The Hiding Place

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!!!!!
Review: Excellent reading material. Very emotional content. Excellent for those interested in the thoughts and actions of those held in concentration camps during the holocaust

Rating:
Summary: This book was absoulutly entrawling.
Review: I read this book when I was in the ninth grade. I could not put it down. Corrie Ten Boom's story warmed my heart. She and her family refused to stand on the sidelines and simply watch as the Jews were killed. I think one of the best parts of the book for me was when the Nazies offered to let her father, who was very old, to go if he promised not to help any more Jews but he refused the offer because he knew that he was doing the right thing

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Summary: A Holland family that gets caught by the Nazi.
Review: A family that lives in Holland during WWII. They own a watchshop and made a sercet room so that the Nazi wouldn't find them

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Summary: A true account of love for God and the Souls of Everyone
Review: Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie showed absolute compassion for everyone. Even though her family was thrown into prison, and later the 'camps', she was able to forgive the man who turned her in to the Nazis. She and her sister were the only members of her family to enter the concentration camps, everyone else was freed shortly after their imprisonment. Betsie died, but Corrie never lost hope. She knew inside that Betsie was in Heaven waiting for their reunion sfter death. Their faith was astounding, and surprising. They shared their faith with others, including Nazi guards, and the Jews in Ravensbruck. As you read through the book you begin to wonder, 'do I do help others enough.' Corrie's life was dedicated to the service of her Father in Heaven, even though tragedy and anguish struck her at every turn in her life

Rating:
Summary: Significant, powerful, moving
Review: This book, written simply yet in a gripping style, is a witness of God's love and power in the most hopeless circumstances. We can all learn so much from Corrie Ten Boom and this book.

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Summary: Best book I've ever read
Review: A wonderful biography. Beautifully written. Great book

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful,moving,emotive book.
Review: I have read a number of autobiographys,and expect to read more still.
I think i shall be hard-pressed to find another one as beautiful as Corrie's.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring True Story - Faith Building
Review: Inspiring true story of a simple Christian family who placed their trust in God and changed the world as a result. They not only protected Jews during WWII, they worked for reconciliation of Jews and Nazis after the war, even to their own abusers. Only God make that sort of thing happen, and for the many years since, Corrie Ten Boom has been preaching that God. Read only if you want your faith in God deepened.

Rating:
Summary: G-d is our true Hiding Place
Review: As a grandson of Holocaust survivors and the great-grandson of Holocaust victims, as one who attended only Jewish schools until college, I grew up reading books about the Holocaust. Yet it wasn't until I read Rabbi Daniel Lapin's book, America's Real War, that I had ever heard of Corrie ten Boom and her righteous family. Referring to The Hiding Place and Tante (Aunt) Corrie's other book, In My Father's House, Rabbi Lapin writes: "I personally see it as a mark of shame for the Jewish community that these books are not mandatory reading in every Jewish high school." That's all I needed to read, as I shortly thereafter purchased both of these books, the first of which, The Hiding Place, I finished last week. I am indebted to Rabbi Lapin for the recommendation.

This heartwrenching story of a Dutch Christian family responsible for saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust is one of courage, heroism and faith. But the Ten Boom family's commitment and love for the Jewish people is firmly rooted decades prior to these events as Tante Corrie (1892-1983) elsewhere writes of the regular prayer meetings her grandfather would make for the sake of the Jewish people in the Beje (the family home and watchmaker shop) beginning in the 1840's. Tante Corrie explains: "In a divine way that is beyond our understanding, G-d answered those prayers. It was in the same house, exactly one hundred years later, that Grandfather's son, my father, and four of his grandchildren and one great-grandson were arrested for helping save the lives of Jews during the German occupation of Holland."

We read of Tante Corrie's childhood and the righteous home in which she was reared wherein the reader gets some glimpse into her saintly father, the family patriarch Caspar ten Boom. As Hitler takes over Holland and anti-Semitic regulations become commonplace, Tante Corrie resolves in her heart: "Lord Jesus, I offer myself for Your people. In any way. Any place. Any time." That Tante Corrie and her family most certainly did, becoming part of the Underground and harboring Jews in the specially constructed "hiding place" in the Beje. The "hiding place" takes on a deeper symbolism in keeping with Tante Corrie's conviction that the One Above must become our ultimate refuge in life.

I will never forget some of these Jews, like Cantor Meyer Mossel, known as Eusie. I laughed out loud at his interactions and well received "Psalm 166" joke with Father ten Boom. "Father beamed. Of course there is no Psalm 166; the Psalter stops with 150. It must be a joke, and nothing could please Father better than a scriptural joke." Eusie was quite a character.

Tragically, the Ten Boom's operation of saving Jewish lives was discovered by the Nazis and Tante Corrie and her unusually righteous sister Betsie were sent to concentration camps. Tante Corrie survived to dedicate her next four decades of life to sharing her life changing story of triumph through faith. Somewhat disturbing to me, however, is Tante Corrie's attitude of forgiveness toward her evil captors and her sister Betsie's consistent prayers for them. However, this has less to do with Tante Corrie personally as it has to do with the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity in their understandings of forgiveness in general. As Dennis Prager has written in an essay appearing in The Sunflower, "More than a decade of weekly dialogue with Christians and intimate conversations with Christian friends have convinced me that, aside from the divinity of Jesus, the greatest-- and even more important -- difference between Judaism and Christianity, or perhaps between most Christians and Jews, is their understanding of forgiveness and, ultimately, how to react to evil."

Tante Corrie, now in Heaven, thank you for everything you did for my people. We love and cherish you.



Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Hiding Place
Review: The ultimate "Hiding Place" is within God. Such a short and simple statement, that holds great power. This simple fact was divinely revealed during the Holocaust for Corrie Ten Boom and her family, and in this book, HIDING PLACE, she shares what happened.

Corrie, a native of Holland in her early 50's, became involved in the underground movement to hide Jews and others persecuted by the Germans. Holland was invaded by the Germans which made it very difficult to hide the refugees, as well as hide Corrie's role in their protection. While hiding several refugees in a false room in her bedroom, Corrie and her sister Betsy, as well as their aged father are taken prisoner by the Germans.

Corrie is ill, while Betsy has suffered from an ailment since childhood and has always been frail. They are separated and do not see each other for quite some time.

While being moved to another prison, the sisters are reunited and Betsy, by example only, helps Corrie cement her faith in God as well as learn to rely on him and trust solely in him.

Again and again, Corrie is able to hide her small bible that a kindly nurse was able to slip to her. She hid it through numerous, supervised showers and naked inspections. God's Hiding Place was in action.

Fleas that disgusted the guards became another thing to thank God for, as they created a "Hiding Place" for Corrie and Betsy as they revealed God's word to other captives and were able to give new life and hope in God.

The sisters endure many humiliations and hardships that no human being should ever have to even dream about. Throughout all, their faith in God is strengthened and the book gives example after example of how this faith is met by God.

I wept while reading this book, and I was ashamed that I complain about small things: Whether or not my neck hurts today, or I'm put out because my favorite TV show isn't on. I fear that I would have died a very bitter person if I were in that circumstance. If I am faced with tribulation, I hope that I would not, but that I would instead remember and be inspired by Corrie's story.

Recommended
Yes

Pros
Honestly and humbly, reveals God's power in the worst of circumstances.

Cons
None

The Bottom Line
Get this book and read it. Buy multiple copies and give them to everyone. We should all be so humble and take refuge in the Hiding Place.