Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place is a staple of Holocaust literature and is often included with such classics as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Elie Wiesel's Night. Published in 1971, the narrative recounts Corrie's experiences prior to and during World War II.
When Holland fell to the Germans in 1940 and the Nazis occupied the country, conditions for the Jewish population became increasingly more oppressive. In the Dutch city of Haarlem, the Ten Booms were an established and well-respected family, having operated a watch shop from their home, the Beje, for over a hundred years. Casper Ten Boom, the family patriarch, was a dedicated member of the Dutch Reformed Church and a man of great faith with an indomitable sense of Christian charity. He and his family opened the doors of their home "to any man in need who knock[ed]." With its idiosyncratic construction, the Beje provided a perfect hiding place for countless desperate refugees, and the Ten Booms soon found themselves deeply involved with an underground devoted to the cause of saving Holland's Jews from Hitler's "Final Solution." The clandestine activities at the Beje were eventually discovered by the Nazis. Corrie, her father, brother Willem, and sister Betsie were seized and incarcerated. Casper Ten Boom died in prison; Willem was released, and Corrie and Betsie were sent on to the notorious concentration camp at Ravensbruck. With an unshakable optimism and faith, Corrie and Betsie brought the comforting Word of God to the women with in the nightmarish camps. Betsie died at Ravensbruck, but Corrie survived.
Born in 1892, Corrie Ten Boom was in her fifties when the pivotal events of her life took place. After her release from Ravensbruck in early 1945 due to a clerical error, she made it her life's mission to tell the world what went on during that infamous period in history, and to give testimony that love and goodness can prevail in even the darkest hell. Corrie traveled the world to spread her message of faith and endurance well into her eighties. She died in 1983 at the age of ninety-one.