My Rating: 10/10"I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do."
After I had read about halfway through this book, I was telling my co-workers how good it was. One of them knew all about the book and the author, and had actually had the privilege of meeting Corrie Ten Boom when she came to her church to speak. My co-worker mentioned the fact that this book and Miss Ten Boom's experiences during WWII should make anyone feel grateful for what they have. She was totally right about that. When you're reading a true story that relates how concentration camp prisoners were forced to get out of bed at 3:30AM in the dead of winter and stand outside for an hour in the freezing cold for roll call, it kind of makes it impossible to gripe about, well, anything.
"How rich is anyone who can simply see human faces!"
The Hiding Place is centered around the lives of Corrie Ten Boom and her family, and how they were able to use their watch shop in Haarlem, Holland as a secret communication center and provided accommodations for those trying to avoid arrest by the Nazis while they occupied their country. Eventually, they were betrayed, arrested, and sent to concentration camps.
"How should a Christian act when evil was in power?"
Some things from the book that stood out to me and are blessings to my heart:
-- while planes flew overhead, bombing their country, Corrie's sister Betsie prayed for the Germans
-- how long she and her family were able to provide secret assistance to those using the underground system to escape arrests during the Nazi occupation of Holland
-- the recurring miracle that Corrie was able to keep a Bible with her through several camp inspections and transfers
-- how lonely she was while in solitary confinement, so much so that she made "friends" with the ants that would crawl through the cracks in her cell
-- that her release from Ravensbruck was yet another miracle, as she later found out it was due to a clerical error, and that all of the women her age in the camp had been killed just one week after her release
I have read other stories from survivors of concentration camps, but none quite as descriptive as this one, and from a woman's point of view. The cruelty and apathy of the soldiers and guards were quite apparent. The conditions in the camps were beyond appalling. But above and more important than all the horrific scenes and situations depicted in this book, it showed me some fine examples of the resilience of the human spirit, the love of freedom, and how those natural human qualities are further strengthened by faith in God.
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