Corrie ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892 around Amsterdam, the youngest of four children. They moved to Haarlem within a few months of her birth. Her mother died of a stroke at the age of 63. Her father Casper ten Boom was a well-liked watch repairman. Her older sister Elizabeth (Betsie) was born with pernicious anemia. They had two siblings- a sister, Nollie, and a brother, Willem, and lived with three of her mother's sisters: Aunt, or Tante, Jans (pronounced 'yawns'), Anna, and Bep. Willem graduated from a theology school and warned the Dutch that unless they took action, they would fall to the Nazis. He wrote a dissertation on racial anti-Semitism at theological college in 1927 in preparation for his ordination. He married and fathered four children. Nollie, a school teacher, married a teacher and had six children. Corrie and Betsie never married.
Corrie began training as a watchmaker in 1920 and in 1922 became the first female watchmaker licensed in the Netherlands. In 1923, she helped organize girls' clubs, and in the 1930s these clubs grew to become the very large Triangle club. In 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and banned Ten Boom's club. In 1942, she and her family had become very active in the Dutch underground, hiding refugees. They rescued many Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazi SS. They helped Jews because of their veneration for God's Chosen People (though the Ten Boom family was known for their gracious character towards all--especially the handicapped), and even provided kosher food and honored the Sabbath. Corrie's family were strong Christians. She and her family resided at Barte 19, Haarlem, Holland.
Harboring refugees In May 1942, a well-dressed woman came to the Ten Boom door with a suitcase in hand. Nervously, she told Ten Boom that she was a Jew and that her husband had been arrested several months before, and her son had gone into hiding. Occupation authorities had recently visited her, and she was too fearful...