The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is the story about the life of a woman in Holland

during the German Nazi invasion and holocaust. Miss. Ten Boom tells about her childhood,

helping people escape through the anti-Nazi underground, her arrest and imprisonment, and

her release.

As a child Miss. Ten Boom grew up in their family's watch shop with her mother, father,

sisters, Nollie and Betsie, brother, Willem, and aunts, Tante Jan, Tante Anna, and Tante

Bep. Her close-knit family was a very important part of her life. They worked together to

keep up the house and the shop. People would always be at their house to visit, needing a

place to stay, or just to hear Father read the Bible. Through her brother she met Karel,

with whom she fell in love. He was a schooled man, very intelligent and cunning. Though

he also had a love for Corrie, he would never court her, let alone marry her. His family

arranged his marriage with a woman that had a large dowry. The rejection hurt Corrie at

that young age but was soon forgotten and placed behind her.

Her family was always known for helping people less fortunate. In a person's time of

need, her mother always took food and a warm smile to help. Whenever a child was

homeless, they could always go to the Beje for shelter. It was not a surprise, then, when

Corrie and the rest of her family got involved with the anti-Nazi underground. She had

been noticing that everything in her little town was changing. There were police

stationed everywhere and a curfew was being set. The Germans were beginning to take

control. Corrie had found out from her brother, Willem, that there were Jewish people

needing a place to stay. The family decided to open the Beje to take people in, mostly

until they found them a new home. Corrie found a man inside the German government to get

food ration cards so they the people could eat. She also found most of the people places

to stay. There were a few people that the borders would not take in, for many different

reasons. Those people had the Beje as a home. There was always a threat of the German

officers making a surprise inspection of their home, so the heads of the underground

installed a secret room in their house. Corrie had the permanent and temporary residents

perform drills so that they could get to the room quickly so that no one would know that

they were ever there.

One day, while Corrie was sick in bed, the German officers came to arrest her and her

family members out of suspicion that they were working with the underground. Luckily

everyone staying at the Beje was able to get into the secret room before the Gestapo was

able to reach the top of the house. Though none of the Jews were found, Corrie and her

family were still arrested and taken to a holding place. There started the long

progression through the horrors of prison and the concentration camps. After spending a

few days in the holding place they were taken to Scheveningen, a prison in another part

of the country. All of the women were put in holding cells away from the people that they

knew and loved. Being that Corrie was sick, she did not stay in the crowded cells very

long. Quickly she was moved to an isolated cell where she could recover from her illness.

One day she learned that Nollie and Willem had been released but she got the bad news

that her father had passed away after ten days in prison. Soon after she got this news,

Nollie sent her a package with some supplies and a few little bibles. Corrie was excited

to see these things.

As Corrie began to get better she was scheduled to have her hearing to see if she could

get out of prison. While in her meeting she met Lieutenant Rahms. He seemed like a very

sympathetic man with a soft heart. During this hard time he made her feel comfortable. He

wanted to help Corrie and he knew he couldn't get her out of the prison. After a few

talks with her he learned how much her family meant to her. He had her family come to the

prison to have the will of their father read. This helped Corrie and Betsie, who was also

still in prison, not think about their dismal surroundings.

A few days after that meeting the prisoners were awakened and told to pack their

pillowcases. Some were excited hoping that the war was over and they were going home.

Others were worried they were going to go to an even more wretched place than where they

were. Those excited people were very mistaken. As they marched out of the prison they

were led into small box cars. There they looked for people they knew or were related to.

Corrie soon found Betsie. They knew that they would be fine now that they were together.

They cramped themselves into the train cars with many other women. Everyone carefully

found a place where the could sit. The trip was long and soon got foul smelling. Everyone

had