Faith Amidst Horror: The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place

by Corrie ten Boom

This is one of many worthwhile books proposed as further reading in the Level 4 history program at Mater Amabilis™. One reading book should be chosen for the six-week study of World War II, but oh, how to choose just one?! Only a few are ones I had read myself, so in a hopeless search of the perfect choice (since they are all excellent), I'm reading many of them myself for the first time.

The Hiding Place is a memoir of Corrie ten Boom's life. In her late forties when the Nazis invade her Dutch homeland, she and her family courageously protect and shelter Jews from the invaders. Eventually, they are caught. She and her sister are imprisoned and moved from camp to camp until the war's end draws near. The book is one of faith and trust, describing how her saintly sister's hope and prayers sustain them and bring light to the world in a time of tremendous darkness and evil.

Corrie's family is Christian and her thoughts often dwell on how a Christian should behave when the world has gone mad.

We knew, of course, that there was an underground in Holland--or suspected it. Most cases of sabotage were not reported in our controlled press, but rumors abounded. A factory had been blown up. A train carrying political prisoners had been stopped and seven, or seventeen, or seventy, had made it away. But always they featured things we believed were wrong in the sight of God. Stealing, lying, murder. Was this what God wanted in times like these? How should a Christian act when evil was in power?

Though they always balked at murder, her family members and their underground often stole and lied to protect people from the Nazis.

Love. How did one show it? How could God Himself show truth and love at the same time in a world like this?

By dying. The answer stood out for me sharper and chillier than it ever had before that night: the shape of a Cross etched on the history of the world.

In the concentration camps, Corrie's sister, Betsie, recognizes the greatest needs and sorrows within the guards and other employees at the camp. Though their bodies suffer less than those of the inmates, their souls endure grievous wounds. Betsie always insisted there was hope for them, that they could be taught to love.

I glanced at the matron seated at the desk ahead of us. I saw a gray uniform and a visored hat; Betsie saw a wounded human being.

And I wondered, not for the first time, what sort of a person she was, this sister of mine...what kind of road she followed while I trudged beside her on the all-too-solid earth.

Working in Germany after the war, work her sister envisioned before her death at their hands, Corrie met one of the SS men they had encountered in a camp. Though she had been serving the German people and speaking repeatedly of forgiveness and love, she stood dumbstruck, angry and quivering. She prayed:

Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Corrie's story is a powerful one of holding fast to the Truth and Beauty of Jesus in the face of absolute horror in the concentration camps. Yet it maintains the dignity of all human life, even those who participated in the camps or turned their backs rather than speak out.

It is a book strikingly Evangelical in character; it's purpose is to share the story of Betsie and God's redeeming work in the world.

My Favorite Picture Books: Hana in the Time of the Tulips

Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Set during the time of the tulipomania in seventeenth century Holland, this book shows the collapse of the tulip market through the eyes of a young child, one who dearly loves her father. Throughout the book, she seeks answers from everyone, including the artist Rembrandt, on how to console her father. In the end, she herself shows him how much he still has in the love of his family and daughter. A note at the end gives a little more information on the rise and fall of the tulip market.

The book is illustrated beautifully in the style of the Dutch masters. My favorite illustration shows a delighted Hana displaying a daisy chain she made for her father. I also love the one that shows Hana gazing raptly at the light of a firefly wonderfully cupped in her nurse's hands.

I decided to read this book to the children as part of our Reading Around the World for Europe. I was a little afraid the girls' attention would wander as some of the pages of text are a little long, but they were enthralled for the entire book. Even First Son (my third grader) sat and listened to the whole story.

Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Book Review: The Winged Watchman

The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum

This is a fictional account of a family that lives in a windmill in Holland during the German occupation of World War II. It's fantastic. This good Catholic family (there are scenes in confession and Mass) offers sanctuary to those in hiding from the Germans and food to any who knock on their door during the terrible famines. There are glimpses and intrusions of the war on every page but because Father's job is necessary (so he can't be forced to labor for the Germans), the boys are too young to be drafted, and they are outside the cities where the food shortages are worst, the family is as warm and secure as they could be. Tragedy touches them before the end, but it's cushioned so I would be comfortable reading this book aloud to all ages. (I'm trying to shield the girls from the Holocaust for a while longer and First Son will only learn a small bit of it next year in third grade.)

The book gives wonderful opportunities for discussing some of the most difficult topics around war. Father Kobus and Joris discuss why God does not just stop the Germans from doing bad things with some great insights for young children. Later, Joris and his mother discuss why she is right to lie to an informer in order to protect three children living with them.

I fully intend to read this book aloud to my children, but I think I will wait until we're studying World War II in World History (when First Son is in fourth grade, First Daughter in first), mainly because I've decided to focus on life in America during World War II next year when we study it in American History.

Goodness, Beauty and Truth are at the heart of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it myself and highly recommend it.