Corrie tenBoom is my namesake. she grew up in Haarlem, Netherlands, and when she was 14 she convinced her family to make their home a safehouse for people in hiding from the Nazi regime. Her family built a faux brick wall and hiding place, a resistance student in hiding built an elaborate alarm system and the family and guests would practice daily escaping into the wall in case gestapo came searching.
My grandmother wanted me to be named after her and I've wanted to visit her house for my whole life. I got to go there last week and despite all of the christian influences in Corrie's life, I was so proud to have such a name.
She was born on April 15th and died on her 91st birthday in 1983, three days after my 2nd birthday.
The museum is funded by the foundation she set up and the clockshop.jewelry store below that was originally run by her father. She never married and before the war she was training as a clockmaker. The museum has cut out a segment of the wall where 6 people hid for 4 days when the Nazi regime finally came to the house looking for refugees.
They tore up the floorboards and the ceilings but because the tenBooms had the foresight to built the fake brick wall straight through the floor, it appeared like the wall in Corrie and her sister Betsey's room was an outer wall. Even though the Nazi police never found the people in hiding, the entire family was arrested, interrogated and finally sent to internment camps for the rest of the war. This is the entrance into the hiding place. After weeks of practice, all the guests, their personal affects and any extra blankets, clothing, and dishes could be hid within 70 seconds.
After Corrie was released from the camp, she became a prolific writer, peace activist, human rights and missionary speaker, working solidly for the rest of her life. She wrote on a smith corona, a little older than the one I write on, and all the first editions of her books are on display in the museum.
My parents traveled there when I was 2, the museum wasn't officially opened until 1988, so I'm not sure how they got to see it at the time. The tour of the museum house is now an hour of lovingly told stories, displays of resistance publications, family photographs, and WWII images heavy on the Lord & Jesus business, but so moving just the same.
I am so fortunate to be blessed for this visit, given a name of such honor, such strength.
My grandmother wanted me to be named after her and I've wanted to visit her house for my whole life. I got to go there last week and despite all of the christian influences in Corrie's life, I was so proud to have such a name.
She was born on April 15th and died on her 91st birthday in 1983, three days after my 2nd birthday.
The museum is funded by the foundation she set up and the clockshop.jewelry store below that was originally run by her father. She never married and before the war she was training as a clockmaker. The museum has cut out a segment of the wall where 6 people hid for 4 days when the Nazi regime finally came to the house looking for refugees.
They tore up the floorboards and the ceilings but because the tenBooms had the foresight to built the fake brick wall straight through the floor, it appeared like the wall in Corrie and her sister Betsey's room was an outer wall. Even though the Nazi police never found the people in hiding, the entire family was arrested, interrogated and finally sent to internment camps for the rest of the war. This is the entrance into the hiding place. After weeks of practice, all the guests, their personal affects and any extra blankets, clothing, and dishes could be hid within 70 seconds.
After Corrie was released from the camp, she became a prolific writer, peace activist, human rights and missionary speaker, working solidly for the rest of her life. She wrote on a smith corona, a little older than the one I write on, and all the first editions of her books are on display in the museum.
My parents traveled there when I was 2, the museum wasn't officially opened until 1988, so I'm not sure how they got to see it at the time. The tour of the museum house is now an hour of lovingly told stories, displays of resistance publications, family photographs, and WWII images heavy on the Lord & Jesus business, but so moving just the same.
I am so fortunate to be blessed for this visit, given a name of such honor, such strength.
