The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.43 You Save: $4.56 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Hiding Place
Book Review: A Must Read Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing book. I truly feel bad for people who did not understand it's depth. Many said it was boring until it came to the killing. There is so much wrong with that statement, I don't know where to begin! This was a TRUE story, about a REAL person, who suffered tremendous amounts of pain, that we could not even imagine. She did not complain like i KNOW most of us would. She kept her tremendous faith in God and NEVER EVER gave up, no matter what the situation was. One can only imagine the pain she went through recapping the story, let alone living it. The amazing faith displayed in the book makes you wonder, Could I keep such a faith during such an awful time? I highly recomend this book to everyone. It makes you think about your life and whether you are living it for the right reason.Book Review: A Personal Look at History
Summary: 5 Stars
Corrie ten Boom is an unbelievable author; she does a great job of making the reader feel like they are in the book with her. The book tells the story of her life which took place in Europe during World War II. Her family was Dutch and yet they could not turn their back on the Jews who saught refuge from the German soldiers. It was incredible to read about her life from the beginning when she was an infant through her old age. I am a fourteen year old high school freshman, and this interesting book made an impact on how I view life. Corrie ten Boom's story shows that miracles really do happen. I have always known my Christian faith was strong, but to see these characters being literally saved by their faith numerous times, makes my faith in the Lord even stronger.I also enjoyed the way she described each of the characters with great detail. Miss ten Boom had a very large family for the majority of her life. She lived in a three story house with her mother, father, two sisters, one brother, and three aunts. Their house was located above their watch shop. Miss ten Boom had a very close relationship with one of her older sisters, Betsie. After her older brother, Willem, and her other older sister, Nollie, got married her mother and all three aunts passed away. Miss ten Boom then lived in the large house with only her sister, Betsie, and her father, Casper ten Boom. She and Betsie never did get married. What a colorful family she had.She described the German soldiers as flat characters. All she saw in them was evil that could have been turned into love if they could have known God. She and Betsie were very strong Christians and they prayed for the soldiers so that they would be forgiven for their hatred. Miss ten Boom was a very loving person, and in the book every time a Jewish person would come to the door she would let them in and give them a place to stay. She also had many round characters and described them perfectly with everything that she knew about them. This book has an interesting mix of happiness, sadness, suspense, and mostly hope. It made me not want to put the book down for a second. I recommend this book to any age person.
Book Review: A Refreshing Change of Pace in Holocaust Books
Summary: 4 Stars
The very beginning of the novel didn't take too well with me. It was slow-moving and no particular words or phrases jumped out and caught my attention. However, after reading twenty five pages, I realized that this was the reason the novel was such a great story: it is perfect in all its simplicity.
The Ten Boom family served as the owners of a watch shop in Holland. They were a good Christian family who regularly prayed and went to church. Their family was extremely close-knit, and each member was somehow involved in the life of another. The main character, and narrator, Corrie Ten Boom, tells her story.
Holland was unoccupied territory in the first years of World War II, and every citizen thought they were safe. However, when the Germans invaded the country, everything changed. The Ten Boom family quickly realized how closely-linked their lives were with the Jewish families of Holland, and secretly opened their home to help. Corrie and the rest of the Ten Boom family risked everything, including their lives, in order to see that these Jewish families were safe from being transported to concentration camps where, undoubtedly, they would see their final days.
Their secret underground workings were discovered and reported to German police. Corrie's family was taken to prison, and then to the concentration camp, Ravensbruck. While her father had died, and her sister, Nollie, had been freed, Corrie and her other sister, Betsie, were still imprisoned. Corrie had her doubts about their situation, but Betsie was her rock and a constant source of inspiration. Even though times were troubling, and the two sisters were starving more often than not, they managed to spread the word of God to everyone they met.
The author does not use any flamboyant language, and oftentimes, her mechanics could use some work. However, when the story is thoroughly examined and manicured to the point of exhaustion, mechanics don't seem to matter. The message is all that really comes through. Throughout my readings one particular phrase came to me: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Corrie Ten Boom obviously lived her life by this verse, and managed to write a whole account of her war experience around it.
Intense Holocaust readers will find this novel a simple, but refreshing change of pace. It is certainly not the typical war story.
Book Review: A Remarkable Woman with a Remarkable Story to Tell!
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished reading "The Hiding Place" and was (and still am!) deeply inspired by Corrie's unfaltering faith in God and the Bible which, without question, helped her survive the horrific ordeal. The overall mood of the book is upbeat considering the emotional episodes throughout. I don't believe the lightness of the way in which Corrie tells her story undermines the seriousness of it but rather, the mood reflects Corrie's contagious personality as a good-doer, always finding the good in everything, even her enemies which Betsie taught her to do. Corrie's book taught me many valuable lessons about the human spirit and how much a person can endure in order to survive but the lesson that I struggle with the most is to love and forgive your enemies. The most powerful passage in the book is when the former S.S. man from Ravensbruck thrusts his hand out towards Corrie and she thinks to herself, "And I, who had preached so often to the people of Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side." She later asks, "Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness." Corrie eventually shakes hands with the man but makes sure the reader knows that it is the hardest lesson of all to accept, even for her. This passage doesn't diminish the importance of the message which is to learn from Corrie's mistakes as well as her achievements. I highly recommend this book to anyone, young and old, especially the young.
Book Review: A Tale Of Love, Courage, And Compassion
Summary: 5 Stars
In Corrie Ten Boom's book "The Hiding Place", she gives an exciting account of how during the terrifying years of the Holocaust and World War 11 her entire family strove to hide as many Jews as they could from Nazi forces.
This is a life filled with bravery, courage, and most of all COMPASSION. As I flipped the pages, I was increasingly amazed by Corrie and her family's unshakeable belief in God and how this very belief gave them the incredible courage to hide Jewish individuals in their home/watch repair business in Holland during the most hellish years of the war.
As their world and country around them transformed with the evil the Nazi invaders wrought, Corrie and the Ten Booms stayed on the path they felt God meant for them to be on. The penalty of hiding Jews during World War 11 was great for them such as imprisonment and death in the concentration camps. Amazingly enough, they persevered under the worst of circumstances to provide a safe haven for the Jews in their home referred to simply as the "Beje".
Unfortunately, their daring rescue missions were discovered by the Nazis and the Ten Booms were all imprisoned in the worst of jails and later, the two sisters in the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp. However, amidst the cold, hunger, and despair these two strong women endured, their faith in God and belief in what they were doing ever constant.
One of the strongest impressions I got from this powerful account is the resistance the Ten Boom sisters had from becoming embittered during their imprisonment. Their compassion while experiencing such intense evil is very awe-inspiring, one of my favorite parts being the story Corrie Ten Boom writes of her sister Betsie sharing her tiny bottle of desperately needed medicine with fellow sick prisoners.
Bottom line, if you want to read a book about the breadth of human compassion, love, and resistance in the face of unspeakable evil, I highly recommend Corrie Ten Boom's beautiful memoir "The Hiding Place". Corrie Ten Boom will always be remembered as one of the bravest heroines in modern history.