the hiding place :: essays research papers

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is the story about the life of a woman in Holland during the German Nazi invasion and holocaust. Miss. Ten Boom tells about her childhood, helping people escape through the anti-Nazi underground, her arrest and imprisonment, and her release. As a child Miss. Ten Boom grew up in their family's watch shop with her mother, father, sisters, Nollie and Betsie, brother, Willem, and aunts, Tante Jan, Tante Anna, and Tante Bep. Her close-knit family was a very important part of her life. They worked together to keep up the house and the shop. People would always be at their house to visit, needing a place to stay, or just to hear Father read the Bible. Through her brother she met Karel, with whom she fell in love. He was a schooled man, very intelligent and cunning. Though he also had a love for Corrie, he would never court her, let alone marry her. His family arranged his marriage with a woman that had a large dowry. The rejection hurt Corrie at that young age but was soon forgotten and placed behind her. Her family was always known for helping people less fortunate. In a person's time of need, her mother always took food and a warm smile to help. Whenever a child was homeless, they could always go to the Beje for shelter. It was not a surprise, then, when Corrie and the rest of her family got involved with the anti-Nazi underground. She had been noticing that everything in her little town was changing. There were police stationed everywhere and a curfew was being set. The Germans were beginning to take control. Corrie had found out from her brother, Willem, that there were Jewish people needing a place to stay. The family decided to open the Beje to take people in, mostly until they found them a new home. Corrie found a man inside the German government to get food ration cards so they the people could eat. She also found most of the people places to stay. There were a few people that the borders would not take in, for many different reasons. Those people had the Beje as a home. There was always a threat of the German officers making a surprise inspection of their home, so the heads of the underground installed a secret room in their house.