The Hiding Place (biography)

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The Hiding Place is a 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom, written by Corrie together with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

The idea of a book on Corrie's life began as John and Elizabeth Sherrill were doing research for the book God's Smuggler, about Corrie ten Boom's fellow Dutchman, Brother Andrew. Corrie was already in her mid-seventies when the Sherill's first began to hear about her. She was one of Brother Andrew's favorite travelling companions and many of his recollections were about her. In the preface to the book, the Sherills recount:

...his [Brother Andrew's] fascinating stories about her in Vietnam, where she had earned that most honorable title "Double-old Grandmother" - and in a dozen other Communist countries - came to mind so often that we finally had to hold up her hands to stop his flow of reminiscence. "We could never fit her into the book," we said. "She sounds like a book in herself." It's the sort of thing you say. Not meaning anything.

It was later made into a film of the same name.

The title refers not to the physical hiding place where the ten Boom family secreted Jews from the Nazis, but rather to God, as in Psalm 32:7: "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."(NIV)

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book opens in 1937. The ten Boom family is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the family watch and watch repair business, now run by the family's elderly father, Casper. The business takes up the ground floor of the family home (known as the Beje). Casper lives with his unmarried daughters Corrie (the narrator and a watchmaker herself) and Betsie, who takes care of the house. It seems everyone in the Dutch town of Haarlem has shown up the to party, including Corrie's sister Nollie, her brother, Willem, and her nephews Peter and Kik. Willem, a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church brings a Jewish man, who had just escaped from Germany, as a guest. The man's beard had been burned off by some thugs, a reminder of what was happening to the east of Holland.

In the next few chapters, Corrie talks about her childhood, her infirm but glad-hearted mother, and the three aunts who once lived in the Beje. She talks about the only man she ever loved, a young man named Karel, who ultimately married a woman from a rich family.

Eventually, both Nollie and Willem marry. After the deaths of Corrie's mother and aunts, Corrie, Betsie, and their father settle down into a pleasant domestic life. Then, in 1940, the Nazis invade Holland.

Due to the family's strong Christian beliefs, they feel obligated to help their Jewish friends in every way possible. Soon, the Beje is the center for a major anti-Nazi operation. Corrie, who had grown to think of herself as a middle-aged spinster, finds herself involved in black market operations, stealing ration cards, and eventually, hiding Jews in her own home.

Corrie suffers a moral crisis over this work; not from helping the Jews, but from what she has to do to accomplish this: lying, theft, forgery, bribery, and even arranging a robbery. The Dutch underground arranges for a secret room to be build in the Beje, so the Jews would have a place to hide in the event of the inevitable raid.

When a man asks Corrie to help his wife, who had been arrested, Corrie agrees, but with misgivings. As it turns out, the man was a spy, and the watch shop is raided. The entire ten Boom family is arrested, along with the shop employees, though the Jews manage to hide themselves in the secret room.

Casper is well into his eighties by this time, and a Nazi official offers to let him go, provided he makes no more trouble. Casper cannot agree to this, and is shipped to prison. It is later learned he died shortly after.

Corrie is sent to Scheveningen, a Dutch prison which was used by the Nazis for political prisoners, nicknamed 'Oranjehotel'--a hotel for people loyal to the House of Orange. She later learns her sister is being held in another cell, and that, aside from her father, all other family members and friends have been released. A coded letter from Nollie reveals that the hidden Jews were safe. Corrie befriends a depressed Nazi officer, who arranges a brief meeting with her family, under the pretense of reading Casper's will. She is horrified to see how ill Willem is, as he had contracted jaundice in prison. He would eventually die from this in 1946. Corrie also learns that her nephew, Kik, had been captured while working with the Dutch underground. He had been killed, though the family did not learn of this until 1953.

After four months at Scheveningen, Corrie and Betsie are transferred to Vught, a Dutch concentration camp for political prisoners. Corrie is assigned to a factory that makes radios for aircraft. The work is not hard, and the prisoner-foreman, Mr. Moorman, is kind. Betsie, whose health is starting to fail, is sent to work sewing prison uniforms.

When a counter-offensive against the Nazis seems imminent, the prisoners are shipped by train to Germany, where they are imprisoned at Ravensbruck, a notorious women's concentration camp. The conditions there are hellish; both Corrie and Betsie are forced to perform back-breaking manual labor. It is there that Betsie's health fails and she dies. Corrie is later released, due to what later proved a clerical error. Though she is forced to stay in a hospital barracks while recovering from edema, Corrie arrives back in Holland by January of 1945.

Throughout the ordeal, Corrie is amazed at her sister's faith. In every camp, the sisters used a hidden Bible to teach their fellow prisoners about Jesus. In Ravensbruck, where there was only hatred and misery, Corrie finds it hard to look to Heaven. Betsie, however, shows an universal love for everyone. Not only for the prisoners, but, amazingly for the Nazis. Instead of feeling anger, she pities the Germans, sorrowful that they are so blinded by hatred. She yearns to show them the love of Christ, but dies before the war is over.

After the war, Corrie begins to put her sister's dream into action. Using the Beje, along with a donated mansion, and even an old concentration camp, Corrie begins ministering to those hurt by the war--Dutch and German alike. Corrie's own faith is put to the test, when, after preaching in Germany, she meets a former guard who humilated her sister. It is then she decides that God's love can conquer all.