12. Final Ministry 108
Contents
Looking Back 7
Family History 15
3. A Family United 20
4. Initial Ministry 27
5. The Occupation 37
6. The Hiding Place 46
7. Vught 57
8. Ravensbruck 68
9. Prison Ministry 78
10. Going Home 89
The Power of Forgiveness 99
12. Final Ministry 108
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 http://www.archive.org/cletails/corrietenboomOOwhit
Looking Back
tock! Tick, tock! Corrie stirred restlessly in rick, her sleep. The thin, threadbare blanket had slipped off her shoulders. Still unaware of her surroundings, she tugged at it momentarily and sank back into a troubled doze again.
Tick, tock! Tick, tock! The continuous repetition of the noise and a sudden vicious bite from an everhungry flea brought Corrie partly back to consciousness again.
At first she was convinced she was back in the old family home at the Beje in Haarlem. Drowsily she listened to what she thought was the regular, busy ticking of the many clocks in her father's workroom. Without opening her eyes she could visualize the high, polished bench over which Father had stooped for so many years, repairing with patience the delicate watches and clocks which were brought to him to mend from all over Holland. Next to Father's was Corrie's own bench and then Hans the apprentice's and by him worked wrinkled old Christoffels.
A smile passed fleetingly over Corrie's lined face. Betsie would be upstairs in the tiny kitchen which led off the dining room. She could almost smell the fragrant aroma of coffee which Betsie had so lovingly prepared for the three of them and the soft new bread awaiting them on the familiar platter in the center of the table.
Crash! A sudden, harsher sound brought Corrie rapidly to her senses. In an instant the cozy vision of the welcoming old house faded and she was keenly aware of her squalid surroundings. The regular, beating noise was just the sound of the freezing rain monotonously dripping through the cracked panes of the dirty window stuffed with filthy rags. And instead of finding herself in one of the spotless rooms in the high, narrow town house in Haarlem, she awoke to face another nightmare day in the hideous death camp of Ravensbruck.
The great tiers of beds stacked three layers high creaked and groaned as the women prisoners stirred to begin the daily struggle against death and starvation. Roll call came at 4:30 a.m. but they were roused by a shrill whistle as early as 4:00. The room was filthy, the bedding rancid and flea-ridden. Whenever anyone moved, a shower of dust and straw fell down on the people sleeping below.
Corrie still vividly remembered the morning of February 28, 1944, when she, together with many other members of her family, had been seized by the Gestapo. After Father ten Boom had died and she had been separated from the rest of her relatives for a while, Corrie had managed to meet up with her sister
Betsie again on a train taking them to the camp at
Vught.
But now there was not even Betsie for company— she had died in the prison hospital. Never strong at the best of times, Betsie had become steadily weaker due to the dreadful privations they had suffered together.
During the last few months, Betsie had derived much pleasure and comfort from planning what they would both do after the war. Oblivious of their depressing surroundings, they discussed, even down to the minutest details, the house in which they would nurse people from the concentration camps back to health and strength.
"It's going to be so beautiful Corrie, with gardens all around where they can plant flowers. We'll do it together, Corrie! You and I always together."
After that there was really nothing to keep Corrie going, apart from the well-worn Bible she kept secretly tied in a little bag around her neck and the needs of other people around. Many of their needs were far worse than hers, because they had no hope at all for the future, no Heavenly Father to whom they could pray in their agony and distress.
It was impossible now to visualize the end of the war; without Betsie, Corrie's vision for the future grew very dim and almost disappeared. Would she ever escape from this living hell of suffering? But even in the darkest hour a steady glimmer of faith remained flickering in Corrie's heart.
As far back as Father ten Boom could remember, two strands had been woven into the personality of every member of the family: a sturdy independence and a strong faith in God. Strangely enough, Greatgrandfather Gerrit also had undergone the experience of living under a cruel tyrant who had strutted across Europe, invading one country after another. Napoleon, the once insignificant little soldier from Gorsica, had overrun Holland with his victorious army and left behind his cruel followers to rule the Dutch nation with oppressive force.
When Gorrie had to endure long hours alone in prison after she was first taken captive, she used to think about the family history to while away the time. "Great-grandfather would have understood what we are experiencing today in Holland. Another evil man, Adolf Hitler, is trying to grind all Europe under the jackboots of his soldiers."
One Sunday morning in church, Gerrit and the minister sang a duet from Psalm 21. "The evil one thinks he is free from all bondage, and runs around, while he stirs the people. At the same time, the bad people assume they hold the reins of government "
The congregation realized it was a pointed reference to their present political situation. It cheered them that someone had the courage to challenge the occupying power. Soon the news of this act of defiance came to the ears of the authorities and Gerrit was saved from jail only because his employer, who was an influential citizen, pleaded on his behalf. He didn't like the thought of existing without the beautiful strawberries which Gerrit grew in the estate hothouses!
So whether gardener or watchmaker, it seemed that the breadwinners of the ten Boom family were perfectionists in their work! Perhaps they were influenced by the text from Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." They undoubtedly gained an excellent reputation for themselves in their employment.
But the first male in the next generation certainly wouldn't have made a success of gardening as his father had. He was small and slight in build with crossed eyes. The family moved to Haarlem from the country where Willem started as an apprentice in a watch-repair shop. By 1837 Willem opened his own watch shop in the Bantdjorisstraat and seemed likely to be set on a course of success and prosperity after all.
How was it that the ten Boom family could remember many of the important details of their family life even as far back as Grandfather and Greatgrandfather? All too often when an elderly person dies, that particular slice of family history dies with him. Fortunately, long after the war, Gorrie's nephew Peter who had been taken to prison with her, found a chest of old family letters and papers. Together they were able to fill in many gaps in their knowledge.
Grandfather Willem's letters to his sister Cato had survived, for instance. After the death of one of his children (eight out of his thirteen children by his first wife died either at birth or in infancy), he wrote, "God has strengthened us during all these events. He is a solid rock in all our need."
Another bitter blow followed when Willem's wife Geertruide also died. But eventually Willem married Elisabeth, who had been housekeeper to the