June 29, 2023 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, all in all, it is estimated that around 800 Jews were saved by Corrie ten Boom and her family. Hear Corrie tell her story!
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories, and you are
about to hear the story of how one woman shined
one of the clearest lights on one of the darkest
moments in world history. All in all, it's estimated that
around eight hundred Jews were saved by Cory Teenboom, her
sister Betsy, and the rest of her family's efforts. After
(00:32):
Holland's surrendered to the Nazis. They hid Jews in a
secret room in their home or baya, in Hollm, Netherlands,
near Amsterdam. We'd like to thank Vision Video for contributing
the footage for this story. So, without any further ado,
here's Cory Tenboom.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
A shadow fell across us in nineteen forty, but it
rested lightly. Nobody dreamed that this tiny cloud would grow
until that blocked out the sky. And nobody dreamed that
in the darkness, each of us would be called.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
To play a role.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Even the funny old baya, with its unmatching floor levels
and ancient angles, life was very changed when the war arrived.
I will never forget that through these streets and I
(01:39):
saw tanks and it was a real performance, this big,
huge army going through the streets to make impression on us,
and I can still remember these boots marching over the streets.
(02:01):
It was strange when the German uniforms were seen.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
And we had to obey the people of the occupation.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Torture.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I have the beginning was not so terrible.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We had only five days war and then we had
to surrender, and it seemed that things were a little
bit the same as before. That She tried to keep
our life as normal as was possible.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
She didn't agree with.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All the things that the enemy told us to do,
and she tried even to make the meals as normal
and good as before.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
We really learned to know the people around us.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There were friends where all they thought you can depend
on them, but they changed. They could get some more
food when they helped the enemy. But the example of
my father was a great help. Although he was at
last a week old men, his spiritual strength helped all
(03:32):
of us. When the Germans came in Holland, the young
men especially were in great danger. They needed workers in
ammunition factories. They came and took the boys just from
the street. These ratsias were terrible. Almost every family was
(03:58):
really ingreat danger and neat I think of my nephews
Kick and Peter. Sometimes when they had to go through
the street, then we gave them girls' dresses. Sometimes we
have laughed when they had that, when they went in
(04:19):
girls dresses in the street. But in reality it was
very sad. During the first year of German rule, there
were only minor attacks on jewels in the hold. It
was though they were trying us, testing the temper of
the country. On our daily walk, Father and I saw
(04:42):
the symptoms spread.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Jewels will not be served.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No juice.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It began slowly built. A Nazi propaganda machine spewed out
it's poison. The yellow star served to mark the prey.
In the early morning hours, many royal Dutchmen were forced
from their beds. They left their homes like shadows. They
(05:19):
would never return. As soon as we saw the danger
there for all the Jewish people, we warned many of them.
I remember that father and I went to doctor Himster,
one of our friends. Just imagine that mister van Heemstra
(05:42):
will be brought to a concentration camp, his wife to
another concentration camp, his children will be killed, And that moment.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I took a decision. That's was the beginning.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
There were many underground workers in haunt. Then they had
many secrets. The good thing was that there were two
entrances in the shop and in the alley, and we
always looked very carefully who came. Some of the neighbors
(06:24):
did not know, and it was better that they didn't
know it. We did not talk about the Jews outside.
We were a small family of three people, my father
with two of his spins, the daughters. We just played
the game as if that was the whole family.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Chrisman.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The work became so important the bea needed a hiding
place in case the Gestapo came for an inspection. The
secrets room was made in my bedroom. There was a
famous architect who made these hiding places and that was
(07:08):
his plant in the underground work.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Very important. I will never forget that he came upstairs
and through the whole house to see where it was possible.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And because this room were the highest of the house,
he chose this, my tiny bedroom. The wall was made
of brick, and that was the secret of the hiding place.
When they started to knock at it, it was solid,
so they didn't find it.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
They had to creep.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So into this opening of the hiding place, carry and
then when they were in it, they could close the
backside of the.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Closet so that you couldn't see there was an opening.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
A non pribliced Jew will be unable to show his
face in the Netherlands. At the same time, as a
mix commissioner, I will publish a degree that the possessions
and each day more and more Jews were heard together
on city street corners, families young and old. There were
(08:29):
no exceptions. Publicly, the Nazis succeeded in their attempt to
camouflage the destiny of the departies. They spoke of labor
service in Germany. Our hearts were torn seeing them hold
(08:51):
away like sheep, come dignified, almost hopeful.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
The human imagination.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Coped not accept the whispered rumors as to what away
to them.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And you're listening to Corey Tamboom, and what a story
she is telling. I am old, but I know about prison,
she started, I know what it is like to be
behind a door that only opens from the outside. And
those last words were chilling. The human imagination could not
accept the whispered rumors as to what awaited when we
(09:31):
come back. More of Corey Temboom's story Here are now
American stories, and we continue with the story of Corey
(10:11):
ten boom Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
For two eventful years, the Lord allowed us to help
hundreds of people escape the Nazi death camps until February
twenty eighth, nineteen hundred and forty four.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Were the Jews what jukes?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Lord to help me?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
There on the street.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I remember the dream that the Lord gave to me
at the beginning of.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
The war, as I watched a kind of odd old
farm wagon, the old fashioned and out of place in
the middle of a city, came lumbering across the.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Square, pulled by four enormous black horses. To my surprise,
I saw that I myself was sitting in the wagon,
and Father too, and Betsy. There are many others, some strangers,
some friends. I recognized Pickwick and Tools Villain and young
Peter Altogether we were slowly being drawn across the square
(11:25):
behind those horses. We couldn't get off the wagon. That
was the terrible thing. It was taken us away, far away.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
But we didn't want to go.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I didn't know then, but.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
That dream meant later I understood.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
In this house in eighteen hundred and forty four and something.
A minister said to my grandfather, pray for the.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Peace of Jerusalem. That is written in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
My grandfather had never thought about it, but he saw
that it was a commandment in the Bible, and he
invited his friends, and they came in this house every
week and at a prayer meeting for Jews. A hundred
years later, in this very same house, grandfather's son, four
(12:37):
of his grandchildren and a great grandson were arrested because.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
They had saved Jewish people. That was a.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Divine but not to understand answer on prayer for Jusheem.
I remember that when father was worn by his friends
and they said, don't have always Jewish people in that house.
It will end up in prison for you. Then father said,
I'm too old for prison life, but when that will happen,
(13:10):
it will be an honor to me to give my
life for God's ancient people.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And that's what really happened.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
After ten days already father died in prison. For the
first week, they put me in a cell with four
or five others. I was very ill with pleurisy. The
prison doctor said I would have tubercarosis, so I was
(13:41):
sent to soldiery confinement. They did not want me to
infect the others. Perhaps for the first time in my life,
I was really alone, and I knew my life was
completely in the head of the enemy. They could kill me,
(14:03):
or torture me, just forget me altogether.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
There was no one to know.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
At night, the sounds of distant bone penetrated the thick walls,
and the muffled cries of people being tortured by the Gestapo.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
That was a little bit of help.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I tried singing, but the guards poundered on the door
for silence.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
They threatened to take me to the dark cell.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
In the dark cell, you had to stand in water.
Time became a very thick.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Thing to have to wade through.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
There was a possibility each moment of the day and
night that it would come for me.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Whenever I heard.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Footsteps outside mysell I would ask myself, do they come
to torture me?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
To kill me?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Once I stood with my back against the wall of
my cell, with my hands spread out as if I
would push it away, and I was dead scared, And
then I said, Lord, I'm not strong enough to stand
(15:35):
all this. My faith is not strong enough. Then I
saw an end I had seen for days roaming off
the floor. I just mopped the floor with a wet
rag the moment and felt the water on the stones.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Here ran to a little hole in the wall.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
He did not stop to look at the wet rag
or his weak feet. He went straight to his hiding place. Cory,
don't look at your faith. It is weak, like the
tiny feet of that end. Don't think of the possibilities
of those cruel people. I am your hiding place, and
(16:23):
you can come to me like that.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
End disappeared into the hole in the.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Wall, and for the first time there came a.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Real peace in my heart.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I was fifty three years old. Then.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I had always known about Jesus, and now in sold reconfinement,
I had started to really know that His light is
stronger than the deepest darkness. I have an idea that later,
when we are in heaven, we will look back and
under stand many things that are now not to understand
(17:04):
by us.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I can tell you about thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Answer prayers, but I also can tell you about many
unanswered prayers. There was a prayer that I said every
day when I was in prison in Holland, Oh God,
that they never bring us to a concentration caem we
had heard such terrible rumors about what happened there. But
(17:33):
God had other plans.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
This is Betsy, my sister.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
She was in another part of that same prison, but
I could never see her. Months later we were transferred
to a bigger prison in Holland. And then after that
we were packed like cattle in boxcars and taken deep
in took Germany. The Nazis were empty in jails everywhere.
(18:15):
Men prisoners were sent one way, women prisoners another.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And you're listening to Corey tamboom, and that doesn't get
more real than this, the confrontation with evil, and my goodness,
face to face is Corey and so many of the
people of Western Europe, and so many Allied Americans and
Canadians and Australians taking the fight to the Nazi menace. Lord,
(18:43):
I'm not strong enough to stand all of this. My
faith is not strong enough. And my goodness, the Nazi menace, well,
it put faith to the test throughout Western Europe. I'm
not sure Western Europe has recovered actually, And then that prayer,
Oh God, may they never take us to a concentration camp.
(19:05):
But God had other plans. He said, when we come back,
more of the remarkable story of Corey ten Boom. Here
on our American stories. And we continue with our American stories.
(19:41):
Let's return to Corey ten Boom.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My sister and I, along with thousands of others, were
marched into Raffensbrook.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It was called a work camp.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
When we first came into the camp, they took everything away.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It was a great miracle that I had my Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I hid it under my dress on my back, and
I prayed, Lord, will you send your angels to surround me?
But then I thought, angels are spirits, and you can
look through spirits, and I don't want these people to
see me. So I prayed in my great fear, God,
let your angels not be transparent today.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
They must cover me. And God did it.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The woman in front of me was searched, and then
my sister threw us directly behind me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
But no one even noticed I was there.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The barracks they put us in were built for two
hundred women. They packed seven hundred of us inside. The
bunks were built up all the way to the celandin
We each had sleeping space a few inches wide. If
they had all been working, and we would have had
eight toilets for the entire barracks. It was so dangerous
(21:06):
a raven'sbrook to use the word of God. If the
guards called you, you were killed in a very cruel way.
But they never knew that I had a Bible meeting
twice every day in Barracks twenty eight. The room was filthy,
crawling with fleece and lies. That's why the guards never
came in past the door. So you see that the
(21:29):
Lord used the angels and lies to leave us our Bible.
I don't mean to say it was pleasant. There were
moments of great despair. I remember one night I was
outside the barracks and there were beautiful stars, and I said, Lord,
(21:55):
you guide all these stars. You have not forgotten one
of them, but you have gotten Betsy and me. And
then Betsy said, no, he does not forget us. I
know that from the Bible, the Lord Jesus has said,
I am with you always until the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And Cory, he is here with us. And we must
believe that tis not feeling but believing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And I slowly learned not to trust in myself or
my faith or my feelings are trusting in but trusting
in Him. Feelings come and feelings go they are deceitful.
In all that hell around us, the promises from the
Bible kept us sane, and Ravensbrook was a work. It
(22:57):
was the enemy's plan to work us to death. Before
the war would end, ninety six thousand women would die here,
including dear Betsy, who became an old woman before my
eyes and slowly starved. The smoke from the crematorium was
like a black haze over the camp. Every day, seven
(23:18):
hundred women died or were killed. It was the only
way to solve the problem. There were far too many
of us. So I looked death in the eyes, not once,
but often, and I found that the Lord was still
my hiding place. Betsy was now number six six seven
(23:46):
two nine. I was sixty six seven three.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It was as if we had ceased to be human.
Twenty eighth was built to house four hundred women. There
were now fourteen hundreds of us. Our small Bible became
(24:13):
the center of an ever widening circle of help and hope.
Like waves clustered around the blazing fire, we held out
our hearts to its warmth and light.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I had believed the.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Bible always, but reading it now had nothing to do
with belief It was simply a description of the way
things were, of hell and Heaven, of how men act
and how God acts. Betsy seemed mercifully oblivious to pain
(24:54):
and despair. Watching her, I over wondered if God had
put a hedge about her, as he had about.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Job so long ago.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
The cold was affecting Betsy's legs. They were like wood.
She weighed no more than a child. She could no
longer stamp her feet as the rest of us did
to keep her blood flowing. More and more, the distinction
between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be
(25:31):
vanishing for Betsy.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Betsy was gone.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
There was no cold now, no hunger, nothing between Betsy
and the face of teachers. And then I saw already
a little bit God's side, that when the Lord takes
us very close to himself, we see the things more
(26:06):
or less from God's point of view. In some way
we are protected. But not that is not in the Bible,
that the Lord will tell that you haven't cross to bear.
Just contrary, the Bible says, take a pure cross and follow.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
The Lord Jesus.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
And to follow the Lord Jesus that means to share
in his suffering. But he gives grace to do it,
and he even gives joy. There is almost a joyful
sight in suffering for the Lord, especially in suffering for
(26:49):
the Lord, because we know that Jesus has suffered so
much for us. At a Cross and Boom Cornelia. Three
mornings after Betsy's death, I was summoned to the Administration barracks.
(27:12):
Years later, it was learned my release came through a
clerical error, what some might call a mistake. Not long
after I was set free, women my age were put
to death.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
It was in the meeting in Germany.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I saw suddenly in the in the midst of the crowd,
woman who wouldn't look into my eyes. And certainly I
saw that woman, that is the nurse who has been
cruel to Betsy when he was dying. And it came
hatred in my heart. But I knew when I do
(27:57):
not forgive those who have sinned against me, then the
heavenly Father will not forgive me.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So I said, Lord, I cannot forgive her.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
But Lord, I claim Romans five five. The love of
God is shed, brought into our heart through the Holy.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Spirit was given to us.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I said, thank you Jesus, that you have brought
into my heart.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
God's love through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
M and thank you Father, that you love in me
is stronger than I hate it. And the same moment
I could love that nurse, and I was used afterwards
to bring her to a decision for Jesus Christ. I
just imagine I had hated her.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
But when the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Cleanses you with his blood, he does such a good
job that he can.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Fill your heart with his love.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yes, I am Corey Temboom, and I have told anyone
who would listen, no bit is so deep.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That he is not deeper still.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
With Jesus, even in our darkest moments.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
The best three means.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And the very best he had to be.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I promised my sister I would tell it, and I
tell you.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler a great job
on the production. As always, we'd like to thank Vision
Video for contributing the footage for the story. On her
ninety first birthday, April fifteenth, nineteen eighty three, Corey ten
Boom passed away and was buried in Santa Ana, California.
On her death, it was noted that in Jewish tradition,
(30:04):
it is only the very blessed people who are allowed
the special privilege of dying on their birthday. The story
of krey Tenboum here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories, and you are
about to hear the story of how one woman shined
one of the clearest lights on one of the darkest
moments in world history. All in all, it's estimated that
around eight hundred Jews were saved by Cory Teenboom, her
sister Betsy, and the rest of her family's efforts. After
(00:32):
Holland's surrendered to the Nazis. They hid Jews in a
secret room in their home or baya, in Hollm, Netherlands,
near Amsterdam. We'd like to thank Vision Video for contributing
the footage for this story. So, without any further ado,
here's Cory Tenboom.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
A shadow fell across us in nineteen forty, but it
rested lightly. Nobody dreamed that this tiny cloud would grow
until that blocked out the sky. And nobody dreamed that
in the darkness, each of us would be called.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
To play a role.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Even the funny old baya, with its unmatching floor levels
and ancient angles, life was very changed when the war arrived.
I will never forget that through these streets and I
(01:39):
saw tanks and it was a real performance, this big,
huge army going through the streets to make impression on us,
and I can still remember these boots marching over the streets.
(02:01):
It was strange when the German uniforms were seen.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
And we had to obey the people of the occupation.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Torture.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I have the beginning was not so terrible.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We had only five days war and then we had
to surrender, and it seemed that things were a little
bit the same as before. That She tried to keep
our life as normal as was possible.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
She didn't agree with.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All the things that the enemy told us to do,
and she tried even to make the meals as normal
and good as before.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
We really learned to know the people around us.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There were friends where all they thought you can depend
on them, but they changed. They could get some more
food when they helped the enemy. But the example of
my father was a great help. Although he was at
last a week old men, his spiritual strength helped all
(03:32):
of us. When the Germans came in Holland, the young
men especially were in great danger. They needed workers in
ammunition factories. They came and took the boys just from
the street. These ratsias were terrible. Almost every family was
(03:58):
really ingreat danger and neat I think of my nephews
Kick and Peter. Sometimes when they had to go through
the street, then we gave them girls' dresses. Sometimes we
have laughed when they had that, when they went in
(04:19):
girls dresses in the street. But in reality it was
very sad. During the first year of German rule, there
were only minor attacks on jewels in the hold. It
was though they were trying us, testing the temper of
the country. On our daily walk, Father and I saw
(04:42):
the symptoms spread.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Jewels will not be served.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No juice.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
It began slowly built. A Nazi propaganda machine spewed out
it's poison. The yellow star served to mark the prey.
In the early morning hours, many royal Dutchmen were forced
from their beds. They left their homes like shadows. They
(05:19):
would never return. As soon as we saw the danger
there for all the Jewish people, we warned many of them.
I remember that father and I went to doctor Himster,
one of our friends. Just imagine that mister van Heemstra
(05:42):
will be brought to a concentration camp, his wife to
another concentration camp, his children will be killed, And that moment.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I took a decision. That's was the beginning.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
There were many underground workers in haunt. Then they had
many secrets. The good thing was that there were two
entrances in the shop and in the alley, and we
always looked very carefully who came. Some of the neighbors
(06:24):
did not know, and it was better that they didn't
know it. We did not talk about the Jews outside.
We were a small family of three people, my father
with two of his spins, the daughters. We just played
the game as if that was the whole family.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Chrisman.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
The work became so important the bea needed a hiding
place in case the Gestapo came for an inspection. The
secrets room was made in my bedroom. There was a
famous architect who made these hiding places and that was
(07:08):
his plant in the underground work.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Very important. I will never forget that he came upstairs
and through the whole house to see where it was possible.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And because this room were the highest of the house,
he chose this, my tiny bedroom. The wall was made
of brick, and that was the secret of the hiding place.
When they started to knock at it, it was solid,
so they didn't find it.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
They had to creep.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So into this opening of the hiding place, carry and
then when they were in it, they could close the
backside of the.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Closet so that you couldn't see there was an opening.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
A non pribliced Jew will be unable to show his
face in the Netherlands. At the same time, as a
mix commissioner, I will publish a degree that the possessions
and each day more and more Jews were heard together
on city street corners, families young and old. There were
(08:29):
no exceptions. Publicly, the Nazis succeeded in their attempt to
camouflage the destiny of the departies. They spoke of labor
service in Germany. Our hearts were torn seeing them hold
(08:51):
away like sheep, come dignified, almost hopeful.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
The human imagination.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Coped not accept the whispered rumors as to what away
to them.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And you're listening to Corey Tamboom, and what a story
she is telling. I am old, but I know about prison,
she started, I know what it is like to be
behind a door that only opens from the outside. And
those last words were chilling. The human imagination could not
accept the whispered rumors as to what awaited when we
(09:31):
come back. More of Corey Temboom's story Here are now
American stories, and we continue with the story of Corey
(10:11):
ten boom Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
For two eventful years, the Lord allowed us to help
hundreds of people escape the Nazi death camps until February
twenty eighth, nineteen hundred and forty four.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Were the Jews what jukes?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Lord to help me?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
There on the street.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I remember the dream that the Lord gave to me
at the beginning of.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
The war, as I watched a kind of odd old
farm wagon, the old fashioned and out of place in
the middle of a city, came lumbering across the.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Square, pulled by four enormous black horses. To my surprise,
I saw that I myself was sitting in the wagon,
and Father too, and Betsy. There are many others, some strangers,
some friends. I recognized Pickwick and Tools Villain and young
Peter Altogether we were slowly being drawn across the square
(11:25):
behind those horses. We couldn't get off the wagon. That
was the terrible thing. It was taken us away, far away.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
But we didn't want to go.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I didn't know then, but.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
That dream meant later I understood.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
In this house in eighteen hundred and forty four and something.
A minister said to my grandfather, pray for the.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Peace of Jerusalem. That is written in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
My grandfather had never thought about it, but he saw
that it was a commandment in the Bible, and he
invited his friends, and they came in this house every
week and at a prayer meeting for Jews. A hundred
years later, in this very same house, grandfather's son, four
(12:37):
of his grandchildren and a great grandson were arrested because.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
They had saved Jewish people. That was a.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Divine but not to understand answer on prayer for Jusheem.
I remember that when father was worn by his friends
and they said, don't have always Jewish people in that house.
It will end up in prison for you. Then father said,
I'm too old for prison life, but when that will happen,
(13:10):
it will be an honor to me to give my
life for God's ancient people.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And that's what really happened.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
After ten days already father died in prison. For the
first week, they put me in a cell with four
or five others. I was very ill with pleurisy. The
prison doctor said I would have tubercarosis, so I was
(13:41):
sent to soldiery confinement. They did not want me to
infect the others. Perhaps for the first time in my life,
I was really alone, and I knew my life was
completely in the head of the enemy. They could kill me,
(14:03):
or torture me, just forget me altogether.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
There was no one to know.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
At night, the sounds of distant bone penetrated the thick walls,
and the muffled cries of people being tortured by the Gestapo.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
That was a little bit of help.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
I tried singing, but the guards poundered on the door
for silence.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
They threatened to take me to the dark cell.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
In the dark cell, you had to stand in water.
Time became a very thick.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Thing to have to wade through.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
There was a possibility each moment of the day and
night that it would come for me.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Whenever I heard.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Footsteps outside mysell I would ask myself, do they come
to torture me?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
To kill me?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Once I stood with my back against the wall of
my cell, with my hands spread out as if I
would push it away, and I was dead scared, And
then I said, Lord, I'm not strong enough to stand
(15:35):
all this. My faith is not strong enough. Then I
saw an end I had seen for days roaming off
the floor. I just mopped the floor with a wet
rag the moment and felt the water on the stones.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Here ran to a little hole in the wall.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
He did not stop to look at the wet rag
or his weak feet. He went straight to his hiding place. Cory,
don't look at your faith. It is weak, like the
tiny feet of that end. Don't think of the possibilities
of those cruel people. I am your hiding place, and
(16:23):
you can come to me like that.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
End disappeared into the hole in the.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Wall, and for the first time there came a.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Real peace in my heart.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I was fifty three years old. Then.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I had always known about Jesus, and now in sold reconfinement,
I had started to really know that His light is
stronger than the deepest darkness. I have an idea that later,
when we are in heaven, we will look back and
under stand many things that are now not to understand
(17:04):
by us.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I can tell you about thousand.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Answer prayers, but I also can tell you about many
unanswered prayers. There was a prayer that I said every
day when I was in prison in Holland, Oh God,
that they never bring us to a concentration caem we
had heard such terrible rumors about what happened there. But
(17:33):
God had other plans.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
This is Betsy, my sister.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
She was in another part of that same prison, but
I could never see her. Months later we were transferred
to a bigger prison in Holland. And then after that
we were packed like cattle in boxcars and taken deep
in took Germany. The Nazis were empty in jails everywhere.
(18:15):
Men prisoners were sent one way, women prisoners another.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
And you're listening to Corey tamboom, and that doesn't get
more real than this, the confrontation with evil, and my goodness,
face to face is Corey and so many of the
people of Western Europe, and so many Allied Americans and
Canadians and Australians taking the fight to the Nazi menace. Lord,
(18:43):
I'm not strong enough to stand all of this. My
faith is not strong enough. And my goodness, the Nazi menace, well,
it put faith to the test throughout Western Europe. I'm
not sure Western Europe has recovered actually, And then that prayer,
Oh God, may they never take us to a concentration camp.
(19:05):
But God had other plans. He said, when we come back,
more of the remarkable story of Corey ten Boom. Here
on our American stories. And we continue with our American stories.
(19:41):
Let's return to Corey ten Boom.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My sister and I, along with thousands of others, were
marched into Raffensbrook.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It was called a work camp.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
When we first came into the camp, they took everything away.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It was a great miracle that I had my Bible.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I hid it under my dress on my back, and
I prayed, Lord, will you send your angels to surround me?
But then I thought, angels are spirits, and you can
look through spirits, and I don't want these people to
see me. So I prayed in my great fear, God,
let your angels not be transparent today.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
They must cover me. And God did it.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The woman in front of me was searched, and then
my sister threw us directly behind me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
But no one even noticed I was there.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
The barracks they put us in were built for two
hundred women. They packed seven hundred of us inside. The
bunks were built up all the way to the celandin
We each had sleeping space a few inches wide. If
they had all been working, and we would have had
eight toilets for the entire barracks. It was so dangerous
(21:06):
a raven'sbrook to use the word of God. If the
guards called you, you were killed in a very cruel way.
But they never knew that I had a Bible meeting
twice every day in Barracks twenty eight. The room was filthy,
crawling with fleece and lies. That's why the guards never
came in past the door. So you see that the
(21:29):
Lord used the angels and lies to leave us our Bible.
I don't mean to say it was pleasant. There were
moments of great despair. I remember one night I was
outside the barracks and there were beautiful stars, and I said, Lord,
(21:55):
you guide all these stars. You have not forgotten one
of them, but you have gotten Betsy and me. And
then Betsy said, no, he does not forget us. I
know that from the Bible, the Lord Jesus has said,
I am with you always until the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
And Cory, he is here with us. And we must
believe that tis not feeling but believing.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And I slowly learned not to trust in myself or
my faith or my feelings are trusting in but trusting
in Him. Feelings come and feelings go they are deceitful.
In all that hell around us, the promises from the
Bible kept us sane, and Ravensbrook was a work. It
(22:57):
was the enemy's plan to work us to death. Before
the war would end, ninety six thousand women would die here,
including dear Betsy, who became an old woman before my
eyes and slowly starved. The smoke from the crematorium was
like a black haze over the camp. Every day, seven
(23:18):
hundred women died or were killed. It was the only
way to solve the problem. There were far too many
of us. So I looked death in the eyes, not once,
but often, and I found that the Lord was still
my hiding place. Betsy was now number six six seven
(23:46):
two nine. I was sixty six seven three.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
It was as if we had ceased to be human.
Twenty eighth was built to house four hundred women. There
were now fourteen hundreds of us. Our small Bible became
(24:13):
the center of an ever widening circle of help and hope.
Like waves clustered around the blazing fire, we held out
our hearts to its warmth and light.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I had believed the.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Bible always, but reading it now had nothing to do
with belief It was simply a description of the way
things were, of hell and Heaven, of how men act
and how God acts. Betsy seemed mercifully oblivious to pain
(24:54):
and despair. Watching her, I over wondered if God had
put a hedge about her, as he had about.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Job so long ago.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
The cold was affecting Betsy's legs. They were like wood.
She weighed no more than a child. She could no
longer stamp her feet as the rest of us did
to keep her blood flowing. More and more, the distinction
between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be
(25:31):
vanishing for Betsy.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Betsy was gone.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
There was no cold now, no hunger, nothing between Betsy
and the face of teachers. And then I saw already
a little bit God's side, that when the Lord takes
us very close to himself, we see the things more
(26:06):
or less from God's point of view. In some way
we are protected. But not that is not in the Bible,
that the Lord will tell that you haven't cross to bear.
Just contrary, the Bible says, take a pure cross and follow.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
The Lord Jesus.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
And to follow the Lord Jesus that means to share
in his suffering. But he gives grace to do it,
and he even gives joy. There is almost a joyful
sight in suffering for the Lord, especially in suffering for
(26:49):
the Lord, because we know that Jesus has suffered so
much for us. At a Cross and Boom Cornelia. Three
mornings after Betsy's death, I was summoned to the Administration barracks.
(27:12):
Years later, it was learned my release came through a
clerical error, what some might call a mistake. Not long
after I was set free, women my age were put
to death.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
It was in the meeting in Germany.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I saw suddenly in the in the midst of the crowd,
woman who wouldn't look into my eyes. And certainly I
saw that woman, that is the nurse who has been
cruel to Betsy when he was dying. And it came
hatred in my heart. But I knew when I do
(27:57):
not forgive those who have sinned against me, then the
heavenly Father will not forgive me.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
So I said, Lord, I cannot forgive her.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
But Lord, I claim Romans five five. The love of
God is shed, brought into our heart through the Holy.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Spirit was given to us.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I said, thank you Jesus, that you have brought
into my heart.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
God's love through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
M and thank you Father, that you love in me
is stronger than I hate it. And the same moment
I could love that nurse, and I was used afterwards
to bring her to a decision for Jesus Christ. I
just imagine I had hated her.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
But when the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Cleanses you with his blood, he does such a good
job that he can.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Fill your heart with his love.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yes, I am Corey Temboom, and I have told anyone
who would listen, no bit is so deep.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That he is not deeper still.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
With Jesus, even in our darkest moments.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
The best three means.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
And the very best he had to be.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I promised my sister I would tell it, and I
tell you.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler a great job
on the production. As always, we'd like to thank Vision
Video for contributing the footage for the story. On her
ninety first birthday, April fifteenth, nineteen eighty three, Corey ten
Boom passed away and was buried in Santa Ana, California.
On her death, it was noted that in Jewish tradition,
(30:04):
it is only the very blessed people who are allowed
the special privilege of dying on their birthday. The story
of krey Tenboum here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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