Corrie ten boom which concentration camp

It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin.

Betsie, how thin you were! Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well.

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. In December, Betsie died. Two days later, an officer handed Corrie a certificate of discharge.

After the war, she learned her discharge had been the result of a clerical error. However, she quickly learned she was not really free to go. Only reasonably healthy individuals were allowed out. Because of swelling in her legs, she would have to remain in the hospital until she was better. Although she desperately wanted to prop up her feet to ease her swelling, she hobbled around, helping patients who could not walk. On this day, 30 December , the gates finally opened to release Ten Boom to a waiting train.

There she discovered her ration card had either been lost or stolen and she travelled several days without food. When she finally reached the Netherlands, she was dizzy from hunger and could hardly stand. In the Christian spirit to which she was so devoted, she also took in those who had cooperated with the Germans during the occupation.

In , she began a worldwide ministry that took her to more than 60 countries. She received many tributes, including being knighted by the queen of the Netherlands. In , at age 85, Corrie ten Boom moved to Placentia, California. The next year, she suffered a series of strokes that left her paralyzed and unable to speak. She died on her 91st birthday, April 15, Her passing on this date evokes the Jewish traditional belief that states that only specially blessed people are granted the privilege of dying on the date they were born.

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