Corrie ten Boom
WORLD WAR II HERO

Synopsis of her heroism 

Disguised as a watch shop, the ten Boom home where Connie and her family lived became a safe house for Jews hiding from Nazi capture.
The ten Boom’s Christian background gave them the compassion and courage to do what was right.

Early Years
Corrie’s full birth name was Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten
Boom and she was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem,
Netherlands. She was the youngest child to her father
Casper and her mother Cornelia, whom she was named after. Her older sisters were Betsie and Nollie, and her brother was named Willem.
The ten Boom family lived in rooms built above Corrie’s father’s watch shop. The building was called the Beje House.
Following in her fathers footsteps, Corrie became the first woman licensed as a watchmaker in Holland in 1922. Along with her watch work, she soon founded a youth club for teenage girls for religious studies and other classes.

World War 11 Strikes
Nazi’s took the Dutch people by storm in
May 1940. As the war raged, Connie and her family’s Beje house became a safe house for Jews who were hiding for their lives. In Corrie’s bedroom behind a false wall a secret room was built. It was about the size of a wardrobe and could hold up to six people. It was a tight space, but it saved lives. A ventilation system was also put in the secret room so the people could breath. When security sweeps occured, the ten Boom family has installed a buzzer that would alert the refugees so that they could hide. Corrie ten Boom dedicated, but also risked, her life to saving innocent lives and became a leader who helped oversee many safe houses. Because of her work, around 800 Jewish lives were saved.

Caught
All was well until a Dutch mole let the Nazi’s in on the ten Boom’s secret on February 28,
1944. Gestapo ransacked the ten Boom home and the ten Boom family, along with 35 other people, were arrested, The soldiers fortunately didn’t find the Jews hiding in the secret room.
Those six Jews hid in tiny wardrobe for three days.The entire ten Boom family was sent to the Scheveningen prison and then later were sent to the