1976-1983 (continued)
LIFE LESSONS ^com the H IDING PLACE
Ten Boom Family, 1900 photo courtesy of the corrie ten boom house foundation of tuberculosis in 1856 after giving birth to thirteen children, most of whom also died of the same disease. Corrie's grandfather Willem was a watchmaker by trade, and in 1837 he set up shop in the city of Haarlem.
Casper followed his father's profession and established a busi¬ ness in Amsterdam, where each of his five children was born. In 1892, after the death of his father, Casper and his family moved to Haarlem where he took over his father's business at 19 Barteljorisstraat (Barteljoris Street). Since the full name of that street is a bit of a mouthful, the Ten Booms contracted their particular address to Beje, the Dutch spelling for the letters B and J—B for Bartel and J for Joris.This is pronounced bay-yay in Dutch. Actually, over the centuries there probably had been a corruption in the street's name. It is said that Bartel may really stand for Martel or martyr. Martyr Joris was put to death in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in
1558. Barteljorisstraat commemorates him and, to those who know the story, four other martyrs from number 19 nearly five hundred years later during World War II.
I ant looking at a photograph taken in 1897 of Casper and Cor ten Boom's children—Betsie, Willem, Nollie and Corrie.
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
Betsie, Willem, Nollie, Corrie, 1897 PH0T0 courtesy of the corrie ten boom house foundation
The children are facing the camera and are depicted in decreas¬ ing height. The oldest child, Betsie, is on the left. Twelve years old, she is wearing a white dress with big frilly sleeves and a high neckline. Her long brown hair is pulled back and a thick ringlet hangs over her left shoulder.
Next to her is brother Willem, wearing a white shirt and black jacket that seems too big for him. His black hair is cropped short.
Like that of Betsie, his expression is enigmatic. The two were born within fifteen months of each other, and Willem is half a head shorter than Betsie.
The next step down is a longer one. Beside Willem is sister Nollie, wearing a white dress with a splendid, large ruffled collar and a wistful expression. A gap of three and a half years sepa¬ rated Willem and Nollie. Had he lived, their brother Hendrik would have filled the middle space in this line-up of the Ten
Boom children. But he died at six months from "a terrible brain fever."
Then, at the far right we see the youngest child, five-year-old Corrie. She, too, is wearing something white, but time has faded the details of her clothing. She is looking into the camera with a most serious expression.
LIFE LESSONS fyomthe HIDING PLACE
door to alley-
alley
THE BEJE (pronounced bay-yay) Schematic drawing of the tilting, centuries-old house still to be found in the center of Haarlem, Holland.
The Beje
Five-year-old Corrie's home was near the marketplace that bordered the pre-Reformation St. Bavo Cathedral, the family's Dutch Reformed Church. It was then known as the Grote Kerk, the Great Church. The Beje itself, as the Ten Booms called their home, was actually two houses joined together. The first house was built in the 1400s. Like many of the ancient houses in Haar¬ lem it was very small, with three stories, two rooms deep and one room wide. This was the Touse Father ten Boom inherited, and he soon found that it was too small for himself and Cor, their four children and Cor's three sisters—Bep, Jans and Anna—who one by one had joined the household. The three did not have the means to support themselves, although Tante Jans did have a small source of income, a pension as the widow of a minister.
CORRIE'S EARLY,LIFE AND INFLUENCES
There was no question in Father ten Boom's mind that his wife's sisters should live with his family, but he knew he had to supply more space. He was able to purchase the very narrow house behind the existing home. A narrow alley separated the two houses, so Casper arranged for the houses to be joined by breaking through walls, building extra outside walls and adding a steep, winding staircase to join the two. Since the houses are on different levels, doorways issue out of the staircase at unusual intervals, and the family stepped up or down into a room, depending upon which part of the house they were entering or exiting.
To this day I find the house confusing. Perhaps the Nazis did, too, when they failed to find the secret room built to hide Jewish
LIFE LESSONS from the HIDING PLACE people. Behind a false wall in Corrie's small bedroom at the top of the house was an area about two feet wide and eight feet long. Entrance to the hiding place was gained by crawling through a wooden sliding panel at the back of the linen cupboard that was built into the false wall. It was professionally built with real bricks by a co-worker in the underground work. There was no hollow sound when the Nazis hammered on it or any other wall in the house, and even when the Ten Booms were led away to prison on February 28,1944, it did not give up its secret.
Tante Bep, the children's oldest aunt, had never married and had a rather dour disposition. Tante Corrie always said that it was because she had worked as a governess all her life and had never had a home or family of her own. Tante Anna, also never married, was the youngest aunt. Being close in age, she and her sister Cor had always had a special relationship, and Anna had been with the family since Betsies birth. The third aunt, widowed Tante Jans, was an evangelist, a strong-minded woman who took over most of the second floor of the house. The four children, Tante Anna and Tante Bep had their bedrooms upstairs on the third floor. Nollie and Corrie shared a room not quite ten feet by seven feet in size. Mother and Father slept in a small room on the second floor.
The Oval Table
The Beje's dining room was at the back of the house over¬ looking an alley. Lit by gas lamps, it was five steps higher than the watch shop but lower than Tante Jans' rooms. Its oval table was a place of much gezelligheid, that untranslatable Dutch word meaning fellow-feeling, comradeship, laughter and trust. Meals would consist of two broodmaaltijden (bread meals) each day and one other meal. The bread meals were simply that—bread with butter, thinly sliced cheese, sometimes thinly sliced meat, jam, milk and plain yogurt. The main, hot meal consisted primarily of vegetables—cabbage, for example, or peas, green beans, kale
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
or beets—normally with a small amount of meat. And, without exception, potatoes.
At the oval table, which was usually covered by a black and red cloth, the Ten Booms read the Bible from various translations. Casper ten Boom wanted to broaden his children's thinking, and he held Bible studies in several languages simultaneously. While they studied the same passage, different family members read from Dutch, French, German, English, Hebrew and Greek Bibles.
During mealtimes they made plans, some of which must have been about their frequent travels and stays away from Haarlem and the Beje. They must have confided their hopes and dreams to each other, too, but on the simplest of levels they wanted to know what each family member had done that day. "Tell me every detail," Tante Corrie used to ask me when we lived together in California and I came home from a day away. "You stepped into the car. What happened next?"
Two recurring problems must have surfaced at times at the oval table—Father's financial difficulties and Mother's chroni¬ cally delicate health. Father was a good watchmaker, but he had a hard time making ends meet in his household of nine, especially when he sometimes failed to send bills to customers whom he knew would find it hard to pay for his repairs.
In keeping with Victorian modesty Mother's health problems are not described in the family letters, but they necessitated fre¬ quent times of recuperation away from the city through most of the years of their marriage. Betsie, who suffered from a blood disease, was also often away convalescing, and Willem, Nollie and Corrie made many more journeys away from home than would have been normal for a family of their means. Because the family members wrote to each other almost every day during their times away, a rather remarkable record of their daily lives is preserved.
All accounts given in the many preserved letters between the Ten Boom children and their parents, aunts and friends are so full of love and admiration for each other that the family seems perfect! Since they were a normal family, this surely could not always have been the case, but there is little trace of disharmony
LIFE LESSONS fyom ike HIDING PLACE in any letters or diaries, or in the stories Tante Corrie told me. Therefore, when John and Elizabeth Sherrill, writers of The Hid¬ ing Place, were looking for a way to describe life in the Beje that would reflect some of the tensions inevitably found in families
(thus making them real), they were glad when they were finally able to say with relief, "We were delighted to find a few abrasive aunts!"
There was one serious disharmony, however. Mother's diary entry on New Year's Eve 1895 reads:
Some very dark clouds have come up...it concerns my hus¬ band and his mother. That battle has been going on for such a long time. What a terrible thought—that a mother is not living in peace with her own children. ... So many prayers have been offered for this very sad state of affairs. I only trust that the battle will not grow too heavy for my dear husband. He looks so unwell.
We do not know the end of that part of the story, but it seems that Casper's mother was permanently estranged from the family. Corrie never wrote about or spoke of her grandmother, Elisabeth Bel ten Boom (after whom Betsie was presumably named) in any of the papers I have studied, even though she lived and died in Haarlem.
Corrie's World in the 1890s
Looking outside their house, five-year-old Corrie would have seen a densely populated city with many houses the same shape and size as that of her family. Streets were narrow and houses tall, some of them leaning and many with distinctive gables. Most houses adjoined each other except at intersections of streets, alleys and canals.
One of the first paved roads in Holland ran the short distance between Haarlem and Amsterdam. It was less than four-and-
CORRIE'S EARLY IJFE AND INFLUENCES
one-half yards wide. A few times each day an automobile would be seen traveling down it.
From the Dutch census of 1899 we know that Holland had a population of about five million at the time of Corrie's birth. Three-quarters of the population lived and worked on the land. Many houses and farms built in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries were still in daily use.
There is a well-known Dutch poem that describes Holland beautifully:
When I think of Holland I see broad rivers moving very slowly through endless lowlands And rows of very tall poplars that look like long feathers standing on end... .3
Rivers, canals and other watercourses with their locks and sluice gates crisscrossed the flat Dutch landscape. Much of the land is below sea level, and the sea had always been the fierc¬ est enemy of the lowlands. Disastrous floods mainly from the North Sea had caused untold numbers of deaths throughout the centuries. From the air the lowlands can be clearly seen for what they are—a very large delta.
Young Corrie's Holland continued a hurtling journey begun decades earlier. With the rest of Europe her little country moved frantically through and toward far-reaching and inexorable change. Between 1880 and 1914 nearly all the big towns underwent fast alteration—boulevards were built in the cities, along with squares, new housing districts, warehouses, museums, theaters and train stations. People slowly gained more free time, more convenience, better food and better education in hygiene.
The French elite gave a name to the years 1890-1914—La BelleEpoque ("The BeautifulTime"). Freedom reigned throughout Europe, and new innovations such as electricity and cars were changing the continent rapidly. So were advances in medicine and welfare. But the increasingly comfortable changes of "The Beauti¬ ful Time" were mainly for the upper class. In Holland, more than
LIFE LESSONS jfawtHIDING PLACE a quarter of the population lived in housing consisting of just one room, even though there were often four, six or even eight people in a family. A high percentage of the people did not reach their fiftieth birthday. Every 45 minutes someone died of tuberculosis. Mother Cor's diary entries were full of prayers and pleadings that she and Casper might be able to "keep their children." She wrote about times when the children were so ill with diseases such as diphtheria, flu and scarlet fever that she could not see how they could live. She never referred to their future without saying "the Lord willing."
Corrie also used the expression "the Lord willing" quite often, and so did many Dutch Christians in the Calvinist tradition. They took very seriously the New Testament's admonition through James, "Listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomor¬ row. ... Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that'"(James 4:13-15).
Religious Changes
Corrie's family belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, the state church in which Corrie was christened in July 1892. The Ten Booms were uncomplicated people who believed that
Christians could know God personally and discover and follow His will. For them and many others in their day faith was not a theological construct but a daily, self-evident reality. Father ten Boom knew his Bible from cover to cover. He was widely read and always ready to discuss theological issues.
Father ten Boom was a Calvinist, but he did not live in a rigid theological system. Corrie was influenced greatly by him and by her church's theology. She, like him I believe, talked less about "the sovereignty of God" than about "my times are in His hands." Corrie wrote in 1976, "Father was not quarrelsome about his biblical beliefs, but he stood fast in theological debates.... I
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
heard him speak frequently about predestination. I never quite understood what he meant, and one time I asked him, 'What is predestination?' He answered, 'The ground on which I build my faith is not in me, but in the faithfulness of God.'" She was to repeat that statement many times in the years that followed.
The census of 1899 tells us that only two percent of the popu¬ lation admitted to having no church affiliation. The Renaissance (1400s) and the Enlightenment (1700s), with the resulting new thinking and scientific discoveries, had caused differences in theo¬ logical thought and had divided Protestant churches in Holland and across Europe.
Dr. Abraham Kuyper, journalist, pastor, statesman and strongly Orthodox theologian, was used by God to turn the Dutch people's dissatisfaction with modernity and liberalism into a strong mass movement. Although theologically conservative, Kuyper was a radical reformer socially and politically. He was the leader of the mainly rural conservative Dutch Christians whom he called the kleine luiden (the "little people"). In 1880 he founded the Free University of Amsterdam on theologically reformed principles. Kuyper's influence on the religious and national life of Holland from about 1870 until his death in 1920 and later was immense. He declared "the absolute sovereignty of God" and believed that the only true Holland was a Calvinistic Holland.
Kuyper and his followers wanted to take over the Dutch Re¬ formed Church, but an attempt to seize power in 1886 was un¬ successful. A break with that church then occurred, and Kuyper became the leader of the Gereformeerde (Re-reformed) Churches. The theology of Kuyper's churches was that the promises of God were no longer made to the Jews, since they had rejected the Messiah. The Church, not the Jews, was now the recipient of the promises of God. The theology of Father ten Boom's church, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of the Jewish people and the restoration of the Jewish nation.
In 1901, when Corrie was nine years old, Abraham Kuyper became prime minister of the Netherlands. Although they re¬ mained in the Dutch Reformed Church, the Ten Booms were
LIFE LESSONS foam the HIVING PLACE certainly influenced by him. "Father voted for him," noted Corrie decades later.
Kuyper began Christian schools throughout the nation. Corrie and her sister Nollie attended Haarlem's Christian school, of which their father was one of the founders.
Come as a Little Child
Corrie often told the story of the most important decision of her life, made in 1897. She has recorded this in books, films, videotapes and letters. These are her own words:
When I was five years old, I learned to read: I loved stories, particularly those about Jesus. He was a member of the Ten Boom family—it was just as easy to talk to Him as it was to carry on a conversation with my mother and father, my aunts or my brother and sisters. He was there.
One day my mother was watching me play house. In my little girl world of fantasy, she saw that I was pretending to call on a neighbor. I knocked on the make-believe door and waited ... no one answered. "Corrie," said my mother, "I know Someone who is standing at your door and knocking right now."
Was she playing a game with me? I know now that there was a preparation within my childish heart for that moment; the Holy Spirit makes us ready for acceptance of Jesus Christ, of turning our life over to Him.
"Jesus said that He is standing at the door, and if you invite Him in He will come into your heart," my mother continued. "Would you like to invite Jesus in?" At that moment my mother was the most beautiful person in the whole world to me.
"Yes, Mama, I want Jesus in my heart."
So she took my little hand in hers and we prayed together. It was so simple, and yet Jesus Christ says that we must all come as children, no matter what our age, social standing or intellectual background. When Mother told me later about this experience, I recalled it clearly.4
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
Early Signs of Corrie's Gifts
Mother's diary entries in the last years of the nineteenth cen¬ tury describe Betsie, Nollie and Willem as beautiful children who developed quickly. Corrie is depicted as a very sweet but ugly child, except for her large and beautiful blue eyes. Compared to her brother and sisters she was slow developing.
A few months before Corrie's tenth birthday in 1902, Mother ten Boom's diary gives us the first glimpse of a gift her daughter would later develop to such an extent that she would become one of the most influential women communicators God has given to the Church in our time. Her mother wrote, "Our 'baby,' Corrie, is the family's darling, particularly because of her lovely way of putting things into words. She is a surprise to everyone because of the way she talks, and she is so cute sometimes that it astonishes us."
Corrie was part of a family who loved life and lived it with passion, and this was evident in each of them—but especially in Corrie. Their hope and prayers for their queen and her baby serve as evidence of that.
The Ten Booms, like most other Christians, were strongly patriotic, but not at all nationalistic. They loved their queen and country. They offered many prayers for Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands, because after years of her marriage to German Prince Hendrik the couple remained childless. Royal families still played a central role in international politics, and the people knew the lack of an heir to the throne of the Netherlands could have big political consequences, especially if the crown came to rest on the head of some distantly related German. In 1902, Queen Wilhelmina became critically ill with typhus, and some feared that before too long Holland might become part of Germany.
But at last, in 1908, the queen was expecting. The prayers of the Ten Booms and their friends became even more urgent. Betsie, away from home for recuperation from an illness, wrote on April 17 to the Beje, "Everyone is waiting for the prince here, toof'The Netherlands had already had two long-reigning queens, so the hope of a prince was strong.
LIFE LESSONS from the HIDING PLACE
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CORRIE TEN BOOM HOUSE FOUNDATION
Betsie, Nollie, Corrie, 1905
Tante Jans, writing from the Beje on April 28, said, "At 10 a.m. this morning we received the news from The Hague that things had 'begun.'Toward sunset the great event is expected."
Willem wrote to the Beje the same evening: "Dear Father, Mother, Sisters, Aunts... it gradually looks as if my joyful expec¬ tation, together with that of the whole nation, wili be fulfilled."
At 7:30 a.m. on Friday, April 30, seventeen-year-old Corrie learned the news of the safe arrival of Princess Juliana through a telephone call. She wrote to Betsie:
I shall never forget how I felt when I heard it was a princess. I shouted, 'A Princess!!!' I quite forgot to be quiet and walk softly, which is always best before 8:00 a.m. I even wanted Tante Jans to get out of bed, but she had not slept yet, al¬ though she did not sleep much afterward because nobody kept quiet.
In just a few minutes, flags were flying everywhere, except on the church tower, because of which Tante Anna did not dare to believe it. We all went and stood in front of the mayor's
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
house, where we sang the "Wilhelmus" [the Dutch national anthem] as loudly as we could.
Corrie's response shows her never-ending enthusiasm for life, so evident in her obvious joy at the arrival of a baby girl, even though they had hoped for a prince. It is an example of her rather mischievous sense of humor, revealed by the teasing reference to her rather daunting Tante Jans.
Her wonderful sense of humor, as well as her merciful heart, is evident in other letters. Earlier in that month of April, for ex¬ ample, in a letter to Betsie, Corrie makes reference to the family cat. But first she teases Betsie, whose household duties she has temporarily taken over:
Dearest Betsie,
I have washed fifteen pairs ... let me say it again . . .fifteen pairs of gloves today. I had to gather every bit of my small amount of perseverance, and I did it this evening. As a result it feels as if my hands are glowing. Not all of them are thoroughly clean (the gloves that is) but they are washed. You enjoy that thought, don't you?
Poor Blackie is meowing. There is talk of getting rid of him because of some little accidents, and Mother does not want all the work that causes. In one word, I would find it terrible. I think that I am much too attached to him because I just don't want to think about his actually being sent away.
Monday morning: The question about Blackie has been solved! We have decided to keep him. Oh good!
It is encouraging to see how normal Corrie ten Boom was. She wanted to keep the cat, yet even at seventeen years old she was aware that she might be holding onto a personal desire too tightly. In later years she often said, "I must learn to hold earthly things lightly because if I do not the Lord might have to pry away my fingers, and that hurts."
LIFE LESSONS from the HIDING PLACE
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CORRIE TEN BOOM HOUSE FOUNDATION
Corrie with two cats, 1909
"A New World Opened Up to Us"
Willem was the first child to leave home. In 1906 he went to study theology at the University of Leiden. Nollie took teach¬ ers' training and gained her diploma in 1909. Corrie studied at domestic science school, and she and Betsie were involved, with the aunts, in the household. The women of the Beje, like many Dutch, were scrupulous housekeepers.
In the old family letters to which I have access, there are no references to any other European countries during the time of the many comfortable and enriching advances mainly available to the European upper dass of La Belle Epoque. But in the rest of Europe "The Beautiful Time" also contained a strong military element. Nations were arming themselves, military parades were common and there was talk of unrest among Prussian princes.
The. four young Ten Booms were often found at missionary conferences, where they would spend days learning from mission-
CORRIE'S EARLY LIFE AND INFLUENCES
aries or overseas Christians. They studied other religions. When Corrie was in her late teens she, Willem, Betsie and Nollie got involved in a missions movement. Many years later, she recalled their first attendance at a missions conference:
That first day I was so moved when the hundreds of people sang under the perfect guidance of an elderly missionary. Nollie was given the job of being a soloist for the first time in her life. The lectures were beautiful and deep, and in our spare time we talked things over in smaller groups. A new world opened up to us....
We had always been interested in missions, but now our horizons widened as real missionaries told their experiences.
The Ten Boom family members' bond was so strong that Mother once wrote, "We can hardly do without each other." They did not know the term "family values" or even talk about such a concept, but love, loyalty and commitment were clearly a normal reality for them.
The record shows, however, that community was as important to them as family. The Beje always welcomed anyone in Haarlem who was in need of advice, supper, prayer or fellowship with the Ten Booms. The whole family was deeply involved in the com¬ munity, and as they grew up the children's involvement began to include the people of other countries.
And Afterward Receive Me
Eighteen-year-old Corrie wrote: "Today I had a quiet Sunday, not as pleasant as at home, but still Sunday. I went to church this morning and heard a fine sermon on an Old Testament text—that beautiful one from Psalm 73: 'Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory (kjv)."' In that letter she again refers to the good sermon and says that the singing was so beautiful that shivers ran down her spine.
LIFE LESSONS fyomthe HIDING PLACE
AfterwardYou will receive me to glory. Even Corrie ten Boom, who had the most vivid imagination of anybody I have ever met, could not have envisaged her experiences in the 73 years that lay between that summer of 1910 and Afterward.
Although her country was able to remain neutral, it would not be long before World War I began. By the time it ended, 13 mil¬ lion lives would have been lost on both sides of the conflict. And that war would pave the way only 22 years later to another World War—for Corrie, "the deepest hell that man can create."
World War I
1912-1921
Belle Epoque, "The Beautiful Time," as the elite V. / /i called it, was drawing to its close. From our vantage
IJJ point in history, the sinking of the Titanic was the beginning of the end of the peace and prosperity that Europe had known for many decades.
Tuesday, April 15,1912—Corrie's twentieth birthday—was also the date of the loss of the world's biggest ship, heralded as unsinkable, on its maiden voyage from England to America. The Titanic was fitted with the latest furnishings and contained electric elevators, several kitchens, libraries and even mechanical exercise machines shaped like camels and horses in the vast ship s gymnasium. Reports from survivors tell of passengers continuing to receive training on the mechanical animals even as the ship went down.
"When news of the disaster reached the Ten Boom household," described Corrie more than sixty years later, "Father went into
LIFE LESSONS from (CHIDING PLACE the living room with Mother and called everybody who was at home to come together. We all had heard about the big ship it was so safe, so luxurious. He was shocked by the news and could not take it in at first. I remember how he talked about it with us—and even with the customers.
"'Just imagine,' Father said, 'The passengers on the Titanic were not thinking much about danger. Those who belonged to the Lord Jesus were ready. Perhaps God called some at the last minute. The band played "Nearer My God to Thee" until the ship sank."' Father ten Boom was implying perhaps that the music and words might have led many passengers to trust the Lord Jesus in the last moments of their lives.
The loss of 1,513 lives and the huge Titanic was a kind of precursor of the enormous destruction of people and property that Europe was about to face in the twentieth century.
A Time for War
After the establishment of the German empire in 1871, Ger¬ many quickly became an industrialized nation whose power chal¬ lenged that of England, Russia and France. As Germany's wealth and power increased in the decades leading up to 1914, so did its people's glorification and military fortification of their fatherland. In response to this, other European lands began to arm themselves, spurred on by the ever-growing weapons industry. From 1910 on¬ ward, armies were mobilized and weapons arsenals were stockpiled in a way that Europe had never seen in peacetime.
Slowly two blocs came into being: Germany and Austria on one side and France and Russia, later joined by England, on the other. As 1914 approached, more than 25 million trained soldiers were at the ready on the European continent. Although there was no clear reason to declare war, it was as if the European powers wanted it. The Ten Boom family must have been deeply concerned about the rumors of war, but I have not found any trace of it in their frequent pre-war writings to each other.
WORLD WAR I
Early in November 1913, nine months before World War I started, Willem moved out of the Beje. His studies had taken him away from home for years already, but this was a permanent move prompting his 21-year-old youngest sister, normally not a sentimental person, to write a letter in which we are given a glimpse of the love and admiration she had for him. Corrie wrote:
The morning you left was wretched. It never occurred to me that we would all find it so difficult. Saying goodbye must have something to do with the "Fall." Perhaps this is very stupid of me because it is obvious, but please don't mind if I sound rather silly in this letter because ever since you left I have been wanting to write you a sentimental letter in which I tell you how much I love you, what a large place you fill in my life and perhaps thank you for I don't know what and that, of course, between a brother and sister would be too silly for words. I would be the first one to point out to somebody else how silly it would be to act in that way.
Therefore, I think it would be better just to write and tell you that all the photographs came out well. Mother knows only about the two taken in the church. She will receive the others at [Christmas]. The large photograph of you is particularly good and full of life, perhaps a bit "great-manlike" but you are a "great man" in my eyes. I think my feelings are going in the wrong direction again and I had better close. Bye, Willem. Your Corrie.
Matters of health always featured strongly in the family's letters to each other, and this is evident in another letter from Corrie to Willem later that November, written while Father ten Boom was away for a few days:
It was so nice that your letter came this particular day. I read it to Mother while she was still in bed. She could not sleep after Father left, but this afternoon she slept for a whole hour. Later in the afternoon I took her to Dr. van Veen, and his nurse took Mother's blood pressure. It was much too high. It
LIFE LESSONS HIDING PLACE
should have been 140, but hers was 210. The doctor took it very seriously and told her that if Mother did not do anything about it, she would have increasing problems with it, especially in about ten years' time.
Mother ten Boom was to die of a stroke eight years later. Meanwhile, outside Holland's borders, the arms buildup con¬ tinued. On June 28,1914, the Austrian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, was murdered in the Serbian capital of Sarajevo with his wife, Sophia. Germany rushed to the aid of Austria, which probably would have been capable of handling its own crisis, and World War I began in the first week of August.
Holland tried hard to stay neutral and succeeded. It was a small, militarily weak country living off the wealth of its large and rich colony of Indonesia. The Dutch could not possibly have defended the sea routes between Holland and Indonesia, and they certainly could not have defeated any state that might try to attack Indonesia. Germany was reluctant to occupy Holland because England would then have the excuse to take over the rich Dutch colony.
In a letter to Willem two months after the outbreak of war, Corrie refers to a military funeral:
Last week there was a funeral procession for the English officer who died here. The music played by the marine band was very beautiful and sadly impressive. Then the main band stopped playing and only a recorder sustained the tune, ac¬ companied by some drummers on covered drums. That re¬ corder was so beautiful and spooky. It was as if the sound came from another world, as in a fairy tale. Behind the carriage, on which lay the coffin covered with the English flag, was a large procession of soldiers and sailors, all walking very slowly. It was so strange to see these soldiers filing by step—step—step. The procession took half an hour to pass by. Perhaps it was because of all the artificial saddening things, or perhaps also
WORLD WAR I
because we knew that this was one of the thousand thousands, but we all felt unhappy inside.
This is the first reference to war. She was presumably refer¬ ring to the many deaths taking place in the countries just outside Holland's borders. After initial advances, the war amounted to slow battling in the trenches, with resulting high loss of life on both sides.
Holland was an island of peace in the hell that most of Eu¬ rope had become. In the first years of the war, industry, farming and shipping even made big profits. The British government oversaw the supply of food and other goods to Holland, with the proviso that these were not to be smuggled through to Germany for sale on the black market. But that happened to some extent. Between 1914 and 1917 the national income rose by almost fifty percent.
Less favorable conditions were to affect Holland soon, how¬ ever, and the watch and clock business at the Beje would feel those effects. Writing to one of the girls' clubs that she and Corrie ran, Betsie gives us a picture of the family's circumstances in January 1916:
Dear children,
Please excuse me if my writing becomes incoherent. Nollie and Corrie are singing and playing the organ in the background, and I am finding it hard to concentrate. You have all been to our house, so you can probably picture me here in the living room. It is Sunday evening and the lamp is burning. Nollie is playing the organ near the window and all the family is upstairs reading. Everything looks Sunday-like in the house. I don't know why, but things look different from the way they do on weekdays.
As for my work, it is a strange time in business. I have never experienced anything like this in the fifteen years I have worked in the shop. At the moment we have enough
LIFE LESSONS fyomtke HIDING PLACE clocks, but nobody, not even the cleverest economists, knows what the future will bring. However, if the war continues we will see some strange things. For example, for months not one clock came across the borders. Then a large wholesale Dutch dealer exported wagons full of chocolate. In exchange he received clocks. Watches are still coming through. Corrie needed a coat but could not find one. There were hardly any in a clothes shop where we have always had a lot of choice. In the end she bought a velvet one. You should see her—she looks so chique\ She is worth a shilling more!
[Here Corrie adds a note:] I don't feel flattered at all. The shop assistant said, "You do need something chique," and Father said, "You really must take an elegant coat; you do need that."
A Time for Love
The Ten Boom family wholeheartedly supported Willem's decision to become a minister. As the only son and the sole university-trained member of the family, his career was followed with intense interest. He was ordained in the Dutch Reformed
Church in April 1916. For the next month the Ten Booms lived at high-level mutual alert for Willem to be called to the pastorate of a church. They knew that it might come from the small village of Made in the beautiful southern province of Brabant, where a church had shown some interest in Willem. But the family knew that another candidate was also being considered.
When the decision to call Willem finally was made on May 16, the family's joy and cohesiveness was expressed in a letter written the next day from Corrie at the Beje to Betsie:
There is inexpressible happiness and gratitude in our hearts. Yesterday was a strange day. None of us wanted the other family members to know what we were thinking, but when the .1:15 p.m. post was expected we caught ourselves acting unusually. Nollie was sewing near the window from which she
WOIILD WAR I
would be able to see the approach of the postman. Mother said goodbye to everybody on her way to her bed for an afternoon nap. Then I decided to shake out the mats in the passageway near the front door and found Mother sitting on the staircase. Both [of us] would have been near the letterbox through which the mailman might drop the good news. But the news did not come at 1:15 p.m. or at 4:00 p.m....
When a telegram from Willem finally arrived, Corrie wrote, "Mother was jubilant! Tante Anna clapped her hands, and I threw my hat, coat and gloves in the air."
Now that Willems call had come, plans could be made for his wedding. He was engaged to Christina (Tine, pronounced "Tina") van Veen, younger sister of the family doctor. The length of their engagement is unknown, but Dutch couples often had long engagements, probably due to the scarcity of suitable housing and work. Willem's wedding took place in the St. Bavo church on the market square near the Beje on August 23, 1916, when he was 29 and Tine was 32.
In a photograph of Tine and Willem seated in the Great Church at the end of the wedding ceremony, they are sur¬ rounded by about forty family members and friends—mainly unsmiling in the custom of the day. Corrie is in the top row of the photograph, standing near a handsome young man called Karel (not his real name). Karel and Willem became friends when they were theological students together. Corrie had first met him when she was fourteen and Karel had accompanied Willem to one of the Beje's many celebrations—perhaps a birthday party.
Corrie recalled later that from the moment she looked up into Karel's deep brown eyes, she fell irretrievably in love. Two years later, in 1908, while visiting Willem in his room at the University of Leiden, she met him again. He remembered her, and Corrie's hopes rose that a lasting friendship would develop that would lead to marriage. Now and then, through the years, Corrie and Karel came across each other at various family events.
LIFE LESSONS fyomthe HIDING PLACE
In The Hiding Place, Corrie allowed her co-writers John and Elizabeth Sherrill to tell the story of Karel. They deal sensitively and respectfully with a subject to which Tante Corrie made no reference during the time I was with her, except once near the end of her life.
Another Route for Love to Travel
Shortly after Willem and Tine's wedding, Corrie and her fam¬ ily and many friends went to the village of Made to hear Willem's first sermon as pastor. A first sermon was always a momentous occasion in the Dutch Reformed Church. Corrie had looked forward to the occasion with extra excitement because she knew
Karel would be there.
Indeed he was, and during the days they spent in Made, he showed much interest in Corrie. They took many walks together and even talked about the future. Although the word "marriage" was not mentioned, Corrie was led to believe that Karel had a serious intent toward her—until Willem explained that his parents, who had sacrificed much for his theological education, were determined that Karel should marry into a wealthy fam¬ ily. Corrie protested that his parents' wishes did not necessarily represent what Karel wanted. Her brother's response must have dealt the biggest blow Corrie had yet received in her 24 years. She describes it in The Hiding Place:
Willem fixed his sober, deep-set eyes on mine. "He will do it,
Corrie. I don't say he wants it. To him it is just a fact of life like any other. When we would talk about girls we liked—at the university—he would always say at the end, 'Of course I could never marry her. It would kill my mother.'"1
Willem's prediction soon proved true. Karel announced his engagement to the daughter of wealthy members of the church
WOR.LD WAR 1 where he was assistant pastor. It was Father ten Boom who comforted a grieving Corrie that fall of 1916.
"Corrie," he told her when they were alone, "do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill the love so that it stops hurting. But then, of course, part of us dies, too. Or, Corrie, we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel."2
That hour Corrie gave up her feelings for Karel: "Lord, I give to You the way I feel about Karel, my thoughts about our future—oh, You know! Everything! Give me your way of seeing Karel instead. Help me to love him that way. That much."3
Although without doubt Corrie had the same deep emotional longings of most women, it was not long before she realized that there never would be another Karel and that her life would be spent as a single woman.
Perhaps the contents have nothing to do with Karel or her future, but in an undated letter to her mother written at approxi¬ mately the time of her prayer of relinquishment of marriage, the normally effervescent and humorous Corrie displays a vulnerable side. She had just attended a mission conference:
I must tell you about a wonderfully treasured moment at the conference. We women were lying in bed in the dormitory. We shared difficulties and comforted each other. And then all became quiet . . . even in the noisy rooms around us. We were dozing, and all of a sudden we heard very softly from far away, yet quite distinctly, the "Ave Maria" being played on a flute, and oh, you don't know what a lonely sound that is, a flute in an open field. It gripped me so much that I sat on the windowsill crying softly.
She never spoke to me about Karel except with joy in 1978 when, during the reading of a newly published Dutch book about the Second World War, she told me that Karel had been
LIFE LESSONS ^omrieHIDING PLMEE among the Dutch Reformed ministers who had not gone along with the edicts of the Nazis. "I have often wondered about that," she told me. When, in her eighties, Corrie learned of Karel's death in the Netherlands, she wrote a note of sympathy to his widow. This was the last I know of Tante Corrie's thoughts about the , man she once had loved.
Life During the War
In 1917, the third year of the war, rations were cut and the Dutch, especially the laborers, suffered hunger and cold from then until the end of the war. In June of that year Mother wrote to Willem and Tine in Made that she had been able to buy a basketful of purslane (an edible weed) for a couple of guilders and that Corrie made eight bottles of preserves from it. She asked Tine if she had any potatoes. At the Beje they were able to purchase a few kilos quite frequently.
Corrie's zest for living is indicated in a letter dated May 1917 from Betsie to the family, although we do not know what caused Betsies merriment: "My handkerchief was wet through with tears of laughter when I read Corrie's postcard. I could not even read it aloud to Tante Jans."
At about the same time, in another letter, Corrie expressed her love for travel: "I will be going to Leiden tomorrow on an errand for Tante Jans. Lovely! Whenever there is an opportunity to celebrate or to travel, I am happy!"
On July 8,1917, while Betsie was in Made awaiting with Wil¬ lem and Tine the birth of their first child, Corrie wrote to tell her, "This week I gave a private demonstration of the cooking bag and the newspaper case for a family. We made the cooking case from a suitcase and it held three large pans. It was a success."
Sixty years later, when I was living with her in Placentia, California, Tante Corrie explained this strange activity to me. She volunteered to cook supper for guests one evening and told me she wanted to use a cooking method she had learned
WOR.LD WAR I
during World War I. It involved partially cooking the food, wrapping each item very thoroughly in newspaper and then placing the items in a cooking case all packed together with the lid closed. The idea was that the food in its tightly enclosed wrappings would continue to cook slowly. Less fuel was used, of course—a good and economical wartime method! That night a truly excited Tante Corrie presented her meal which, after having sat in newspaper wrapping for several hours, could not be described as tasty. Although he thanked her profusely, one of the guests said to me privately, "That was terrible."
We can tell from that same letter to Betsie in early July 1917 that Corrie was not particularly fond of housework. She addresses it while referring to her course at Bible school in Haarlem:
Earlier this week I had some exams. As you know, I had excel¬ lent opportunity to get ready. The day before the exam I got up at 5:00 a.m. There were two boxes of trash that I dragged from the cellar to the street with great difficulty. Then I made Nollies sandwich for her lunch and cleaned the living room. When the trash man came he did not want to take the rubbish with him. I pulled it into the house again and had to sweep the passage, the staircase and the street. By 8:00 p.m. I had not studied one letter.
Corrie goes on to tell Betsie that she thought the exam went well and wrote, "I am glad about that, for there is nothing more discouraging than bad papers and looking after the housekeep¬ ing with no help."
Although the terrible war continued to cost the lives of hun¬ dreds of thousands of Europeans outside the Dutch island of neutral safety, life went on for the Ten Booms. Named after his grandfather, Tine and Willem's expected baby, "Little Cas," arrived on July 13,1917. The next week, on July 22, Father Casper wrote to Willem, Tine and Betsie, telling of his longing to come to them and explaining why at the moment it was not possible.
LIFE LESSONS from the HIDING PLACE
I am fairly well and do have some income, but I have such an excessive amount to pay in bills that I am in straightened circumstances. Bills seem to be coming from all sides. Yet I have nothing to complain about and no doubt I will be helped through....
We greatly long to see that child, our little grandchild, and hold him in our arms. But it seems the time for this has not yet come, otherwise the Lord would have given me some more money. ... May the Lord bless you and the little one and may He enable us to send something, though it is not possible yet.
He must have received a quick answer to prayer because four days later Mother Cor sent twenty guilders to Betsie: "Ten guil¬ ders are for you so that you can give a guilder to the nurse and pay your travel costs with the rest. The other ten guilders are for the cradle and other expenses for little Cas."
From correspondence in early August we learn that the Dutch government had to restrict the use of gas. Betsie and Corrie were away from home at a conference, and a letter from their mother offered the mysterious advice: "Corrie, you must not stay away too long for, oh child, I fear it will all be too much for you. Don't use too much zieleleven (soul-life, spiritual life) for that is as bad as using too much gas. Betsie, please look after her. Keep each other calm."
A P.S. from Tante Anna indicates that the Beje household missed Corrie's power of organization: "Corrie, cubic meters of gas are being burned! I tremble to see your face when you come home! I keep reminding Father to watch his meter usage continually. You must come home soon again in order to keep us close to being economical."
Two days later Mother wrote about the arrival of electricity at the Beje, paid for by Tante Jans: "We do like the electric light, but oh dear, Mr. Koen said that gas light was really cheaper, and now Tante Jans is very crestfallen."
WOR.LD WAR I
In mid-August Nollie, a trained schoolteacher, left the Beje to take a teaching position in Amsterdam. Sufficient housing has been a problem in Holland to this day, so there was no question of her finding even so much as an apartment. She was able to rent rooms in a large house. She and the family were impressed with this very independent move.
In November 1917, Corrie wrote to Betsie, again referring to the fuel situation:
Now that we have to use fuel so economically we often eat upstairs, which makes the living room a terrible mess. The table becomes a dresser and the side window a steam funnel to take away the smells of cooking meat and cabbage.
This week I wanted to put everything aside in order to prepare for the big examination in dogmatics, which awaits me tomorrow. It is filling my thoughts day and night. In every free moment I am trying to learn a sentence, and my dreams are filled with talks on original sin, the unity of the human race, evolution theory and Pelagianism.
Corrie's Bible Education
During this time Corrie was growing strongly in her knowl¬ edge of her faith. In 1910, when she first took courses at the Bible school, Corrie had written to Willem: "There are so many problems assailing me at this time that I cannot handle them. The interpretation of the liberal pastors sometimes gets me very confused. If I did not have Father, I would never manage."
Several years later, during the war, she sent another letter to Willem that is evidence of her level of spiritual growth:
I feel there are plenty of dangers around us. They cause us to look for reality, for a living faith, some solid point in this ocean of influences. We keep hearing about Christian moral consciousness, denial of man's corrupt nature and glorifying
LIFE LESSONS •fjtom tke HIDING PLE of man's intellect. In this atmosphere, many ministers are losing ground.
Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but I feel a little out of balance myself. I do not belong in our Reformed Church, nor in the Christian Reformed Church.... Also, the other smaller fundamentalist circles do not satisfy me. I have studied too much church history for that. But then, where do I belong?
In a letter to Nollie in December 1917, Corrie describes the beauty of her previous day's outing at yet another conference while expressing her early love for theology and teaching:
What Christmas-like scenes we saw! At 4:00 p.m. the moon was already shining brightly, and its reflection on the white snow made it as clear as midday. We went to the Wilhelmina dune, and the view from there over the snowy dunes and the white roofs in the clear moonlight and the lights of Haarlem... it was so unreal and so like a fairy story that I would not have been surprised if I had met dwarves or nymphs.
Pastor Creutzberg gave a beautiful sermon. It was so stalwart and Calvinistic, and he had such beautiful diction! The whole church, full to overflowing, hung on his every word. He set our thoughts in motion in such a way that when I went to bed I quickly wrote part of my sermon. The consequence of this was that I got to sleep very late and preached the rest of the night. Don't be afraid that I shall ever deliver that sermon, at least not in the near future. But it is a very good exercise to write down one's thoughts. You then become aware that your subconscious is a store of thoughts, and that while you are writing, the sentences and ideas come all on their own.
On January 20,1918, Betsie wrote a letter to Corrie, who was shortly to receive her Bible school diploma. Apart from discussing household affairs, ration coupons and the availability of bread, Betsie tells about a visit from Nollie, who had now been living in her own rooms in Amsterdam for about six months:
WORLD WAR I
Tonight again we had a long discussion about feminism, espe¬ cially Father and Nollie. That funny child has only just started thinking of these matters now that she has left home. Funny, isn't it? She is greatly enjoying Father's counsel and conversa¬ tions. I am also in the middle of feminism affairs because I am reading Naber's book about our aunts and great-aunts. It deals especially with the forerunners of feminism.
Child, how easy things are for us. Without realizing it, we are reaping the fruits of their troubles. Fifty years ago you would not have dared to think of studying, as you are doing now. Girls had to wash the dishes and embroider and marry. And it never entered their minds to live like Nollie, having rooms of her own and earning her living. You really should read the book.
The Ten Boom sisters could never have foreseen the work that Corrie would later undertake as a single woman, especially that of speaking. In her early twenties, she enjoyed singing at gospel meetings but was not yet convinced that it was proper for a woman to preach. This was an important issue in the Church at the time, and she wrote Willem about her feelings on the matter:
Pastor B. sent me a request to preach on December 12. I discussed it with Father and, following his advice, I declined the invitation.
In the evangelism course I took we did not agree on the question of whether the women of our present day may preach or not. Father says it will cause me to lose my femininity; I am 75 percent in agreement with him but would like to have your opinion on this.
This urge to evangelize—to tell people the glorious message of the Gospel—gives me a deep longing to speak out loud, as loudly as I can. But as far as that is concerned, I am afraid there is some vanity connected with it.
There is no record of Willem's response, but Corrie obviously even¬ tually changed her mind about the propriety of a woman teaching the Gospel! See appendix 2 for her views on the subject in 1960.