Corrie ten Boom and the Hiding Place That Never Failed

During the Nazi occupation of Holland, Corrie ten Boom and her family hid Jewish refugees in a secret room behind a false wall in their Haarlem home. On February 28, 1944, the Gestapo raided the Beje, arresting Corrie, her sister Betsie, and their elderly father Casper. The hidden refugees were never found.

What followed was a descent into unimaginable darkness — Scheveningen prison, then Ravensbruck concentration camp. Betsie grew weaker by the day. Yet in the filthy barracks, surrounded by cruelty and death, the ten Boom sisters held worship services by candlelight. They whispered the Psalms. They spoke the name of Jesus over women who had lost everything.

Corrie later wrote that in those moments, the name of the Lord became more real to her than the wooden walls of any building. The barracks offered no safety. The guards offered no mercy. But when she and Betsie called upon the name of God, something shifted. Fear loosened its grip. Peace settled where panic had lived.

Proverbs 18:10 says, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Corrie ten Boom discovered that this tower is not a physical structure. It is not a hidden room behind a bookcase. It is the very presence of the Almighty — available in a concentration camp, in a hospital room, in the worst night of your life. The righteous run to it, and they are safe.