Corrie's Christian Faith
The ten Boom's were a religious family who put God and the Bible above all else. While in the Scheveningen prison, Corrie received a package from her sister, Nollie, who had been released recently. In it were the four Gospels, among other things. At the showers, Corrie told the good news of God to anyone who would listen, and offered to share her Gospels with the others, but they knew the danger of being caught with them, so they refused. In June 1944, Corrie and her sister Betsie were transferred to an internment camp in Vught, The Netherlands. Later that year, in September, the sisters were deported to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. Here, Corrie and Betsie stayed in the same barrack together until Betsie died in December 1944. In late December, just days after Betsie's death, Corrie ten Boom was released from Ravensbruck. After her release, Corrie decided to share her experience with the world, and tell them the most important thing - how she got through it all with the help of God. Corrie brought many people to the Christian faith during her trips, and she set an example for all believers by showing her strength throughout the hard times.
Corrie's faith roots trace back to her great-grandfather and beyond. "The Bible was the main literature in my great-grandfather Gerrit's house." Her great-grandfather passed his religion to his son, Willem ten Boom. In Heemstede in the middle of the ninteenth century, Nicolaas Beets taught the Gospel so well that many Haarlemers (including the ten Booms) trudged through a lot of mud to get to the nearby town to hear him preach. His teaching influenced the ten Boom's desire to spread the Gospel to the Jews, and in 1844 Willem ten Boom started a weekly prayer meeting for Israel in his home. One hundred years later, a new ten Boom generation would be arrested in the same place for hiding and helping Jews.