Guest Review on The Hiding Place

As part of my history class for school, I read The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, along with several other books about World War II. I had heard a lot about this book, but never bothered to pick it up and read it, perhaps subconsciously thinking that it was just another sad story about the atrocities that the Jews suffered during that time. After reading it, however, I noticed that there was something radically different about it in comparison to all the other books I read on the subject of World War II.

The first part of the book introduces the ten Booms. They are a closely-knit family. Corrie and Betsie still live at home with their father, while their siblings Willem and Nollie have families of their own. The ten Booms watch in horror at the rising power of Germany and the persecution of the Jews there. Eventually Holland, their home country, is invaded. Jews start showing up on the doorstep of the ten Boom’s watch shop to seek protection, and so the ten Booms get involved in the underground. For a while, they contribute greatly to the cause of protecting the Jews. But then they are betrayed.

The second part of the book tells of Corrie’s experiences in the German concentration camps. She and Betsie have the support of each other, but they must primarily rely on God to carry them through. Corrie relates with saddening clarity the humiliation and trials they must endure. Yet while they have an abundance of hardships, they also experience many instances of God’s blessing. In one incident, Corrie receives a bottle of vitamins. Although she feels like hoarding them exclusively for Betsie, instead, she shares them with the inmates around her. Like the woman in the Bible whose oil jar had no end, Corrie’s vitamin bottle never runs out. That is, until she receives another bottle. Then she can’t get one more drop from the old bottle. God miraculously provided.

So what was the difference between The Hiding Place and all the other books I had read? The answer is that it was the only book that mentioned the possibility of actually forgiving the very people who had perpetrated the brutal imprisonment and death of so many innocent people. While many of the other books I read detailed the self-sacrifice of the people who had helped to hide the Jews during that time, no other book even hinted that the Germans were in need of forgiveness. The prevailing attitude seemed to be that the Nazis deserved to be hated. And perhaps that is what they deserved. But the Christ-like love of the ten Boom family was so great, that they showed mercy even to the ones who had caused them so much suffering.
If that had been all, I may have walked away from the book inspired by Corrie ten Boom’s example, but thinking, “That’s just because she has some sort of special superiority that I don’t. I could never do that.” That isn’t the case. Corrie ten Boom makes it perfectly clear that she is no superwoman. At the beginning of the book she gives this rather unromantic description of herself: “forty-five years old, unmarried, waistline long since vanished.” Not exactly a picture of a heroine. Throughout the book, she is very open about the emotions she experiences—fear, temporary hate for her captors, and discontentedness with her circumstances. It is only because she clings to God that she is able to ultimately have the attitudes that she does. And because she is not perfect, her example challenges me.

Because of the subject matter of this book, I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. Readers younger than thirteen should probably have one of their parents evaluate the book to see if it is appropriate for them to read. But I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that everyone should read this sometime in his or her life. It really is a powerful, life-changing book.

Written by Joanna DiFonzo from Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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