PERSONA
THE HIDING PLACE
Corrie
Ten Boom
with Elizabeth & John Sherril
T
he echoes of an imminent war between allied forces and Nazi Germany
were coming to the nether lands of polders and tulips. One night, with
the Dutch people glued to their radios, the prime minister assured the
country that he had guaranteed the Netherlands’ neutrality in the conflict and
that the war’s dark clouds did not cover the nation. Five hours later, the Luftwaffe
bombers charged and the sound of sirens was heard across Amsterdam’s canals.
And so were the first bombs.
AMONG THE MILLIONS who couldn’t
believe what was happening were two sisters
in a typical house of the Haarlem, Corrie and
Betsie Ten Boom, the daughters of an expert
watchmaker, whose lives were deeply affected
by these events.
Barteljoris Street was an example of ethnic
and religious plurality of cosmopolitan Ams-
terdam. Christians, Baptists or Lutherans,
Jews and Anti-Semitists lived in a healthy
neighborhood where friendship and mutual
support were evident. Until that day!
T H E H I D I N G P L AC E , B Y CO R R I E T E N B OO M . P U B L I S H E D B Y B a k er p u bli s hing , G R A N D R A P I D S , M I - U S A
20 BIBLION #7