Probably, nothing devastates the souls of people as much as fear of the unknown, loneliness and suffering … “Anxiety will not devastate your tomorrow with its sadness; with its destructive power, it will devastate your today … Any experience is never too small to pray about and never too small to make it your burden … Let the Lord’s promises shine over your problems … Never be afraid to trust the unknown of the future to the omniscient God.
These beautiful words, giving future and hope, belong to the Dutch missionary Cornelia ten Boom, who went through horrors and hardships during the Nazi terror. She called herself “a wanderer for Christ”, was simple and modest. This wise woman had something to tell the world. She always testified to the love of Christ, wrote more than twenty books about her life in Holland and in a concentration camp.
Childhood and youth Corrie
Corrie ten Boom (full name Cornelia Joanna Arnolda ten Boom) was born in Holland, in the city of Haarlem, on April 15, 1892 in the family of a clocksmith. She was the youngest (there were four children in the family: Corrie, Willem, Nollie and Elizabeth). Corrie lived in a small house in which, on the first floor, her grandfather Willem ten Boom opened a watch shop. Their family had always been distinguished by their faith and active charity among the poor of Haarlem. Corrie gave her heart to Jesus when she was 5 years old. Corrie’s older sister, Elizabeth, suffered from anemia, and her parents paid more attention to her. Subsequently, neither she nor Corrie ever married, and they remained single until the end of their days, serving the Lord. Their brother Willem graduated from a theological school, after which he wrote a dissertation at the theological university in 1927 on the racist nature of anti-Semitism. He was married and raised four children. Nollie, a school teacher, had six children
So, Corrie ten Boom was left alone. Was she unhappy?
The understanding of happiness was taught to her by her mother. Seeing how people grumble about their unfortunate fate, she once said to her daughter: “Happiness sometimes does not depend on our circumstances, Corrie. This is what we create in ourselves.”
Her mother died at 63 after suffering a stroke.
Of course, like all women, Corrie was inherently weak and defenseless. As she herself testified, over the long years of wandering after Christ, she often felt fear and anxiety. One of her favorite passages of Scripture was a verse from the book of Isaiah about the Lord: “as a Shepherd will shepherd His flock, He will take the lambs in His arms and carry on His chest …” Corrie said: “We all need a place where we feel good, comfortable and safe. The heaven is pleasant to us because it is a place that the Lord Himself has prepared for us … Every time I was scared, I stretched out my hand and held on to the edge of Christ’s garment. He never refused me, but wrapped me in His love and carried me on His chest, where I always felt warm and comfortable. I dream of the time when I will forever move to His eternal abode… My Father’s house has become a constant dream, and I live in anticipation of a joyful meeting with my Savior and God, my good Shepherd.”
Nazism in the Netherlands
In 1940 Nazism invaded the Netherlands and the Corrie Club was closed. Two years later, she and her family went underground and began working with refugees. The ten Boom family, risking their lives, sheltered Jews, students who refused to cooperate with the Nazis, and members of the Resistance. On average, 5-7 illegal immigrants lived in the house at the same time. During the Holocaust, the Booms rescued about 800 Jews. The ten Boom themselves were not Jewish, but felt they had a duty to help God’s people because they had given us the Scriptures and a Savior. Casper ten Boom, the father of the family, obeying the voice of his Heavenly Lord, said that he would open the door of his house to everyone in need.
On February 28, the Nazis arrested the Boom family, including Corrie. They were given out by Dutch informants. During the searches, the Gestapo never found the hiding place: it was a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom. The Gestapo severely beat Corrie for hiding information about the Jews. They were never found. The six Jews who were in the hiding place at the time of their arrest waited two days and were rescued by other members of the Resistance.
On the eve of the arrest, the father, as if anticipating inevitable suffering, strengthened everyone with words from the Bible: “Who will separate us from the love of God: sorrow, or oppression, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: “For you they kill us every day, they consider us to be sheep condemned to the slaughter.” But we overcome all this by the power of Him Who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Broken dreams and father’s guidance
Corrie reminisced about how when she turned 23, she was close to getting married. There was no open proposal, but there was a silent understanding that she was Carl’s fiancée, who was a pleasant young man. When the friendship between them grew stronger, Karl had to leave somewhere, and a lively correspondence began between them. But gradually the letters began to arrive less and less often, and finally stopped altogether. One day, Carl came to visit Corrie with a pretty girl, and introduced her as his bride. Corrie received them cordially, barely holding back tears, treated them with coffee and cookies, but as soon as the door closed behind them, she ran upstairs to her bedroom and, falling face down into the pillow, gave full vent to the tears that had long choked her.
She heard footsteps. Her father was walking towards her. Corrie felt for a moment like a little girl being comforted by her father. Most of all, she was afraid that he would say: “It’s okay, it will pass, there will be others …” But he did not say this, but only very affectionately said: “Corrie, do you know why it hurts so much? Because this is love, and love is the most powerful force in the world, and when it is blocked, it hurts a lot. When this happens, you can do two things: kill love so that it doesn’t hurt, but then, of course, a part of you will die with it, or start asking the Lord to let it go in a different direction. God loves Carl more than you do, Corrie. He can give you another love for him. Whenever we cannot love someone humanly, God opens up the possibility of loving them in a different, more perfect way, in the way that He Himself loves.”
Corrie later described it this way: “I did not know and did not understand then that my father had given me the key not only to one of the darkest moments in my life, but to much darker rooms that I had yet to enter, to places where, humanly, there was nothing to love at all. Then I had to give up Karl, without parting with the feeling of joyful surprise associated with love for him ”… She gave her feelings into the hands of the Lord, and since then her love for him has flowed in a different direction.
Corrie became the first woman in Holland to receive a clockmaker’s patent in 1922. The following year, she began to work on the training of professional girls, and soon opened a private women’s club. She has also worked with children with disabilities…
Concentration camp and death of relatives
Corrie and her family were sent to Scheveningen, where ten days after the arrest, her father died. He was 84 years old. Due to the imprisonment, Corrie and Betsy did not learn about this until much later. This news was told to them by their sister Nollie, who was released. The father died in the corridor of the prison hospital, and his soul ascended to Heaven – to the Lord, whom he faithfully served.
Due to her medical condition, Corrie was in solitary confinement for some time. Soon, when the prisoners were transferred to another concentration camp (in the Netherlands), she met her sister Betsy. Later they were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In inhuman, hellish conditions, the sisters showed courage and patience, especially Betsy. She said: “Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! ..” Wherever she was – at hard work, in line for soup or in a sleeping barracks, Betsy always spoke of one thing – the nearness of the Lord and about His providence in our lives. And the weaker she became, the stronger was her faith. Before her death, Betsy told Corrie that the Lord had revealed to her in a dream that both of them would be released before the New Year. The Lord called Betsy to Himself on December 14th.
It seemed to Corrie that she had never before experienced such hopeless and desperate loneliness in her life. But the Lord encouraged her in the camp morgue as well. She wrote: “Before me laid Betsy … It was Betsy from the Kingdom of God – glowing with joy and health. Even her hair was so beautiful, as if an angel of heaven had touched it … ”
Miraculous release
Corrie received her release order on December 31 of that year. So, Corrie miraculously survived. She recalled those events in this way: “I stood at the morning roll call in a large group of prisoners in the terrible cold. “66730!” sounded the harsh voice of the matron. “This is my number,” I said in a weak voice and moved forward a little. “Ten Boom Cornelia,” the same voice suddenly said. “That’s my name,” I said again, and thought, “How strange that I should be called by my name, when up until now I had only been called by a number.” “Move ahead!..” The overseer, a young thoroughbred German girl, shouted at me again, and I stepped even further out of my line…
“Why did they put me here?” I asked through chattering teeth. The answer was barely perceptible, because her blue lips were also trembling violently. “A death sentence,” she said softly… Corrie prayed that the Lord would give her the strength to endure death with dignity. She continues, “I looked at the woman next to me and said to myself, “Lord, this may be my last opportunity to bring someone to You before I go to heaven. Use me Lord, give me the love I need and wisdom…” The Lord heard her petition. The woman listened attentively to Cornelia’s story about the love of Christ, and decided to devote her life to Him. And although they stood in the cold, at the camp roll call, which prolonged for three hours, spoke in a half whisper, many women listened to the words of Corrie, condemned to death and not burning with revenge on her enemies. There was no falsehood in her testimony about Jesus, the life of Christ, His love, was manifested in all its power… The siren blew, and everyone began to disperse to their work. After a while, Corrie was called again and informed that she was being released. Later, she learned that her release was an administrative error, since all women over fifty were shot by the Nazis. Corrie was 52.
So she became convinced that God makes no mistakes. The proximity of death in a concentration camp gave new meaning and value to her life. She said, “My life has been given back to me as a gift…for a purpose.”
She said that the words of the Apocalypse helped her to endure most of all: “I (the Lord) opened the door before you, and no one can close it,” as well as her promise to God: “Lord Jesus, I offer myself as a living sacrifice for the sake of Your people: on any path, in any place, at any time. Inspired by the example of the unhypocritical and all-forgiving love of her sister Betsy, Cornelia ten Boom herself was able to survive in the Nazi hell and forgive her persecutors.
Messenger of God’s forgiveness
After the war, Corrie ten Boom bought the former concentration camp and organized a shelter here for those who were displaced by the war. Her sister Betsy’s dream came true. Corrie began to proclaim forgiveness: “God gave us love so that we could forgive our enemies.” For 32 years, she traveled to 60 countries, starting with Germany. Since 1977 she lived in the USA, where she bought a house in Southern California. Corrie began to write a book about her experiences during World War II, which is called “The Refuge”. She was assisted in writing by renowned Christian writers John and Elizabeth Sherrill.
In the early 1970s, her book became a bestseller. As a result, according to the plot of this book, the film of the same name “Refuge” was created. Since 1988, a museum has been opened in the house where the Booms once lived, organized by the Corrie ten Boom Foundation.
After the war, she came to Germany several times and took part in the ministry, the main purpose of which was to help the Germans, who had to endure the horrors of the Nazi regime. Corrie spent the rest of her life preaching about the healing power of God’s forgiveness, about His presence and comfort even in the most monstrous circumstances. Her faith and moral principles were tested. This happened in 1947, in Munich, in one of the churches. She came to a conquered Germany with the Good News about Christ and His forgiveness…
Conquer yourself
Many people in the church, hearing that God, forgiving our sins, does not remember them anymore, silently got up, took their coats and silently left… The ruthless war left too many scars and pain in their hearts. After the service, Corrie was approached by a bald man in a gray overcoat and a brown hat in his hand. He smiled and bowed politely. Corrie looked at him attentively, and a blue uniform and a cap with a cockade flashed in front of her eyes, and on it was a skull and two crossed bones. She immediately recognized him as a former overseer, one of the most cruel punishers and escorts in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, an SS officer. She remembered the shame with which she, her poor sister Betsy and other women walked naked in front of the guards, and in front of this man. Corrie writes of a deep inner struggle: “Here he stood against me with an outstretched hand, and I heard his voice: “Froilian, how nice it was to hear that God casts all our sins into the depths of the sea, and remembers them no more.”
He was talking, and I, who had just spoken so confidently about forgiveness, stood and rummaged in my bag in embarrassment, unable to reach out my hand to him.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your speech,” he continued, “and I was a warden there. But since then I have become a Christian and I know that God has forgiven me for all the cruelties that I have committed. And yet I would like to hear a word of forgiveness from your lips, Fraulein. Can you forgive me?”
Her sister’s slow, horrific death resurfaced in Corrie’s memory…
The man stood with outstretched hand, hoping for forgiveness. It only lasted a few seconds, but to Corrie they seemed like an eternity. She continues, “Jesus, help me,” I prayed to myself, “I can reach out to him, and that’s all I can do on my own, but You give me the right feeling.” Corrie held out her hand to him – the former prisoner – the former camp guard. “I forgive you, brother… with all my heart.” She later wrote: “I have never felt God’s love so keenly as I did in that moment. But even then I understood that it was not my love, but God’s. I tried to love, but I didn’t have the strength to do so. But here the power of the Holy Spirit was at work, and His love … “After that, she had every right to say:” Forgiveness is a volitional decision, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart” and again: “Memory is the key not to the past, but to the future.”
Stand firm in sorrow
Corrie has traveled to countries where saints endure terrible persecution for their faith. She wrote: “Christians in China were told, ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulations come, you will be changed, you will be raptured. Then the terrible persecution began. Millions of Christians were tortured and killed for their beliefs. I heard the elder of one of the churches in China say sadly: “We lost. We should have, first of all, convinced people to be strong in trials and persecutions, rather than proclaim that Christ would come first and deliver them from sorrows.” Then the pastor turned to me and added, “Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when trials come—how to stand, not to fall…””
Die with Christ
Like most missionaries, Corrie worked to a ripe old age, determined to die in the “harness”. In 1978, Cornelia ten Boom was paralyzed. After suffering a stroke, she could not read or speak. Corrie died on her birthday, April 15, 1983. God gave her a long life. She was 91 when she passed away. Although Corrie herself once wrote: “Life is not measured by its duration, but by what we spent it on.” She devoted her whole life to the service of her Lord. Cornelia ten Boom was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park Cemetery in Santa Ana, Orange County, California. Amazing words are engraved on her grave – the creed of her whole life: “Jesus is the Conqueror.”
How many important lessons God taught this woman, and through her, to us Christians of the 21st century. In her extreme old age, she lamented that she was still learning to forgive and love, and had not yet reached perfection. And yet, she was filled with joy that her Lord would soon come: “I don’t know what is better for me, whether to die now and be resurrected at His Second Coming, or to stay alive until He returns … Yes, it doesn’t matter, for I know that the time is at hand, and the voice of the Heavenly Bridegroom is about to sound over the earth, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and the living will be changed. Let us labor in expectation of Him, giving Him all that He has given us. Glory to Him for everything!”
Prepared by Irina Karhut www.heroes-of-faith.com
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