Modern witnesses

Corrie ten Boom

1892 to 1983 · Netherlands

Corrie ten Boom (1892 to 1983) was a Dutch watchmaker and Christian who, with her family, hid Jews and resistance workers from the Nazis in occupied Holland. Betrayed in 1944, she was sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp, where her sister Betsie died. Corrie survived, and spent the rest of her life telling the world that there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still, and that even enemies can be forgiven.

Life and context

Corrie ten Boom was born in Haarlem in 1892 and helped run the family watch shop. When Germany occupied the Netherlands, the ten Booms hid Jews and members of the resistance in a secret room built into their home, saving many lives. They were betrayed and arrested in February 1944. Corrie and her sister Betsie were eventually sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, where Betsie died in December 1944. Corrie was released shortly afterward, reportedly through a clerical error, days before the women of her age were put to death. She lived to be ninety-one.

What she taught and wrote

Corrie told her story in The Hiding Place (1971), one of the most widely read accounts of faith under the Holocaust, and in Tramp for the Lord. Her great theme was forgiveness. She often recounted meeting, after the war, a former guard from Ravensbruck who asked her forgiveness, and how, unable to feel it, she prayed for the ability and found God supplying the love she could not summon herself.

What her witness points us to

Corrie’s life answers the darkest question, whether God is present in the worst places, with a quiet yes. She points to the Christ who commanded love of enemies and then supplies it, and whose love, she insisted, runs deeper than any pit.

Frequently asked questions

Who was Corrie ten Boom?

Corrie ten Boom (1892 to 1983) was a Dutch Christian watchmaker who, with her family, hid Jews from the Nazis. She survived the Ravensbruck concentration camp and spent her later life speaking on forgiveness.

What is The Hiding Place?

The Hiding Place (1971) is Corrie ten Boom's memoir of hiding Jews from the Nazis, her family's arrest, and her survival of Ravensbruck. It is one of the most widely read Christian accounts of the Holocaust.

What happened to Corrie ten Boom's family?

The ten Booms were betrayed and arrested in 1944. Corrie's father died soon after arrest, and her sister Betsie died in Ravensbruck concentration camp. Corrie herself survived and was released near the war's end.