Please disable your Ad Blocker to better interact with this website.

MENU

Corrie Ten Boom – A Little Lady with a Big God

Written by:

Published on: February 7, 2015

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” –Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom and her family members helped and hide Jews during the time of Nazi rule. Corrie and her family lived in Haarlem, Netherlands and her story took place at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Corrie and her family were strong Dutch Christians. When the Nazis invaded their country, they told people not to buy things from Jewish businesses. Then they began arresting Jews and even killing them. Corrie and her family members (except for her mom, who had already passed away) would not just stand there and let Jews be killed right in front of their faces.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

So, they got a builder to build a secret hiding place in the highest part of their house which also happened to be Corrie’s bedroom. The Ten Booms started secretly taking in Jews and because of this, they had to be perfectly ready for a Nazi raid at any time. Along with building a secret room for a hiding place, they also installed an alarm or buzzer that they could push to alert those in the house that the Nazi’s were coming. All those hiding in the house had to practice going into the hiding place in less than one minute from being anywhere or doing anything in the house. They practiced this several times to make sure they would always be ready.

One day, Corrie was not feeling well when someone knocked on the door. She went to the door and opened it. The man at the door said that his wife had been taken by the Gestapo and he needed 600 guilders to get his wife out of jail. Corrie said come back tomorrow and I will see what I can do. Do you know who this man was? He was a betrayer! There was a Nazi outside and he said to the Nazi that the Ten Booms were hiding Jews.

One day soon after this, the Ten Booms heard a pounding on their door. Betsie, Corrie’s sister, pushed the alarm to alert those in the house that the Nazi’s were there. All the Jews quickly got out of bed, turned their mattresses over (so it wasn’t warm) and ran into Corrie’s bedroom where the secret hiding place was! The Nazis arrested Betsie and Casper, her father.

When the Nazis asked Corrie where the Jews were, she said, “What Jews?”

The Nazi punched her face!

The Nazis kept searching, but no Jews were found. So, they took Betsie, Casper, and Corrie as prisoners and they were all separated.

When Corrie was in her cell, after being in solitary confinement for some time, she finally received a letter. The address seemed to be slanting toward the right where the stamp was, so she lifted up the stamp and saw that it said, “All the watches in your closet are safe,” which meant that the Jews that she helped hide were safe!

However, that was not the end of the letter. The letter also said that her father had died after only ten days of being in jail. Although Corrie was sad about this, she found comfort in the fact that she had a Bible that a girl had given to her in prison.

Corrie was eventually transferred to a Concentration Camp. As she was being led inside a boxcar train, she saw her sister Betsie helping others onto the train. “Betsie!” she cried. They were so happy that they were together again.

When they got to the camp, they were led to the place where they were to sleep. The Nazis put 700 women into a building that was made for 200! When Betsie and Corrie found a spot in the building to sleep, they laid down. However, their building was infected with fleas. Roll Call was at 4:30 A.M and they were provided one slice of bread and 1 cup of coffee every day.

As they were forced to work, Betsie became very weak. Because of her weakened state and her inability to perform as if she was healthy, she was whipped and beaten. This resulted in Betsie becoming even sicker. Soon after that, Betsie told Corrie that before the year was over, they would both be set free and that Corrie would have a big house with flowers to help others who had been devastated by the war.

Shortly after that, Betsie died. However, Corrie was set free.

They gave her back all of the belongings that they had taken away from her and set her free! After she was set free, she realized that all the women her age were killed very soon after she left!

It is an awesome thing how the Lord spared her, isn’t it?

Betsie’s vision had come to pass. They were both set free: Betsie to be with the Lord and Corrie from the Concentration Camp. When she was released, she began traveling all over the world sharing her story. She traveled until she became older and could no longer do as much.

Corrie Ten Boom died a very old woman at the age of 91! Talk about a long life! She was a miracle and God worked miracles through her life!

Become an insider!

Sign up to get breaking alerts from Sons of Liberty Media.

Don't forget to like SonsOfLibertyMedia.com on Facebook and Twitter.
The opinions expressed in each article are the opinions of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of SonsOfLibertyMedia.com.

Trending on The Sons of Liberty Media