| The Hiding Place | |
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The Hiding Place book cover, displayed edition published by Bantam Books in October 1974 |
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| Author(s) | Corrie ten Boom |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | nonfiction, autobiography |
| Publisher | Chosen Books |
| Publication date | November 1971 |
| Media type | hardcover |
| Pages | 241 pp |
| ISBN | 0-553-25669-6 |
| OCLC Number | 30489558 |
The Hiding Place is a 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom, written by ten Boom together with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.
The idea of a book on ten Boom's life began as John and Elizabeth Sherrill were doing research for the book God's Smuggler, about ten Boom's fellow Dutchman, Brother Andrew. Corrie ten Boom was already in her mid-seventies when the Sherrills first heard about her. She was one of Brother Andrew's favorite traveling companions and many of his recollections were about her. In the preface to the book, the Sherrills recount:
It was later made into a film of the same name, along with a comic book adaptation.
The title refers to both the physical hiding place where the ten Boom family secreted Jews from the Nazis, and also to the Scriptural message found in Psalm 119:114 which states, "Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word... "[1]
The book opens in 1937, with the ten Booms family celebrating the 100th anniversary of the family watch and watch repair business, now run by the family's elderly father, Casper. The business took up the ground floor of the family home (known as the Beje). Casper lived with his unmarried daughters Corrie (the narrator and a watchmaker herself) and Betsie, who took care of the house. It seemed as if everyone in the Dutch town of Haarlem had shown up to the party, including Corrie's sister Nollie, her brother, Willem, and her nephews Peter and Kik. Willem, a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church brought a Jewish man, who had just escaped from Germany, as a guest. The man's beard had been burned off by some thugs, a grim reminder of what was happening just 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. the author was in-fact born in the year 69 Eventually, both Nollie and Willem married. After the deaths of Corrie's mother and aunts, Corrie, Betsie, and their father settled down into a pleasant, domestic life. Then, in 1940, the Nazis invaded Holland.
Due to the family's strong Christian beliefs, they felt obligated to help their Jewish friends in every way possible. The Beje soon became 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 suffered a moral crisis over this work; not from helping the Jews, but from what she had to do to accomplish this: lying, theft, forgery, bribery, and even arranging a robbery. The Dutch underground arranged for a secret room to be built in the Beje, so the Jews would have a place to hide in the event of the inevitable raid.
It was a constant struggle for Corrie to keep the Jews safe, she sacrificed her own safety and part of her own personal room to give constant safety to the Jews. Rolf, a police officer friend, trained her to be able to think clearly anytime in case the Nazis invaded her home and started to question her.
When a man asked Corrie to help his wife, who had been arrested, Corrie agreed, but with misgivings. As it turned out, the man was a spy, and the watch shop was raided. The entire ten Boom family was arrested, along with the shop employees, though the Jews managed to hide themselves in the secret room.
Casper was well into his eighties by this time, and a Nazi official offered to let him go, provided he made no more trouble. Casper does not agree to this, and was shipped to prison. It is later learned he died ten days later.
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 that her sister is being held in another cell, and that, aside from her father, all other family members and friends had been released. A coded letter from Nollie revealed 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 was horrified to see how ill Willem was, as he had contracted jaundice in prison. He would eventually die from his illness in 1946. Corrie also learned 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 were transferred to Vught, a Dutch concentration camp for political prisoners. Corrie was assigned to a factory that made radios for aircraft. The work was not hard, and the prisoner-foreman, Mr. Moorman, was kind. Betsie, whose health was starting to fail, was sent to work sewing prison uniforms.
When a counter-offensive against the Nazis seemed imminent, the prisoners were shipped by train to Germany, where they were imprisoned at Ravensbrück, a notorious women's concentration camp. The conditions there were hellish; both Corrie and Betsie were forced to perform back-breaking manual labor. It was there that Betsie's health failed and she died. Corrie was later released, due to what later proved a clerical error. Though she was forced to stay in a hospital barracks while recovering from edema, Corrie arrived back in Holland by January 1945.
Throughout the ordeal, Corrie was amazed at her sister's faith. In every camp, the sisters used a hidden Bible to teach their fellow prisoners about Jesus. In Ravensbrück, where there was only hatred and misery, Corrie found it hard to look to Heaven. Betsie, however, showed a universal love for everyone. Not only for the prisoners, but, amazingly for the Nazis. Instead of feeling anger, she pitied the Germans, sorrowful that they were so blinded by hatred. She yearned to show them the love of Christ, but died before the war was over.
The book details the moral dilemmas faced by Corrie and her religious family. While she lies and deals in stolen ration cards to protect Jews, her sister Nollie maintains a strict honesty which results in her revealing the presence of a Jew, who is arrested. Corrie is appalled, but the Jew gets out of prison after a Dutch resistance raid breaks into the prison and releases her (p. 107). Corrie is also asked by a police chief if she can provide help with killing a Dutch Nazi informer; Corrie suggests praying instead, but the incident is not resolved. (p. 116-117).
The book also emphasizes the "governance of God in all things". For example, Corrie's sister Betsie found many fleas in Ravensbruck and tells Corrie they must thank God for them because they are to thank Him in "all circumstances". Later Corrie realizes that these fleas keep the guards at a far distance, allowing the sisters to conduct forbidden Bible study meetings. Corrie, formerly skeptical, learns that Betsie was right.(p. 209).
Miracles are strongly inferred in the text. At one point, Corrie gets out of bed in the night and so avoids being hit by shrapnel (p. 62). When Corrie prays, an elderly asthmatic Jew in hiding stops wheezing (pp. 122–123). In Ravensbruck, a Bible gets smuggled past an inspection (p. 180), and a medicinal bottle keeps producing drops longer than it should (p. 189). Betsie’s body looks restored to health after death (p. 219). There are also a number of supernatural visions included in the story: Corrie has a vision of herself and some friends and relatives being taken away from the town square, before this really happens (p. 63); in Ravensbruck, Betsie has a vision of a large mansion being used to rehabilitate released prisoners, and of a camp being painted up and decorated, which come to pass through seeming coincidences after the war. Betsie also correctly predicts Corrie’s release date.
Jews are considered to be particularly holy; Corrie’s father says that he feels sorry for the Germans because "they have touched the apple of God’s eye" (p. 69).