The Hiding Place

The ten Booms, along with others who were arrested, are brought to a prison. At first, a Gestapo officer seems inclined to release Father, but Father answers him honestly: “If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door again to any man in need who knocks” (138). Father, Betsie, and Corrie work their way through processing lines until they are separated and led off to prison cells. Corrie is placed in a cell with four other women, but a persistent cough leads to her being taken out and assessed at a medical facility. While there, she receives some hygiene items and separate editions of the four biblical gospels. Upon her return to the prison, she is discharged from her cell and taken deeper into the facility, where she is placed in isolation. She spends weeks in solitary confinement, her only contact with others being at shower times, when she takes the opportunity to pass along some of her copies of the gospels.

All the guards disappear to celebrate Hitler’s birthday, and the prisoners begin transmitting information from cell to cell. Corrie receives information on Nollie, Peter, and Willem, all of whom have been released, and on Betsie, who is in good condition in another cell. As the days pass, she keeps in good spirits by keeping track of the days on her cell wall, noting the release dates of her family, and befriending an ant who lives in a crack in the floor. Eventually, she receives communications from Nollie on the outside and learns that the Jewish refugees who had hidden in the secret room got out safely out after the raid, but that Father passed away just 10 days after his imprisonment. Corrie grieves but marks it on her wall-calendar in hopeful terms: “March 9, 1944 – Father. Released” (157). 

Corrie is taken from her cell for a hearing with a lieutenant, who is trying to extract more information on the Dutch underground network. As they speak, Corrie feels emboldened to convey an even more important message: “‘The truth, Sir,’ I said, swallowing, ‘is that God’s viewpoint is sometimes different from ours—so different that we could not even guess at it unless He had given us a Book which tells us such things” (160). The lieutenant, a man named Rahms, concludes the hearing quickly, and Corrie thinks she has failed. The next morning, however, Lieutenant Rahms retrieves her from her cell, and they continue their conversation. He is sympathetic, but is limited in his ability to help her. Although her health has improved, Rahms has no ability to transfer her out of solitary confinement. He does walk her along the cellblock hallway, past Betsie’s cell: “It had been a glimpse only, two seconds at the most, but I walked through the corridors of Scheveningen with Betsie’s singing spirit at my side” (164).

Lieutenant Rahms arranges a meeting for Corrie with Betsie and her free siblings, Willem and Nollie, so that they can go through the legalities required in reading Father’s will. At this happy reunion, Willem relates that all the Jewish refugees from the Beje indeed got out safely; although one of them was apprehended later, the others remained safe.