Corrie Ten Boom's house

The day after we arrived in the Netherlands we drove up to picturesque Haarlem, a town about 15 minutes west of Amsterdam.

We were excited to show our girls Corrie ten Boom's house/museum, after having read to them a little about this Godly woman who had done so much to help the Jews during WW2, and who also had been a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp.

Before we saw her home, we took in a few sights~The market square was very quaint and pretty~



Central to the square is the beautiful "Grote Kerk" or St.-Bavokerk which is the largest church in Haarlem.


Here we are outside the Corrie ten Boom house/museum. The FIRST day we went for the tour, we waited 3 and 1/2 hours for the next English tour. Unfortunately we didn't change our clocks forward, and missed the tour by an hour. Jim and I couldn't believe we had BOTH forgotten! (Especially outside a watch shop) So, the next day, we returned for the tour~


We were ushered into the home above the watch shop (which is no longer owned by the ten Boom family, by the way) where we sat to hear the history of what happened during WWII and after with the ten Boom family.


Then we went upstairs to see the place where this Godly family hid Jews (and young Dutch men who would have been gathered off the street and sent for forced labor in Germany)~


The ten Boom family constructed this fake wall in one bedroom using bricks they had slowly gathered, carrying them secretly into the shop in grandfather clock cases. Soldiers were aware that many were hiding Jews, and so in a suspicious house they would tap looking for fake walls. Solid bricks would not ring hollow and give away the hiding place.

Notice the trap door at the bottom of this cupboard. When a secret alarm bell was rung down in the shop, those sheltered upstairs would flip over their mattresses if they were sleeping (so the bed would not feel warm--a dead giveaway), rush to this hiding place, pull open the door at the bottom, squeeze through, and put several boxes in front of the trap door and close it from the other side.


Notice how little room is actually in this space~


They were betrayed by a Dutch friend. When the German police came, those the Ten Booms were sheltering made it safely to the hiding place; Corrie, Betsy and her father were arrested, though, because the police found extra ration cards for their "guests" in a secret cubbyhole behind the baseboards on the stairs (when you see this small cubbyhole, you realize how thorough the search was of their home).

But the hiding place was not found and 6 people stayed there for two days while the German police tried to starve them out. It must have been agonizing--absolute silence, complete darkness, no facilities to speak of, and no room to move--two could sit while four were standing.

Finally the German police gave the case to the local Dutch police. A sympathetic Dutch policeman turned a blind eye while the two Dutch young men escaped over the rooftops to neighbors houses and the Jews escaped through the streets. Corrie received the news in prison of their escape in a letter from her sister Nollie, who cleverly wrote her a secret message under the stamp on the envelope reading, "All the watches in your closet are safe."

There is such a beautiful testimony of God's grace in the lives of the ten Boom's (and others who were in connection with them.) I can't do this family justice by trying to share their whole story with you. And what we've told you here is just the tip of the iceberg!

If you get a chance, read the "Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom, if you haven't already. You will not be disappointed!