Corrie ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom was a beacon of light in the midst of the dark horrors surrounding World War II. In fact, her whole family spent their lives spreading rays of hope. Before the war, her mother generously aided others in Haarlem, Holland even after she was paralyzed from a stroke. Corrie’s father was a kind, gracious watchmaker, who would spend hours fixing a watch and then forget to send the bill. Their peaceful life was shattered when the Nazis invaded and conquered Holland. As persecution of the Haarlem Jews raged, the ten Boom’s home became the center of an underground organization that helped Jews find shelter and obtain food. Also, they gladly received high-risk Jews that nobody else would hide, jeopardizing their own lives to save others.

For over a year the ten Boom family assisted Jews fleeing from Hitler’s wrath. However, a fellow Dutchman, who had worked with the Gestapo from the very beginning, betrayed them and almost all of the ten Booms were arrested and imprisoned. Sadly, their father died within ten days, and Corrie and her older sister, Betsie, were separated in the dreary prison. After quite some time, they were transferred to a concentration camp in Holland but were soon sent to Ravensbruck, a notorious and feared concentration camp in Germany itself. With a Bible that had miraculously not been discovered and confiscated, they immediately spread hope and freedom in Christ to hundreds. The whole atmosphere of their extremely overcrowded, flea infested, barracks changed. “What a difference since Betsie had come to this room! Where before this had been the moment for scuffles and cursing, tonight the huge dormitory buzzed with ‘Sorry!’ ‘Excuse me!’ And ‘No harm done!’” Corrie was eventually released from Ravensbruck through a “clerical error” and spent the rest of her life helping people affected by the war.

Corrie ten Boom is my hero because she persevered through Christ and brought hope to hundreds of people. Not only did Corrie help those around her, but she also forgave those that had wronged her. She shook hands with a former guard of Ravensbruck, forgave the man that had betrayed her family, and continued loving and forgiving her previous enemies. After the war, she opened a house in Holland where people could heal from the devastation of the war. Corrie also transformed an old concentration camp to a place where some of the millions of homeless Germans could live and learn about Christ. Through perseverance, sacrifice, kindness, and trust in Christ, Corrie did all she could to save people’s lives, naturally as well as spiritually, and that is what makes her a true hero.