Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom is often quoted in Christian circles, her testimony one of the most famous told. Her story is a fascinating one of courage and bravery, not only in Ravensbrück concentration camp but in her willingness to hide Jews from the Nazis during the German occupation of the country of her birth, Holland.

Last November I read her bestselling book, The Hiding Place, and I'll admit it was a book I was a little apprehensive about reading, knowing a little of her story. However, Corrie wrote it in such a way that, at times, there was humour, along with a lot of honesty about her feelings as she described the difficult and cruel circumstances of life in a concentration camp. I thoroughly recommend the book, but in the meantime, here is a snapshot of her Tale of Courage:

Corrie was born on 15th April 1892 in Haarlem in Holland and was the youngest of four children born to Casper and Cornelia ten Boom. In 1922, at the age of 20, she became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland, following in her father’s footsteps who had inherited a watch shop from his father.

She referred to her home in the book fondly as the Beje, shortened for Barteljorisstraat. She enjoyed her work alongside Casper, looking after the business side of the watch shop, and she also established a club for young people with special needs.  In the years before the German invasion of Holland, Corrie lived a busy and productive life, it seemed like she never stopped!

So it was no surprise that when her country was invaded in May 1940, and she saw how Jews living and working around her were being persecuted, that she had to do something to try and help. This was partly due to her own instinctiveness and partly to do with her Christian upbringing and the respect her parents taught her for God’s people, the Jews.

She cycled to underground Dutch Resistance meetings, organised stolen ration books for Jews who were not deemed entitled to rations and co-ordinated long term places of safety for those who came to the Beje seeking shelter. When we remember her age, by then Corrie was in her 50s, and the risk carried with her activity, it is even more a remarkable tale of courage.

On 28 February 1944, a Dutch informant betrayed the ten Booms and told the Nazis about their work. That afternoon, the Nazis raided the home and arrested the entire ten Boom family. Corrie was actually feeling unwell and was resting in her room, which contained the hiding place. Despite the many practices the family had preparing for such a raid, she was almost delirious as the Jews came into the room to get in behind the fake brick wall so that they wouldn’t be caught. 

When taken to prison, she was kept in her own cell as the Gestapo thought she was an underground Resistence ringleader. She later expressed how hard it was to be in solitary confinement. She was delighted to be reunited with her sister Betsie, even though they were taken to Vught, and then Ravensbrück concentration camp. An estimated 35,000 women would have been there at any one time. Their experiences and treatment were horrendous. They were stripped naked as they entered the largest concentration camp for women in the German Reich. They were huddled in barracks with hundreds of other women to sleep, sharing mattresses infested with lice. They had to rise for roll call at 4am, forced to work long days, watched over and berated by guards. In amongst that, the smell of dead bodies from the crematorium permeated the camp.

Betsie died in Ravensbrück on 16th December 1944. Corrie was released on 31st December of the same year, although it later transpired that that was due to a clerical error and the next week, all the women her age were sent to gas chambers.

In the years that followed, Corrie visited over 60 countries telling people her story and witnessing for Jesus who had given her the courage to face such brutality and inhumane treatment in the concentration camp. 

She died in 1983 on her 91st birthday in Orange County, California. Her book The Hiding Place was also made into a film in 1975 which can be accessed on Amazon Prime and other streaming services. She wrote about her childhood and years before the German invasion In my Father’s house and about her global travels in, Tramp for the Lord.

Quote from Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom