The Hiding Place

In May of 1942, Corrie, Betsie, and Father travel by train to a church not far from Haarlem. Peter—one of Nollie’s children—is taking up a position as the organist. Peter is a young man, defiant against the Nazi occupation, and has been assisting his grandfather and the others at the clock shop. At the end of the church service, he plays the Dutch national anthem on the organ. Although the congregation is stirred and inspired, playing the Dutch national anthem is illegal under the rules of the occupation. Soon afterward, Peter is arrested and taken away.

Meanwhile, Jewish individuals who are trying to slip away and hide have started coming to the clock shop. At first, Corrie tries to connect them with Willem, but he tells her that his actions have come under scrutiny, and she would be better off avoiding him: “[…] it will be far better for you to develop your own sources. The less connection with me—the less connection with anyone else—the better” (80). Corrie consults first with an old friend who handles the distribution of the ration-cards under the occupation; anyone hiding a Jewish family would need ration-cards to help provide for them. Although she only needs a few, she is surprised to find herself requesting a hundred such cards to be brought to the Beje and for renewals to be brought regularly. She attributes this to God’s guidance; not long after, they realize they need all the cards they can get. One of Willem’s sons brings Corrie to a meeting of the Dutch underground. She gets to know some of the others who are working quietly against the occupation, including a famous architect. He comes by the Beje a few days later and installs a false brick wall in Corrie’s bedroom, creating a secret room where someone could be hidden away. 

Corrie’s nephew Peter returns from prison safely, but remains in constant danger of deportation and impressment. Nollie’s house, like the Beje, is fitted with a secret hideaway into which Peter must scramble into when German soldiers burst in. Such systems work, but are getting more difficult to implement, especially when it comes to hiding Jewish people, most of whom are being placed in safe houses in the countryside. It becomes ever clearer that the Beje will have to function not just as a waystation, but as a permanent shelter. Before long, the ten Booms’ house is at the center of the Dutch underground: “Most of these people never saw each other […]. But all knew the Beje. It was headquarters, the center of a spreading web” (97). The ten Booms implement a strict procedure of speaking in code—referring to people and situations as watches and clocks—with all their messengers and phone calls.

The Beje begins to collect residents who are too hard to place elsewhere, such as people whose features or behavior give them away. One of the first is Meyer Mossel. The family gives him the code name Eusebius Smit, Eusie for short. He is a man with a joyful, winsome perspective. Six other people who had been impossible to place elsewhere also become residents at the Beje: “And so our ‘family’ was formed. Others stayed with us a day or a week, but these seven remained, the nucleus of our happy household” (108). With so many people hiding at the house, the family implements an alarm system with a buzzer; when it sounds the residents try to carry themselves and all their belongings into the secret room in no more than one minute’s time.

Corrie worries that it will become impossible for their work at the Beje to remain hidden for long. There are too many people connected with the underground who are coming and going, and it is likely to draw the Germans’ attention. Her fear grows when Nollie’s house is raided and one of her residents-in-hiding is taken prisoner. This is partly due to Nollie’s unswerving commitment to honesty: When asked if one of her residents is Jewish, Nollie answers honestly. Fortunately, the prisoner escapes shortly thereafter. Nollie is jailed for harboring a Jewish individual, but Corrie intercedes with the prison doctor for her release.

Meanwhile, the family continues preparing for a worst-case scenario at the Beje. A sympathetic guard, along with some members of the underground, drill Corrie in how to interact with German soldiers if her home gets raided. The family experience some narrow escapes, as when their former employee Otto, now a Nazi soldier, returns and notices the alarm-signal while at the house, but does not pursue its meaning. Corrie also gets called down to the station by the local chief of police, who reveals that he knows about the activities at the Beje and wonders if Corrie’s underground contacts include someone who could get rid of a Nazi mole from their police force. On the one hand, Corrie is pleased that the chief is sympathetic to the underground, but on the other, alarmed by how much he knows: “Here was one more illustration of how our secret was no secret at all. All of Haarlem seemed to know what we were up to” (122). The family’s work is becoming ever more dangerous, but they press on, convinced that God has called them to this role.