165 of 167 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
INCREDIBLY MOVING SAGA OF HEROIC DUTCH FAMILY DURING WW II, September 5, 2001
This review is from: The Hiding Place (Mass Market Paperback)
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 darkest hour of deepest 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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67 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
****** 6 STARS, PLEASE!, April 8, 2007
This book stands so far above the pack that five stars is not a high enough rating.
Of all the books I've ever read, this is the one that has remained in my mind and my heart for many years. Corrie Ten Boom is a real life super-hero. This unforgettable lady survived the horrors of life in a concentration camp and went on to write a book that has reached out and touched hearts and souls around the world. I do not know or care if this book is "well written" because it is what she has to tell you that matters. You will weep as you read this book, you will look at your world with new eyes and you just may find the light of your faith rekindled. If you want a book that touches your very soul and just may change your life, read this one.
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72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Inspiring Story Of A Real Family, April 14, 2001
This review is from: The Hiding Place (Mass Market Paperback)
I've been aware of this book for a number of years, and finally read it when my friend Ann said I was missing a great story. Now, after reading it, I'm encouraging everyone to do the same.
The story begins in 1937 when a Dutch family is preparing for the 100th birthday of the family shop, Ten Boom: Watches. Flowers are being delivered and friends are calling to help celebrate the day. The conversation centers around Germany and the Jews who are coming to Holland for asylum. The Ten Boom's and their guests could not have foreseen what was to come. Their world had changed.
This is the autobiographical story of Corrie Ten Boom and how she and her family worked for the Dutch underground movement during World War II. The family were Christians and took a very strong stand against the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Corrie's father, a kindly, religious man, summed up his thoughts on the Nazis by saying, "I pity them Corrie. They have touched the apple of God's eye."
Corrie and her sister, Betsie were two ladies aged 45 and 52 years of age, respectively. They are the unlikely heroines of this story. Never married and rather innocent of the world, they proved the old saying that "you can't tell a book by its cover." Both sisters risked everything they had including their lives to save people they didn't even know.
In today's world of "me first", it's so encouraging to read a story of a family that truly lived their faith and practiced the Golden Rule.
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