The Hiding Place

Corrie and Betsie reach the end of their train ride. They find that they have been transferred to Ravensbruck, the infamous women’s extermination camp. As they are being processed, Corrie realizes that the women are being stripped of all their remaining possessions. She prays desperately and is able to sneak a small bundle through, including a Bible and a vial of vitamin drops. The Bible becomes a blessing not only for them, but for many of the prisoners: “[…] whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope. Like waifs clustered around a blazing fire, we gathered about it, holding out our hearts to its warmth and light” (194).

Corrie and Betsie are placed in bleak barracks rife with fleas. Betsie insists that they give thanks to God for everything, including the fleas. They find that the guards do not enter their barracks, which they later learn is due to the fleas. They are able to hold religious services there for the other prisoners; women of different nationalities and languages join together to hear the Bible and pray. During the day, Corrie and Betsie work at the Siemens factory nearby, forced to haul loads of heavy metal plates. Though the camp is continuing its deadly work of extermination, the prisoners in the barracks are kept alive and set to work as long as they are able.

Betsie’s health continues to deteriorate, and Corrie administers the vitamin drops to her every day. Despite wanting to reserve them for Betsie, Corrie grudgingly agrees to dispense them to other prisoners as well. To her astonishment the drops do not run out, having miraculously surpassed the vial’s capacity many times over. Betsie’s condition eventually necessitates sending her to the compound’s hospital. Her faith remains: “Wherever she was, at work, in the food line, in the dormitory, Betsie spoke to those around her about [Jesus’s] nearness and His yearning to come into their lives. As her body grew weaker, her faith seemed to grow bolder” (205).

Corrie continues to visit Betsie in the camp’s hospital. Betsie retains her positive viewpoint, seeing God’s gracious design in everything that happens. Betsie is eventually released and given a knitting assignment in the barracks. Corrie is selected to be transported away from Ravensbruck for munitions work, but she finds a way to get rejected at the medical check so that she can remain with her sister. Corrie writes: “And thus began the closest, most joyous weeks of all the time in Ravensbruck” (211). With the absence of guards in their barracks, Betsie and Corrie are able to teach from the Bible and lead prayers while they work; they form the center of a little community where hope and faith maintain a constant presence. The two sisters begin to dream about what the years ahead might hold, and Betsie describes a vision of a compassionate ministry where they could offer spiritual healing to both the victims and the oppressors of the war.

Betsie’s health continues to fail. Even as she lies on her deathbed, she still describes a vision of ministries to come: a big, beautiful house in Holland where those broken by the war could find healing, and a ministry centered on an old concentration camp. When Corrie returns to visit the hospital, she finds that Betsie has died. She is shocked to see that Betsie’s worn, haggard face has been transformed in death and filled with a new beauty: “The care lines, the grief lines, the deep hollows of hunger and disease were simply gone. […] This was the Betsie of heaven, bursting with joy and health” (219). 

Just a few days after Betsie’s death, Corrie receives a release notice from the camp, although she is made to wait another week until a medical condition subsides. During her time as a patient, Corrie seeks new ways to serve, regularly helping the other patients with their bedpans. Finally, Corrie is released from Ravensbruck. It is just in time for the turning of the new year of 1945—precisely the time that Betsie, in one of her final visions, had predicted they would be free. Corrie later learns that her release had been an error, and that all other women prisoners in her age group had been executed.

After navigating a long series of trains back to the Dutch border, she manages to get to Willem’s home. Willem and his family welcome Corrie back, and she learns that the Jewish refugees they had hidden at the Beje, with the exception of the one who had been arrested later, were all still safe—the ten Booms’ sacrifices had not been in vain.

Corrie goes back to Haarlem and resumes life at the Beje. She is convinced that God has a new mission for her, which soon becomes apparent: “The very next week I began to speak” (234). Corrie does public speaking engagements, speaking about Betsie and Father’s faith and about their experiences of the grace of God in the midst of suffering. After one engagement, a wealthy woman approaches Corrie and offers the use of her mansion as a therapeutic home for those who had survived the war, a mansion that perfectly matches Betsie’s vision. Corrie eventually turns the Beje itself over to a similar ministry, this one attending to Nazi collaborators.

Eventually, Corrie has the opportunity to open yet another rehabilitation home, this one at the site of the former concentration camp of Darmstadt—exactly as Betsie had envisioned. Corrie’s speaking also occasionally brings her into contact with unexpected people, such as a former guard from Ravensbruck. She initially struggles to forgive him, but then discovers the power of God’s love and forgiveness: “When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself” (239).