Corrie ten Boom: Spinster, Watchmaker, and Contra-Nazi Subversive

Corrie ten Boom was an old, Dutch spinster, a watchmaker with her family business.

She was also a dangerous contra-Nazi subversive, hiding Jews in her own house, serving as a central link in the communications of the Dutch resistance, and stealing meal tickets from the Nazis to make sure Jewish people were fed.

She and her sister and father were eventually captured and sent to a series of prisons, where they were stripped naked, beaten, and starved with Jewish and other political prisoners. In the barracks at Ravensbruck she secretly led prayer and Bible study, and administered vitamin drops to prisoners with materials she and her brave sister had miraculously secreted in.

If you haven't read her own rather short and gripping account of her resistance to the Nazis, may I commend to you her book, The Hiding Place.

In honor of the liberation of the Jews at Auschwitz, here are some of her quotes, (presented at goodreads website), she who faced extreme hatred and fear -- and responded in courage and love.

"In darkness God's truth shines most clear."

"Some knowledge is too heavy... you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able."

"Whenever we cannot love in the old human way, God can give us the perfect way."

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."