The Story of Corrie Ten Boom

By Adriana Fry

“Lord Jesus, I offer myself for Your people. In any way. Any time.”

This is the prayer Corrie ten Boom whispered as she looked around her at the Herry Heemstra family with which she was staying in the spring of 1942. World War II was raging and with the Germans in the country, this family’s happiness could be shattered by a knock at the door. This family, father, mother, and children, could be forced into a truck headed for the death camps. This was when Corrie offered herself up as a servant of God, whatever she had to do to be a light for Christ in the midst of all the darkness of World War II.

Born on April 15, 1892, Corrie ten Boom, was a sickly baby. Her aunt carried her folded up in her apron. As she grew older her health grew stronger. Corrie’s family consisted of her Papa, Mama, her two sisters Nollie and Betsie, and her brother Willem. Also living with them were her mama’s sisters Tante (Dutch for Aunt) Jans, Tante Bep, and Tante Anna. They all lived together in a tiny house above her father’s watch shop called the Beje.

Corrie’s education was very unique. She went to elementary and secondary school like most Dutch children, but at home she learned much more. Corrie’s father always read from the Bible in the morning and at night, often reading in German or English, therefore teaching them Bible truths as well as a different language.

Bible reading continued as a family tradition morning and night, until the family had become a family of only three. Mama and the aunts had died and Willem and Nollie were married. Now, Corrie, Betsie, and their Papa were the ones who sat around the kitchen table in the morning and in the parlor at night for Bible.

The year was 1942, the Germans were everywhere. Many Jewish families were forced from their homes and taken to concentration camps. Corrie saw this everyday. As she watched this happy family before her, she knew God was calling her to help His people during perilous times as these.

Soon after she made this promise to God, a woman came to Corrie’s family’s alley door. When Corrie answered it, the woman told her she was a Jew and her husband had already been arrested. She was afraid to go back to her home fearing she too, might be arrested. Corrie recognized that God was sending her family a ministry. They would hide Jews and be involved with the underground (Anti-German resistance group).

Opening the Beje to Jews wasn’t all that simple. They would have to find places for the Jews to go a day or so after they came. The Beje would only be a stopping off place for people in hiding. Corrie’s brother, Willem, and his son, Kik, were also involved with the underground. Through them Corrie found places for the many Jews now coming to the Beje for shelter. But permanent shelter for them had a price. Ration cards were issued every month, one card per person for that month’s food rations. The people who had permanent places for Jews wanted one ration card for every Jew, but the Jews were not issued ration cards. Corrie had to find a way to get extra ration cards. God’s providence was very evident in times like these and Corrie remembered that she knew a man who worked at the Food Office in the ration cards department. He might be able to get extra cards for her. She didn’t know his political standing, but God did. She depended on Him to warn her if it would not be safe to confide in this person. After talking with the man, she was supplied monthly with 100 ration cards.

A secret room was the next thing they needed in the Beje. If the Gestapo (German secret police) raided the house unexpectedly, the Jews would have no place to hide. So, construction started in Corrie’s room, the highest room in the house. The man heading the construction came to inspect the house to see where the room should go. The Beje was a regular maze of uneven floors, small landings, and winding stairs. The man laughed as he came to Corrie’s room, this is it, he told Corrie, and set about immediately making a false wall 2½ feet from the back wall. After it was completed Corrie almost could not tell her room had been changed. Other than it was a precious 2½ feet smaller, the room was just the same. The wall was still streaked and dirty like the others. Mr. Smit, as she knew him, was very pleased. “The Gestapo could look for months, they won’t ever find this one!” he said.

A buzzer was installed by a young Jewish man named Leendert in the watch shop and also by the alley door. If the Gestapo came someone in the front room could sound the buzzer, then everyone could get upstairs to the secret room while a search was going on downstairs. Corrie held practice runs to help the people hiding to get to the secret room quickly and quietly, all in less than two minutes, which was how long it took the Gestapo to search a house. If they were having a meal when she decided to sound the buzzer, Betsie and she would have to clear the table of all the dishes except theirs. On the first try, during dinner, it took over four minutes. They would have to work on getting faster. Corrie arranged with a baker down the street to trade sugar rations for sweet rolls, every time they would shave some time off their last record, she would hand out the sticky buns. After much practicing they finally got the time down to just over a minute.

God says He will bless those who obey Him (Deuteronomy 11:27), and Corrie truly was blessed. Soon after she remember-ed the man at the Food Office, she realized that her family knew several people that could help her in this work that she obediently did.

Things did not always go smoothly at the Beje; sometimes people died or sometimes women who were expecting babies went into labor. Corrie again realized she knew someone at the hospital and funeral home. So many times she knew someone somewhere to meet the needs of the moment. God’s providence always proves faithful to those who follow and obey Him. For several months Corrie had Jews in the Beje with God’s provision.

Then one day, February 28, 1944, Corrie had a visitor. She was sick that day with the flu. With her head spinning, she got out of bed to meet the man, who said he would only speak to her. When she got to the door where he was standing, he came right to the point. He needed money to get his wife, who was a Jew, out of town. For some reason Corrie didn’t trust this man. But, she hesitantly agreed to have the money ready for him when he came back later. Wearily, she went back to bed after instructing their sales lady in the watch shop to give the money to the man.

The next time Corrie woke up a buzzer was sounding somewhere. She was so dizzy with sickness, it didn’t make sense to her why it was buzzing. Then as she sat up, through a blur, she saw shadowy figures rush past her bed in the dim light. Angry shouts came from downstairs. Then it dawned on her, this was not a practice drill! This was the real thing. The underground had been betrayed. “The man who was here this morning,” she thought. Mary Italize, a Jew who had respiratory problems, stumbled upstairs to her room gasping for breath. As sick as she was, Corrie lept out of bed and quickly pushed her into the secret room and prayed that her gasps would not be heard by the intruders. She had just laid back down when a Gestapo officer burst into her room.

The next several hours was like a nightmare to Corrie. The officer shoved her downstairs and probed her for information concerning her dealings with the underground. When she didn’t answer like he wanted he began to slap her causing big whelps to form on her cheeks. After he had thoroughly bruised her face he pushed Corrie into the dining room and told her to sit against the wall. Her sister Betsie was also taken to be questioned. She also, came back bruised and bleeding.

Crashing went on overhead as the Gestapo probed for the secret room. Corrie prayed desperately for the Jews in there. Finally, they came down and reported they could not find it anywhere. “Never mind,” grunted the commander, “we’ll keep watch over this house until those Jews starve to death.”

Corrie, Betsie, their father, the sales lady Toos, and many other innocent people were taken captive. Anyone who walked into the Beje after they raided it was arrested. The prisoners were marched to the Haarlem police station where the Germans had taken over. At the police station they were herded into a waiting bus. They were taken to Nazi headquarters where the prisoners started the endless procession of questioning. Finally, they were all made to climb aboard a large truck headed for the federal prison, Scheveningen.

The prisoners tumbled out of the crowded truck. The female prisoners were ordered to follow a guard. Corrie followed the guard to a door that led to a dark hallway. As she was about to go in, she glanced back to see her father looking mournfully after his daughters. It was the last time she was to ever see him again.

She, Betsie, Nollie, and Toos followed the guard down the hallway with many cell doors on each side. They were all left at a different cell. Corrie sank down on her musty, smelly cot where sobs soon overwhelmed her.

Corrie had to fight herself everyday of solitary confinement to keep from thinking about home, her family, and the people inside the hiding place. But why was God allowing this? Wasn’t God supposed to take care of her? Then Corrie remembered, she had promised to serve Him any way, and any time. How was she supposed to do it in solitary confinement? She didn’t know, but God did. She would have to trust His judgment.

Corrie was constantly coughing due to the foul air in her cell, and soon her coughing was bringing up blood. She was taken to the prison hospital. A friendly nurse who accompanied her to the restroom asked her if she needed anything. A Bible was what she wanted. Later, as Corrie was standing in the waiting room the same nurse breezed past her pressing a small wrapped object into her hand. Corrie stuffed it into her pocket. When she got back to her cell she opened it to find that it was not a whole Bible, but the four Gospels. She read them over and over. They were her only source of hope.

Every month all the female prisoners were taken to a shower room. When Corrie went to take her monthly shower she took three of the Gospels with her. Most of the women were not interested, but still there were some who were seeking Jesus and Corrie witnessed to them about God’s love.

Corrie received a letter from her sister, Nollie, saying that their father had died. He had died just 9 days after the arrest. Corrie felt as if her world had just collapsed. Through tears she read the next part of the letter; all the others who had been arrested, except she and Betsie, had been set free. All the Jews in the secret room were safe, too; they had escaped over the roof. Tears of both joy and sorrow flowed from her eyes. She prayed and thanked God for allowing her family and friends to be released and for the Jews escape. She also thanked Him for her father dying and sparing him the awful future that surely was to lie ahead. God knew best.

After almost two months, Corrie was interrogated by a Nazi lieutenant named Rahms. He questioned her for three days about her involvement with the underground. She would not tell him anything, but witnessed to him faithfully. Finally, on the fourth day, the last day of questioning, he brought out a stack of papers from his desk and handed them to her. They were papers, probably found in the Beje, that had names and addresses of people also involved in the underground. Corrie knew she was staring at her death sentence.

The lieutenant took the papers from Corrie and crossed the room to the woodstove, he opened the door and thrust the condemning paper into the flames.

Corrie couldn’t believe her eyes. God’s plan for Corrie’s life had not yet been carried out, so God had spared her life. The lieutenant told Corrie he had accepted Christ. Corrie praised God over and over for His wonderful grace.

In June, all the occupants of Scheveningen were transported by train to a concentration camp in Holland called Vught. Corrie and Betsie managed to find each other and get ordered to the same barracks. When the officers assigned jobs, Corrie found she was to work in a factory making radios for the Germans.

Corrie witnessed every chance she got. At the work table she was able to witness to people sitting beside her. Most were very open to the gospel, eager for hope to cling to in this horrible camp. Also, she and Betsie held devotions at night for all who would listen. Every night more and more ladies came, often putting their trust in Jesus.

Roll call was at 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. They often lasted for hours. For Corrie and Betsie it was an opportunity to reach others for Christ. They also found that as they watched the wonderments of creation, the display of God’s power ignited their hope in Him.

After three months at Vught, the women heard rumors that the Allies were pushing their way into Holland. In the days that followed they were all herded out of Vught by freight train. Boxcars were jammed to the limit with prisoners. Ravensbruck is where the train shuddered to a stop—the only women’s concentration camp of Hitler’s regime.

Corrie and Betsie kept their hands clasped together as they marched through the gates of Ravensbruck. Corrie prayed silently that their Bible, hidden in her prison dress, would be kept safe. She panicked as she saw all the women in the receiving building being frisked thoroughly. Betsie grabbed her arm, her face ashen, and whispered, “Cramps.” Hurrying ahead in the line, Corrie asked a guard where the bathroom was. “Use the shower room,” he motioned at a door. Corrie hurried Betsie through it. In a corner was a stack of old furniture, she hid the Bible between the chairs.

She walked back out with Betsy. After being frisked they walked to the shower room where they showered and got new prison uniforms. Corrie placed the Bible underneath her scant dress. To her horror after she got out of the shower room she had to be frisked two more times. Ahead of her, Betsie was frisked thoroughly, but when her turn came they pushed her ahead. She got past without being touched. Corrie’s heart sang. The Bible was safe!

Betsie and Corrie were assigned to barracks 28. 700 women (plus millions of fleas) shared a room meant to accommodate 200. The women at Ravensbruck were given hard manual labor to do. It took its toll on Betsie who had always been weak. She grew weaker and weaker. Corrie asked if Betsie could be on the knitting detail. Her request was granted, but because of food shortages, her strength never returned.

It was amazing to Corrie the way the guards never came to inspect their barracks. With no inspections they were free to have Bible devotions at night. It was Betsie who told her why. The fleas, she said, were the reason the officers refused to come into this building. Even the fleas were used by God so that His Word could go out without restraint!

Betsie told her one day in late November she had had a vision. In the vision she and Corrie were released from Ravensbruck. “We will be released before the new year!” she said excitedly. Corrie didn’t think much of this vision. It was impossible.

But a few weeks later Betsie was freed. That morning she did not get up. She was taken to the hospital where she later died. Betsie was free from all life’s tortures and woes. To Corrie it was a nightmare. She had lost her only earthly friend. But God gave her peace in the knowledge that it was His will.

A few days later, Corrie was summoned to stand in a line with some other women. They stood outside in the cold for several hours, but in that time Corrie led two young women to the Lord. Finally, her name was called. She was given a slip of paper. It was a certificate of discharge! In order to leave she had to pass a physical test. She did not pass it, and was made to stay in the prison hospital for seven days. On the seventh day she passed the examination. As she was about to leave a lady came to her and said that one of the women she had led to the Lord had died. Corrie praised God that she had been able to be a witness for Him, even in the last days of her imprisonment.

As Corrie walked out of Ravensbruck, she praised God with all her heart. She and Betsie were both free indeed, and both before the new year. Later, she discovered she had been set free by a clerical mistake. It had been God’s wonderful providence—the next day all the prisoners her age were shot.

In the years that followed, Corrie ten Boom went all over the world telling of God’s abundant grace that brought her through those months of torture. Corrie ten Boom was a witness for Christ wherever she went. When she made her promise to God, she had no idea it would take her through trials. Yet she remained faithful to her promise. Matthew 10:22 says, “He who endures to the end shall be saved.” Corrie lived to tell millions of people how she was saved by God’s divine providence. Corrie ten Boom faithfully remained His light in the darkest places of World War II.

Hi!  I’m Adriana Fry!  I live with my family of 12 in northeastern Oklahoma on a small farm where we raise chickens, geese, cows, goats, and bantams.  We also have 5 dogs and a cat. Some of my hobbies are: reading, studying God’s Word, writing, computers (e-mail and chatting ) cooking, sewing, gardening and a whole lot more!