Steve Lee

A while ago I travelled to Holland to capture the awe-inspiring story of Corrie Ten Boom who lived in a tall narrow Dutch house throughout the desperate years of the Holocaust. The house became known as God's Underground. The Ten Boom family were watchmakers, among the best in Holland, and their shop was the building’s visible face onto the street. The business supported the family but also provided a well needed distraction for the real work being done upstairs.

The family were devout Christians and Corrie's deep faith in God and her love for the Jewish people led her to harbour hundreds of Jews from those who wanted them in the gas chambers. They sought refuge in the house while they waited for assistance to get out of the country. Some were there for just a couple of hours, others for many weeks. With the help of the Dutch Resistance the house was modified to create a false wall and secret hideout accessible through the wardrobe in Corrie’s bedroom

The ‘Hiding Place’ as it became known was large enough to accommodate several people in secret. The Ten Boom family carried out regular practices to perfect the drill of getting their house guests into the hideout in the event of the dreaded knock on the front door. The knock eventually came following a tip off from a Nazi collaborator and the well rehearsed procedure swung into action. Within 90 seconds, 6 people who were in the house at the time, accessed the hideout before the guards entered the house and began tearing it to pieces. Miraculously all of them remained undetected and escaped 47 hours later.

Corrie Ten Boon and her family were thrown into prison were her father died. Corrie and her sister were transported to the dreaded Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany. Corrie lived through the dreadful ordeal of Ravensbruck but sadly her sister didn’t. Three days after Christmas 1944 in a bizarre clerical error Corrie was freed days before every woman of a similar age was executed.

Corrie’s remarkable faith in God remained unshaken throughout her ordeal. When asked how she survived the trauma this is what she said, “There is no pit so deep that Gods love is not deeper still” Her unimaginable journey is one of forgiveness towards those who carried out despicable acts of evil towards her and those were whose only crime was to be born Jewish. Forgiveness defines the Gospel of Christ.

As Jesus hung on the cross he prayed for those who crucified him “Father forgive them” he said, “They don’t know what they are doing” Most of us have never contemplated doing the things that happened during the Holocaust but the Bible says Jesus is the standard and we have all fallen short of it. Receiving God’s forgiveness means accepting that the sacrifice of Jesus was made for you personally. That’s what Corrie Ten Boom believed, that’s what she lived for.

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