Corrie Ten Boom

When Irene Safran was only twenty-one years old, her carefree life ended in the face of the Holocaust. Born to two Jewish parents as one of ten children-- four girls and six boys in all-- in Munkachevo, Czechoslovakia around the year 1923, her world changed in early April 1944 when she and her family were transferred to a Jewish ghetto. For the next year, Irene's life was a series of deaths, losses, and humiliations no human should ever have to suffer, culminating, years later, with a triumphant ending. Her story is proof that the human spirit can triumph over all manner of adversity and evil.

Literature encapsulates the human experience, reflecting facets of our culture, traditions, and beliefs. Literature functions as a tool to develop and explore empathetic links with other individuals and can provide insight into experiences removed from our own reality. Peter Fischl’s poem ‘Little Polish Boy’ is one such text in which we can attain a unique understanding of the horrors catalysed by war. An expression of Fischl’s own Holocaust experience, this poem is set in WWII, and addressed as a letter to an innocent child of the war from a photograph Fischl found years after the war ended. We can also learn of the loss and grief children face in times of war through the picture book ‘a Soldier, a Dog and a Boy’ by Libby Hathorn. The story follows a young boy orphaned by the Battle of Somme and he’s only left to survive with his dog before an Australian soldier comes to his rescue. These texts allow us to reach a better understanding of the different effects conflict has on children.

The more they got into his line of work, the more danger they were putting themselves into. They were hiding Jews in the Beje (the large house of the Ten Booms) and they eventually got caught. The whole Ten Boom family – father, Corrie and Betsie – had put their own lives on the line and because of this, they were placed in a concentration camp along with all the hundreds of Jews they had helped along the way. During the years they spent there, they watched many die and others get beaten. They, too, were abused and persecuted for all the good of helping others.

Cornelia Ten Boom, known as Corrie, was born April fifteenth, 1892 in Haarlem, Netherlands. She lived with her father, Caspar, her older siblings, Betsie, Nollie and Willem and her three aunts. Her whole family was part of the Dutch Reform Church and was very religious and part of that was helping out the community. No matter how hard times were for the Ten Booms they always gave food to the poor. Corrie’s

The book, The Hiding Place, is a biography on Corrie Ten Boom and her family’s struggles during the Holocaust. The book takes place before World War I through World War II. Corrie and her family lived in the Netherlands in the time of the Holocaust where they owned a build and repair shop for watches. She had two sisters named Betsie and Nollie, and one brother named Willem. Her father did most of the work with the watch shop, and her mother died when she was a little girl. In 1940 when the Nazis started invading the Netherlands, they would often find people praying in their shop because they were scared. The Ten Boom family begins taking in Jews and giving them a place to hide from the invading Nazis. Later on, the family was caught and arrested

World War Two, a time of gore, the type of war, humanity can’t stand or bear to imagine! This was a time where six million Jews were sent to their deaths. The war, known as the Holocaust, lasted from 1939-1945. Yet, the question asked by all, how does the spirit triumph? Our spirit’s triumph by these “big things”, known as love, laughter, and nature.

Casper ten Boom was christian watchmaker, and carried on his watch business to his daughters, after his death. His daughters Cornelia (Corrie) and Elisabeth (Betsie) were given the watch shop shortly after his death. Sadly Betsie did not make it out of the concentration camp, so just Corrie got the watch shop. But backing up from that, he was married to ‎Cornelia Johanna Arnolda ten Boom-Luitingh‎. They started a family and a business. The Beje was what they called the watch shop and house. The Beje was a safe house for everyone of God's people. People

Throughout time, war has changed a person in both physical and emotional ways. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque strived to write about the true realities of war which contradicted the common, romantic belief about war. This novel captures and shifts the audience into a world so different than their home and allows them to almost experience war first-hand. All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of a normal teenager named Paul Baumer who went from a typical school in Germany, to the front lines of World War 1. As we read the story, we could feel the many changes that Paul experienced, from just arriving at the front, all the way until his death. Two of many horrific changes that Paul experienced are the

“Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again.”

A fellow “member” of the “Dutch Underground” warned the ten Boom family that if their house was ever to be searched by soldiers and they had Jews in their house, they’d be in trouble. For families living in the country this wasn’t much of a problem, but the ten Boom house (the Beje), was located on the main street of the city and around the corner from the German headquarters! Since the Beje also served as a pretty famous watch store, this could also be a problem because random people could come in during open store hours. To fix this problem, a man offered to build a “secret room” located somewhere in the Beje. This room is where the Jews would hide if the Beje had been broken in and searched through by the Germans. The man had built the “secret room” into the back of Corrie’s personal bedroom. When he was done, it was completely unnoticeable to the naked eye that there was a hidden room behind her bedroom wall. For months, the 7 Jews (Eusie, Jop, Henk, Leendert, Meta, Thea, and Mary) just slept in it.

Everyone has experienced a dark moment in their lives. It is in these dark moments that turn out to be the most profound. In the story “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin, it talks about the connection of the past lives of those in Nazi Germany and about Griffin’s own family. Griffin has also talked about an artist named Kathe Kollwitz. Kathe Kollwitz has created many self portraits relating and expressing the emotions of the people of Nazi Germany. During this time, many people have gone through hardships such as poverty and war. Through poverty some may have experience or gone through some emotional situations. During war, people may have lost someone close to them or even the peace they had before the chaos have occurred. Griffin has related a painting by Kollwitz with her personal life. In the story, Griffin is trying to portray through this connection how people feel emotionally and physically in the midst of war and violence.

In the world, acts of violence, hatred, and injustice happen everyday. Because of this, it is important to recognize the evils of everyday life and counteract them with positivity and goodness. The Mercy Core Values of hospitality, compassionate service, justice-making, concern for women, and global vision invite everyone to recognize equality and the importance of being compassionate, fair, and kind to others. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene, My Ántonia by Willa Cather, and Inside the Walls of Troy by Clemence McLaren all exhibit the Mercy Core Values through the words and actions of the characters and demonstrate how anyone can make a difference with even the smallest acts of kindness. Summer of My German Soldier gives an example

It can be argued that humans beings are the most richly complex beings to ever inhabit the planet earth. Our ability to reason and discern, combined with the breadth of emotions we are able to exhibit, definitively sets us apart from all other creatures. What defines our humanity beyond the superficial has been pondered for centuries by many philosopher, scholar, and layman alike. The human condition is complex but humanity can be defined by who we are at our very best. Humanity is care, compassion, feeling, and deep connection. It can be difficult to remain connected to one’s humanity in times of great strife. Nobel prize winning author Heinrich Böll’s “Trapped in Paris” tells the story of German soldier’s struggle for survival while trapped

Corrie Ten Boom exemplified the characteristics of a visionary leader through her inspirational motivation in the Dutch underground resistance against Nazi Germany. Corrie witnessed the Jewish oppression at the hands of the Nazis and rejected it (Straub, 1992). One night, a Jewish woman went to Corrie and asked for help and Corrie agreed. Soon, Corrie became an active part of the Dutch underground resistance and worked to save the Jews (Ten Boom, 2006). Here, Corrie used her gift of inspirational motivation to inspire and motivate others to join the resistance or support the effort by providing food ration cards, supplies, or safe passage for the Jews and resistance workers. She even had a hidden room built in her house to hide the Jews residing there (Straub, 1992; Ten Boom, 2006).

As long as there has been war, those involved have managed to get their story out. This can be a method of coping with choices made or a way to deal with atrocities that have been witnessed. It can also be a means of telling the story of war for those that may have a keen interest in it. Regardless of the reason, a few themes have been a reoccurrence throughout. In ‘A Long Way Gone,’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ and ‘Novel without a Name,’ three narrators take the readers through their memories of war and destruction ending in survival and revelation. The common revelation of these stories is one of regret. Each of these books begins with the main character as an innocent, patriotic soldier or civilian and ends in either the loss of innocence and regret of choices only to be compensated with as a dire warning to those that may read it. These books are in fact antiwar stories meant not to detest patriotism or pride for one’s country or way of life, but to detest the conditions that lead to one being so simpleminded to kill another for it. The firebombing of Dresden, the mass execution of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone and a generation of people lost to the gruesome and outlandish way of life of communism and Marxism should be enough to convince anyone. These stories serve as another perspective for the not-so-easily convinced.