Hopefully you already know about Corrie ten Boom and the efforts and experiences of the ten Boom family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in WW II, but if not, you can read her most well-known book, “The Hiding Place” or watch the 1975 movie by the same name. But I can’t resist telling you a few tidbits from their story as I share ours.
We reserved space for a free English spoken tour of what is now the Ten Boom Museum several months ago because we wanted to be sure to go back (we had been there some years ago). The museum is a 15 minute train ride from Amsterdam Centraal to the Haarlem station and a ten minute walk from there, in the actual watchshop and house in which the ten Booms worked and lived – and hid Jews. One thing I learned that I didn’t know – or remember, was that Corrie’s grandfather had organized a group to pray for Israel in 1837. Her father, Casper, continued it when her grandfather passed away.
At the time of the Nazi occupation Corrie had three older siblings, Betsie, Nellie, and Wilhelm. She and Betsie still lived at home with her father who was a watchmaker, where Corrie worked in the watchshop as the first female watchmaker in the Netherlands. In addition to her work she was very active in her community, among other things leading girls groups and Bible studies.
Holland had been neutral during WW I and thought it would be left alone, but on May 10, 1940 Germany attacked, and unable to defend herself, Holland capitulated.
They were told to go on with their lives, nothing would change, but German soldiers and Nazis occupied their towns. By the end of 1940 all Jews were fired from public jobs. By 1941 shops closed to Jews. By 1942 Jews had to wear the yellow star.
Corrie saw the man who owned a fur shop across the street being beaten and his shop smashed. They took him in and he became, in the words of our tour guide, “as if he did not exist”. Word spread and others began to come for help, but Jews – and those who “did not exist” had no ration cards for food. Through a series of events, Corrie asked a man who worked in the ration card office for help. When he asked how many cards she needed she wanted to ask for five but blurted out, “100”. The man faked a robbery and brought her 300.
Through the help of friends and the Dutch Resistence, a brick wall was added to the third floor of the house in Corrie’s bedroom, with a trap door in the lower panel of a cabinet. It was just over 23 inches wide and could hold up to six people with a small chamber pot and fresh water. An alarm bell was added by which someone on the first floor could press a button and alert those who needed to hide. They rehearsed until they could do it in 70 seconds.
A sign in the shape of a triangle was placed in the window when it was deemed safe to enter. If it was not there people would pass by and continue down the alley.
The operation was eventually betrayed, the Gestapo raided the house, and the ten Booms were arrested. At the time of the raid there were six Jews who went into the hiding place, but no one had yet placed water inside for that day.
The Germans left the sign in the window and remained to trap others who might come to the house. Thirty-two people were arrested before word spread. After two long days and nights, local police who were supporters of the Resistance convinced the Germans to allow them to take over, and they helped the six in hiding to escape across the rooftops.
Casper ten Boom died within the first ten days of arrest. Betsie and Corrie were beaten, interrogated, and imprisoned in Ravensbruck concentration camp north of Berlin where they were forced to live and work in horrific conditions.
In all they experienced, Betsie refused to give in to hate, but Corrie struggled. Betsie had smuggled in a small Bible and read it to the women in the barracks at night. Corrie quoted her as saying, “If people have learned to hate, they can also learn to love”.
Betsie continued to weaken and was taken to the camp hospital. Corrie was allowed to visit and Betsie told her of a vision she had of speaking all over the world telling people, “there is no bitterness so deep that God’s love is not deeper”. She told Corrie they would be “free by the end of year.”
Betsie’s freedom came in the form of her death and several months later Corrie was unexplainably released. She returned to Holland to a hospital, was put into a bath and the nurse helping her asked where she would go. When she replied that she was going to Haarlem the girl immediately asked, do you know Corrie ten Boom? It was one of Corrie’s girls from before the war. Corrie was so changed in appearance the girl did not recognize her, but she had not forgotten her.
After the war, true to Betsie’s vision, Corrie traveled all over the world to more than 60 countries telling of their experiences and speaking of the love of God. After an event in Munich, a former Ravensbruck guard approached her and identified himself. She recognized him as one who had treated Betsie particularly harshly and as he asked for her forgiveness and stuck out his hand in hope, Corrie said she prayed and told God she could not forgive him. She said God replied, but I can, just touch him. She obeyed, and said she felt warmth flowing through her arm and she felt genuine love for this man who had so brutally treated them, and forgave him.
Before they were betrayed, the ten Booms sheltered and were instrumental in saving more than 850 Jews.
As we walked through the house, sat in various rooms and were told the stories, we finally came to Corrie’s bedroom and “the Hiding Place”. A hole has been placed in the wall so that you can see in and actually step inside. A couple of members of our tour went in through the trap door. When I walk into that room, and step into that space, I want to pause and pray, for forgiveness, for holiness, for wisdom, for gratitude, to be a vessel of God’s mercy and grace.
Dining room on 2nd level
One set of stairs / Living Room on 3rd level
Corrie / the sign in the window
The Hiding Place – Corrie’s bed would have been against the wall
Entry through the lower cabinet
Walked the surrounding streets of Haarlem, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to walk past men in Nazi uniforms, to see the red Nazi flags hanging from the town hall in the square, to watch as Jews were beaten and humiliated, killed, their shops and livelihoods destroyed, taken away in trucks to never be seen again. I tried to imagine the evil that must have permeated the very air and what I would have done. Would I have joined the evil, ignored the evil, or opposed the evil? Would I have joined those who risked all to come to the aid of those in need? Decisions we still must make today – although not many of us will make them in the same circumstances.
As I finish this post several days later, it is with the news reports of the events in Israel and Gaza playing in the background. Not the stuff of travel blogs, but events which must be prayed for even now.
There will likely only be one more post, whew! Something to look forward to!!
May God send His grace and love into your lives today.
Rambling on…
Great summary, Libby! Thanks so much for sharing it.
It is definitely a very special place.