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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
"If I go home today," he said evenly and clearly, "tomorrow I will open my door again to any man in need who knocks.”
A local coffee shop owner that knows I enjoy reading asked me one day if he recommended me a book, would I read it. I said sure, and he put in my hands The Hiding Place. A true story that follows the life of spinster, and watchmaker's daughter, Corrie ten Boom during the Nazi occupation in Holland.
I'm always amazed by how some books find their way into our lives, as this is one I don't believe I would have found, or read, otherwise.
I don't feel right saying I enjoyed this book, as the events described are not all joyful, many devastating, and come from a time fueled by hate and fear. Yet Corrie's story sheds light and hope throughout, as her family risks everything to show kindness in a very dark time.
The main focus, however, centers on the family's faith as they go through trial after trial while still holding on to, and spreading hope, through the word of God.
The strength to do such as they see and experience such horrors, is truly inspirational.
3.5 ⭐
I loved Corrie, as she is so real. She fell in love with a young man, and he married someone else. She felt like her older sister was a better person. She tries her best, but she's so human. She feels for the Jews in her town. And she has such determination.
Her older sister Betsie, while physically frail, is a person of so much faith in God.
These two sisters, in conjunction with the rest of their family, take on so much risk to do what's right.
There were times of great humor in this book even in times of such despair. It was such a human book. I particularly enjoyed the drills that they would go through for the Jews to get into their hiding place as quickly as possible, and how they'd try to shave time off.
The heartbreaking parts are when Corrie and Betsie are thrown into jail, and then they keep getting more to a worse place until they finally end up in Ravensbruck the concentration camp.
I struggled with the first 4 chapters because they seemed to bounce around and were super choppy but I really enjoyed hearing the Ten Booms story and the path they created with God during very trying times in WWII. Definitely worth the read.
"Strangely enough, it was not the Germans or the Japanese that the people had the most trouble forgiving; it was their fellow Dutchmen who had sided with the enemy."
I am now putting my copy in my neighborhood Little Free Library for someone else to read.