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Part 15 of the Series:
Corrie ten Boom was the youngest daughter of Casper and Cornelia ten Boom. Corrie’s father was a watchmaker, based at Haarlem in the Netherlands. To assist with the family business, Corrie became the first registered female watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922.
Their Christian faith was an important part of the ten Boom family life. Corrie herself became a born-again believer at the age of five. The family frequently prayed ‘for the peace of Jerusalem’, Ps. 122. 6, recognizing the Jews as ‘God’s ancient people’.1
In May 1940, during World War Two, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and proceeded to occupy the country. As in Germany, Dutch Jews suddenly became a prime target for persecution by the Nazi authorities. Corrie and her family sought to protect Jewish people by hiding them in their large family house. The Dutch resistance built a secret room for the ten Booms to shelter Jews. This hiding place was concealed behind a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom; the secret location was well used for many months. The ten Boom family is credited with helping hundreds of Jews evade capture by the Nazis.
In February 1944, Casper and his two daughters, Corrie and Betsie, were arrested by the Gestapo and interrogated. They were accused of sheltering Jewish people in their home. The elderly Casper died after only a few days of imprisonment. Corrie and Betsie were eventually transported to a women’s concentration camp in Ravensbruck, Germany. There they endured terrible treatment and forced labour.
Tragically, Betsie died at Ravensbruck in December 1944. Before her passing, Betsie whispered to her sister: ‘[We] must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still’.2 A few days later, Corrie was released from the concentration camp, although she was not sure why she had been granted freedom. Later she discovered the usually efficient Nazi guards had made an administrative error in approving her release. After the end of the war, she publicly forgave her former captors. One of the most famous moments in her later life involved meeting a former Ravensbruck guard who approached her after she had given a speech in Munich. He asked for forgiveness, explaining that he had become a Christian since the war. Her response was ‘I forgive you, brother . . . with all my heart!’3 Corrie related this incident as an example of Christian forgiveness in action, as she travelled the world telling people about her experiences and her faith in God.
One of her most memorable comments was on Micah chapter 7 verse 19, ‘Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea’. Corrie explained how our sins are ‘forgiven and forgotten and to warn the accuser He puts a sign saying “No fishing allowed’”.4
Corrie was honoured by the state of Israel in 1968 with recognition as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for risking her life to save Jews during the Holocaust. The building where her family lived in Haarlem is now a museum known as the Corrie ten Boom House. Visitors can participate in guided tours around the building and see the hiding place where the ten Booms helped to save Jews from danger.
As a trained watchmaker, Corrie appreciated precision engineering where every piece of an intricate mechanism must be in exactly the right place for the watch to work properly. Corrie similarly understood the sovereignty of God, working in her life so every piece fell into place perfectly, according to His will, allowing her to serve Him effectively.
