The Hiding Place

What Is The Hiding Place About?

The ten Boom family — watchmakers in Haarlem, Netherlands — lived quiet, faithful lives until the Nazi occupation. When Jews began to be rounded up, the ten Booms built a hidden room in their house and became part of the Dutch underground, saving an estimated 800 lives.

In 1944, they were betrayed. Corrie, her sister Betsie, and their elderly father were arrested. Their father died within days. Corrie and Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where Betsie died — but not before telling Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."

After the war, Corrie traveled the world sharing a message of forgiveness — including forgiving one of her former guards.

Why It Still Matters

• Ordinary people can do extraordinary good — The ten Booms weren't soldiers or politicians. They were watchmakers who chose to act.
• Faith sustains in suffering — Corrie and Betsie's faith is not naive; it is tested in the worst conditions imaginable and holds.
• Forgiveness is the ultimate victory — Corrie's decision to forgive her persecutors is one of the most challenging and inspiring acts in modern memoir.
• Evil must be resisted — The ten Booms show that silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality; it's complicity.

Why Classical Schools Teach It

The Hiding Place demonstrates the virtues classical education aims to cultivate: courage, faithfulness, compassion, and justice. At Saints Classical Academy, it's a powerful logic-stage text that shows students what faith looks like when it costs everything.

Recommended Editions

• Chosen Books (35th Anniversary Edition) — The standard edition, widely available.
• Discovery House — Includes study guide and additional materials.

Famous Quote

"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."
— Betsie ten Boom