Corrie ten Boom

Dutch heroine and Christian evangelist, famous for the book and the deeds of her noted family in "The hiding place".

Corrie was the daughter of the Protestant Dutch Reformed watchmaker Casper ten Boom (18 May 1859, Haarlem -10 March 1944, Loosduinen) and Cornelia "Cor" Johanna Arnolda Luitingh (19 May 1858, Amsterdam - 17 October 1921, Haarlem), who married on 16 October 1884 in Benthuizen.

They got five children: Elisabeth "Betsie" ten Boom, (19 Augustus 1885, A'dam - 16 December 1944, Ravensbrück concentration camp), Willem ten Boom (21 November 1886, A'dam - 13 December 1946, Hilversum), a theologian, Hendrick Jan ten Boom (12 September 1888 - 6 March 1889), Arnolda Johanna "Nollie" ten Boom (1890 - 22 October 1953) and Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" ten Boom (1892 - 1983).

Caspar ten Boom was the son of Willem ten Boom, who had a watch shop at the prominent Barteljorisstraat 19, Haarlem, Netherlands, also called "Beje" and now a Holocaust museum. He took over his fathers business and the family lived at the two floors above the shop. Willem studied in Leiden theology and Nollie married and thus got away, but his two daughters Betsie and Corrie stayed with their old father. Corrie became the first licensed Dutch female watch maker after a study in Switzerland.

At the end of WW1 (1918) the family adopted foster children for several years. In 1921 Casper's wife died from a stroke. During the second world war, Casper ten Boom and his daughters Betsie en Corrie sheltered Jewish people, who were trying to escape from the Nazi Holocaust at their home. Some thirty eight Jewish people were saved, but only Corrie survived the Holocaust. All three were honoured by Yad Vashem.

When the Dutch Jews had to wear a seemingly toxic yellowish Jew star, Caspar ten Boom, meaning: Treasurer of the Tree, demonstratively wore an in his eyes Golden David Star. He honestly believed that all people were equal before God.