Corrie ten Boom: The Dutch Watchmaker Who Hid Jewish People Behind a False Wall

Corrie ten Boom: The Dutch Watchmaker Who Hid Jewish People Behind a False Wall

When German officers searched Corrie ten Boom’s home, six people were hiding only a few feet away behind a false wall. If they had been discovered, everyone inside the house could have been killed.

Today I want to find out a little about Corrie ten Boom. She was a Dutch watchmaker whose family helped Jewish people and resistance workers during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

Corrie was born Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom on the 15th of April 1892 in Amsterdam. She was the youngest child of watchmaker and jeweller Casper ten Boom and his wife, Cornelia.

Soon afterwards, her family moved to Haarlem, where her father took over the family watch shop.

The family lived above their watch shop on Barteljorisstraat in a house they called the Beje. Their Christian faith shaped their lives, and they regularly offered food and shelter to people in need.

Corrie joined her father in the family business. She trained as a watchmaker and, in 1922, became one of the very few licensed female watchmakers in the Netherlands. Away from the shop, she also organised activities for teenage girls.

Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. As persecution intensified, Jewish people were stripped of their rights, forced into hiding and deported.

Corrie, her father Casper and her sister Betsie gradually became involved in resistance work. They welcomed Jewish people into their home and helped arrange safer hiding places elsewhere.

A secret room was built behind a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom. It could conceal six people, while an alarm warned them when they needed to hide. Corrie also helped to obtain illegal ration cards so that those living in hiding could be fed.

Her work became part of a wider underground network that moved Jewish people to safer locations. Corrie and those working with her are believed to have helped save hundreds of lives.

On the 28th of February 1944, the family was betrayed by a Dutch informant. German officers raided the Beje and arrested more than thirty people. However, the six people inside the hidden room were not discovered and were later moved to safety.

Corrie, Betsie and their elderly father were imprisoned. Casper died only ten days after his arrest. Corrie and Betsie were later sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany.

Despite the conditions, the sisters comforted other prisoners and secretly held Christian services. Betsie became seriously ill and sadly died on the 16th of December 1944.

Corrie was released twelve days later. It is often said that an administrative mistake led to her release, although the exact reasons are unclear.

After the war, Corrie opened a rehabilitation home for people traumatised by the occupation. She later travelled widely, speaking about faith, forgiveness and her wartime experiences. Her best-known book, The Hiding Place, brought her family’s story to an international audience.

Corrie was recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1967. She died on the 15th of April 1983, her 91st birthday.

 

Would you have had the courage to open your home when doing so could have cost your entire family their lives?