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“Is it possible for people from different faiths to live together, to laugh together, pray together, eat together, and sacrifice their lives for one another?
Is it possible to live a life of self-sacrifice even to the point of death for an unseen hope one believes in?
Is it possible to lay down your life for a friend, even for a stranger? To forgive your enemies – to love your enemies.
In a world of strife and growing conflict, the answer may seem to be ‘No’. In a world of division and ethnic war, it may appear that such attitudes are not humanly possible.
What could cause people to express the kind of love and sacrificial care that they would risk their own safety and their own lives for its expression? Is such a love possible?”
In the story of Corrie and the ten Boom family, the answer can only be found because they opened their hearts to an extraordinary God and became players in one of the most remarkable stories ever told.
Cornelia Johanna ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, Netherlands, near Amsterdam. Known as ‘Corrie’ all her life, she was the youngest child, with two sisters, Betsie and Nollie, and one brother, Willem. Their father, Casper, was a jeweler and watchmaker.
The ten Boom family lived in rooms above Casper’s watch shop. The family was members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Faith in God inspired them to serve society, offering shelter, food and money to those in need. In this tradition, the family held a deep respect for the Jewish community in Amsterdam, considering them “God’s ancient people.”
The ten Boom home was a refuge for Jews and Dutch underground meetings in Holland during WWII. Their lives were torn apart when the family was arrested and taken to concentration camps for hiding people from the Nazi authorities. Casper died, her sister Betsie died, and Corrie had to look to the Lord for her source of strength. Later, after her release, she wrote about these harrowing experiences in her riveting book The Hiding Place.
By all accounts, they saved nearly 800 lives.
“You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” ~Psalm 32: 7
What Makes Corrie A Heroine?
The Bible tells us that God is our hiding place, and that He is a perfect shelter for His children. Corrie knew this and lived it out.
Corrie ten Boom, after living through the horrors of Ravensbruck, a concentration camp built for women in 1939, voiced, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.”
On Fridays the women had to walk naked to degrading medical inspections. Corrie focused on the thought that Jesus Christ hung naked on the cross.
After working hard labor every day, Corrie and her sister Betsie held worship services in their barracks with the other women. They had been able to sneak a Bible into the camp under the eyes of the guards.
Corrie pens in her book The Hiding Place, “At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder… A single meeting might include a recital of the Magnificat in Latin by a group on Roman Catholics, a whispered hymn by some Lutherans, and a sotto-voce chant by Eastern Orthodox women. With each moment, the crowd around us would swell… At last either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the Dutch text, we would translate aloud in German. And then we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and back into Dutch. They were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb.”
Corrie endured solitary confinement in prison and ten months of manual labor and mental torture while interned, but she prayed for her captors and never lost her mind.
On New Year’s Eve, 1944, she was released from Ravensbruck concentration camp and later learned it was due to a clerk’s error. All the women her age met their death just one week after her discharge.
We have a solid model to learn from in Corrie. This little review doesn’t come close to doing her life justice.
She not only had a deep faith in God, but she lived out her relationship with Christ in the way she spent her life for others. Her courage was unmatched. In her later years she didn’t retire to sit around, grow old and vegetate. She set about establishing rehabilitation houses for survivors and sharing her message of forgiveness, mercy, and God’s grace around the world.
We have no idea what would have happened if the family had not opened their door to these people. What we do know is this: no matter what, there were no bounds to her faith, hope, and trust in the Lord. Corrie went home on her 91st birthday, just as it says in her family’s favorite passage in Psalm 91, to “the shelter of the Most High.”
“It matters not how dark it is – His light is always brighter.” –Corrie ten Boom
“A caution is in order before you read the story of the Dutch Christian family ten Boom. The story can be a dangerous story, for having once heard it, you might be find it impossible to be impacted by its implications. You might find that you have been changed forever.” – The Corrie ten Boom Museum
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
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Thanks for reading!
Renee says
February 19, 2012 at 8:40 pmI just found this now and LOVE what you have to say! I’m a first of all wife and teacher at home for 28 years…not yet to the point you are as I still have a 7 year old at home so still in the midst of it. I praise the LORD for women like you who so carefully unfold a beautiful plan for a true woman of God in modern day America. So refreshing!!!
Jacqueline says
February 19, 2012 at 11:21 pmDear Renee,
Thank you for your encouraging and kind words. I just had to share on corrie as I struggle with the inevitable hurts of life. BTW, I am planning on doing the review of your wonderful book,,,we are working through getting my parents home ready to sell and the dispersal of all the things. There is so much to do I don’t know where to begin 🙂 God’s blessings!
Anna @ Feminine Adventures says
February 19, 2012 at 9:31 pmBeautiful post! “The Hiding Place” is my absolute favorite autobiography. I’ve read it multiple times but think it’s time to pull it out again.
Jessica@MakingHomeSweeter says
February 19, 2012 at 11:59 pmWow, this really touched me. I love the analogy of hiding within Jesus. I couldn’t think of a more perfect place than with Him.
Christina A. says
February 20, 2012 at 9:45 amwow…what a wonderful post…i have read almost all of her books and watched several of the movies that she made…what a wonderful woman of faith…this post was encouraging as i have not picked up her works in a while…thank you for reminding me…!
Q says
February 20, 2012 at 12:19 pmThank you, thank you, thank you for this post. I am in the middle of being drug through legal hell, all because I have my daughter’s heart and her father doesn’t. I’m stressed and it’s beginning to come out physically. Thank you for this post. I’ll be practicing hiding it in HIM! 🙂
Jacqueline says
February 20, 2012 at 6:34 pmDear Q,
I am praying for you all now. I trust that you will ask the Lord to help you forgive. It is the way of the cross. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6: 14-15 It may be the hardest thing you will ever do, but with God all things are possible. You can do it with Him.
Love in Jesus, Jacqueline
Andrea @ HomeHeartFamily says
February 20, 2012 at 6:15 pmI love The Hiding Place! Thank you so much for writing this because I’m going through some really hard times right now. It is refreshing to remember Corrie Ten Boom’s faith and courage. Especially since her struggles were so much larger than my own. It is helpful to put things in perspective!
Jacqueline says
February 20, 2012 at 6:28 pmAndrea,
I am lifting you up in prayer to our Heavenly Father who hears our cries. I am so thankful the Lord has shed some perspective on your circumstances. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Proverbs 18: 10 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 1 John 5:4
Love in Jesus, Jacqueline
JES says
February 21, 2012 at 4:29 amBeautiful reminder! One of my favorite’s… and a lovely testimony of “laying down your life for a friend.”
Jennifer Price says
February 21, 2012 at 11:42 amThanks for this inspiring post!
I loved reading the book, The Hiding Place. We also have it on audio from Focus on the Family. They did a great job with it!
I’ve always been encouraged by the quote in the story, “There is no pit so deep, that He is not deeper still.”
Jacqueline, when I was a young girl my mother took me to hear her speak in the Chicago area. I still have vivid memories of her and her love for God!
Jacqueline says
February 21, 2012 at 12:38 pmOh, Jennifer, I would have loved to hear her words of wisdom in person. God has used her submitted heart so powerfully. I want to be as sold out for the Lord as she was.
I have been listening to Corrie on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHjaUn2vII4 I hope this can bless you and others.
Taylor says
February 21, 2012 at 9:50 pmI recently read Corrie Ten Boom’s book “The Hiding Place” for a school project and really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed and agreed with what you have to say about Corrie. Do you think Corrie Ten Boom was right to forgive the people who hurt her in the concentration camp? I believe that we must forgive everyone because God commands us to forgive in His Word. Even though it may seem hard and impossible at first, God gives us the strength and love to forgive, as Corrie explains at the end of “The Hiding Place.” What are your thoughts on forgiveness? Should all the Nazis be forgiven?
Jacqueline says
February 21, 2012 at 10:51 pmDear Taylor,
I do believe that if we have un-forgiveness, it will eat us up. We are ones who pay with bitterness of spirit., and we won’t be forgiven by the Father.I would pray for those who hate others, Nazis included.I pray for myself that I would not hate by harboring judgmentalism or legalism. “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6: 15
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 Yes, I think corrie was right to forgive…we are commanded to do it.
Many blessings in Jesus,
Jacqueline
Bethany T says
February 22, 2012 at 12:44 pmThank you so much for this post! I love the things you said in it. The Sr high youth group at our church (which I have been helping with recently) is preparing a study of the martyrs and I pray it will strongly impact each life. Part of it is going to be role-playing and pretending they have to make it to a secret church without being caught (and there are really dad’s from the church “chasing” them). Though the youth group’s study will be about modern persecution in the middle east, this was good for me to hear and be reminded!
Jacqueline says
February 22, 2012 at 1:07 pmBethany,
We have wanted to do something similar with Persecution Sunday. Voice Of The Martyrs has shown church groups how to do an underground worship service, highlighting how we might too have to worship someday. Thank you for your kind words, dear one.
Cassandra says
March 9, 2012 at 6:09 amThanks for sharing Corrie’s words and your thoughts. There is much encouragement here. Bless you!