"The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom

The novel, "The Hiding Place", is an amazing story of a Christian woman who hides Jews during the Holocaust. She and her father open their home to fugitive Jews, and do their best to save their lives. The author and main character, Corrie Ten Boom, tells her story of terror, faith, and prayer to show how devastating the time of the Holocaust really was. The novel is a true story, and Ten Boom has lived to deliver inspiring speeches all over the world to tell about her experience. In the novel, the author portrays life as it was in that time, and what they had to do at their home in order to keep the Jews safe. The Ten Boom residence remains safe and undiscovered as a Jewish hiding place for most of the novel. The sad thing is that the Jews in the house are finally discovered and most are sent to concentration or death camps. Most of the ones that were hiding at the Ten Boom residence were sent to Aushwitz, which was the most severe and terrifying death camp that Hitler established in that time.
The novel shows all the horrible things that the Jews had to go through, and what they were forced to do even in order to keep themselves safe. In the hiding place at the Ten Boom's, they had to perform practice drills in case the house was searched by the Nazi soldiers. In some cases, there were secret places to hide in bookcases, walls, and even in the floors. In the story, it seemed as if the Jews staying in the house always had to worry and never had a chance to slow down and enjoy themselves. I would have felt the same way and done the same things if I had been in that awful situation. There was one thing in the novel that the Jews could enjoy. That was that whenever there was a Nazi drill that they hid away in a certain time limit, they would be rewarded with cream puffs.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought that the way it was written portrayed the Holocaust in a very accurate way. I guess it would because it is a true story. I admire Corrie Ten Boom because she was a selfless Christian woman who opened up her home to Jews who were saved for the time being. I think that she taught the Jews to have faith that God would protect them, and that He would save them from anything that they could not handle. I also admire the author because she sacrificed her home, time, money, and even safety for these people who had no other choice but to die. It is harsh and cruel, but that is how that time was, and no one could do anything about it. I enjoyed the book because it was interesting to read about and learn the way that Jews dealt with their situation, and how they were helped by others who did not have to worry as much about the devastation.
The true story of Corrie Ten Boom illustrates that even in terrible and hard times, faith can bring a person through. I love the perseverance and faith of Ten Boom throughout the novel. She has lived to inspire many other people with her speeches across the world. I would love to have listened to one of her speeches, and to have known what it was like to live in such danger and fear of being taken and possibly killed in the near future, even though she was not a Jew herself. The novel, "The Hiding Place", portrays the Holocaust as a terrifying time in which a Christian woman perseveres and gives up her life in order to save someone else.