The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Book Review Example

The hiding place was written in 1971 by Corrie Ten Boom, in collaboration with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.  The book informs the reader about the life of Corrie under Nazi persecution in Holland during World War II.  The story commences in 1937, some two years before the outbreak of the second world war. The Ten Boom’s, were celebrating a  hundred year anniversary of their watch making repair business, in the Dutch town of Haarlem.  The party  is celebrated by a wide circle of friends and relatives, including a Jewish man recently escaped from Germany.  The man has had his beard  burnt off by the Nazis;  thus  an early reminder in the book of the persecution taking place in East Holland and Germany.

In 1940 the masses invade Holland, and owing  to the Ten boom families strong religious beliefs they help the Jewish people in their hour of need.  There is an important psychological consideration here appropriate  to the elements of persuasion. Christian groups would easily be persuaded by the Dutch Resistance to help in the cause. This particularly when they can identify with a story of the antagonist and persecution of a race that is anti-Christian.  hence.. ” conflict is actually something that can unite us when we share its consequences in a story. Stories about conflict intrigue us because we all face struggle in our personal, business or community lives ”  (Dickman, 2007)  The Ten Boom’s  quickly developed a caucus of help and formed a center of anti-Nazi operations.  Amidst all of these activities Corrie soon finds itself immersed in black-market operations, including stealing ration cards and hiding Jews in their home.  During this time, she has a moral crisis from carrying out the work i.e. for cheating, stealing, bribing and robbery.  Essentially, all items against her  strict Christian upbringing.

The psychological concept of the ‘foot in the door syndrome’ where Corrie agreed to help first in a small way.  She later  found it difficult to comply with the larger request of dealing with all of the additional requirements necessary to safeguard the Jewish people.  (Betts, 2009)  The Dutch underground assist in building a  room in the house for the Jews to hide; the comparison with the story relating to   The diaries of Anne Frank.  Later, Corrie  was approached by a man to help his wife.  Despite certain misgivings she did so, and it later turned out that the woman was a spy.  This resulted in the Nazi’s  raiding the shop and the entire Ten boom family was arrested along with the shop employees.  The Jews managed to evade capture by hiding in a secret room.

In detention , the elderly father  Casper, now in his 80s, was offered his freedom if he would not  make further trouble.  He refused to accept this offer, and subsequently was sent to prison where he later died.  Cory was sent to Scheveningen a Dutch prison for political prisoners.  During this time she receives a coded letter telling her the Jewish people were safe.  Corrie then gets transferred to Vught concentration camp, and ultimately to Ravensbruch the notorious woman’s death camp.  Life in the concentration camp was extremely harsh, and it is here that Corri  witnessed the death of her aunt Betsy owing its to continued  ill health.  Despite the odds against her  she manages to survive and finds herself back in Holland during 1945 at the end of the war.

Despite Betsy’s terrible ordeal, Betsy  felt extremely sorry for the Nazis and how they were so blind with hatred.  Even to the point of death, she demonstrated a feeling of universal love for everyone.  After the war Corrie  tried to realize Betsies  dream by  using the house, together with a donated mansion, for the purpose of administering to those hurt by the war.  This included both Dutch and Germans alike.  Her faith was ultimately tested when she met a former Guard  from Ravensbruch who  had humiliated her sister.  It is at this point she decided that gods love conquers all.

The terrible consequences of imprisonment were highlighted by the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1941.. ” In the summer of 1971, 24 college-aged men answered a newspaper ad calling for volunteers for a psychological experiment. The experiment would take up to 2 weeks and paid $15 dollars a day.  The 24 participants, deemed healthy, average and normal by the experiment’s psychologists, were randomly assigned to the roles prisoner or guard. Psychologists constructed a mock prison in the Stanford University basement, complete with iron bar cells, a space for solitary confinement, and no windows or natural light. The cells were bugged with video cameras and microphones so the mock guards could monitor conversations. Philip G. Zimbardo, one of the experiment’s designers, served as the mock prison superintendent, and the experiment’s principal psychologist.”  (Cox, 2008).

The results of the experiment had to be closed after 6 days as we witnessed the dehumanisation of the prisoners by the guards, the allocation of numbers and loss of personal identity and abusive treatment by the guards.  This was an experiment and the results were so shocking that it had to be terminated.  It is difficult to imagine such a situation amplified to the extent of life in Ravensburg concentration camp.  Here the guards were pumped full of anti-Semitism and hatred to such an extent that the Jews were treated as sub humans. The concept of poor sanitary conditions, disease, continued punishment and psychological torture; it was indeed a miracle that anybody could survive such conditions.  It is also a testament to individual courage and personal survival instincts of the generation at that time.  (Hock, 1998)

Another question from a psychological perspective is how can the prison guards carry out their role of brutality to the point of torturing and executing prisoners ? The old soldiers adage of  I am simply following orders seems to be a convenient excuse of acts of barbarism and murder. Perhaps Stanley Milgram best explained the rationale behind this ” the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself in the instrument for carrying out another persons wishes and therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions”.  (Milgram, 1974).  Fear was also a powerful device of persuasion for the German Soldiers. The Nazis were a brutal intolerant regime and were quiet prepared to execute their own soldiers if they disobeyed the commands or orders of their officers.  Prison guards were often considered unsuitable for active duty on the front and as such it was a low esteemed job. This further enraged them and increased the sense of anger and hostility towards their captives.  (Smith R. A., 2001)

In the liberation of the prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp the American soldiers were so deplored by the treatment of the prisoners that they executed some 340 Waffen SS Prison Guards. ” To many of the men in I company, the SS were nothing more than wild, vicious animals whose role in this war was to starve, brutalize, torment, torture and murder helpless civilians.” (Buecher, 2007).  The Camp of Ravensbruch where Corrie was interned was essentially a death camp for Woman and Children ” The conditions of life in Ravensbrück were as shameful and difficult as in all the other concentration camps–death by starvation, beating, torture, hanging, and shooting happened daily. The women who were too weak to work were transferred to be gassed at the Uckermark “Youth Camp” located nearby Ravensbruck or to Auschwitz. Others were killed by lethal injections or used for “medical” experiments by the SS doctors. Several SS companies surrounded the camp where the prisoners had to work day and night until they died by weakness and illness”  (jewishgen.org, 2009).

The Ten Booms seemed to survive the worst of this through their devotion to the Christian faith. Even Aunt Betsy prevailed to the point of her death and Corrie later dedicated her ministries to Betsy helping other victims of the war both German and Dutch survivors.  It was the Father Casper Ten Boom who installed the Christian doctrines of faith into his children” Casper Ten Boom instilled in all his children that in order to love God this must be shown and shared with all peoples but most especially those who had been marginalized in society. ” ”  Corrie Ten Boom truly lived out this Scripture, “Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.”(Romans 12:21).”  (Smith, 2006).

The Holocaust takes its place in History as a time when some 6 million jewish people were brutally murdered by the Nazi regime. It was particularly shocking because it happened in Europe the centre of the known civilised world.  Equally it has to be kept in perspective relative to other terrible acts of genocide throughout the world.  It is considered that the brutalist Stalin regime executed in excess of 10 million people, the genocide on Rwanda where in excess of 11 million people died  and up to 2.5 million people put to death by Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. The second world war, unlike the first world war, dispelled the mythy of a civilised war and the concept of chivalry, honour and behavioural ethics.  The holocaust was equally met with similar disdain by the Japanese and the Russians in treatment of prisoners.  This type of behaviour is still allowed to continue in certain parts of the world today – consider Robert Mugabe and his regime in Zimbabwe and the recent conflict in the Balkans where the Serbs were responsible for ethnic cleansing on a large scale.  People like Corrie Ten Bloom do provide a beacon of hope in mans inhumanity to man, it is important to remember these events in order that we learn from them and we all play our part in trying to prevent future episodes of history repeating itself.

Works Cited

Betts, J. (2009). Alley Dog. Retrieved 2 15, 2010, from Psychlogical Glossary: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Foot-In-The-Door%20Phenomenon

Buecher, H. A. (2007, 11 30). Execution of SS Soldiers at Dachau. Retrieved 2 19, 2010, from Execution of SS Soldiers at Dachau: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/SoldiersKilled.html

Cox, S. (2008, 9 1). Psychologists Study Effects of Deindividuation, Dehumanization . Retrieved 2 16, 2010, from Suite 101: http://human-testing.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_famous_stanford_prison_experiment

Dickman, R. (2007, 10 19). Condflict into Harmony. Retrieved 2 15, 2010, from The Elements of persuasion : http://www.theelementsofpersuasion.com/the_elements_of_persuasio/books/

Hock, R. (1998). Forty Studies that changed psychology. In R. Hock, Forty Studies that changed psychology (p. 322). London: Prentice Hall .

jewishgen.org. (2009, 1 1). Ravensbruck Germany. Retrieved 2 19, 2009, from Ravensbruck Germany: http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/RavensbruckEng.html

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority: An experimental view. In S. Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An experimental view (p. 240). New York : Tavistock Pubs.

Smith, M. (2006, 8 17). Saints of the Faith. Retrieved 2 19, 2010, from http://faithofthefatherssaints.blogspot.com/2006/08/christian-heroes-corrie-ten-boom.html

Smith, R. A. (2001). Challenging your perception: thinking critically about psychology. In R. A. Smith, Challenging your perception: thinking critically about psychology (p. 128). Wadsworth Pub.