The Hiding Place

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Summary: lots of sadness, but filled of joy
Review: This story is heartbreaking - I cry every time I read it. But what makes it so wonderful is how much hope and joy and encouragement it holds as well. This story is told through the eyes of Corrie Ten Boom, who, with her father, sister, and a network of underground Dutch patriots, hide Jews in her home during the Nazi occupation in WWII. Corrie suffers tremendously for her actions, and it is within the confines of a concentration camp that some incredibly profound lessons are learned. One of the beautiful things about this book is how honest Ms. Ten Boom is about her faults and failings in herself and her faith. This is contrasted with the absolutely amazing faith of her father, and her sister Betsie. They trust God completely, and their reactions to the pain and suffering they experience are amazing, almost unbelievable. The Hiding Place is beautifully written, and has become a classic in Christian literature.

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Summary: Gripping, Inspiring Story
Review: This true story of faith provides a first-hand view of the horrors of WWII. Corrie shows how God helped her to act courageously and to forgive great wrongs. The lessons she learns and conveys in this thrilling story will stay with you long after the book is finished.

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Summary: The Hiding Place
Review: Our opinion of the book The Hiding Place was well written because it came from the heart. Corrie Ten Boom talks about her life during the Holocaust and having the experience of being in a concentration camp. We thought the book was very informational because it gave details about how others besides the Jewish people were treated and how they felt. We did not care for the beginning of the book because it was confusing and very boring. They kept going back and fourth from her childhood to the present. The best part about the book was how Corrie and her family cared more about the Jewish people then themselves. For example, in the book when Corrie's family is going through the registration process Corrie's dad is told that he can leave the concentration camp as long as he doesn't help anymore Jews. But his response to that is, "if I go home and people come to my door a knocking I will let them in."
The Hiding Place is different from other Holocaust books because it's about people that aren't Jewish and how they get put in concentration camps. Once you get into the book it really keeps your attention and it's hard to put down. It's very interesting when Corrie explains how they put in the "secret room" so that no matter how hard the Nazis try they won't be able to find it. In other words, we highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a heart warming true story about courage and the helping of others.

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Summary: A real eye-opener
Review: Although this book is a slow starter, it only gets better as it goes on. I learned so much about Holland being overtaken, the underground system of Jews, and the hardships of the innocent people. Corrie ten Boom's outlook is so positive that it really sparks you to read more about the whole ordeal. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends.

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Summary: An excellent addition to your library!
Review: "The Hiding Place" gives the reader an "inside" look at how the perseverence of one family created a better life for many Jews during Hitler's reign. A very inspirational book that is a must read!

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Summary: Wow! This is a must for EVERY library.
Review: I loved this book. My wife and I read this book together while we were dating and it really brought us close together. This book really brings life into perspective. I will never forget reading this.

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Summary: A Personal Look at History
Review: Corrie ten Boom is an unbelievable author; she does a great job of making the reader feel like they are in the book with her. The book tells the story of her life which took place in Europe during World War II. Her family was Dutch and yet they could not turn their back on the Jews who saught refuge from the German soldiers. It was incredible to read about her life from the beginning when she was an infant through her old age. I am a fourteen year old high school freshman, and this interesting book made an impact on how I view life. Corrie ten Boom's story shows that miracles really do happen. I have always known my Christian faith was strong, but to see these characters being literally saved by their faith numerous times, makes my faith in the Lord even stronger.I also enjoyed the way she described each of the characters with great detail. Miss ten Boom had a very large family for the majority of her life. She lived in a three story house with her mother, father, two sisters, one brother, and three aunts. Their house was located above their watch shop. Miss ten Boom had a very close relationship with one of her older sisters, Betsie. After her older brother, Willem, and her other older sister, Nollie, got married her mother and all three aunts passed away. Miss ten Boom then lived in the large house with only her sister, Betsie, and her father, Casper ten Boom. She and Betsie never did get married. What a colorful family she had.
She described the German soldiers as flat characters. All she saw in them was evil that could have been turned into love if they could have known God. She and Betsie were very strong Christians and they prayed for the soldiers so that they would be forgiven for their hatred. Miss ten Boom was a very loving person, and in the book every time a Jewish person would come to the door she would let them in and give them a place to stay. She also had many round characters and described them perfectly with everything that she knew about them. This book has an interesting mix of happiness, sadness, suspense, and mostly hope. It made me not want to put the book down for a second. I recommend this book to any age person.

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Summary: Directly Applicable to America in September 2001
Review: It is strange how things work out... "this true story of the heroic Ten Boom family proves that unspeakable evil can yield unimaginable goodness." The value of such a remark seems greatly magnified in wake of the despicable attacks on America. For once again, the world is bearing witness as catastrophic turpitude brings forth the very best of humanity.

Other similarities exist between the narrative of a Christian family who hid many Jews during the holocaust and the terroristic murder of thousands of Americans by the modern forces of hell.

"The Hiding Place" refutes a current canard that will not please revisionists. As the invaders demanded the whereabouts of the Jews be revealed, one of the nazi goons was slugging then 50ish Corrie. When the pain of his fist pounding her face became unbearable, she cried out to Jesus for help. The tormentor warned her that if she used that name again he would kill her. To those who have rewritten history to say that Nazism was somehow a debased outgrowth of Christianity, here is another case where the facts prove otherwise. Hitler and his retinue despised Christianity as fervently as they hated Judaism. Such sentiments are alive and well among the Islamic extremists; however, true Islam with its message of peace is also a target of the terrorists' ire.

In yet another prescient instance Corrie speaks of a monograph her minister-brother wrote while still in divinity school, "way back in 1927, Willem had written in his doctoral thesis, done in Germany, that a terrible evil was taking root in that land. Right at the university, he said, seeds were being planted of contempt for human life such as the world had never seen." Thankfully nazism has been condemned to the ash heap of history, but the disregard for humanity is obviously alive and well.

Those whose hearts are still broken over the attack on our nation will find comfort in "the Hiding Place." It provides inspiring proof that evil will score a few victories, but, in the end, rectitude and integrity always triumph over hate. God Bless America!

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Summary: INCREDIBLY MOVING SAGA OF HEROIC DUTCH FAMILY DURING WW II
Review: This is an absolutely extraordinary book. Never have I read a book in which the spiritual beauty of the author so resonated throughout the story. The purity of heart that manifests itself in this inspiring saga of a heroic, Dutch family in Nazi occupied Holland during World War II is stunningly beautiful.

This is the true story of the Ten Boom family who, during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, upon seeing what was happening to their jewish neighbors and friends, asked themselves this age old question "If not us,...who; if not now, when?" They answered it, ultimately, at great cost.

The Ten Booms were devoutly Christian and lived a simple life. The patriarch of the family ran a watch shop that had been in his family for a century. Some of the family members, the author among them, worked there, selling and repairing clocks and watches. They also lived in the house in which the shop was located.

When the Nazis occupied their country, the reality of what it meant slowly dawned upon them, as they saw the treatment given to their fellow Dutch citizens of the jewish faith. Moved by their plight, the author at the age of fifty, together with other members of her family, including their father who was nearly eighty, became active in the Dutch underground.

When it became clear to the Ten Booms that jews were being targeted for deportation and death, they had a false wall constructed in the author's bedroom, thereby creating a secret room. There, they would hide the terrified jews who were staying with them, in the event of a Nazi raid upon their home.

Eventually denounced by someone to the Nazis, the Ten Booms were arrested and their home raided and torn apart by the Gestapo, in their search for the jews they believed to be hiding there. At the time of the raid, the Ten Boom home was filled to capacity with jews in hiding. So well concealed was the hidden room that had been created by the erection of the false wall, that these poor, terrified jews managed to escape detection.

The Ten Boom family did not fare so well. It was upon their arrest that they learned first hand of man's inhumanity to man, and their faith was put to a test that they had never dreamt possible. It was faith, however, that sustained the author in what was to be her hour of darkest despair. To find out what happened to the Ten Booms, read this book. It is the story of an incredible family, who had the courage to put their convictions to the test.

This book is a masterpiece. The reader is sure to be captivated by the goodness and spiritual beauty contained within its pages.

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Summary: Life-changing
Review: This book could have been 10 times as long as it is, considering the periods of time and the events that it describes; however, Ms. ten Boom focuses on what is the most important to her, which is Jesus Christ and how God's plan was revealed to her during all of these times and events. It is a great book in that respect, and even though it is light on historical detail, I still learned a lot from it. The best book I have ever read? Probably not. Life changing? Definitely.