Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom is remembered in history for helping many Jews and other people escape Adolf Hitler’s grasp of Holland and telling what life was like from the inside.

Cornelian Arnold Johanna ten Boom (Corrie) was born on April 15, 1892 in Haarlem, Netherlands to Casper and Cornelia ten Boom (Bio.com). She grew up with three siblings: Betsie, Peter and Nollie, all of whom were required to know three languages. This is not uncommon considering how close the countries in Europe are to each other. Germany and Holland are closer than Illinois and Georgia.

Corrie never married or had kids; she only had an unsuccessful romance. She did become the first certified female watchmaker in Holland, working at her father’s clock shop. Corrie also

Corrie’s father knew it was not true, but the prime minster stepped down and Winston Churchill became the new prime minster. While Germany invaded Holland, Corrie and Betsie sat in Beje (their house and clock shop) and watched the bombs fall. Betsie started to pray for Hitler, the Germans and the pilots of the planes. Corrie would not acknowledge such a ridiculous prayer. She only sat and listened. After that the Germans slowly started taking over Holland. First it was only little things. Prices rose and coffee was a luxury that only the Germans and collaborators could afford. New shoes and clothes were harder to find. Some of the rules included no one was allowed out past 9:30, but it soon was pushed to 8PM. Also, they had to put dark curtains over their windows so the British would not pinpoint their position. Some of the rules were ridiculous! The Nazis banned orange colored tulips! Sadly, some of the rules were more serious such as the oppression of the Jews. One of the new rules was no radio. This was a problem because the ten Booms and many other families got their news of the war from the radio. One of their radios was big and bulky the other one was small and easy to hide. Corrie dropped the old radio that had been given to her father as a present off at the police station, and hurried home to help hide the other radio. Beje had many nooks and places to hide because of the way was it was

A secret room was incorporated easily into the house, because of the fact that none of the floors met on the same level. No one at the time knew that “Mr. Smit,” who constructed the secret room, was a famous European