The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place, published in 1971, is written by Corrie ten Boom and co-authors John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Ten Boom’s autobiographical account centers on her family’s work with the Dutch underground during World War II. The authors consistently center the way the family's Christian faith shaped their experiences and inspired them to persevere. The Hiding Place was adapted into a 1975 movie and another film, Return to the Hiding Place (2013), expands on the story of the Dutch resistance. Co-authors John and Elizabeth Sherrill have assisted with two other popular religious memoirs: David Wilkerson’s The Cross and the Switchblade and Brother Andrew’s God’s Smuggler. These works, along with The Hiding Place, have had considerable impact in evangelical circles.

Ten Boom wrote many other books after The Hiding Place, most of a devotional nature, and was well-known globally for speaking. She received honors for her work with the Dutch resistance, including a knighthood from the Netherlands, and being named one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel.

This study guide uses the mass-market paperback edition of The Hiding Place, produced in a series of printings from Bantam Books since 1974. Following the style of the book, this guide refers to The Netherlands as Holland. Character names also follow the style employed by the book (as, for instance, in the case of Casper ten Boom, who is referred to throughout the book as “Father”).

Content Warning: Both The Hiding Place and this study guide include references to subjects that some readers may find troubling, including warfare, imprisonment, torture, disease, and genocide.

Summary

The Hiding Place tells the story of Corrie ten Boom and her family during the years of the German occupation of Holland in World War II. It begins with Corrie’s idyllic childhood, introducing the reader to her parents and three siblings, Willem, Betsie, and Nollie. The family’s home is in Haarlem, where they live in a house called the Beje (pronounced “bay-yay”). The lower level of the house contains the family business: a clock shop. While the family is of modest means, their faith in God and their love for one another sustain them through the ups and downs of life. Of central importance to these early chapters is Corrie’s father, Casper. The book portrays him in saintly terms: wise, loving, and sincere, with a heartwarming affection for those around him and a deep devotion to his Christian faith.

Corrie’s brother Willem, who lives nearby, is active in shuttling Jewish refugees to safe places even before the war, foreshadowing the family's future work. When war breaks out, Corrie has a vision of herself and other family members forcefully loaded onto a wagon. She and the remaining family members in the Beje—Father and Betsie—grow more concerned about the Nazis’ targeting of local Jewish individuals. The ten Boom family is sympathetic to the Jewish population in Haarlem, although Father and Betsie also pray for the German soldiers, who they see as victims trapped by a great evil.

The ten Booms connect with Willem’s network and the Dutch underground, placing Jewish individuals with families in the countryside. The Beje becomes a hub for the underground’s operations, with messengers coming and going through the clock shop every day. Corrie supplies ration cards and other assistance to the Jewish families seeking refuge. They also hide Jewish individuals in their home, developing a discreet alarm system and a hidden room in the wall. Eventually, the house is raided. The Jewish people in their home aren't discovered, but Corrie and her family are arrested. She later learns that all of the people hidden in their house escaped after the raid, but for herself, Betsie, and Father, the raid marks the end of their resistance work and the beginning of a long incarceration.

The ten Booms are sent to Scheveningen prison, Father passes away and Corrie endures long weeks of solitary confinement. Corrie manages to smuggle portions of the Bible in with her, and it becomes her main source of solace and inspiration. She and Betsie are transferred to a labor prison in Vught, and then again to the notorious concentration camp of Ravensbruck, deep in German territory, where they are forced to undertake grueling workloads. Betsie’s health deteriorates rapidly, but she and Corrie continue to encourage each other.

In their barracks, they offer prayer and Bible reading for the other prisoners. They dream of what God might have them do after their release: Betsie envisions a ministry of compassionate rehabilitation, both for victims of the war and for the oppressors. In the waning weeks of 1944, Betsie passes away in the Ravensbruck hospital. Corrie receives a release notice just a few days later. It appears to have been granted in error, as all the women Corrie’s age were shortly sent to the gas chambers.

Corrie works her way back to Holland, where her other siblings are still living in relative freedom. When the war ends, she takes up a ministry of public speaking, telling of Father and Betsie’s faith in the midst of the war’s atrocities. These speaking engagements lead to Betsie’s visions becoming a reality—first a rehabilitation house in Holland for survivors, then the Beje taking on a new role as a ministry to former Nazi collaborators. Finally, a concentration camp becomes a rehabilitation center, and in a face-to-face encounter, Corrie forgives a former Ravensbruck guard, which she credits to the grace of God.