Corrie Ten Boom & The Holocaust Hiding Place

Cornelia "Corrie" ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who, along with her father, sister and other family members, helped many Jews escapes the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, was made into a film in 1971 and now a new film "Return To The Hiding Place" re-tells the story of her courageous family.

Born in Amsterdam, Holland, on 15 April 1892, Corrie ten Boom grew up in the nearby city of Haarlem, the youngest of four children born to Cornelia and Casper ten Boom. Corrie's three maternal aunts, Bep, Jans and Anna also lived with her family, and helped to bring Corrie up after her mother died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage in 1921.

CORRIE AND HER SISTERS BETSIE AND NOLLIE

Her father, Casper ten Boom, worked as a watchmaker, and in 1924 Corrie became the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands. Corrie and her sister, Betsie never married, and until their arrest in 1944, they had lived their entire lives in their childhood home in Haarlem.

In May 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and the Ten Boom’s lives changed forever. They did not agree with the persecution of the Jews, nor did they support the invasion of their homeland by the Germany Army.  2 years later, in May 1942, a well-dressed woman came to the Ten Booms' with a suitcase in hand. She told them that she was a Jewish woman and that her husband had been arrested several months before.  Her son had gone into hiding, the Occupation authorities had recently visited her, and now she was too afraid to go back to her home. She had heard through friends that the Ten Booms had helped some of their Jewish neighbors, and asked if they might help her too. Casper ten Boom readily agreed that she could stay with them. A devoted reader of the Old Testament, he believed that the Jews were the 'chosen people', and he told the woman, "In this household, God's people are always welcome."

The family became active in the Dutch underground movement, hiding many refugees. Despite the difficulties they faced, they always provided kosher food for their Jewish guests and honored the Jewish Sabbath. By protecting these people, Casper and his daughters, Corrie and Betsie, risked their lives every day. This non-violent resistance against the Nazi-oppressors was the Ten Booms' way of living out their Christian faith. This faith led them to hide not just Jews, but also students who refused to cooperate with the Nazis, and other members of the Dutch underground resistance movement.

Every non-Jewish Dutch person had received a ration card, the requirement for obtaining weekly food coupons. Through her charitable work, Ten Boom knew many people in Haarlem and remembered a couple who had a disabled daughter. The father was a civil servant who by then was in charge of the local ration-card office. She went to his house one evening, and when he asked how many ration cards she needed, "I opened my mouth to say, 'Five,'" Ten Boom wrote in The Hiding Place. "But the number that unexpectedly and astonishingly came out instead was: 'One hundred.'" He gave them to her and she provided cards to every Jew she met.

Secret room

With so many people using their house, the family built a secret room in case a raid took place. They built it in Corrie ten Boom's bedroom because it was on the house's top floor, hopefully giving people the most time to hide and avoid detection -  most searches usually started on the ground or first floor. A member of the Dutch resistance designed the hidden room behind a false wall. Gradually, family and supporters brought building supplies into the house, hiding them in briefcases and rolled-up newspapers. When finished, the secret room was about 30 inches deep, the size of a medium wardrobe. A ventilation system allowed for breathing. To enter the secret room, a person had to open a sliding panel in the plastered brick wall under a bottom bookshelf and crawl in on hands and knees. In addition, the family installed an electric raid-warning buzzer.

During 1943 and into 1944, there were usually 6-7 people illegally living in this home: 4 Jews and 2 or 3 members of the Dutch underground.  Additional refugees would stay with the Ten Booms for a few hours or a few days until another "safe house" could be located for them.  Corrie became a ringleader within the network of the Haarlem underground. She and other members would search for courageous Dutch families who would take in refugees, and much of Corrie’s time was spent caring for these people once they were in hiding. Through these activities, the Ten Boom family and their many friends saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews, and also protected many Dutch underground workers.

Arrest, detention, and release

On February 28, 1944 the family were betrayed and at 12pm Midday the Gestapo raided their home.  Although the soldiers systematically searched the house, they could not find what they sought most. Safely hidden behind a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom were two Jewish men, two Jewish women and two members of the Dutch underground. The Gestapo set a trap and waited throughout the day, seizing everyone who came to the house. By the evening about 30 people had been taken into custody. 

Although the house remained under armed guard, the Resistance were able to liberate all the refugees 47 hours later.  The six people had managed to stay quiet in their cramped, dark hiding place for all that time, even though they had no water and very little food. The four Jews were taken to new "safe houses," and three of them survived the war.  One of the underground workers was later killed, but the other survived.

Because underground materials and extra ration cards were found in their home, Casper, Corrie and Betsie were all arrested and sent to Scheveningen prison. Corrie’s brother Willem, her sister Nollie, and her nephew Peter were also imprisoned, but later released.

Corrie’s father Casper, who was 84 years old, died after only 10 days in Scheveningen Prison.  When Casper was asked if he knew he could die for helping Jews, he replied, "It would be an honour to give my life for God's ancient people.”

Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent from Scheveningen Prison, to Herzogenbusch, a political concentration camp (also known as Kamp Vught), and then  finally they were taken to the infamous Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. 

FEMALE PRISONERS AT RAVENSBRUSCK CONCENTRATION CAMP

Life in the camp was almost unbearable, but Corrie and Betsie spent a lot of their time sharing their religious beliefs with their fellow prisoners.  Many women became Christians in that terrible place, just because they listened to the comforting and uplifting prayers of Corrie and Betsie.

Betsie died in Ravensbruck concentration Camp, on December 16, 1944 aged 59. Before she died, she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still."

Another of Corrie’s nephews, Christiaan (24), had been sent to Bergen Belsen for his work in the underground, and never returned.  Corrie’s brother, Willem (60), was also a ring leader in the Dutch underground.  While in prison he contracted spinal tuberculosis and died shortly after the war. All in All Four Ten Booms gave their lives to help others during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

Corrie ten Boom was released from Ravensbruck Concentration Camp on December 28, 1944. In The Hiding Place, she says that she later learned that it had actually been down to a clerical error. She said, "God does not have problems — only plans."

RELEASE OF CORRIE FROM RAVENSBRUCK- FROM THE FILM "THE HIDDING PLACE"

Life after the war

After the war, Corrie Ten Boom returned to The Netherlands to set up a rehabilitation centre. The refuge houses were founded primarily to help concentration-camp survivors, but in a typically Christian approach, they also sheltered many a jobless Dutch collaborator- the very same people who had help betray Corrie’s family's activities to the Gestapo.

At age 53, Corrie began a world-wide Christian ministry which took her into more than 60 countries in the next 33 years. She traveled the world as a public speaker and she also wrote many books during this time.

Corrie was knighted by the Queen of Holland and in 1968, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem asked Corrie to plant a tree in the Garden of Righteousness, in honour of the many Jewish lives her family saved.  Corrie’s tree still stands there today.

Her book The Hiding Place (1971) was made into a World Wide Pictures film in 1975, starring Jeannette Clift as Corrie and Julie Harris as Betsie.

 In 1977, 85-year-old Corrie moved to Placentia, California. In 1978, she suffered two strokes, the first rendering her unable to speak, and the second resulting in paralysis. She died on her 91st birthday, 15 April 1983, after a third stroke. 

In the Jewish tradition, it is only very blessed people who are allowed the special privilege of dying on their birthday!

The Ten Boom Museum in Haarlem, which is situated in their former shop and home, is dedicated to Corrie and the Ten Boom family for their work.

 

CLICK ON BOOK ABOVE TO BUY YOUR COPY OF 

THE HIDING PLACE