a WWII holocaust victim through poetry and music in “The Thinking Heart: the Life and Loves of Etty Hillesum.” The presentiation will be on Friday, June 24, at the Lewiston Public Library.