News Health: The Hiding Place

Happy Sunday,

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.”

Luke 6:32

In 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, and a family of Christian watchmakers opened their house to Jews fleeing persecution. 

Their upper bedroom became known as “the Hiding Place,” sheltering a stream of over 800 Jews and resistance workers until 1944, when they were betrayed by a Dutch informant. Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie were interrogated and spent months in solitary confinement before being transferred to Ravensbrück, a notorious women’s concentration camp in Germany. The conditions were horrific—overcrowding, lice-infested barracks, forced labor, and daily brutality. But Corrie and Betsie continued to minister to others, leading a secret Bible study, sharing food, praying, singing, and spreading hope. Betsie died in Ravensbrück in December 1944. Days later, a clerical error put Corrie on the list of prisoners to be freed instead of the list of prisoners to be executed.

All the other women her age were sent to the gas chambers, but Corrie was released. 

After the war, Corrie began traveling and speaking about God’s call to love and forgive. During one of those events, a former SS guard at Ravensbrück approached her. In her memoir, she writes:

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.

I’m far from the first to be captivated and challenged by The Hiding Place, but oof! This hit me.

Many people working to bridge the gaps in America today point out that the vast majority of people who vote Democratic look nothing like Stalin, and the vast majority of people who vote Republican look nothing like Hitler. I agree. But The Hiding Place reminded me that it shouldn’t matter.

Because even if I accidentally love a literal Nazi… well, then I’m in great company with Corrie Ten Boom.

What do you think?
Jason

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P.S. You can buy The Hiding Place for $6.99. If you haven’t read it (or haven’t lately), I highly recommend.

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