A speech about Corrie ten Boom
Corrie in 1907
By Jennifer Duff
Delivered at Omaha’s annual Providential History Festival on September 17th, 2011. Many thanks to my proofreaders: Katie Wattermann, Pat Lane, Sheri Duff, MaryAnne Shepherd, and Pam Rosewell Moore.
On April 15th, 1892 a little girl was born prematurely to a modest family in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When the baby’s uncle saw her blue skin and pinched features, he remarked sadly, “I hope the Lord will quickly take this poor little creature to His home in heaven”. Little did he know that the small bundle would grow up to be one of the most recognized Christian heroines of the second world war; the woman who we know as Corrie ten Boom.
Corrie was born to Casper and Cornelia ten Boom as the youngest of 4 children, and while their home was not one of luxury, the richness of their love for each other and the Lord replaced any lack of material wealth. In speaking about the day he proposed to his wife, Casper ten Boom said, “Until the last day of her life, I was just as much in love with your mother as I was on that day in Harderwijk. We didn’t have an easy life- we had many sorrows- but God led us by His extraordinary providence.”
The Ten Boom family was diligently sharing Christ with their community through hospitality while living a quiet life in the Beje, their beloved home and watch shop. But in 1940 the rumbles of war began to reach their simple life, as Germany invaded the Netherlands, threatening the freedom of Jews and anyone who dared to offer them protection. After the death of Casper ten Boom several years later, his daughter Betsie said “I often thought that a person in whom Christ was shown to such full advantage, who lived so close to the Saviour, to whom the eternal things were so real… such a person has all the conditions for becoming a martyr.”
Even as a young family the Lord was preparing the Ten Booms for the hardships that would come. Corrie, despite at one point having a relationship with a young man, never married and instead lived with her sister Betsie, and together they aided their father in his steadfast ministry to the poor and handicapped in their community. It was this same fearless attitude of sacrifice for the Lord that led Casper to bring Jews into his home, as the German occupation of the Netherlands threatened the lives of their fellow countrymen.
Was there fear or trembling on their part in defying such a powerful and menacing force as the gestapo? It is evident that their fear of an almighty God and a trust in His sovereignty was greater still. And yet, God was preparing Corrie’s heart for the difficulties to come. As airplanes began to roar into Holland and wreak havoc on the city around the Beje, Corrie saw a vision of being led away in captivity.
Casper and Cornelia ten Boom
Four years later she would recall this dream as she, her father Casper, her siblings and nephew were arrested for hiding Jews, and loaded onto a bus destined for the Scheveningen prison. Corrie was kept in solitary confinement for 4 months, and yet despite the disease, harsh treatment and loneliness, she trusted in the plan of the almighty God. She said, “No pit could be so deep that Jesus was not deeper still.”
Though Betsie and Corrie were separated in Scheveningen, they both had contact during their interrogations with an official called Lieutenant Hans Rahms. On five occasions Betsie had the opportunity to pray and share the gospel with this man who was considered an enemy.
At one point Corrie was summoned to speak with him, and in astonishment was shown a detailed report about her underground operation, as well as a list of many of her friends, underground workers, and Jews they had hidden. After a moment of painful silence, he unexpectedly threw the incriminating papers into the fire. The Lord had used Corrie and Betsie’s testimony in Scheveningen to reach the heart of one man, and thus protect the safety of God’s servants.
During their imprisonment at Scheveningen in 1944, Corrie and Betsie learned that their beloved father, Casper, had died. Their siblings Nollie and Willem were released, but Corrie and Betsie were taken to Vught, a transitional concentration camp, and finally to Ravensbruck, a women’s camp famed for its intensive labor, harsh conditions, and inhumane medical treatments.
And yet God was in that place of darkness and suffering; working miracles amidst the need… A bottle of liquid vitamins that did not run out until more was supplied… Betsie’s sickness that provided a chance to smuggle a bible into Ravensbruck, and the guards that overlooked the obvious bulk that it created… The horrible fleas that Corrie struggled to thank God for, which were later discovered to be the reason that the guards did not enter the barracks and disrupt their bible services. In a letter to his sisters, Willem ten Boom said “What a blessing when you may witness about Him by word and deed in surroundings where sorrow and privation open hearts so easily.” God was using the suffering of two sisters to reveal His gospel to a camp of hurting women.
Tante Corrie
On December 16th, 1944 Corrie lost her sister and best friend, Betsie, to illness and starvation. Two weeks later, Corrie was released from Ravensbruck by a clerical error… and seven days later all women in her age group were taken to the gas chambers. Out of the 120,000 women that passed through the gates of Ravensbruck, an estimated 90,000 died within the camp walls. Yet Corrie went on to build homes for former prisoners, including an old concentration camp that she transformed into a place of hope. Until her death in 1983 she shared her inspiring testimony with countless individuals while traveling to 64 countries.
Corrie ten Boom’s uncle thought it would have been better if she had died as a sickly infant. And yet how many providential things could we behold, if our earthly eyes were strengthened to see the mighty plans of the Lord? Corrie truly is an example of how God uses the most unlikely, weak people to display His plan of victory. As Corrie said, “I believe that we are too often failure-conscious. Faith makes us victory-conscious. Faith brings the unreality of hope to the reality of now. Hope is the future. Faith is present. Faith is the radar that shows us the reality of Christ’s victory. The moment that radar works correctly, we dare to say, “God has made me able to conquer weakness, fear, and inability, and I stand and declare that whosoever believes in Jesus shall not be put to shame.” Jesus was Victor, Jesus is Victor, Jesus will be Victor.”
