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Corrie Ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom was born April 15, 1892. Corrie was the youngest child of Casper ten Boom, a watchmaker and jeweler, and Cornelia (more commonly known as Cor) Johanna Arnolda, whom he had married in 1884. She was named for her mom, but known as Corrie her entire life. She had three older siblings: Betsie, Willem, and Nollie.

Her dad was so fascinated and engrossed in watchmaking that he would forget to charge customers for his services at times. The family lived above Casper’s watch shop. Corrie spent the first part of her life in charge of housekeeping, but when a cold sent Betsie to bed for an extended period, Corrie took Betsie’s place and started working in the shop. She soon learned that she loved the “business side” of the shop, and organized the financial proceedings by developing a system of ledgers and billings. Even once Betsie had recovered, Corrie kept her place in the shop and Betsie took over the housework, to the delight of both sisters.

After training to become a watchmaker, she became the first woman to be licensed to be a watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922. Over the following decade, along with working in her dad’s shop, she established a youth club for teen girls, which provided religious instruction and classes in the performing arts, handicrafts, and sewing.

Corrie and her family were Calvinist Christians in the Dutch Reformed Church, and their faith inspired them to serve their society, which they did by offering food, shelter, and money to those in need.

During the Nazi occupation, they chose to act out their faith through peaceful resistance to the Nazis by actively participating in the Dutch underground. They were feeding, hiding, and transporting Jews and underground members that were being hunted by the Gestapo out of the country. It’s estimated that they were able to save the lives of about 800 Jews, in addition to protecting the underground workers.

A well dressed woman came to the Ten Booms’ with a suitcase and told them she was a Jew, her husband was arrested several months prior, her son went into hiding and Occupation authorities visited her recently her so she was scared to return. She had heard they had helped the Weils, their Jewish neighbors, and asked if they’d help her out too. Casper agreed without hesitation that she could stay with them despite police headquarters just being half a block away.

Casper was a devoted reader of the Old Testament, and knew that the Jews were the “chosen people”. He told the woman that God’s people were always welcome in this household.

They were betrayed on February 28, 1944 and Corrie and several of her relatives got arrested. The two underground workers and four Jews in the house at the time of the arrest weren’t located by the Nazis and were extricated by the underground 47 hours after fleeing to the hiding place which was located in Corrie’s room. It was found behind a false wall which would hold six people.

The ten Boom family members were separated and then transferred to concentration camps. She was allowed to stay with Betsy, her precious sister. Corrie’s dad, Casper, Betsy, and Kik (a grandchild) perished.

Even though the Gestapo quickly released the majority of the 30 people that they had captured that day, Betsie, Corrie, and their dad were held. Casper died ten days later. Corrie was held initially in solitary confinement. After three months, she was taken for her first hearing. At trial, she spoke about her work with people that had mental disabilities, which a Nazi lieutenant scoffed at, since the Nazis were killing individuals with mental disabilities in accordance with their eugenics policies.

Betsie and Corrie were taken to different camps, before getting to Ravensbruck concentration camp, a woman’s labor camp in Germany. They held worship services after their hard days of work by using this Bible they had been able to sneak in. through both sisters’ teachings and unfailing charity, many of these prisoners there converted to Christianity.

Betsie’s health continued to deteriorate and she ended up dying at the age of 59 on December 16, 1944.

Corrie was released twelve days after her sister died. She was told that her release was a result of a clerical error and that one week later, all of the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers.

She returned home during the “hunger winter”. She still kept her doors open to people with disabilities that were in hiding for fear of being executed.

After the war, Corrie went back to the Netherlands to set a rehabilitation center in Bloemendaal. It housed concentration camp survivors and up until 1950 exclusively was housing jobless Dutch that were collaborating with the Germans during the Occupation, after which it accepted anybody that was in need of care.

These acts of sacrifice and heroism became the foundation for Boom’s global speaking and writing career which started right after her release.

Ten Boom received various awards for her speaking and writing. Most notably, she was honored by the State of Israel for her work in aid of the Jewish people by getting invited to plant a tree in the famous Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, close to Jerusalem. Corrie was also knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands in recognition of her work during the war, and a museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem is dedicated to her and her family.

She told the story of her family and their work during World War II in her bestseller “The Hiding Place”, which was made into a World Wide Pictures film of the same name that starred Jeannette Clift as Corrie and Julie Harris as Betsie.

Corrie migrated to Placentia, California at 85 in 1977. the next year she suffered two strokes, the first rendering her unable to speak, and the second resulted in her becoming paralyzed. She died on her 91st birthday on April 15, 1983 after she suffered a third stroke.

One Response to “Corrie ten Boom”

1. sarah graham: 6 months ago

   read some of her books. starting to read them again.

   Reply