The Hiding Place

It was so neat to be able to visit the Ten Boom home and actually get to go inside the hiding place.  To be in the place where the Ten Boom family stood for what was right in the midst of a great wrong and with no regard for and in risk of their own safety, they sacrificed themselves to assist those who were in need.

Two interesting points before we go on...

Mommy actually got to hear Corrie Ten Boom speak when mommy was about 15 years old.  Her message of forgiveness and her faith in God has touched the lives of many.

I have always thought it would be wonderful to be able to go to visit it in person, but would never have dreamt that it would actually happen!  I remember one of the first VF Father/Daughter retreats that daddy took us to, I was filling out the father/daughter questionnaire and one of the questions was "If you could choose one place in the world where you really wanted to go, where would it be?"  I put down the Hiding Place (I think I was about 12).

So without further ado, I'll get to posting the pictures.  They were a little restrictive of what pictures you could and couldn't take, but at least I could get some.  I hope you enjoy them!!

The alley beside their home

The crowd gathers 

(thankfully we had made reservations the day before!!)

Listening to the tour guide in the living room

The living room without anyone in it

In which we enter (the same way they would have)...

...the hiding place!!

It was really amazing to be able to go inside.  It's one of those things that just kind of has to take a minute to sink in.

The plaque on the wall

Corrie's room was much smaller than I had imagined

In fact, all the rooms were!

The bottom stair there is where the ration cards were hidden.  The cards are actually what caused the Ten Booms to be taken away.  The Gestapo suspected them, but couldn't find any evidence of the Jews being there (even in tearing apart the house).  But when they found the cards, that was enough for them to convict them.  They helped so many Jews during the couple of years that they had the hiding place.  At the time they were taken, they were currently hiding 6 Jews.  They were all okay (except for an older woman who got caught later under different circumstances).  The Jews were in there for two days during which time the Gestapo were guarding the house.  After a couple of days though, the Dutch police took over the guard and friends of the Ten Booms were able to find sympathizers in the Dutch police who allowed the Jews to escape.

We got to walk through much of the house where they had different family pictures and information about their work, etc.

Looking down into the alley from the upstairs window

The stairs were really narrow and there were many different flights of them!!  I can imagine how difficult it was for them to quickly get up to the hiding place!!

Our tour guide was a really nice Christian lady and did such a great job!

Mommy and Daddy in front of the house