Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels' Den (continued)
152. Corrie ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels' Den Bae iced tat neon Pi ei ae Ur a a towards the front of the compound was a large concrete building with a huge smokestack protruding from its center. Blue-gray smoke belched from it.
Even as Corrie stood with her eyes closed, the reality of where they were could not be shut out.
"God help us, it's Ravensbruck," whispered one of the other women. Corrie reached out to steady herself against her sister. She had heard of Ravensbruck; everyone in Holland had. It was a death camp for women. A place that thousands of women were forced into by the Nazis but from which few ever came out alive. : Betsie whispered into Corrie's ear, "Remember, there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper."
Corrie nodded.
Still clutching their pillowcase, Corrie and Betsie marched down the hill and into the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp with the hundreds of other women from Vught who were still alive after their journey from Holland. To the left of the main gate was a large open area covered with straw, and the women were herded into it and told to wait. Corrie sighed. There it was again; the Germans were always getting them to hurry up just so they could wait at the other end. As the women reached the straw, they sank down onto it. Corrie and Betsie found a spot, too.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed a prisoner near them as she leapt to her feet. "Lice, the place is alive with lice."
And so it was. Corrie looked at the straw that was seething with tiny, biting insects. The women
Number 66730 153 looked at each other as if to say, what can we do? They were too weak to stand any longer. They had no choice but to flop down on the louse-infested straw. After an hour or so, all the women were again seated on the straw. And then the haircutting began. The Nazis did not order it; the women did it themselves. Several women had scissors, which were slowly passed from woman to woman. They began to cut off each other's hair. When the scissors were handed to her, with tears in her eyes, Corrie cut off Betsie's once beautiful auburn hair. Next Betsie cut off Corrie's hair. As it fell to the ground, Corrie noticed that in the short time she had been a prisoner of the Nazis, her hair had turned from dark brown to gray.
The women sat on the straw for the rest of the day and on through the night. It rained heavily, and their blankets were soaked. Betsie started to cough; at first she coughed up phlegm, later blood. Corrie helped her put on Nollie's woolen sweater, but it did not help much. Throughout the night and all the next day, Corrie had to help Betsie to the ditch the women were using as a toilet. For two full days they were left sitting on the louse-infested straw with only a slice of black bread and cup of so-called coffee twice a day to keep them alive.
Finally, as night was about to fall on the third day, a guard yelled for the women to line up and follow him. They filed past a desk, where each woman was given a number. Corrie was prisoner number 66730, and Betsie was number 66729.