Book Synopsis:
At one time Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that there would ever be a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life nothing at all out of the ordinary had ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her spinster sister and their elderly father in the tiny Dutch house over their shop. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another. However, with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, a story did ensue.
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 help, all but Corrie found death in a concentration camp. The Hiding Place is their story.
My Review:
5/5 stars. This was an incredible story about a brave family who risked their lives to protect strangers, finding hope when it seems like all hope is lost, the power of forgiveness, and, ultimately, God’s light and truth during the darkest of times.
Going into this book, I thought that Corrie ten Boom was young during the events of the story, a teenager or young adult. (I didn't read the description because I knew I was going to want to read it anyway) While the first few chapters are about her her childhood, for most of the book she's in her forties and fifties.
Speaking of the early chapters, those felt a bit choppy at times. She would go from recounting one childhood story to another pretty suddenly, with no transition except a line break and different font for the first few words. Once the events of the book really got going and there was more of a continuous flow to the story, this wasn't the case, but I noticed it a little bit at the beginning.
I loved reading about the ten Booms' participation in the Underground, all the secret messages and ways they had to communicate. Since they owned a watch shop, they would say things like "I have a watch here in need of repair" over the phone to mean that they had a Jew in need of shelter. I thought that was so clever. The family's actions in the Underground also demonstrated their bravery and loyalty.
As well as the courage of the ten Booms, I loved how much deep, unwavering faith everyone had. Even in the midst of tragedy and suffering, they never once doubted God's presence. Instead, their hardships seemed to bring them closer to God. Betsie and Corrie both found opportunities to share the Gospel with others, even a Nazi officer Corrie interacted with.
This book had so many great themes and brought up a lot of good questions. One question that was thought of by Corrie while they were helping with the resistance was "how should a Christian act when evil is in power?" and if stealing and lying was okay to protect others, given the circumstances. That question didn't get answered, so it was good and thought-provoking. Another question was about why God would let His people suffer, and the mindset of Corrie was basically that "we don't have to know everything about God's ways, some questions are too much."
Two other big themes were about the forgiving your enemies and God's truth and light in the darkness. Despite the evils they committed, the ten Booms were able to forgive the Nazi officers in the end and pray for their hearts to be restored. I know that if I was in a situation like the ten Booms had to go through, I would have a very hard time showing forgiveness. Ultimately, I think the message of the book was that God's light shines bright no matter how dark the world seems. There was a really great line in the book about the darker the night got, the brighter God shined.
This book really paints a picture of the absolute horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust. While Corrie doesn't personally experience as much as some people did, she writes about hearing screams and seeing corpses piled together. This outside view of things is almost worse, in a way.
There's only one small thing that I have a complaint about, and that's that Betsie occasionally seems too perfect. Maybe that's how she really was, but it's more likely that it's the book painting her in the most positive way it can. I don't doubt that she was an incredible and godly person, but this story doesn't really show her as having any flaws or mistakes that she made, whereas it somewhat does for Corrie.
Content:
Romance: Corrie talks about falling in love with a man, but that's it.
Language: The r-word when referring to people with mental disabilities. It's not intended as a slur - it's just a sign of the times the book was written in - but it's still not good. Not curse words, but the words "feeble-minded" and "half-wits" were used to describe them, too.
Violence: As is the case with most books about the Holocaust, there is a lot of violence. There are many details about sicknesses, diseases, injuries, people getting tortured and shot, etc.
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