Corrie Ten Boom house
In the middle of downtown Haarlem, just a half hour’s drive from Amsterdam, stands a tall, higgledy-piggledy house if there ever was one, where a family with a lively Christian faith saved many Jewish lives during WWII. The Hiding Place* by Corrie ten Boom opens when Corrie is 51 years-old, and her father is in his eighties, celebrating the 100th anniversary of their family’s watch shop.
“How could we have guessed as we sat there—two middle-aged spinsters and an old man—that in place of memories we were about to be given adventure such as we had never dreamed of? Adventure and anguish, horror and heaven were just around the corner, and we did not know.”
Corrie’s memoir of life in the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation is both inspiring and harrowing; the faith and hope shared by Corrie, her sister Betsie, and her father Casper, permeate the pages and touch even the tragedies with triumph. Visiting the places where writers lived and sent their words into the world is always really meaningful to me, and visiting the Corrie ten Boom House is no exception. If traveling to Haarlem is out of the question at the moment, you can take a virtual tour. My visit with my family was cut short by one of my kids becoming ill after our ferry crossing from England the night before (traveling has its perils), but it was so special to stand in the room where, as the virtual tour guide explains, such important historical and spiritual events took place. Visits are free and only ask for donations to keep the museum running.
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