The Hiding Place

Written by John Sherrill and Elizabeth Sherrill

Narrated by Wanda McCaddon and Nadia May

At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to her. She was a spinster watchmaker living contentedly with her sister and their elderly father in the tiny house over their shop in Haarlem. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another.

But with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, everything changed. Corrie ten Boom and her family became leaders in the Dutch underground, hiding Jewish people in their home in a specially built room and aiding their escape from the Nazis. For their pains, all but Corrie found death in a concentration camp.

Here is a story aglow with the glory of God and the courage of a quiet Christian whose life was transformed by it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Sep 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780786106479

Reviews for The Hiding Place

[angelag86 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An autobiographical account of how the author and her family helped Jews (and others the Nazis were against) hide and find safe places to live.

[jenniferrobb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The true story of a World War II concentration camp survivor.

[dawnlovesbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

was really into the book to begin with, but just lost interest.

[brighterudite · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A truly inspiring book.

[longhorndaniel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

wow; this family blew me away; truly amazing people and i found i new love for people and have realized i was falling way short with how God wants me to love!

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is an autobiography. Corrie Ten Boom grew up in Haarlem, Holland, in a house above her father's watchmaker shop, with her mother, father, sister, and aunts. She was in her late 40s/early 50s when World War II happened. She was a big part of an underground to help Jews hide, including hiding some in their own home. She did get arrested and spent some time in prison, then was moved to Ravensbruck, a concentration camp in Germany. I liked the different perspective of this book about the Holocaust. I had no idea how elaborate the system was to try to keep Jews as safe as possible. Not being a religious person, though, it got to be a bit much with the prayer and preaching, especially in Ravensbruck, so I wasn't crazy about that part of the book. I was most interested in the first half of the book, before Corrie was arrested.

[bookish59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful, salt-of-the earth clockmaking family doesn't think twice about saving Jews during the Nazi occupation of their town of Haarlem, Holland. Corrie, Betsie, Willhelm and Nollie were brought up by the ten Booms, positive parents who read and practiced bible teachings. Kind, sweet, generous and caring they often sacrificed to help others. Corrie and Willhelm along with others create and manage an underground system to provide shelter, food and transport for targeted Jews. They save many until an informer changes their lives but not their integrity and character. So glad I discovered and read this gem about true goodness and selflessness. Read this and be moved and inspired.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much. Corrie is a great storyteller and has a great story, and she continued to remind me of a woman who has meant very much to me my whole life.Overall a very good read. I strongly recommend it.

[6boysandme · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary: There really aren't words to describe how important this family has been to me over the years. I have read this book many times and each time I am struck by the beauty, by true heroism and by Christlike examples that could change my life if I would let them. I remember reading this to Kyle when he was about 10. We finished it late at night in the quiet of our car and I held him while he cried and felt so grateful to be sharing the experience with my beautiful son.

[anglophile65 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

had a little too much a religious slant than i like - it is a non-fiction account of Holland and the ten Boom family during the Nazi invasion. if you don't made a lot of "god talk" it may be for you.

[david__clifford · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a story that I read years ago and than watched the World Wide Pictures movie version. I heard Corrie ten Boom while I was in college challenge students to live for more than themselves and Live for Christ alone. I am always amazed to see how God uses the weak to show His strength. I thank God for this wonderful testimony of grace and mercy.

[jrsearcher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this back in 1996. I'd never heard of it. I was staying at a hostel/B&B in Harlaam (Netherlands) and it was on the bookshelf in the room.

Every once in awhile, I would stop reading and look around the room, thinking about how THIS house that I was staying in was being lived in - and was just across the river - while the ten Booms were hiding Jews. I was interested in going to visit the museum/watchmaker's where "the hiding place" was, but they were closed at the time.

[olongbourn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I never truly felt empathy with Corrie and Betsie. IMHO, ten Boom wrote without emotion. For 250 pages to cover primarily 8 ish years, there was too much hopping, skipping and jumping through time. Hooray for all those that Corrie and Betsie helped in the work and concentration camps and afterwards in Bloemendaal and Beje, but the storytelling didn't match with their generous hearts, good deeds and suffering they endured.

[anitatally · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. In 2007 Craig and I were fortunate to visit the home in Amsterdam (actually in Haarlem, near Amsterdam) where the story took place.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Corrie ten Boom, a watchmaker and spinster living with her father and sister, began working with the Resistance and taking in Jews during World War 2. This is her story of faith, family, survival, and forgiveness during a terrible time.I read and reread this book as a teenager; I read it so many times I got rid of it thinking I'd never read it again and then bought it years later because I couldn't quite bear not to own it. Looking at it with fresh adult eyes, I found myself with slightly more mixed feelings. The book is preachier than I remembered, and the writing clunkier than it could have been. I would have liked for some of Corrie's story to stand on its own rather than having the lesson spelled out for me. I realized rereading this that there were some experiences she had that I didn't quite get when I was younger, and understood better now with greater knowledge about World War 2. I wished that some historical or political information was spelled out a bit clearer to ground her story more. But as far as inspirational memoirs go, it's still a good read, and I as I read I realized how much some of her statements - about love and forgiveness, for example - had stayed with me and shaped my own views over the years.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A simply amazing book. Possibly the best memoir about the Nazi occupation. A must read.

[karin7-11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I avoided reading Corrie ten Boom for years thinking I wouldn't like it, but it was the best book I read in 2011. Whether or not you are religious, or if religious, Christian, what she and her family did to help so many Jewish and non-Jewish people during WWII, and then her strength & courage after her arrest are inspiring. She was a watchmaker--highly unusual for a woman back then--who had lived a very queit life until she was over 50, and so she's also an inspiration to those of us who are around that age.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Corrie ten Boom was the youngest child in a family of Haarlem watchmakers. Corrie's brother became a pastor and one of her older sisters married a school teacher. Neither Corrie nor her oldest sister, Betsie, married, and Corrie went into the family business while Betsie took care of the housekeeping after their mother's death. For as long as Corrie could remember, their house had been home to more than just their immediate family. Several of her mother's sisters lived with the family until their deaths, and her father took in several foster children after his own children were grown. It was natural for the Ten Booms to offer hospitality and a place of refuge to Jews and to others who were sought by the Nazis during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Their home became the nucleus of an underground network that funneled Jews to safety. When the network inevitably became known to the Germans, several family members were arrested, and Corrie and her sister, Betsie, eventually ended up in the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Their strong Christian faith enabled them to endure much suffering during their imprisonment.This was a re-read for me. Corrie has been one of my heroes since I first read this book as a young adult. What impressed me on the first reading was Corrie's encounter with one of her former guards at Ravensbruck who had come to hear her speak at a church in Germany. He sought her out after the meeting and asked for her forgiveness. This time through, I saw Betsie's influence in this encounter. In the concentration camp, Corrie was moved by the suffering of their fellow prisoners and dedicated herself to ministering to them. Betsie was moved by the spiritual poverty of the guards and other officials, and she dreamed of ministering to them after the war. It would seem that Betsie's dream motivated Corrie to speak of God's forgiveness in German churches in the years following the war.I've learned much more about the war and the Holocaust in the years since I first read this book. There is no question that European Jews were persecuted for their faith, and I'm thankful for every Holocaust memoir that preserves the stories of individuals who suffered in the concentration camps and who witnessed the mass exterminations of Jews. Corrie ten Boom's account is a reminder that it wasn't only Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis. It seems that Christianity wasn't welcome in the camps either. The Ten Booms were arrested when they had gathered for a Bible study in their home. Corrie and Betsie smuggled Bibles into the prison and later into the concentration camp. They held Bible studies and prayer meetings with other prisoners in secret.This time through I was struck by how well-written this book is. The authors take an episodic approach to Corrie's life, and each chapter tells a story. The audio production is outstanding, and the narrator tells Corrie's story as if she had lived it herself. This is a classic of Christian literature that probably hasn't been out of print since its publication. It will also appeal to readers interested in accounts of occupied territories and resistance movements in World War II.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Corrie Ten Boom tells of her family's experiences during the German occupation of Holland during WWII. Captured as the organizer of an underground ring that supplied ration cards and rescued Jews, she was imprisoned, and then sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp with one of her sisters.

[jjvors_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom is a modern classic of history, inspiration, and Christianity in action. Growing up in a Christian family in Holland Corrie ten Boom has many fascinating stories of romance and service as her sisters and brother get married, as her aunts and mother die, and she herself loses her true love and decides to grow into God's greater love. Corrie becomes the Netherland's first female watch repairer to help her father. She and her sister Betse and Nollie, and brother Willems all are involved in helping Jews as they flee from Nazi Germany into Holland during the 30s. Then the war comes and Holland is conquered. They now help the Jews hide in their own home. They become part of the Dutch underground resistance and their home becomes the center of Jewish hiding places. In 1944, they are caught and imprisoned, transferred from one prison to another and then Corrie and Betse go to Ravensbruck, the German concentration camp. There is much more and it is all inspirational. Corrie does not spare herself, but shows her fears and weaknesses through all the trials she faces. Read this book and be changed.

[fefferbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book has been recommended to me for years. I've always had a fascination with WWII and the Holocaust, but I find reading about it difficult--a book is a long time to spend with one's head in such a dark place. Still, several people told me how uplifting and surprisingly light Ten Boom's story was, in spite of the darkness surrounding her. I can only add my agreement here.

From the first lines of the book, The Hiding Place captured me with its infectious warmth. Corrie Ten Boom was clearly tenacious in her optimism and faith, and that strength of spirit infuses her telling. I literally could not put the book down, and carried it with me throughout the house, finishing it in a day.

[heatherkvale · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A MOST precious book that will challenge your faith, dismay your faith, and hide in your heart for always.

[marshapetry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Corrie's telling of her pre-WWII and WWII life is excellent. Completely engrossing narrative, and so different than other war stories I've read (mostly from a soldier's view or from a prisoner's view). Corrie provides a glimpse into what small-ish town Dutch life was like for a typical family, and she does it so well that you actually feel like you know her, and know what she would think and say and do. What a skilled story teller she was!Highly recommend. Audiobook narrator excellent (sorry, forget who narrated, but she was really good).

[teeney-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow!!! That is the most life-changing book I've read recently. If you've never read it, or if it's been a long time, please, take the time to pick it up. It's an amazing story of hope and forgiveness, and God's power even in the most miserable places. Wow...

[gmomaj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An inspiring true story of allowing God to work through your life to save the lives of others from Hitler's At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell. For the first 50 years of her life, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to her. She was a spinster watchmaker living contentedly with her sister and their elderly father in the tiny house over their shop in Haarlem. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another.But with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, everything changed. Corrie ten Boom and her family became leaders in the Dutch underground, hiding Jewish people in their home in a specially built room and aiding their escape from the Nazis. For their pains, all but Corrie found death in a concentration camp.Here is a story aglow with the glory of God and the courage of a quiet Christian whose life was transformed by it.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting story about a Dutch family that helped Jews during WW2. The family was found to be breaking German law during the occupation. The family was put in jail and the conditions during the war were torturous. Some of the family died and Corrie lived to tell her story. Her family was rooted in the Dutch Reformed Church. After Corrie’s return to Holland, she worked to help war victims. The story reminds us how bad things can get and puts our problems in perspective. I think some other Holocaust stories are better but this is a bit different.

[angelab86 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An autobiographical account of how the author and her family helped Jews (and others the Nazis were against) hide and find safe places to live.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can’t overstate the power of this book. It’s the true story of a woman who hide Jews in her Holland home during WWII. Despite the danger that meant for her family, she defied the Nazi rulers and stood for what was right. Her unbelievable bravery in the midst of persecution was so humbling. I couldn’t put it down. I loved how honest she was about her moments of doubt and frustration. I was blown away by the risks they were willing to take for others.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Hiding Place – Brilliant & InspiringThe Hiding Place is one of the most inspirational books that you can read, the true story of Corrie ten Boom a Dutch Christian who somehow survived the Second World War. This is a story about faith and the power that can give a person, the courage that it gives believers to forsake safety for the hope of saving others.What is inspiring in this memoir is that whatever the Nazis did to Corrie ten Boom forgave them and continued to do so. Would I be able to forgive as she does? I very much doubt that I could. This one person who even when in a concentration camp could still forgive her captors. Is any person really capable to do this?To many people this is a book where you see faith and belief in action, and unlike Job, Corrie ten Boom never questions her faith. What we do see is it is that very faith that gives her the strength to continue and the underlying theme throughout the book is that of forgiveness, gratitude and the mercies that God bestows on a person.This may be a short book but it is certainly one of the most inspirational books that you will ever read. It will also make you examine your own faith and would you be able to do the same. Could you trust in God’s plan even when death is close at hand.This is a book that people should read that will give you hope in mankind and faith in Christ.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is definitely directed to Christians, but there is no reason why others should not read it. It is very informative and it is written in a clear-cut, simple way; in a straight forward manner, it describes the horrors of World War II, and it documents the terror that Corrie Ten Boom actually experienced. Although some of the information presented may seem exaggerated to some, I feel comfortable writing that the book seems based on facts. This is a story about courage in the face of despicable evil, a story about a family in Holland that was willing to put the needs of others above their own. This is a story about the Underground, a story about the Ten Booms who rescued Jews and hid them in their own home, selflessly.Through the trauma and pain, they never doubted their purpose or their actions; they believed that what they were doing was right, and perhaps, it was G-d’s will. No matter what your belief in G-d is, you will find this story inspiring because it is about true kindness, true compassion, true sacrifice. Two of the sisters experienced Concentration Camp life together and that helped each in its own way; Betsie benefitted from Corrie’s love and care when she was ill; She ministered to others and always saw the silver lining, even in the worst of circumstances. She helped Corrie out of her bouts of anger and despair. Betsie, in the spirit of her religion, forgave the sinners and pitied them for their malevolence, prayed for them and hoped to help them too. She forgave their wickedness. If she was truly able to help others to survive the most awful conditions, let’s agree to accept that her gift came from somewhere.This stirring story comes out of the blackest period of history. The ability to forgive those who have wronged you is surely not an easy thing to do, and yet, that is what Corrie does when she is finally free. She fulfills Betsie’s dream. She finds a beautiful home, like her sister imagined, where the rescued could be rehabilitated and introduced into society again. Before the war, at home, in Haarlem, Corrie’s father took in homeless children and her sister Betsie, like her mother before her death, fed the hungry. The Second World War in Europe screamed from the radio, but the changes taking place hardly interrupted their lives until the night of the Prime Minister’s speech, the night that he promised the people there would be no war, and yet, it turned out to be the very night that the bombs began to fall. Holland was being attacked despite the promises that their neutrality would be respected. Very soon, the Queen left and they were occupied by the Germans. Life slowly began to change. The Ten Booms rose to the challenge they faced.As a Jew, I truly appreciated the effort of these righteous Christians and the honesty with which their story is portrayed. Although it doesn’t mention much about the horrors the Jews were subjected to, it shines a light on the horrors that were visited upon the political prisoners who tried to help them, and their plight was, if not as bad and desperate, surely a close second after what I read. So many suffered the same terror, the same fear of arrest, the same humiliation and torture, the same starvation and deprivation as the Jews, though their numbers did not mount into the millions. Perhaps it was their belief in the power of miracles and their belief in Jesus that sustained them, whatever it was, it clearly worked. Many people who survived the war tell of miraculous occurrences that just seemed to occur, crediting these with saving their lives. There were many unsung heroes who risked their lives, ultimately sacrificing them, so that others might live and end the evil perpetrated by the National Socialists, the Nazis.The Ten Boom family was humble and faithful. They started every day with a prayer session to which all were welcome. They had food at the ready for the needy and a bed for those who found themselves homeless. Their unmitigated courage and kindness should be recognized and honored. They truly lived righteously at a time when malevolence was everywhere, perhaps because they lived everyday righteously, even without the thought of impending doom hanging over their heads.. The belief in Christ is definitely a major theme in the book, but I didn’t find it offensive. I was reading about their experience and their beliefs. Their vivid descriptions of conditions seemed so precise that I could see the fleas and the lice crawling. If they wanted to find G-d’s hand, even in that filth, that was okay with me. The issues they faced were dealt with openly, as with the dialog about the physical appearance of some Jews, how they were described in some cases as too Semitic looking to easily hide. While this might seem a negative, stereotypical description of Jews, since only one was described as lovely and blonde and there was disbelief that she too was sacrificed, it seemed honest, it was the only time I sensed some possible prejudice.The family was aware of the fact that people were disappearing at a time that most people turned a blind eye and they offered to help even when the clergy refused. Eventually, they were betrayed by a collaborator, yet Betsie, and eventually Corrie, forgave their enemies or at least tried to with the help of their G-d. No matter how many Holocaust books I read, I always learn something and I always am incredulous and brought to tears. So I respect whatever power worked for these righteous Gentiles. This is not a newly published work, but it will never be too late to read it and profit from their experience, from their courage and their example.