The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is a compelling non-fiction narrative of a family of unlikely resistance fighters in the Netherlands during World War II.  Corrie was a fifty

something year old watchmaker working with her father in their century year old family business.  She lived together with her father and older sister in the building that housed their business.  Their family includes a brother that is a Dutch Reformed Church pastor that runs a home for the elderly with his family, and a sister who has an entire family helping to hide Jewish people.

Father, Betsie and Corrie want to help out when they see that their Jewish friends and neighbors are being persecuted by the Nazis.  Corrie becomes the neighborhood leader in the resistance movement.  Through the network, various “Mr. Smit’s” arrive at their home and help them to build a secret room and install a buzzer system to warn the tenants when they need to hide.  Corrie mostly helps Jewish people find other homes, but they keep people in their home that no one else will take as they are too hard to hide for various reasons.  It becomes an open secret in their town that the Ten Boom’s are helping Jewish people.  It was only a matter of time before their secret was out and the Gestapo came for them.  Although Corrie was sick at the time, all of the Jewish residents were able to hide.  The Ten Boom’s were taken away, but luckily the people hidden in their home were able to escape later and all except one survived the war.

As the family is taken away, the Gestapo chief says he will allow Father’s freedom if he promises not to cause trouble, but Father answers, “If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to any man in need who knocks.”  This is a death sentence for Father.

The Ten Booms were a truly Christian family that lived by their faith.   This had problems at times such as when they wouldn’t lie, but always told the truth even when they were hiding Jewish people from the Nazis or when Father said his line to the Gestapo.  Their faith allowed them to help people in need even though they knew it could cause, personal devastation to their family.  I only hope that if I were put in such a situation, that I could be so good.

Betsie and Corrie’s faith keeps them going as they are moved from a work camp in the Netherlands to Ravensbruck Concentration camp in Germany after D-Day.  They live in inhumane conditions, but their faith and the power of trying to be positive keeps them going.  My favorite was when Corrie couldn’t take it that they had fleas in their living quarters, but Betsie said God but them there for a reason.  Corrie was not happy with Betsie’s thought, but later on they are able to have privacy because the guards will not come into the barracks because of the fleas. 

I have never read about Christians in concentration camps, although I knew that the Nazi’s put a variety of people besides Jewish people in concentration camps including, but not limited to, people working with the resistance or hiding Jewish people, homosexuals, handicapped people, Communists, and gypsies.  It inspired me to hear of their secret prayer meetings where Catholics, Lutherans and Dutch Reformed women prayed together and read from their hidden Bible.

This book is the May selection for the Rogue (aka FLICKS) Book and Movie Club.  It should provide interesting discussion at book club tomorrow.  This is a different type of book (non-fiction and includes a lot of talk about faith) than we typically read, but it was an inspiring book and fits into our love of World War II historical fiction.

I will admit that a lot of items in this book hit too close to home with the descriptions of the treatment of people based on their ethnicity and the blind following of a leader.  I had to keep reminding myself that it was written in the 1970s and was a true account of the 1930s and 1940s and not a description of current events.

Overall, The Hiding Place is a book that everyone should read to get a true understanding of not only World War II from the civilian side, but also what it means to be human and to help out your fellow human being even if it causes great personal sacrifice.  If the world had more people like the Ten Boom’s – we’d be in a much better place.

Book Source:  Kewaunee Pubic Library