Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom
Early Life
Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, Netherlands, near Amsterdam into a deeply Christian family, whose acts of generosity and social commitment had been recognized since a long time. Their house was always open to any needy person. Known as "Corrie" all her life, she was the youngest child, with two sisters and a brother.
Seeking a Vocation
At age 23 she was jilted by a young man named Karel whom she loved, who ultimately married a woman from a rich family. After the death of her mother few years later, Corrie attended bible school but failed her final exam. However, she later received her diploma. Corrie trained to be a watchmaker like her father and in 1922 became the first woman licensed as a watchmaker in Holland. Over the next decade, in addition to working in her father's shop, she led Bible classes in public schools and taught Sunday school and organized and ran a network of youth clubs for teenage girls, in which she gave spiritual instruction as well as classes in performing arts, sewing and handicrafts.
World War II Changes Everything
In May 1940, the Nazis invaded Netherlands. And the quiet life of Corrie was changed forever.
The Germans started persecuting the Jews with an intention to destroy the whole Jewish community. Corrie felt obligated to help the Jews to survive, considering them as "God's ancient people". Corrie’s house soon became the center for a major anti-Nazi operation. Corrie, who had grown to think of herself as a middle-aged spinster, found herself involved in black market operations, using stolen ration cards, and eventually hiding Jews in her own home.
The Dutch underground arranged for a secret room to be built in her house, so the Jews would have a place to hide in the event of an inevitable raid. Corrie sacrificed her own safety and suffered a moral crisis over the lying, theft, forgery, and bribery that was necessary for her to do to protect the Jews from being killed. Through these activities, Corrie saved about 800 Jews' lives.
Capture and Imprisonment
On February 28, 1944, Corrie was betrayed by a fellow Dutchman who told the Nazis of the ten Booms' activities and the Gestapo (Nazi secret police) raided her home. All the ten Boom family members were arrested and imprisoned for being part of the resistance movement, including Corrie's 84-year-old father, who soon died in prison. Corrie and her sister Betsie were remanded to the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp, in Germany.
The conditions in the camp were hellish and life was unbearable; both Corrie and Betsie were forced to perform back-breaking manual labor. But Corrie and Betsie spent their time sharing Jesus' love with their fellow prisoners. They yearned to show them the love of Christ. Many women became Christians in that terrible place of hatred and misery, because of Corrie and Betsie's witness to them.
While in the concentration camp, the sisters used their secret Bible to hold worship services for the other prisoners. These services blossomed into a multi-denominational taste of God's Kingdom. Corrie wrote, "..Either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the text we would translate aloud in German, and we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and back into Dutch. These were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb."
Betsie died there in the death camp in December 1944, and Corrie was released miraculously twelve days later due to a clerical error. Her release happened one week before all the women in the camp her age were killed.
Work After War
Corrie realized her life was a gift from God, and she needed to share what she and Betsie had learned in Ravensbruck: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.” Corrie forgave those who tortured her, murdered her family, ridiculed her, hurt her in the most unimaginable way; God’s intense love persuaded her to forgive as Christ forgave.
Corrie established a post-war home for other camp survivors. At age 53, Corrie began a worldwide ministry that took her into more than 60 countries in the next 32 years! She testified to God's love and encouraged all she met with the message that "Jesus is Victor”. She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching God's forgiveness and the need for reconciliation.
She received many tributes, including being knighted by the queen of the Netherlands. She authored many books and wrote a best-selling book, The Hiding Place. On April 15, 1983 the precious heroine of the Christian faith finished her life on earth.
Corrie ten Boom is nothing more (and nothing less) than a common woman who accomplished extraordinary things being filled with Holy Spirit.
“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”