The Hiding Place Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place a story written with love and hope to share throughout the world was written by Corrie Ten Boom who was not a Jew. Corrie with the help of Betsie, her sister, and family helped hide Jews during the Holocaust. Corrie felt that she should help God’s people no matter who they were. Though Corrie felt she could never love these people like her sister she tried everything possible. “One thing in the shop I never learned to do as well as Betsie, and that was to care about each person who stepped through the door. Often when a customer entered I would slip out the rear door and up to Betsie in the kitchen. Betsie! Who is the woman with the Alpina lapel- watch on a blue velvet band-stout, around fifty?” (Corrie 54) Even though Corrie could never find a way to care for each person the way Betsie did she still managed to help every person who walk through the door. Soon the German police came to realize what her and her family was doing and arrested Corrie and her family. While in prison at first Corrie had felt God had abandoned them but it was her sister who made her realize that God never left them and his love never left them this was a trial to see how much they loved and truly cared about God. Out in the cold one day they undressed and are naked walking by guards who are laughing and staring at them both Corrie and Betsie so humiliated

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.

This book is called All But My Life. The author is Gerda Weissmann. Gerda Weissmann Klein is one of many survivors of the Holocaust. During the holocaust many Jewish people were killed. Gerda was the only one that survived out of all her family.

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.

Throughout modern history, various historical texts, personal accounts, and books have been published regarding the devastating events of World War 2 and the Holocaust. Two of the most prominent novels written about the Holocaust are Maus and The Hiding Place. Maus is a graphic novel illustrated by Arthur Spiegelman in 1980 and details the catastrophic effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish survivors of it. Another notable book similar to Maus is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. The Hiding Place is a biography written and published in 1937 and details the story of a young Christian family during World War 1. Throughout these accounts, contrasting themes are explored such as love, anger, forgiveness, and guilt. Although there are various similarities, there are also extreme differences in the characters responses to the Holocaust as well as the themes present within both novels.

In The Hiding Place, Corrie was faced with many decisions, including if it would be okay in this circumstance to break God’s law and if what she was doing even breaking it at all. I believe that for her circumstance, it was okay to lie to them, even though God told us not to. I also believe that it was not a sin to lie to the Nazis who were doing wrong to the Jews. For instance, we are called to love others people and help them out.

By hiding and protecting the Jews from the Germans, the tenBooms were showing God’s love to those who needed it. They demonstrated that even in the darkest of times the good Lord provides for us. When Connie and Betsy were sent to the concentration camps for hiding the Jews, they were able to preach the gospel to the women there and give them hope for the future. Who knows how many lives they saved because the hid the jews.

All of the characters were forced from their home sometime during this book. Josef, a German Jew during WW2 had to leave his home due to the violence brought by the Nazis. “Josef didn't want to leave. Germany was his home.” (6). Josef’s father was taken to a concentration camp and was released 6 months after but only if he left the country within 14 days. Josef knew it was unfair, that because he was Jewish that he must be punished for it. Later, Josef settled in France but the Nazis have begun to take over most parts of France. “One of Rachel Landau’s children would go free, one of her children would go into the camps”(291). The Germans find Josef, his mother, and Ruthie his sister and are asked for their papers which have a big stamped “J” on it for Jew. His mother tries to bribe the soldiers but they say it is only enough for one of her children to go free. Josef senses that this is the time to finally become a man and save his sister from the horrors inside of those camps. He sacrifices himself so Ruthie can escape the Nazis and is taken to the concentration camps with his mother. Josef and His mother, died in the camp and never got to see Ruthie again.

This book is very interesting because it takes place in my home town. The book starts off by telling about

b. Betsie ten Boom- Betsie ten Boom was the older sister of Corrie who also devoted herself to helping Jews during World War II. Having a passionate and optimistic approach to life, Betsie brought joy to the darkest moments in the concentration camp. She aimed to give thanks to God in every circumstance and show love towards the most hateful of people. Betsie’s role in the story was to be a spark of hope in the cloud of darkness surrounding many of the events occurring in the story.

My book is Heartbeat and it is written by Sharon Creech. The book is told in first person by a character named Annie. The names of the main characters are Annie and Max. The story has many different settings, but it takes place mostly at a red bench at the park and at Annie’s house. At the beginning Annie’s mom is pregnant and this is the biggest thing that sets the in motion.

Corrie Ten Boom from The Hiding Place and Anne Frank From Anne Frank 's Diary were two of the of the many people that were living during the Holocaust period. The Holocaust which took place in the late 1930’s and throughout the 1940’s Adolf Hitler an anti-Jewish man came to power in Germany. During this Germany was in a great depression due to their loss of World War One. Hitler promised restoration and power and he was easily accepted. Once Adolf was in power he began to invade countries around them like Poland and Holland. Hitler began to send Jews away to camps. He then began to rampage around the countries capturing the Jews and sending them to the camps where we later found out how they brutally killed the Jews. Before some of the Jews were captured, they went into hiding. That’s where our two stories came from our first is The Hiding Place and the other is The Annex. Although these are not the only stories about Jews hiding from the Nazis these are some of the most extreme. While comparing Corrie and Anne their personality, experience, and final outcomes we see that there are similarities and difference.

The setting of the novel is in 1947 in New York City (Sova 276). The historical content of the novel was World War II (Constantakis and Milne 266). There are many supporting characters that include Mr. Farrell, Morris Fink, Rudolf Franz Hӧss, Maria Hunt, Jozef, Larry Landau, Leslie Lapidus, Thomas McGuire, Wanda Muck- Horch Van Kretschmahn, Stingo’s father, Fritz Jemand von Niemand, Stefan Zaorski, Eva Zawistowska, Jan Zawistowska, and Kazik Zawistowska, Artiste, Professor Zbigniew Siegański, Dark Priestess, Dr. Walter Durrfeld (260, 261, 262). The three main characters are Nathan Landau, Stingo, and Sophie Zawistowska (262). Stingo, the main character is a young southerner like Styron and is the narrator in the book (Towers Para.

My book is called Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Cardboard Box. It is a mystery written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote many stories starring Sherlock Holmes. It is set in 19th century England.

However, on February 28, 1944, the ten Boom family was betrayed and the Beje was raided. The six people in hiding were able to escape into the upstairs hiding space in time due to all of the practice drills, alarms and such to ensure their safety. However, the ten Boom family members were caught and taken in for interrogation by the Nazis. Corrie, Casper, Willem, Betsie, Nollie, and her husband Peter van Woerden were then imprisoned during this Gestapo raid on the Beje. The six family members were transferred from the Haarlem jail to the Scheveningen prison. From there, Corrie and Betsie are transported by train to the Vught Concentration Camp. On the train the two sisters are