The Hiding Place
Appeared: 02/02/2008
The Hiding Place. Corrie ten Boom, with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Bantam Books.
I first read this classic narrative of life in German-occupied Holland not long after it was first published, in the early 1970s, while we were vacationing at a cousin's house. Corrie ten Boom's story of how she came to be part of the Dutch underground, how her family hid Jews from the Nazis, and how her family's secret eventually was discovered and they were sent first to prison, where her father died, and then to a concentration camp where her sister would die, made a great impression on my fourteen-year-old self. Lately I reread it, and am now convinced that if I were a history teacher these days, my class would read, alongside The Diary of Anne Frank or Elie Wiesel's Night, Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place—the words of one who, though a Christian and not directly a victim of Nazi policy, nevertheless became one solely because she dared to help those singled out for destruction.
Of course, this would cause consternation among the administration of my school, because Corrie names a couple of names that are unpopular in public schools these days—God, and Jesus.
Those of us who have no objections to God and His Manifestations, however, can read fearlessly. And what a tale awaits! There is plenty of horror in Corrie's narrative, and relentless darkness shadows it, but within that darkness there are points of light, and the resilience of her family to do what is right, do what is good, and find gladness in the simplest of life's pleasures buoys the reader. Corrie writes of one man, married to a Christian woman, who in expectation that they will be imprisoned, kills his beloved bulldogs so that they will not be left homeless; thirty pages later she writes with humor of the first Jew they sheltered, who when faced with a non-kosher meal (sausage, after several meatless weeks) takes a bite and says, "Of course, there's a provision for this in the Talmud. . . .And I'm going to start hunting for it, too, just as soon as dinner's over." 1 A Protestant pastor refuses to shelter a woman and her infant; they are sent to a farm which shortly thereafter is raided by the Gestapo, and the woman and her child are never again seen. Corrie's father, introduced to many Underground and Resistance workers, all who go by the name "Smit" ("Smith"), never quite figures out what's going on and constantly asks which families all these Smiths are related to. And finally, Corrie and her sister arrive at Ravensbrück, where pain and death await.
At Ravensbrück, Corrie watches her sister Betsie become almost a stranger to her. Betsie prays for the brutal prison guards. Betsie insists that they thank God for what He has given them, bad food, fleas, and all. Betsie begins to have unusual dreams and visions. Betsie institutes evening "prayer services" that strongly remind one of the prisoners praying in the Siyah-Chál:
They were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28. A single meeting night might include a recital of the Magnificat in Latin by a group of Roman Catholics, a whispered hymn by some Lutherans, and a sotto-voce chant by Eastern Orthodox women. With each moment the crowd around us would swell, packing the nearby platforms, hanging over the edges, until the high structures groaned and swayed.
At last either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the Dutch text we would translate aloud in German. And then we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, back into Dutch. They were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb. I would think of Haarlem, each substantial church set behind its wrought-iron fence and its barrier of doctrine. And I would know again that in darkness God's truth shines most clear. 2
What one comes away with most strongly after reading this slim book is the question, "What would I do in such a situation?" We all like to answer with the conviction of our faith, but few of us are ever put so sternly to the test. In The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Adib Taherzadeh writes of the (still-untranslated) Lawh-i-Fitnih [Tablet of the Test]:
The Lawh-i-Fitnih, as its title indicates, is all about tests and trials which are associated with the Day of God. In it Bahá'u'lláh alludes to His own Revelation and states that through His advent the whole creation will be tried; no soul will be exempt. All those who are the embodiments of piety and wisdom, of knowledge and virtue, and even the realities of the Prophets and Messengers of God, will be tested.
In many of His Tablets Bahá'u'lláh has warned His followers about trials and tribulations which will come upon them when they enter the Faith. In every age the heart of man has been proved with the coming of the Manifestation of God. This is the law of God, eternal in the past and eternal in the future. However, this is the Day of God Himself and Bahá'u'lláh has released to humanity enormous spiritual energies. Therefore, the tests which accompany such a mighty Revelation are also great....
After recognition of the Manifestation, the believer will be tested by God in many ways. Each time he passes a test, he will acquire greater spiritual insight and will grow stronger in faith. The closer he gets to the person of the Manifestation the more difficult become his tests. It is then that any trace of ambition or ego may imperil his spiritual life.
There is a tradition in Islam which sets forth the difficulties and perils encountered by man on his journey to God. It describes how all men will perish and die except the believers; all the believers will perish and die except those who are tested; all who are tested will perish and die except those who are sincere, and those who are sincere will be in great danger. 3
Corrie and Betsie ten Boom passed the test. And I wonder how many of the citizens of Iran, in the days of Khomeini, also did. The mother of a member of our Bahá'í community in Illinois escaped Iran, crossing the mountains overnight into Pakistan and from there seeking asylum in the United States—so it is clear that some individuals were motivated by more than simply the possibility of gain to risk their own lives to guide Bahá'ís to safety. (There were, of course, also betrayers.) We, like the folks on Oskar Schindler's list, and the countless others who survived through the heroic efforts of Underground and Resistance members, owe these unsung men and women a great debt of gratitude.
Ultimately, though, each of us is left staring in the mirror, asking, "Would I . . .?" Corrie ten Boom was Christian, yet she was certainly one of the people 'Abdu'l-Bahá was speaking of when He said, "Whoever acts completely in accordance with the teachings of Christ is a Bahá'í." 4 I recommend this book to anyone, of any faith, who is stirred by the challenge of living up to God's expectations, and wants to do so fully and to the best of his or her ability.
Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. 5
1. Ten Boom, The Hiding Place, p. 103.
2. Ten Boom, p. 201.
3. Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, vol. 1, p. 129.
4. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 247.
5. Bahá'u'lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 93.
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