The Hiding Place Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom writes a book called The Hiding Place, and it explains how she and her family helped Jews during the Holocaust. It took a lot of bravery and courage for the ten Booms to put their lives on the line to save the lives of nearly 800 Jews. The ten Booms show that instead of disregarding the jews and not helping them, they open their home for anybody who needs help. Even through the dark times, the ten Booms always have a strong feeling that something good will happen and continue spread the love of Jesus. The ten Booms hope that Jesus can deliver the soldiers from evil and keep spirits of everyone who is suffering from the Holocaust. The ten Booms respond to their environment by providing a temporary home for Jewish people and

spreading the love of Jesus.
The first way the ten Booms react to the uprising of the NSB party is allowing their home to become a home for Jewish citizens in need. Hiding Jews come with a great risk. If the ten Booms are caught they could be sent to prison or to a concentration camp.

In the story, a Jewish lady comes to the ten Booms residence for shelter because her husband has been arrested and her son is in hiding. Instead of rejecting the woman, the ten Booms welcome her to their home. The narrator says, “But Mrs. Kleermaker accepted it gratefully, plunging into the story of how her husband had been arrested some months before, her son gone into hiding. She was afraid now to go back to the apartment above it. “In this household,” Father said, “God’s people are always welcome” (Boom 64). Casper ten Boom is willing to risk his life and his daughter’s life to help a Jewish person in need. If they are caught hiding a Jew, the whole family could be sent to prison or a concentration camp. Corrie ten Boom must provide enough ration cards for her family and the Jews in hiding. Corrie develops a contact to get the extra ration cards. The process of getting the ration cards could get Corrie and the contact sent to prison. The narrator says, “If it happened at noon,” he said slowly, “when just the record clerk and I are there . . . and if they found us tied and gagged . . .” He snapped his fingers. “And I know just the man who might

do it!” (Boom 65). This reveals that Corrie will do anything to help the Jewish people. The NSB party would not be able to track where the ration cards are coming from. This is also a good way to get a lot of ration cards at once as well. Corrie joins the Underground to have the opportunity to help a greater number of Jews. The Underground helps the ten Booms by building a secret room to hide the Jews. “At last, at the very top of the stairs, he entered my room and gave a little cry of delight. Mr Smit says, “This is it!” he exclaimed. “You want your hiding place as high as possible,” he went on eagerly. “Gives you the best chance to reach it while the search is on below”(Boom 69). The ten Boom’s home is the perfect place for hiding Jews because how odd the house is made.
Bestie’s faith stays strong during the whole story even when the ten Booms are sent to a concentration camp.

She spreads the love of Jesus to keep fellow prisoners faith in being released. Without Bestie’s prayers, Corrie would not be optimistic during her sentence at the camp. Betsie ten Boom says, “These young women. That girl back at the bunkers. Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes. . . .” (Boom 125). This reveals that Betsie sees the goodness in everyone, and she does not believe that the person is evil. The person is surrounded by evil. Betsie and Corrie are taken to Vught, and Betsie sees the opportunity to spread love while they are there. She sees how much hate the concentration camps bring, and the only outcome of hate is even more hate. If Betsie and Corrie spread love, then all of the hate will turn into love for one another. While Betsie and Corrie are prisoners at the concentration camp, they try to help fellow prisoners. They helped the prisoners by comforting them with the love of Jesus. Betsie and Corrie gave the prisoners hope when they did not have any. The narrator says, “In the midst of their agony, each sought to comfort cold and desperately hungry fellow prisoners, often speaking a last word affirming the presence of Christ to those destined for the gas chambers” (Holt 52). Betsie and Corrie are truly good people by nature. Despite being in a bad environment

with a lot of death around them, they always pray to Jesus and try to spread the love of Jesus to help brighten the prisoners hopes. Betsie has a vision of what to do when she and Corrie are released. Betsie wants to create a shelter for the people who were damaged by the war. She wants to teach the people love.The narrator says, “Betsie was always very clear about the answer for her and me. We were to have a house, a large one—much larger than the Beje—to which people who had been damaged by concentration-camp life would come until they felt ready to live again in the normal world” (Boom 147). The shelter would not be limited to just prisoners of concentration camps, but it will also be shelter for former NSB party members. The narrator says, “...it was their fellow Dutchmen who had sided with the enemy. I saw them frequently in the streets, NSBers with their shaved heads and furtive eyes” (Boom 161). It is hard for Holland citizens to forgive former NSB soldiers for all of the things they evil deeds they committed. The shelter will teach love and forgiveness so they will provide a home for the former soldiers.The narrator says, “In May, Holland was liberated and Corrie knew what she must do with the rest of her life: Teach God's love and forgiveness as shown in the gift of His Son” (Holt 51). Corrie will forgive the soldiers for their actions and teach them about God’s love.
The ten Booms do what they feel is right regarding the situation with the NSB party and the Jewish people. The ten Booms responded to the rise of anti-semitism by allowing Jews to stay at their home and spreading the love of Jesus. They save nearly 800 Jews by taking risks.