Corrie ten Boom

with John and Elizabeth Sherrill

From start to finish, I was captivated by Corrie ten Boom’s life story.  I cannot fathom the depths of darkness she had to face nor can I fully grasp the depths of her relentless faith and hope in the midst of her heart-wrenchingly tragic tale.   

This book was first published in 1971; and I have often heard bits of the infamous and inspirational ten Boom story, but had never fully known it and read it until now.  I am so glad I did; and I highly recommend this book.  I truly cannot believe that people had to endure such inhumane nightmares in concentration camps.  I cannot believe that millions of people severely suffered and died from starvation; diseases; gunshots, gas chambers, and beatings.  Shockingly, some people actually survived and were released to normal life.  Honestly, how could their lives ever be normal again after living through such a hell on earth?

The Hiding Place recounts the life of the Dutch watchmaker’s daughter during the time of the Nazi occupation of her homeland of Haarlem, Netherlands.  Corrie, her sister Betsie, and her father Casper believed in helping the Jews escape and hiding them from the Nazi soldiers in their home.  Their compassion to save lives and share their faith was stronger than any fears they had.  During a raid in their home on February 28th, 1944, Corrie, Betsie, and Casper were arrested (but, the 6 Jews & resistance workers hiding behind the false wall in Corrie’s room remained safe & were able to escape later). 

Corrie spent 10 months living through the horror of concentration camps.  First, she bravely survived solitary confinement, then she was transferred to another prison.  Finally, Corrie and hundreds of other women were forcefully transported & cramped together in cargo trains onto the evil grounds of Ravensbruck, the worst women’s concentration camp in Germany. Corrie and Betsie were together in Ravensbruck and by the amazing grace of God were able to sneak in pages of a Bible.   They faithfully shared passages of scripture with the women in their squalid barracks.  Betsie became frail and she began to daily deteriorate, yet her faith remained strong.   Before she died in December of 1944, she told Corrie, “There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still.”

Twelve days after Betsie’s death,  Corrie was released from Ravensbruck.  Later, she was told that her release was because of a clerical error.  One week after her release, all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers. God clearly had plans for Corrie’s life after her 10 months imprisoned in the concentration camps. 

She spent the rest of her life traveling around the world sharing her story and the testimony of God’s goodness even in the darkest times of her life.  Corrie lived the last years of her life in Placentia, CA, which is a city neighboring Fullerton where I currently live.   Corrie attended Rose Drive Friends Church, the church I was blessed to attend for well over a decade of my life.  The church that was family to my family growing up; the church that helped me know God; and the church that helped send me to Burundi, Africa.  I so wish that I could have met Corrie when she was at Rose Drive Friends Church.  She died on April 15, 1983 on her 91st birthday. 

Brave on the Narrows is my blog name and has so much significance to me.  I don’t know of  many other people who so clearly exemplify what being brave on the narrows fully means.  Her life was filled with narrowness and this book often mentioned the narrow things in her life.  The narrow path that not many Dutch people took referring to hiding Jews in their homes.  The narrow staircases in her home.  The narrowed vision she tried to have while in the first prison to alleviate added anxiety.  The narrow metal doors at the prison.  The narrow aisle she had to march through at the concentration camp. 

Throughout her whole life, God gave Corrie the strength to persevere and be brave on the narrows.  Whether those narrow paths were lined with beauty and goodness or hauntingly awful and unimaginable pains like living in flea infested, overcrowded, cot-cramped barracks & seeing your sister’s skeletal body in a heap of other dead bodies in the camp hospital, God was there with her.  Corrie was able to keep doing the underground work to help save the Jews; to stay mentally & physically strong in concentration camps; and to share Jesus everywhere she went.  The true hiding place in this book was not the small hallowed out space in the back wall of Corrie’s room but rather the big God who carried her through it all.