Have you heard of Corrie Ten Boom and her remarkable family? I met Corrie through the pages of her most famous book The Hiding Place about 10 years ago. The book takes place in Holland, and I decided to read it aloud to Danny,Molly and Charlotte while we were living here and could experience it more completely. What an amazing journey we had:
The Ten Booms were members of the Dutch underground movement during WWII. At the time that Germany took over Holland, May 10,1940, Corrie was 50 years old, her sister Betsie was 55 and her father Casper was 80. Not the age you think of when it comes to revoluntionaries is it. This family was amazing and very inspiring. The faith that was shown every day through such unbearable trials. Their house in Haarlem, just off the Grote Markt, had long been a hub of christian prayer groups and gatherings before the war. The house is small and narrow with a twisty staircase. When Corrie was growing up she lived there with her parents and her brother Willem, and sisters Nollie and Betsie. The Ten Booms had a watch shop at the front of the house. Over the years Corries parents took in many foster children and gave them a better life. Corrie herself started a prayer group and activity club for the intellectually disabled in the 1930's, unheard of then. As the noose closed around the Jewish community the Ten Booms began using The Beje, the nickname for their home, as a hiding place for Jewish refugees. Most stayed only a night or two as their passage on to a safe place was arranged. In total the Ten Boom family helped 800 Jews escape from the Nazi's. ^ Jewsih people stayed at The Beje for over 2 years because they could not find a place to move them to(Too Jewsih looking, in poor health,etc) During their time in The Beje this group and Corrie,Betsie and Casper became a family. They spent evenings in prayer, but also playing games, learning Italian, singing around the piano and giving each other strength. The resistance had built a hiding place at the top of the house in Corrie's bedroom. They made a false wall, smuggling two bricks at a time into the house under their clothes, building a place for the six Jewish refugees to hide in case of a raid. The Ten Booms were arrested along with 30 other members of the underground on Feb 28 1944 when they were betrayed to the Gestapo. They did not discover the 6 in hiding, and after 48 hours in the narrow hiding place with no food or water, a sympathetic Dutch police officer let them know it was safe to come out. Five of the six survived the war, and one came back to the house 30 years later! They were taken to a work camp in Holland and when the judge tried to let Casper go free if he promised to stay out of trouble, he said "if tomorrow someone knocks on my door who needs help I will help them" He died in the camp 10 days later.Betsie and Corrie were at Scheveningen and Vught in Holland and finally sent to the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany in Sept 1944. Corrie and Betsie began to minister to the women in the barracks, eventually it grew so large they held two services each night. All religions were joined together in this worship service and Corrie called it "a little preview of heaven, those nights beneath the light bulb." Betsie died on December 16th 1944 and her last words to Corrie were "we must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here." Corrie was released from Ravensbruck due to a clerical error, her number was put in the wrong column. The week following her release all the women over 50 in the camp were sent to the gas chambers. There are many miracles that occurred while Corrie and Betsie were held by the Nazis and when she was released, the miracles continued. In May 1945 she was given a house that she turned into a home for the disabled and those who were traumatized by the war. She began speaking and writing about her experiences as she and Betsie had talked about doing, and in 1946 she traveled to the US and spoke around the country in churches,bible studies and prayer groups. In 1949 she began raising money for the rental of Damstadt, a German concentration camp, which she turned into another home for the disabled and traumatized. Right in the heart of Germany. Can you imagine? There are many books and so much more to know about this amazing woman. I urge you to read about her, you will be inspired I can promise you that. Her faith and the dedication to that faith by her and her family will floor you.
To be able to go to the house, the week after we read the book was an awe-inspiring experience. As we stood in the narrow ally waiting for our tour we could see the doorbell, the signal/sign in the window saying all was well,the watch shop itself(still in operation!) Inside of course were the rooms as described, and to sit in them and hear the guide tell the story, to crawl into the hiding place and imagine fleeing the Nazis in terror. I can't tell you. For us it is poignant as well because though we are not Jewish, our family would have been targeted by the Nazis because we have "mental defectives" who need to be "cleaned out of the population". Maybe the girls would have been in Corries pray group...maybe she would have helped them escape...
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St.-Bavoskerk, Corries church
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| The Grote Markt,half a block from The Beje, the name of the Ten Boom house |
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an example of a typical building on the Grote Markt,
Corrie and her Father took a walk around this square every day at 10am |
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the Barteljorisstraat as it is today, modern shops on the ground floors,
but the old architecture above, so you can see how it was in the 30's and 40's |
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| the side door, where all the action took place, visitors, friends and eventually Jews needing help all used this door. |
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| a side view of the tall narrow house |
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| our tour began with sitting in the liberation room, as Corrie's father called this area. When his grandson Peter was released from prison Casper wanted to have a party to welcome him home. Corrie and Betsie said they didn't have enough room so Father had the wall removed and invited all of Haarlem to celebrate with him! Peter had been arrested for playing the Wilhelmus, the Dutch National Anthem, on the anniversary of the Germans taking Holland. He played it in the church seen above on the world famous organ which Mozart and Handel had played. |
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| a picture of Corrie's prayer and social group for girls with ID |
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| Father's desk and the family bible. Father read from it every morning and all the employees in the watch shop as well as the family all gathered around. He also read from it as the last family activity at night. |
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| this is Corrie's bedroom and the closet with the false back through which the Jews entered the hiding place |
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| Danny and another gal his age and I try out the space |
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| a plaque inside the space today |
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| six to seven Jews would go into this tiny space, only two could sit down, they would take turns. there was a small ventilation hole built in to the back. During the raid, the group of six were without food or water for 48 hours. Our tour decided to try it with six people inside to see how it felt, it was very uncomfortable even though two were kid sized. |
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| in the house now, a hole is cut so people can see the space without crawling in. Crawling in was so intense, I tried to imagine trying to hurry in with people coming right behind me and the Nazis banging on the door downstairs... |
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| Danny coming out, all the things in the house are original, it is just as it was then |
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| letters and other mementos |
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| Five or the original six that remained at The Beje |
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| the small newspapers were issues of The Flying Dutchman, and newspaper printed to inspire the Dutch people and dropped out of airplanes into the cities |
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This was near Casper's chair in the dining room where they all ate together, in Dutch it is
Jesus is Victor! |
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| we are in the front window, which is visible on tippytoes from the street. Danny is holding the sign that was used as a signal to the underground workers. If it was in the window it was safe to enter. On the day of the raid, Betsie tried to knock it off the window sill during questioning, but a German officer caught on. He set it back up and The Beje became a trap, 30 others were caught coming to the house before word spread that the Ten Booms had been betrayed. |
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| This is an embroidery that Corrie did, she took it on her travels.. |
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she would show the messy back first, and talk about life and how it seemed unknowable, or to not make sense to us, all these different threads, not connecting to anything, but then she would turn it over and show the crown, and let people know that Gods plan is like that side, beautiful and he knows just how it will turn out!
I will close with this quote of Corries
"when we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus" |
