Corrie ten Boom House, Haarlem, Netherlands

If you read my previous post about visiting the Anne Frank House and you read her diary, you may remember that many Jews in Holland escaped Nazi concentration camps and death because of resistance groups like Anne mentioned in her Diary entry of January 28, 1944. The ten Boom family were Dutch Christians who helped Jews escape Holland during WW2. So, in a sense, the ten Boom house compliments the Anne Frank’s account of Jews that remained in Holland but stayed in hiding. The Boom family was part of Holland’s underground resistance movement. They assisted Jews to escape the Holocaust, helping them to get to safe countries, but they also hid some Jews for longer periods when needed.

Corrie ten Boom, her father, Casper and sister Betsie lived in Haarlem, Holland a town 13 miles west of central Amsterdam. It is an easy 20 minute trip from Amsterdam Centraal Train Station to Haarlem, a neat little Dutch town, much more complicated to get to by bus or car because of canals and narrow roads. The round-trip by taxi or Uber might cost you 6 or 7 times as much as by the InterCity train. The ten Boom house was part watch shop and part residence, located an easy 10 minute, half-mile walk south from the Haarlem Train Station.

English tours of the Corrie ten Boom House are free and unlike the Anne Frank House are given in small groups. Reservations are needed and can be obtained on-line.

What specifically did the ten Boom family do during World War 2? And why would anyone want to read her book or see the movie?

Let me begin by saying that the family’s belief system was foundational to the saving of many lives. What is inspirational is that Corrie ten Boom shares her spiritual beliefs and wisdom throughout her book. They drove the ten Boom family to do what they did and endure the hardships imposed on them. It is a belief system each of us needs in our lives if we are to do anything that is meaningful.

I’ll share some of the family’s beliefs later, but first let me describe Haarlem and the ten Boom House. Corrie begins her account of creating a hiding place for Jews by first describing her family, mother, father and siblings, living in Haarlem, Holland. Her father is a watchmaker, like his father before him. Corrie too is a watchmaker, the first to become licensed in Holland. She has a brother in ministry who lives in a nearby town. The house is actually two houses joined together or backed-up to one another. There is a common stairway between both houses. The floors do not always match up and are three-story structures.

The first floor of the house facing west consists of the watch shop. Upstairs (the second floor) is the parlor and Betsie’s bedroom. On the third are boys’ and girls’ bedrooms. On the first floor of the rear house or house behind the watch shop and workshop room, there is a dining room and kitchen. On the second floor of that house there is Casper’s bedroom and on the third floor is Corrie’s bedroom. Behind Corrie’s bedroom, there is brick wall and a small shelved closet which was constructed during the war. Between the outside wall (exterior of the house) and the newly constructed wall, there is about a 2 and a half foot deep space the width of the room with enough space to only allow 6 or 7 people to stand. The space is considerably smaller than most modern “master bedroom closets” in America. This space Corrie calls the “Hiding Place.” Obviously, it was nothing like the Secret Annex described in Anne Frank’s Diary. Its use was very different. All it had was a chamber pot at one end.

Her book gives details of how this “safe room” or “place” was built and why it is located where it is within the house. It also speaks about the freedoms Jewish and non-Jewish people of Holland lost during the occupation of Holland under Hitler’s Germany. So, needless to say, the construction of the room was a pretty clandestine project.

If you read Anne Frank, you may remember the list of freedoms lost included:

·         Jews wearing a Yellow star
·         The surrendering of bicycles
·         The banning of Jews from Trams
·         Forbidding Jews to drive vehicles
·         Books written by Jewish authors were banned
·         Requiring Jews to shop between 3 and 5 pm at designated shops
        (curfews)
·         Forbidding Jews to go to theaters, cinemas and other places of
         entertainment
·         Forbidding Jews to engage in public sports; swimming, tennis and
         hockey
·         Forbidding Jews to visit Christians
·         Requiring Jewish children to attend Jewish schools

Everyone was required to carry ID cards. In addition, the Dutch also lost radios, had rations imposed on them, and of course news was edited to promote German political and military purposes. Anyone assisting a Jew was sent to concentration camps as political prisoners. It was a time of peril for everyone.

Circumstances in Holland became oppressive and it became important to her family to save Jews from Hitler’s obsession to do away with all Jews. She and her family (Brother William, Sister Betsie and Father Casper) became part of Holland’s resistance to German occupation.

The ten Boom family assisted many Jews in escaping Holland through the underground resistance. They welcomed anyone with need at their home, and, given the times, they especially welcomed Jews. Of course, the entire ten Boom family was eventually arrested: Corrie’s father Casper, Betsie, her sister Nollie and brother Willem. At the time of the raid on their house they had six Jews living with them, who managed to make it to the safe room.

Corrie, her sister and father were sent to prison. Both her elderly father and Betsie died in prison - her father nine days after he was arrested and her sister died eight and a half months later. Corrie’s book is about how God helped her and Betsie endure Scheveningen, Vught and Ravensbruck Concentration Camps. Sometimes God gave them lice to endure their situation and at other times God put her on a potato detail. Whatever happened and regardless of how hard life was, they praised God and encouraged others. In everything they saw “bad” worked out for the good. Life was in God’s hands. She was released from prison based on a clerical error.

Corrie ten Boom tells her story in “The Hiding Place” written in 1971. The title is taken from scripture, Psalm 119.14, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.” and also refers to the secret place where she and her family hid Jews seeking refuge. Her book was made into a movie of the same name which was released in 1975. As a result of all this she became a notable spokesperson for Christ, speaking at many events around the world. She has written many books and is often quoted.

To quote Corrie, “God’s viewpoint is sometimes different from ours…He has given us a Book that tells us such things.” You may even wonder why you have been given something to endure, or a challenge to overcome. Corrie mentors us in this when she writes, “Our experiences are mysterious preparations for the work God gives us. They are often the key to the future.” In God, Corrie ten Boom found an enduring, caring refuge, not focused on the immediate, but for the long haul. It reminds me of what Joseph said to his brothers (Genesis 50.19).

In fact, the title her book refers to the secret place where the ten Boom family hid countless Jewish people needing help in their home, and is based on the scripture, “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word” (Psalm 119:114). To quote her father, “I will open my door to anyone in need.”

Although her father and a sister died in prison, she was released from Ravensbruck on December 30, 1944 and even in this she learned she could not hold on to bitterness. Any bitterness about her imprisonment or loss of her father and sister would only be another prison. Instead, she saw her “vengeful thoughts as a sin” and that everyone has worth in the sight of God.  The only thing she could do when she met a former officer at Ravensbruck after the war was to forgive him, just as Christ forgives us of our sins. She has a remarkable story of survival.

You ask, “What happened to the six people who went into the “hiding place” when the ten Boom house was raided?” Well, after 47 hours, the German soldiers who remained after the raid, completely searching the house left. They were replaced by a local police detail headed by a man named “Rolf” who had worked with Corrie in the past. They found the hidden Jews alive and well and helped them to find new places to hide.

Because of her efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust, a tree was planted in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations in her honor at Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial in Israel) in 1968. She isn’t the only non-Jew to be honored in that way. Others, among the nearly 14,000 honored include:

·         Hermine (Miep) and Jan Augustus Gies (The Diary of a Young Girl,
         Anne Frank)
·         Oscar & Emilie Schindler (Schindler’s List, 1993 Movie)
·         Paul Gruninger (The Policeman Who Lifted the Border Barrier)
·         Monsignor Rufino Niccacci, Luigi and Trento Brizi (The Assisi Network)
·         Varian Fry (The ERC with An American in Marseille)
·         Roddie Edmonds (American POW Master Sergeant, who, to protect
        the Jews in his unit, told his German captors, “We are all Jews”)

You can read the stories of these and many more at the Yad Vashem website (http://www.yadvashem.org).

Pictured here is a carob tree planted to honor the ten Boom family in Yad Vashem.

Corrie ten Boom’s House opened as a museum in 1975, but was closed in 1977 because of too many visitors. It reopened in 1988 and remains open as a museum today. In Christian circles, she is legendary as a courageous Christian leader. In her actions, she always took the stand to respect all people and honor God. Everyone deserves respect.

I was going to the Netherlands. It was imperative I visit her house, even though I had never read The Hiding Place nor seen the movie. Because I was going, I then set about getting reservations at the museum and reading her book. Of course, knowing I would see the house gave me great reasons to pay attention to the physical details of the house where Casper, Betsie and Corrie lived.

There are other resources that might be helpful in understanding the risks and pressures of resisting evil in times of upheaval. Search them out. Read them. Watch them. Visit them. Study them.

  

It was incredible to see the ten Boom house. If you should go, look for her embroidery work and the story behind her crown.

Scripture:

Genesis 4.9 – “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Genesis 42.21 – “We (the sons of Jacob) are guilty concerning our brother
       (Joseph), in that we saw the distress of his soul…and we did not listen.”
Exodus 2:2 – “The woman conceived and bore a son (Moses), and…she hid
       him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for
       him a basket …and the child was placed among the reeds by the river
       bank….”
Leviticus 19.18 and Matthew 5.43 – “Love your neighbor just the same as
      you love yourself.” Joshua 2. “Rahab took the two spies to the roof and
      hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.”
1 Kings 17:2 – “The word of the Lord came to Elijah, “Depart from here and
       turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith….”
1 Samuel 19:2 –Jonathan told David, ‘Saul, my father seeks to kill you. Be
      on your guard…. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself….”
Psalm 32.7 – “You are a hiding place for me; you protect me from
       trouble…”
Psalm 119:14 – “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your
       word.”

The Anne Frank House, Amsterdam

Anne Frank was a young Jewish teenager during World War 2, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She kept a diary. Nine of her entries (June 14 – July 8, 1942) were written in open society, though under German occupation. The remaining entries in her diary were written in the “Secret Annex” (a secret living space) on Prinsengracht Canal. And even though every entry of her diary was written during the war, its focus isn’t so much about war, but on living in confined quarters under the uncertainly of life, while at the same time growing up, learning, reading, aspiring, getting along with others, depending on God, finding love, and coping with depression (September 16, 1943). She writes things in her diary that touch us and speak to hope, fear and despair. Her diary is about life and how it unfolds before us, and outside anything we would ever plan for ourselves. It says a lot about character development, ambitions, mothers and fathers, loves gained and lost, sexual development, our need for nature, and even God. It didn’t take long for me to line up columns to   note what pages spoke to these issues. Her diary is powerful, raw and authentic.

I’ve read her diary twice in my life, once as a teenager, in 1962 or perhaps 1963 and again this year (2017). I never thought I would visit the “Secret Annex” back in sixties. I was a young teen, like her back then, but unlike her I lived in a time of peace. Back then visiting the Secret Annex was unimaginable to me. That changed sometime in the late nineties when my parents went to Europe and brought back a visitor’s guide from the Anne Frank House. Then I thought, someday I will visit this place, where a special girl once lived and for whom I felt a loss when I learned at end of her diary, she did not survive her third German concentration camp (Bergen-Belsen). She died of typhus, not long after her sister.

Well, in anticipation of going to Amsterdam this year, I read the Diary of Anne Frank a second time. It renewed many thoughts and feelings I had as a teen. I had once identified with Anne as a youth. I too struggled with who I was, with relationships with my parents and other adults, with what I was all about and wanted to do in life. I’d almost forgotten these thoughts and feelings. She had shared her inner life, her hopes and uncertainties. She seemed as if she were a close friend again. It was a kind of reconnection. Though she had died, she was still speaking. Her book, in spite of her death, encourages us about how to live life. It’s as if she said, “My faith is more powerful than evil.” In this her diary is quite eloquent.

Reading the Diary this time, I saw more clearly how the political upheaval and military events of that day were foundational to her family’s circumstances and how the political events today impact on my life today. The “Afterword,” included in my 1993 edition of the diary, reminded me why Hitler rose to power (his appeal to many people who were discontented and their desire to be restored to greatness). Though not an editorial on our world’s political situation, it could well speak to many countries in the world today. I then made a tally of freedoms that were lost or restricted under German occupation (June 20, 1942, October 9, 1942, November 19, 1942 and June 15, 1943). I asked myself again and again how so many civil rights could be so easily taken from a people and country (Holland).

 

Let me describe our visit to the Anne Frank House. The house is located on one of many canals in the old city center of Amsterdam. It is an area of narrow streets, too few places to park a car or van, many bicycles, many small shops and cafes. Within half a block there is the Westerkerk Church and Westertoren (bell tower and clock). Anne speaks on several occasions of the clock in her diary (July 11, 1942 and August 10, 1943). I looked for the clock tower and it was easy to find. It dominates the skyline of the neighborhood.

The tour of the house is highly managed. No photographs are allowed to be taken inside the house, though, as you can see, I was able to take many of the house from the outside and of the neighborhood. If you happen to have a camera bag, you will have to rotate it to your front side. Be careful so as not to trip. Despite these shortcomings, I am glad I visited the house. The organization for maintaining this facility was wound tightly. Crowds consumed the sidewalks and filled nearby cafes, even though some (I am sure) were not able to get tickets. Last year (2016) over 1.29 million people visited the Anne Frank House.

The “Annex” portion of the house is actually to the rear of the building that faces the canal. The building’s quarters are tight and stairs are narrow. During the tour you will also pass by the moveable bookcase into the annex. Once inside the “Annex” you will see Otto & Edith Frank’s bedroom and Margot’s room, Anne and Albert Dussel’s bedroom, the Van Daan’s bedroom (kitchen, dining area and living quarters, and Peter’s hallway bedroom. You will also see the stairs that ascend to the attic. To see photos of these spaces, you can visit the Anne Frank House Website (http://www.annefrank.org/en/). This website has a 3-D virtual tour. By the way, you will notice that the names of many of the inhabitants in the house actually had other names. That is because Anne re-wrote her diary once she had decided she would one-day publish it. Her pseudonyms included: Albert Dussel (real name Fritz Pfeffer), Herman, Auguste and Peter van Dann (real names: Herman, Auguste and Peter van Pels). The pseudonyms have been used in various editions instead of their actual names.

Before you go to the house, I recommend reading Anne’s diary. With her words fresh in your memory, you might be able to hear her “speak” as I did when I moved from room to room, experienced the overall size of the building, the steep stairs, their sleeping quarters, and the layout of the rooms. I sensed the crowds moving through the Annex had a feeling of sadness for her loss. It was a sort of reverential quietness. It was quite an experience.

Here is my diagram of the quarters where the van Pels (Herman & Auguste van Daan), the Franks (Otto, Edith, Margo and Anne Frank) and Fritz Pfeffer (Albert Dussel) stayed:

                  

                    

The museum portion of the tour includes videos and photos of family and the history of the time. The museum is located in the warehouse portion of the Anne Frank House (the front of the building). There is a very good museum shop within the facility. There you can purchase post cards with photos of the Annex, DVDs, and books about the period.

Allow me to quote Anne on several subjects:

Nature

1944 February 23 – “But I looked out of the open window too, over a large area of Amsterdam, over all the roofs and on to the horizon, which was such a pale blue that it was hard to see the dividing line. ‘As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy.”

God

1944 February 03 – “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.”

 1944 July 06 – “He [Peter] has no religion, scoffs at Jesus Christ, and swears, using the name of God, although I’m not orthodox either, it hurts me every time I see how deserted, how scornful, and how poor he really is. ….People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.”

 1944 Jul 15 – “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death.”

 Anne’s Personal Ambitions

May 11, 1944 – “Now, about something else: you’ve known for a long time that my greatest wish is to become a journalist someday and later on a famous writer. Whether these leanings toward greatness (or insanity) will ever materialize remains to be seen, but I certainly have the subjects in my mind. In any case, I want to publish a book entitled Het Achterhuis [The Secret Annex] after the war. Whether I succeed or not, I cannot say, but my diary will be a great help.”

 Anne’s Character Development

July 15, 1944 – “I have one outstanding trait in my character, which must strike anyone who knows me for any length of time, and that is my knowledge of myself. I can watch myself and my actions, just like an outsider. The Anne of every day I can face entirely without prejudice, without making excuses for her, and watch what’s good and what’s bad about her. The ‘self-consciousness’ haunts me, and every time I open my mouth I know as soon as I’ve spoken whether ‘that ought to behave been different’ or ‘that was right as it was.’ There are so many things about myself that I condemn, I couldn’t begin to name them all. I understand more and more how true Daddy’s words were when he said, ‘All children must look after their own upbringing.’ Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”

These quotes speak to both the horror of her situation, the fragility of life, and even hope in it. Anne reflects on her religion (faith) and about not having faith and concludes, it “keeps a person on the right path” and summed it up saying, “A quiet conscience gives you strength.” My take-away is that without some kind of faith we have no direction or hope, leaving us only despair.

 A memorial statue of Anne Frank is located at Westerkerk Church on Westermarkt Street.

A note about these quotes: I’ve discovered Anne’s Diary has been translated by various people in addition to portions of it being re-written by Anne herself. The text varies by translation. Also, some editions do not include every entry Anne wrote. The entries included or omitted are interesting in themselves. My mother’s edition was an edition published by Bantam Books in 1993. I liked the “Afterword” of that edition for the summary of events leading up to the occupation of Holland by Hitler’s Third Reich.

I am thankful for Meip Gies’s efforts to honor Anne by preserving her diary after the family’s arrest. Likewise, to Otto Frank and his tenacity to fulfil his daughter’s wish to be a published writer. These were important, but, what no one could do except Anne herself, was to make her a great author. She shares many observations on life and even though she lived a short life, she has accomplished far more than many writers, given sixty, seventy, or eighty years of life.

Scripture:

Genesis 1:27 – “So God created man in His own image…male and female He created them.”

 Exodus 20.13 – “Thou shall not murder.”

Leviticus 19:15 – “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”

Psalm 139.13-16 – “God forms our innermost parts; He wove me in my mother’s womb. Give thanks to God, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Matthew 7:12 – “So in everything, do to others what you would have them for to you, for this sums up the Law and what the Prophets of God have said.”

John 13.34-35 – “A new command I (God) give to you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Everyone knows you are a disciple, if you love one another like this.”

Matthew 8:5 – A Roman Centurion came to Jesus regarding his paralyzed servant. Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

Matthew 19:13 – “Allow children to come to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.”

John 4.10 – “Jesus answered the Samaritan woman, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks…’”

Acts 10.24-28 – “Peter told a large gathering of Jews, ‘God has shown me that I should not call any man (including Cornelius, a Roman centurion) impure or unclean.’”