The Hiding Place

Summary

The Hiding Place is Corrie ten Boom's memoir, written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, of her family's life in Haarlem, their work hiding Jews during the German occupation of the Netherlands, and her imprisonment with her sister Betsie in Nazi prisons and camps. It opens in January 1937 with the hundredth anniversary of the watch shop in the narrow old house called the Beje, where Corrie, then in her forties and unmarried, lives with her father Casper and her older sister Betsie. Looking back, she describes a crowded, devout childhood with three aunts in the house, her mother's cheerful charity, her lost first love Karel, who married a wealthier woman, her training as a watchmaker, and the quiet years in which Betsie kept house and Corrie worked at the bench beside her father. After Germany invades in May 1940, the family is drawn step by step into the Dutch underground. They take in Jews turned away elsewhere, Corrie obtains ration cards through a friend at the food office, and an architect known as Mr. Smit builds a false wall in Corrie's top-floor bedroom, behind which up to six people can hide. Among the household's permanent guests is the cantor Meyer Mossel, nicknamed Eusie. Corrie's nephew Peter is jailed for playing the national anthem on a church organ, and her sister Nollie is arrested for refusing to lie about a Jewish woman in her house. On 28 February 1944, acting on an informer's tip, the Gestapo raids the Beje while Corrie lies sick with influenza. The six people in the secret room are never found and later escape, but the family and many visitors are arrested. Casper ten Boom, eighty-four, dies about ten days later. Corrie spends months in solitary confinement at Scheveningen, where a hidden copy of the Gospels sustains her and a German lieutenant named Rahms questions her with unexpected sympathy. She and Betsie are reunited at the Vught camp, where Corrie works in a Philips radio workshop, and in September 1944 are shipped to Ravensbrück in Germany. In a flea-ridden barracks they hold secret Bible readings, Betsie gives thanks even for the fleas that keep the guards away, and a small bottle of vitamin drops seems never to run dry. Betsie weakens and dies on 16 December 1944, having described a vision of homes where the wounded of the war would be healed. Days later Corrie is released through what she was told was a clerical error. At home she opens houses for the war's damaged, including a mansion in Bloemendaal and later a former camp in Germany, and the book closes with her struggle, in a church in Munich, to take the hand of a former Ravensbrück guard who asks her forgiveness. Chosen Books published the memoir in 1971; World Wide Pictures filmed it in 1975.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-4: The Beje and the ten Boom family

  The shop's centennial in 1937; Corrie's childhood among parents and aunts; her love for Karel and its end; her mother's death; Corrie's training as a watchmaker and the settled life of father and daughters.

• Chapters 5-8: Occupation and the underground

  The invasion of May 1940; persecution of Haarlem's Jews; ration cards, Pickwick and the underground network; Mr. Smit's secret room; Eusie and the other guests; Peter's and Nollie's arrests; drills for a raid.

• Chapter 9: The Raid

  On 28 February 1944 the Gestapo, led to the house by an informer, arrests the family while those in the hiding place remain undiscovered.

• Chapters 10-11: Scheveningen and the Lieutenant

  Solitary confinement, news of Father's death, the smuggled Gospels, and Corrie's hearings with Lieutenant Rahms.

• Chapter 12: Vught

  Reunion with Betsie in a Dutch concentration camp; work in the Philips workshop; executions in the nearby men's camp; the approach of the Allies and the sudden evacuation by train.

• Chapters 13-14: Ravensbrück and The Blue Sweater

  Barracks, roll calls, fleas and hidden Bible readings; the vitamin bottle; Betsie's decline, her visions of postwar ministry, and her death in December 1944.

• Chapter 15: The Three Visions

  Corrie's release, return to Holland, and the fulfillment of Betsie's visions in homes for the war's wounded, ending with the forgiveness of a former guard.

Characters

• Corrie ten Boom, author and narrator

  Unmarried watchmaker who becomes a leader in Haarlem's underground, survives Ravensbrück, and devotes her life to telling of God's love and forgiveness.

• Betsie ten Boom, Corrie's older sister

  Gentle, frail housekeeper of the Beje whose faith, gratitude and love even for the guards sustain Corrie in the camps; she dies at Ravensbrück.

• Casper ten Boom, father

  Devout old watchmaker of Haarlem, known as Opa, who welcomes Jews to his house and dies days after his arrest.

• Willem ten Boom, brother

  Dutch Reformed minister who long warned of the persecution of the Jews and works to protect them.

• Nollie van Woerden, sister

  Corrie's married sister, mother of a large family, who will not lie even to protect the Jewish woman in her house.

• Peter van Woerden, nephew

  Nollie's son, a young organist jailed for playing the Dutch national anthem in church.

• Kik ten Boom, nephew

  Willem's son, who introduces Corrie to the underground.

• Karel, Corrie's first love

  Friend of Willem's from university whose marriage to another woman teaches Corrie to give her love to God.

• Pickwick, underground leader

  Wealthy, kindly resistance figure who helps the ten Booms organize their work.

• Mr. Smit, architect

  Pseudonymous builder of the secret room behind the false wall of Corrie's bedroom.

• Eusie (Meyer Mossel), hidden Jewish guest

  Cheerful cantor who becomes one of the household's permanent guests.

• Lieutenant Rahms, German interrogator

  Officer at Scheveningen who listens to Corrie, speaks of his own fears, and helps her in small ways.

Lessons

• Ordinary people and a righteous risk

  The ten Booms were an elderly watchmaker and his two middle-aged daughters, with no training for resistance. They began by opening their door to one frightened neighbor and found themselves running a hiding place. Their story shows how moral courage often grows out of long habits of hospitality and faith rather than from a single heroic decision.

  • What in the ten Boom household before 1940 prepared them for the work they took on during the occupation?
  • Casper ten Boom says he would gladly die for God's ancient people. What does his choice cost him, and why does he not regret it?
  • Why did many others in Haarlem not do what the ten Booms did?

• Truth-telling under tyranny

  The family wrestles openly with the lies, forged papers and stolen ration cards that underground work requires, while Nollie refuses to lie even to soldiers. The memoir does not settle the question but shows serious Christians disagreeing about it in good faith, which makes it a natural starting point for moral reasoning.

  • Why does Nollie refuse to lie about the woman in her house, and what happens as a result?
  • Does Corrie think the underground's deceptions are right? How does she describe her uneasiness?
  • Is there a difference between lying to a friend and deceiving a persecutor?

• Gratitude in the worst place

  In Ravensbrück Betsie insists on giving thanks for everything, including the fleas in their barracks, and Corrie cannot do it. Only later do they learn that the fleas kept the guards out, so that their Bible readings went undisturbed. The episode presents gratitude as an act of faith offered before its reasons are visible.

  • Why does Corrie resist Betsie's prayer of thanks for the fleas?
  • What do they learn about the fleas later, and how does it change Corrie?
  • Is it possible to be thankful in a place like Ravensbrück without pretending evil is good?

• Forgiveness that must be given

  Corrie preaches forgiveness after the war, but when a former Ravensbrück guard holds out his hand to her she finds she cannot feel it. She describes praying and taking his hand as an act of obedience, and then receiving the love she could not produce herself. The memoir ends on forgiveness as something received from God before it can be given to an enemy.

  • Why is it harder for Corrie to forgive the guard in person than to speak about forgiveness in public?
  • How does Betsie's attitude toward the guards in Ravensbrück prepare for this final scene?
  • Can a person forgive while still holding that a wrong was truly wrong?

Context

Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, and under the occupation Dutch Jews were registered, made to wear the yellow star, and from 1942 deported in large numbers, mostly through Westerbork to Auschwitz and Sobibor. A substantial proportion of the Netherlands' Jews were killed, among the highest rates in Western Europe. A minority of Dutch people hid Jews as onderduikers, those who went underground, often at great risk and with networks of forged papers and ration cards. Vught (Herzogenbusch) was the SS concentration camp on Dutch soil, and Ravensbrück, north of Berlin, the main camp for women.

Composition

Corrie ten Boom had told her story in talks around the world for more than twenty years when John and Elizabeth Sherrill, who had worked on the bestseller The Cross and the Switchblade, interviewed her and shaped her recollections into a continuous narrative. Chosen Books published The Hiding Place in November 1971. Her later books, including Tramp for the Lord (1974), tell of her postwar travels.

Reception

The book became one of the best-selling Christian memoirs of the century and a staple of church and school reading. World Wide Pictures, the film company of the Billy Graham organization, released a film version in 1975 with Jeannette Clift as Corrie, Julie Harris as Betsie and Arthur O'Connell as Casper. The Beje in Haarlem is now a museum, and the ten Booms are honored at Yad Vashem among the Righteous Among the Nations.

Comparisons

• mans-search-for-meaning

  Frankl the psychiatrist and ten Boom the watchmaker both survived the camps and both describe how an inner orientation, meaning for Frankl and faith for ten Boom, kept prisoners alive; Frankl's chapters on hunger, apathy and liberation sit closely beside Corrie's Ravensbrück.

• letters-and-papers-from-prison

  Bonhoeffer and the ten Booms were Christians imprisoned by the Nazi state for resisting it; Bonhoeffer reflects theologically from a Berlin cell, while Corrie tells the story of a family's daily faith from a Dutch watch shop to a German camp.

• number-the-stars

  Lowry's novel of Danish families hiding Jewish neighbors in 1943 is a younger readers' companion to the ten Booms' story of ordinary households drawn into rescue.

• the-cost-of-discipleship

  Bonhoeffer's attack on cheap grace and his call to obedience are lived out in the Beje, where Casper ten Boom accepts arrest rather than turn away the persecuted.

• psalm-23

  The valley of the shadow of death and a table prepared in the presence of enemies are the experience of Betsie and Corrie at Ravensbrück, where they found God present in the darkest place.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening centennial party in January 1937, and how many of the guests and objects there return later in the story.
• The drills in which the hidden guests race to the secret room, and how the practice pays off on 28 February 1944.
• Corrie's conversations with Lieutenant Rahms at Scheveningen, where the prisoner ministers to her interrogator.
• Betsie's prayer of thanks for the fleas at Ravensbrück, and what the sisters learn about the fleas later.
• Betsie's visions of postwar homes, and how each comes true in the last chapter.

Key terms and names

The Beje

The family's name for the narrow old house in Haarlem, with the watch shop on the ground floor, where the ten Booms lived and hid Jews.

The underground

The secret Dutch resistance networks that hid Jews and others, forged papers and supplied ration cards. The ten Booms' house became one of its centers in Haarlem.

Ration card

The occupation government's coupons needed to buy food. People in hiding had none, so Corrie obtained cards through a friend at the food office.

Scheveningen

The prison near The Hague where Corrie was held in solitary confinement after her arrest, and where she learned of her father's death.

Vught

A concentration camp in the southern Netherlands where Corrie and Betsie were held together in 1944 before being shipped to Germany.

Ravensbrück

The Nazi concentration camp for women north of Berlin where Betsie died in December 1944.

Righteous Among the Nations

The title given by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. Corrie ten Boom was recognized in 1967.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How did the ten Booms first become involved in hiding Jews, and how was the secret room built and used?
2. Comprehension What happened on 28 February 1944, and why were the people in the hiding place not found?
3. Comprehension Trace Corrie's route from Scheveningen through Vught to Ravensbrück, naming one thing that sustained her in each place.
4. Interpretation Early in the book Corrie gives up her love for Karel. How does that private sorrow prepare her for the losses of the war?
5. Interpretation Corrie and Betsie respond differently to the guards at Ravensbrück. What does Betsie see that Corrie does not, and when does Corrie come to see it?
6. Interpretation Why does the memoir end with the encounter with a former guard in Munich rather than with Corrie's release or her return home?
7. Interpretation The family disagrees about lying to protect the persecuted. Using Nollie's arrest and the underground's forged papers, explain each side as fairly as the memoir does.
8. Big Question Can a person be grateful in the midst of great evil without calling the evil good?

Faith Connections

• Psalm 32:7; Psalm 119:114 (Scripture)

  Both psalms call God a hiding place. The title points from the secret room behind Corrie's wall, which saved six lives, to the refuge the sisters found in God at Ravensbrück, where no wall could protect them.

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Scripture)

  Paul tells believers to give thanks in all circumstances. Betsie takes the command literally in the flea-infested barracks, and the memoir uses the episode to test what such thanksgiving means.

• Psalm 139:7-12 (Scripture)

  The psalmist cannot flee God's presence even in the depths or the darkness. Betsie's dying conviction that no pit is deeper than God's love is this psalm spoken from Ravensbrück.

• Matthew 5:43-48 (Scripture)

  Jesus commands love of enemies and prayer for persecutors. Betsie prays for the guards, Corrie speaks of Christ to Lieutenant Rahms, and the book ends with her taking the hand of a former guard.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The ten Booms had no strength, wealth or training of their own; they were an old man and two aging daughters in a watch shop. Yet they sheltered the persecuted, endured prison and camp, and in Betsie's case died with gratitude and love for her captors. What sustained them could not have been their own resources. Therefore, the memoir argues, God's love is present and sufficient even in the deepest suffering, and those who have received it are bound to extend it, even to their enemies.

Rhetorical device: foreshadowing through vision. In Chapter 5, after an air raid, Corrie sees in her mind her family being carried off in a wagon; at Ravensbrück, Betsie describes the homes they will open after the war. Both visions are told before their fulfillment, so the reader watches providence unfold across the narrative.

Debate: Resolved: Nollie was right to refuse to lie about the Jewish woman hidden in her house.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Betsie gives thanks for the fleas at Ravensbrück and prays for the guards; Corrie struggles to do either until the final chapter. Using these scenes and the encounter in Munich, argue what the memoir teaches about the relation between gratitude and forgiveness.

Comparison with Man's Search for Meaning: Viktor Frankl and Corrie ten Boom both survived Nazi camps and wrote about how prisoners endured. Compare Frankl's account of meaning with ten Boom's account of faith, and argue whether they describe the same inner resource or different ones.

Medical Lens

The memoir is a lay witness's account of medicine and its absence in occupation and the camps. Earlier chapters record illness in the household with matter-of-fact detail: an aunt dying of tuberculosis, another of diabetes, the mother's long decline after a stroke. In prison and camp the record becomes one of hunger, cold, vermin and exhaustion: Corrie is arrested while ill with influenza; her father, an old man, dies within days of arrest; Betsie, long frail, wastes under the Ravensbrück regime of roll calls and labor and dies in the camp hospital; and Corrie is held back before release because of swelling in her legs, consistent with the hunger edema that camp physicians and survivors described widely. The small bottle of vitamin drops the sisters share becomes a sign of providence in the narrative. After the war ten Boom's houses for the war's casualties, including former prisoners and displaced people, amount to an informal program of rehabilitation for what would now be called trauma, built on rest, work, gardens and forgiveness rather than on psychiatry. Earlier and later chapters also mention her care for people with intellectual disabilities. Present any modern diagnostic reading as interpretation.

• Chapters 3-4

  Deaths of the aunts from tuberculosis and diabetes and the mother's stroke, nursed at home by the ten Boom daughters.

  Tuberculosis Consumption Nursing Caregiving Death Dying
• Chapters 9-10

  Corrie, sick with influenza, is arrested in the raid; her elderly father dies some ten days after the arrest while she is in solitary confinement.

  Fever Infection Death Dying Grief
• Chapters 13-14

  Ravensbrück: hunger, cold roll calls, fleas and lice, the shared vitamin drops, and Betsie's decline and death in the camp hospital.

  Starvation Nutrition Death Dying Fever Infection
• Chapter 15

  Corrie's release is delayed for swelling of the legs; afterwards she opens homes where survivors and others damaged by the war recover.

  Starvation Nutrition Trauma Shell Shock Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Compare Betsie's thanksgiving for the fleas with Frankl's account of finding meaning in the camps. Are gratitude and meaning the same kind of response to suffering?

• Classroom

  Draw a floor plan of the Beje from the clues in the memoir, marking the shop, the dining room, Corrie's bedroom and the secret room, and trace the route the guests practiced in their drills.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Corrie and Nollie after Nollie's release, in which they argue about whether it is ever right to lie to save a life.

Further Reading

• Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom with Jamie Buckingham

  Ten Boom's account of her postwar travels and ministry.

• In My Father's House, Corrie ten Boom with Carole C. Carlson

  Recollections of the ten Boom family before the war.

• The Hiding Place (1975 film), Directed by James F. Collier (World Wide Pictures)

• Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl