Houston Pucas: HP - The Hiding Place

Haarlem

Stepping back into 1944....

Enjoying the the rare opportunity to visit Corrie Ten Boom's house when Kristin and Karsten were in town from Kingwood, we rode the train from to Haarlem just 25 minutes from home.

This is the same train station that Corrie references in her book where she rode the

train to Amsterdam with her father each week to check the clock.

Remarkably, the watch shop is still in business as a jewelry store.

The small group pictured below comprised our tour which was unbelievably led by the granddaughter of the engineer who actually built the hiding place in Corrie's room that would save the lives of many Jews. She is normally in Israel passing out Bibles and sharing the gospel with Jews. But, she just "happened" to be in town and they asked if she would like to do our tour. We were blown away at the privilege of getting to meet her. She was absolutely precious and even shared with Kristin and I at the end of the tour that she was really nervous about doing the tour. She, however, did not seem a bit nervous and was an amazing story teller. This is also the room where Peter played piano and the family gathered for reading the Bible with the many guests that graced this beautiful home.

One of the family's treasured Bibles.

The stairwell where they hid the radio that they

managed to keep during the Nazi occupation.

And here it is.....The Hiding Place!

We were astonished by how small the space was which protected six Jews

for 47 hours after the Gestapo set a trap and took around 30 people from the home

over the course of the day on February 28, 1944. Corrie, her father Casper, and her sisters

Betsie and Nollie along with their brother Willem and nephew Peter were all taken to

prison that day. The penitentiary where they were initially held is near

The Hague in Scheveningen (20 minutes from our home).

Besides the hiding place being tiny, Corrie's room was incredibly small as well. Her bag that held all of the precious preparations that she had packed in case she was captured was accidentally placed in front of the space where Caleb is laying. Because that is the access door where the refugees would climb into hiding, she was afraid that picking it up would draw attention to that cabinet,

so she regretfully left it behind when taken into custody.

This gives an even better perspective of how small the space was for six people.

Notice too how well built the false wall is. Because it was constructed of solid brick,

the gestapo looked and looked for a hiding place and could not find it.

Many special items were displayed on the second floor of the home.

This beautiful mess is the basis for one of the stories Corrie loved to share. During her presentations to audiences later in life, she would often hold the back side of a piece of embroidery, with hundreds of tangled threads hanging from it. Many wondered if she was holding up the wrong side by mistake. As she held up the messy side of the embroidery she would ask…“Does God always grant us what we ask for in prayer? Not always. Sometimes He says, ‘No.’ That is because God knows what we do not know. God knows all. Look at this piece of embroidery. The wrong side is chaos. But look at the beautiful picture on the other side – the right side.” Triumphantly she would flip the cloth over and reveal an elaborately embroidered crown – symbolizing our crown of eternal life. The crown was intricately stitched, and had threads of many colors, including gold, silver and pearls.

“We see now the wrong side, God sees His side all the time. One day we shall see the embroidery from His side, and thank Him for every answered and unanswered prayer.”

Our tour guide emotionally shared the story with us as she

talked of hearing Corrie tell it to her in person.