The Hiding Place
(Corrie ten Boom)

The Ten Boom family lives in Haarlem, Holland where they own and run a watch shop.  Mr. Casper Ten Boom is a bit famous in town and is highly respected, as are his children.  When the Nazi regime moves through the European countries, Corrie’s brother Willem involves himself in helping Jews to hide out and inspires Corrie to do the same.  Corrie and her family become members of the Holland underground, determined to keep Jewish citizens and young men of working age who would be recruited to the Nazis safe from their fate.  Over the years, Corrie becomes seriously involved in the underground; she has a secret room built at her home, Beje, where Jews can hide if the home is raided.  She even holds drills to practice lying under any circumstances.

Eventually Beje is raided, and Corrie and her religious sister Betsie are beaten for information though they keep quiet.  They are first imprisoned where they are kept from one another, as well as their other family members.  After six months of being imprisoned, much of which Corrie spent in solitary confinement, she and Betsie were brought to another camp, though they learned their father had died and their other relatives had been released.  Eventually the women ended up at the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women where they found appalling conditions including lice, incinerator ashes, and fleas.  Betsie falls ill and dies only weeks before Corrie is released.  Upon returning home, Corrie makes it her mission to tell her story and to make Betsie’s dreams, of building rehabilitation centers for concentration camp survivors, come true.