Book Review #21 – “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom (Christian Heroes During the Holocaust)
Book Review #21 – “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom, published 1971 by Fleming Revell Co.
“If you remain indifferent in time of adversity, your strength will depart from you. Rescue those who are being dragged to death, and from those staggering to slaughter withdraw not.” (Proverbs 24:10-11).
The First Hero in the Story: Caspar ten Boom. The stage was set for this dramatic story of heroism long before the Nazis swooped into Holland in 1940 like prehistoric predators. The family culture had been long-established within this quiet watch repair shop in Holland, well before this modest home became a watchtower for Jewish refugees on the run. Caspar, the ten Boom patriarch, had created a home that would gladly welcome anyone in need at any time. The entire city of Haarlem saw their modest home in the middle of town as a safe place of hospitality that always had a big kettle of soup on the stove for the hungry or poor. The ten Boom lifestyle was obvious to everyone who had eyes to see, as Caspar and his wife raised four children and housed three aging aunts at the same time in their old living quarters above the watch shop. After the aunts passed away, they raised eleven foster children as well. Caspar set the tone for each day by leading family Bible study devotions at 8:30 a.m. sharp without exception. Caspar was widely known as the finest watch repairman in Holland at that time after taking over the family business from his father. Yet, he would often “forget” to charge a needy customer, and would refuse to compete with the fledgling watch repair shop across the street. He was invariably kind, gentle, loved children, and every child in Haarlem called him “Grandfather.” Because of his Biblical conscience, Caspar had long loved the Jews before the Nazis hated them with such a passion. Caspar was known to declare, “In this household, God’s chosen, precious people are always welcome.” So in the years leading up to the Nazi invasion, Caspar had helped his family to build their moral muscle by lifting the heavy weights of compassion and wisdom. By the time the Nazis were knocking on the door scouring the town for escaping Jews, the moral tone was set in their home, the family culture was established, the ten Boom lifestyle was engrained in daily life. Caspar especially loved the Proverbs passage above and fully intended his family to live their lives accordingly. It actually wasn’t that big a step to go from caring for needy neighbors to rescuing refugees. They simply used their muscle memory as they established the ten Boom watch shop as an important stop in the Dutch Resistance network. So this tale of heroism began with Caspar, the unassuming father of a humble Christian family who refused to cooperate with evil, even when their refusal was life-threatening. Everyone well knew the dictates from the Gestapo that “If you help a Jew, you will die like a Jew.” But that didn’t stop Caspar when he accepted a Jewish mother and baby into the home and said, “You say we could lose our lives for this child? I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family.” And Caspar was not afraid to proudly wear the yellow star front and center on his coat after the Nazis required every Jew to wear it for identity. Finally, at the age of 84 in the year 1944, after being betrayed by a neighbor, and after years of operating a rescue mission out of their home, Caspar was arrested along with his daughters Betsie and Corrie, and brought to a Dutch jail nearby. When Caspar was being interrogated by the Gestapo, they offered to release Caspar if he promised to stop helping the Jews. Caspar refused, knowing the consequences, declaring, “If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door to anyone who knocks for help.” He died soon after in that jail while awaiting treatment for his tuberculosis. The Holocaust Commission officially recognized Caspar, along with Betsie and Corrie, as “Righteous Gentiles” and are honored in Holocaust Museums everywhere. Evidently, once again, practice makes perfect when it comes to moral development and spiritual maturity.
An Inspiring Passage for the ten Boom Family as they sought to represent God and His Character in their World. “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:7).
The Second Hero in this Story: Betsie ten Boom. Betsie is an older sister of Corrie and one of three daughters of Caspar and his wife, who died many years before the Holocaust arrived. Betsie was born with what was known as pernicious anemia, and this sickness unfortunately remained with her till her dying day in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. Aware of the fact that her sickness would keep her from having children, she chose to remain permanently single to care for her nuclear family. Before she succumbed to starvation and sickness in this notorious women’s work camp at the age of 59, though, she lived a life of courage and compassion. She loved beautifying whatever was around her that needed it, even if it meant planting seeds in her window boxes that never got enough sunlight to help those flowers grow to maturity. She kept their humble home well-organized and attractive to everyone who lived or visited there. Her astute attention to detail never missed a thing as she remembered everything there was to remember with all their guests and customers. Betsie always had a kettle of soup on the stove for the hungry poor and a pot of coffee for visitors, determined to ‘”making the best of everything” no matter the circumstances. While harboring Jewish refugees in their home, she arranged nightly activities to help everyone try to enjoy the situation, whether it was musical concerts, literary readings, games, or even foreign language lessons. On those nights the ten Booms had practice sessions with their emergency alert system, it was Betsie who made sure everyone got a freshly baked cream puff as a treat. Her love of beauty and order even extended to the desperate conditions of her prison camp cell as she encouraged all her cellmates to take pride in their surroundings no matter how dismal. Betsie once said, “There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s world, and no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety. Let us pray that we will always know it!” She gave away her possessions to her cellmates in the prison camp without a second thought. Betsie smuggled in a Bible during her short stint in the concentration camp and led the cellmates in Bible study and prayer. At one point, she and sister Corrie couldn’t figure out why the prison guards never interfered in their Bible studies, until she discovered they would not enter their barracks because it was overrun with fleas. So Betsie thanked the Lord for the fleas that allowed them to study God’s Word. At one point Betsie told Corrie in their cell, “We must tell people how good God is. After the war, we must go around telling people! No one will be able to say that they have suffered worse than us. So we can tell them how wonderful God is, and how His love will fill our lives, if only we can give up our hatred and bitterness.” While imprisoned by the Nazis, Betsie continued to focus on the needs of the Nazi guards as well. She told Corrie once that, “If they can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love!” But Betsie’s physical stamina was at a low point after a short time in Ravensbrück, and she succumbed quickly to the desperate conditions there, and she died in her cell in 1944. Before she died, she shared with Corrie three hopeful visions from God that revealed what they could do after they were released… Establish a home to care for former prisoners; buy an old, disused concentration camp in Germany to house poor Germans and “teach them how to love again;” and finally she was told by the Lord that they were both going to be released before New Years. Poignantly, Betsie was released into the Lord’s presence, and Corrie was released by clerical error. Before she died in her rotting bunk, Betsie leaned into Corrie and told her these last words… “You must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.” Betsie, along with her father Caspar and her sister Corrie, was recognized as a “Righteous Gentile” by the Holocaust Commission soon after her death.
The Third Hero in This Story: Corrie ten Boom. It’s not surprising in the least that Corrie joined her father Caspar and sister Betsie with being officially recognized as a “Righteous Gentile” by the Holocaust Commission. After all, she and her family helped to rescue over 800 Jewish refugees and Durch Resistance members during those four years of their secret home-based rescue mission. During those four years of 1940-44, Corrie was also an integral member of the Dutch Resistance herself, setting up an underground rescue network that saved hundreds more from the Nazis. The humble home of the ten Booms, with the Gestapo headquarters just a block away, became the very center of the Dutch Resistance efforts in Haarlem. But how did a “humdrum and predictable fifty-year old” person like herself come to be regarded as a valiant hero against the evils of Nazi Germany? Her beloved father Caspar established the family culture, as noted above, and she simply embraced that way of life as the way to follow Jesus and live Biblically. Corrie had already established a ministry for those with mental disabilities long before the Nazi’s came and wanted them “exterminated.” She had already built up from the ground floor a unique program in town for girls that would teach them everything from Scripture to various arts to handiwork and cooking. Corrie was in the flow of God’s compassion long before the first refugees came knocking on their front door. When they realized that God’s chosen people were soon to be rounded up and persecuted, they quietly invited an architect who was a member of the Dutch Resistance to come into their home and design a secret hiding place for any refugees who might come their way. The architect found their home perfect for a secret place because of its odd nooks and crannies and rather strange layout of the rooms. Not only that, but the architect also installed a secret alarm bell to alert the ten Boom residents of danger at their front door. Everyone in the home knew that once they heard that bell go off, they had exactly 70 seconds to get into hiding. The secret room could hold six people, but the ten Booms ended up sharing their beds and sofas for anyone escaping from the Gestapo goons. Tragically, a neighbor betrayed the ten Booms to the Nazis, and they were arrested in 1944, along with thirty others who happened to have been hiding in their home at that time. The six that were in the secret “hiding place,” though, were never found and were able to escape later in the night. Caspar, Betsie and Corrie were all forcibly taken to a local prison and interrogated, and father Caspar died ten days later after refusing to cooperate with his Gestapo captors. Betsie and Corrie were taken to a notorious women’s concentration camp that was responsible for at least 96,000 deaths during its time of operation. While there, Corrie and Betsie shared a powerful Christian ministry with their cell mates until Betsie died. Soon after, Corrie was brought into the camp office and told she was released, to her shock. It was later discovered that Corrie was released by clerical error, and then one week after her release hundreds of women the same age as Corrie were sent to the gas chamber.
An Interesting Moral Dilemma… The question was, is it ever morally permissible to lie to someone, to simply tell a barefaced lie? This was not merely an abstract principle to the ten Booms as they were rescuing Jewish refugees from evil people. In the old home of Corrie’s oldest sister Nollie, she had a secret little hiding place in a dank cellar beneath the main floor. A tiny door led to the cellar that could hold a handful of refugees, and often did. One day, a Nazi goon storms into Nollie’s house and demands to see where the Jews were hiding in her house. The Gestapo henchman directly asked Nollie, “Are you in fact hiding Jews in your house?” For some odd reason, this question brought a hearty laughter to Nollie as she considered how to respond. Being laughed at to his face, the infuriated Nazi slapped her in the face. Nollie decided then it was not ever right to disobey God’s commands, so she told this man that, yes, there were Jews hiding under the dining table right next him. The Nazi immediately whipped a corner of the long tablecloth that was draped over the table, and saw that there was nothing whatsoever under the table! So the Nazi slapped Nollie once again and left the house in a huff, feeling she had made a fool of him. Little did the Nazi realize, though, that the rug underneath the dining table was covering over the cellar door that was at that moment hiding some refugees! Corrie and Nollie discussed this matter at length, about God understanding if a lie is told in order to save a human life. Nollie didn’t budge, and said, Well, it worked out okay, right? So maybe we are both right after all?
After Corrie was Unexpectedly Released from Ravensbrück. Corrie didn’t know where else to go, so she returned to her old home in Haarlem, Holland. She immediately went to work establishing a home for those with mental disabilities, since she discovered that the Nazi’s were still executing anyone with a handicap. She also set up programs to care for the former prisoners, and also for those neighbors who had cooperated with the Nazi’s and were now being rejected by the townsfolk. Corrie went about making sure the needs of these betrayers were being met by the city. For the next thirty years Corrie visited over 60 countries and spoke of God’s goodness, the truths of what had been done to her and her family and her Jewish friends, and helping Holocaust survivors everywhere she went. Corrie turned into a powerful international evangelist on every continent on the globe, speaking in huge stadiums, prisons cells, private homes and hundreds of churches. She smuggled Bibles into Communist countries, she spoke bravely in illegal places. She spread the Word. Finally in 1983 at the age of 91, Corrie had a series of strokes and died peacefully as she was visiting a home in California.
On Corrie being a Shining Light of Forgiveness. In 1947, Corrie felt led to return to Germany and speak to churches and citizens there. At one speaking engagement at a church, a man came up to her and explained that he was one of those Nazi guards at Ravensbrück that was so dreadfully mean to her. He had deprived her and Betsie of food and medicine and overworked them mercilessly. He explained that since that time he had become a Christian, and has regretted what he did very deeply. This Nazi guard asked Corrie to forgive him. Corrie was shocked and couldn’t move as he extended his hand to her. She didn’t know what to do and froze as he continued holding out his hand to her. Finally she prayed silently, “Jesus, help me!” She decided right then that forgiveness was not an emotion but a matter of the will. Corrie decided to at least lift her hand to him, that she could do that much, and ask Jesus to supply the feeling in her heart. So she extended her hand, and she said it was a miracle, that the healing emotion of forgiveness filled her heart. She began crying with that man and said, “I forgive you brother, with all my heart!” Corrie reports that they held each other in a firm handgrip for a long time, and that she had never known God’s love as deeply as then.
Unforgettable Thoughts from Corrie ten Boom:
“You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.”
“I talked with my Savior while in the prison. Never before had I such close fellowship with Him. It was a joy I hoped would continue unchanged. I was a prisoner – and yet – how free!”
“We can never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.”
“At that moment when I was able to forgive, my hatred disappeared. Forgiveness is the key which unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. What a liberation it is when you can forgive.”
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
“When I see you on this bed, not speaking, not moving, I think of this embroidery I am holding up in front of you. See this back side of the embroidery, your life is like this right now. See how dark it is. See how the threads are knotted and tangled, all mixed up. But when you turn it around like this, then you can see that God is actually weaving a crown for your life. God has a plan for your life, and He is working it out in beauty.” (Corrie is ministering here to a Jewish polio victim).
Her Last Word. In her inspiring book detailing her life after being released from Ravensbrück, Tramp for the Lord (1974, Fleming Revell), Corrie cites this anonymous poem as being particularly meaningful for her…
“My life is but a weaving, between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors. He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful to the skillful weaver’s hand,
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.”