Review of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (with authors John and Elizabeth Sherrill) is the true story of a Dutch family of Christians, the ten Boom family.  This wonderfully written autobiography of Corrie ten Boom begins in Holland in 1937 when Corrie is 45 years old, and with the 100th Anniversary celebration of their watch shop.  The story then takes you back in time to when Corrie is six years old, living with her mother, father, who is a watchmaker, her older brother and two sisters, and her aunts in their house which they call the Beje (pronounced BAY-yay).  The story tells of how Corrie becomes the first licensed woman watchmaker in Holland and of her family up through to the time of the 100th Anniversary party, where the story begins, and following, through the difficult years of the Nazi occupation and WWII, when the ten Boom family accepts the challenges of hiding Jews during the Holocaust.  This book is my all-time favorite and I confess I've probably read it as many as ten times. While it does expose the horrors of what was going on in the labor and death camps during the Nazi occupation, it is an incredibly inspirational story of faith and courage and a wonderful tribute to a family who knew how to allow God to use them to help others, and so it's a very enjoyable read.  The story flows like water, so that it is one of those books that is literally hard to put down.  I highly recommend this book for high-school age and above.  For those who especially like stories of this period in history, it is a must-read.