The Story of the Watchmaker Who Forgave Her Enemies
An Unknown Future
Throughout childhood, kids are often asked about their future hopes and dreams: What do you want to be when you grow up? For me, the answer was exciting: I wanted to be a grocery store cashier (or maybe a teacher). But as a teenager with graduation looming, that question was no longer a chance to dream big but a chance to dread big! I was afraid to think beyond the classroom, the lunchroom, and all that was familiar. It was hard to face the reality that the future—and all its unknowns—was coming for me. Was staying a kid forever an option?
And as we age, more questions offer us the chance to revisit that well-known feeling of big dread: How are we going to afford both the tuition and a new transmission? Will my son get a teacher this year who understands him? Will I ever get the ______ [spouse, answer, promotion, baby, diagnosis, etc.] that I’ve prayed for so diligently?
These deep aches of uncertainty follow us from childhood into old age. And in my life, Corrie ten Boom became a helpful example. As a watchmaker, concentration camp survivor, teacher, and author, Corrie experienced the fears that rise from an uncertain tomorrow. Yet through her life, she learned to walk confidently into each new day. She often said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”1
Being a Somebody—
Growing up in the Dutch town of Haarlem, Corrie often wondered what her future would be. She was the youngest of four children (two sisters, Betsie and Nollie, and one brother, Willem). The ten Boom children rode bikes past tall, turning windmills and jumped rope on the narrow streets outside their family’s watch shop.
The Story of Corrie ten Boom
Jennifer T. Kelley
This biography takes middle-graders on an exciting journey through World War II hero Corrie ten Boom’s life, exploring the importance of forgiveness, love, and spreading the gospel. Part of the Lives of Faith and Grace series, this book shows how God works through ordinary people.
Corrie’s family lived on the two floors above the shop, but it soon became too full to accommodate her whole family—Corrie’s parents, siblings, and three aunts. So Corrie’s father bought the tall, skinny house across the alley behind the shop and enclosed the space between the buildings. But the three floors of the original narrow house did not align with the four floors of the skinny house behind it. The ten Booms gave their lopsided home a name: the Beje (pronounced BAY-yay). It wasn’t fancy, but it was always full—for even a crooked smile can reveal a happy heart.
Corrie’s family were faithful Christians, and as a young girl in the 1890s, Corrie prayed to ask Jesus to rescue her from her sins and be her Savior. During her teen years, Corrie attended high school, learned theology, sewed, played the piano, and learned to speak three languages. Upon graduating, Corrie was uncertain of what to do next. Some of her friends continued their education and some got married. Corrie wanted to do something, to be somebody! So when a wealthy family offered her a full-time nanny position, Corrie gladly accepted, but after several months, she received news that her mother was very sick. Corrie returned to the Beje to cook, clean, and care for her family. She later said that God “has a purpose for those who know and trust him. God has no problems—just plans.”2
Within a few years, only Corrie, Betsie, and their father remained in the Beje. (Corrie’s mother and aunts died, and Willem and Nollie moved away.) When Corrie was twenty-eight years old, she started repairing watches in the shop. Even though she felt clumsy at such detailed repairs, she realized that she loved the work and saw her future coming into focus. One day she asked her father, “Will you teach me the trade of watchmaking?”3
He smiled, “Of course I can teach you . . . I hope you will become a better watchmaker than I am.”4 After Corrie completed two internships in Switzerland, she returned to work alongside her father. Most watchmakers during that time were men, but at the age of thirty-two, Corrie became the first woman in the Netherlands to be a licensed watchmaker.
“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred.”
Along with her work in the shop, Corrie also found purpose and joy in teaching. For many years she taught Sunday school, led Bible classes for people with disabilities, and hosted Bible clubs for teenagers. Corrie faithfully studied the Bible and encouraged others to “let God's promises shine on your problems.”5
When she was young, Corrie looked at her future and wanted adventure. Yet she realized that all the excitement—all the big challenges she had hoped for—could be found all around her in everyday life. Real adventure was following Jesus and serving those in need. Corrie later testified that “God’s love and power is available to us in the trivial things of everyday life.”6
War, Secrets, and Prison—
Corrie was forty-seven years old when danger and uncertainty threatened her simple life of service. World War II swept across Europe. Within a few months, the Nazi German military invaded the Netherlands and enforced harsh restrictions on the Dutch people—and even more so on the Jewish population. By the next year, signs declaring “Jews Will Not Be Served” hung in store windows, Jewish-owned shops began closing, and Jewish families mysteriously disappeared.
Despite the danger of defying the Nazis, Corrie was determined to help her Jewish neighbors. One day Corrie saw her opportunity as Nazi soldiers ransacked a neighboring Jewish-owned shop. The owner stood outside watching the devastation, so Corrie quickly darted into the street and brought her neighbor into the Beje. After several days of keeping him hidden, Corrie helped him escape to a safe house. Soon more Jewish families—all seeking help—arrived at the Beje. And even though Corrie risked prison or death, she continued to open the door. As months passed, Corrie developed a network of spies and resistance workers who secretly transported Jewish people from the Beje to safe homes in the Dutch countryside.
Knowing the imminent danger of anyone hiding at the Beje, friends of Corrie’s built a secret room—a hiding place—just behind the wall in Corrie’s bedroom. The small, secret room was long and narrow: 2 feet by 8 feet. (That’s about as deep as two school lockers pushed together and about as wide as eight lockers lined up side by side.) The Beje’s uneven floors and odd layout made the perfect place for a false wall and hiding place.
In 1944 the Nazi police raided the Beje on a day when the house was full of Corrie’s friends, resistance workers, and extended family—all of whom were arrested. But even after hours of searching, the police never found the secret room or the six people hiding inside. The arrests began many dark and uncertain days. Both Corrie’s father and Betsie died while in prison. Corrie faced beatings, interrogations, solitary confinement, sickness, and threats of death, but after ten months of brutal prison life, Corrie was released. Returning to the quiet watch shop, Corrie realized that the Beje was no longer her home. God was calling her to go, even though she didn’t know where.
The Whole World
At fifty-three years old, Corrie left her home—despite the uncertainty of what lay ahead—and dedicated the rest of her life to teaching people to know God and the forgiveness he offers. She taught in jails, colleges, churches, and children’s clubs. And she didn’t just teach about forgiveness; she lived it too. She forgave the man responsible for her arrest and even forgave her former prison guards. She established rehabilitation homes for people affected by the war (including former Nazis!). She later wrote: “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”7
She traveled the world for thirty-three years, from Holland to Hong Kong, from Uganda to Uzbekistan, from Mexico to Moscow. She taught about Jesus in over sixty countries, including those where Christianity was illegal. She wrote numerous articles and over twenty-five books, her most famous title being The Hiding Place. Looking back over her life with so many uncertainties, she wrote: “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.”8
By the end of her life, millions of people knew Corrie ten Boom’s name. The daughter of a Dutch watchmaker had lived a heroic life. She saved hundreds of lives, survived concentration camps, and forgave her enemies. And she taught crowds of people all over the world that—despite their doubts, questions, and uncertainties—they, too, could entrust their deepest aches and unknowns to a knowing, faithful God.
Notes:
- Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook, World Wide Publications, 1982, 27.
- Corrie ten Boom, In My Father’s House, Reprint, Roseburg, OR: Lighthouse Trails, 2011, 112.
- Ibid, 114.
- Ibid, 114.
- Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook, 39.
- Corrie ten Boom, In My Father’s House. (118)
- Corrie ten Boom,Clippings from My Notebook. (19)
- Corrie ten Boom, John L. Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place, Reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen, 2006, 31)
Jennifer T. Kelley is the author of The Story of Corrie ten Boom: The Watchmaker Who Forgave Her Enemies.
Related Articles
6 Habits of Heart and Mind for Lifelong Learners
Lifelong learning for the glory of Christ calls for continual growth in six habits of mind and heart. We seek to instill these habits in our students so that their education does not stop when their schooling stops.
The Story of the Monk Who Changed the World
It’s not the metal band that gives the ring its worth. The value comes from the diamond the ring holds. In the same way, it’s not the strength or size of our faith that saves us.
The Story of the Nun Who Escaped to True Freedom
Christian freedom, as Luther taught, wasn’t about moderation in these things. It was about resting in Christ and serving and loving your neighbor. Nothing we do can make God love us more.
Reading the Bible Gathers a Family from Every Tribe and Tongue
Without the Bible, there would be no ingathering of God’s people, and without the Bible, there would be no beautification of the bride. So everyone who enters the people of God by faith comes by the word.
