Reformer
🇳🇱Corrie ten Boom
1892–1983 · Dutch · Holocaust Survivor & Evangelist
“There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.”
Biography
Cornelia 'Corrie' ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, into a devout Dutch Reformed watchmaker's family. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, the ten Boom family hid Jewish people in a secret room in their Haarlem home, saving an estimated 800 lives. In February 1944, the family was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo. Corrie and her beloved sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. Betsie died there in December 1944, but not before sharing her vision that they must tell the world there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Corrie was released in January 1945 due to a clerical error, days before all women her age were executed. After the war, she returned to Germany to proclaim forgiveness, and once came face to face with one of the former SS guards from Ravensbrück, whom she forgave by God's grace. She established a rehabilitation home for concentration camp survivors in the Netherlands. For the next three decades, she traveled to over 60 countries sharing the gospel and the message of God's love and forgiveness. She was awarded the highest civilian honor in the Netherlands and was named a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. She died on her 91st birthday, April 15, 1983.
Key Works
Corrie ten Boom's most celebrated work is 'The Hiding Place' (1971), co-written with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, which recounts the story of her family's rescue of Jews and their subsequent suffering in concentration camps. The book became a bestseller and was adapted into a major film in 1975. Her other books include 'Tramp for the Lord' (1974), detailing her decades of worldwide itinerant ministry; 'Each New Day,' a popular devotional; 'In My Father's House,' recounting her childhood; and 'A Prisoner and Yet,' an earlier memoir. Her speaking ministry reached millions across six continents.
Legacy
Corrie ten Boom's legacy is one of the most powerful testimonies of forgiveness and resilience in Christian history. Her story of sheltering Jews during the Holocaust and surviving the concentration camps, only to return to Germany with a message of forgiveness, has inspired tens of millions worldwide. 'The Hiding Place' remains one of the most widely read Christian books of the twentieth century. Her life demonstrates that radical forgiveness is not merely an ideal but a supernatural possibility through Christ. She stands as a guardian of Holocaust memory and a witness to the power of love to overcome hatred.