Corrie ten Boom Huis

This morning I scraped all of the moss and weeds from between the paving stones on the hostel patio, and after a very satisfactory 2 hours of such therapeutic work (and dancing while doing so) I took a shower and decided to tick another item off my Haarlem to do list; the Corrie ten Boom huis. Before visiting, the only thing I knew about the museum was that it was comparable to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam (in that it was a hiding place for Jewish people in the second world war), so I was keen to learn more.

de vleeshal

After a nice (and very short, only 10 minute) walk through the centre of town to the museum located in a small side street off of a large shopping road, I waited at the entrance as instructed until the tour was set to begin at 3pm. True to Dutch punctuality, at 3pm myself and a group of American and Irish tourists were welcomed inside by our guide for the afternoon, and ushered into the living room space of the house for the introductory story. 

Museum entrance 

Although in very good English, listening to the story initially I wondered if I would have been better off attending a Dutch tour to have heard it with a little more excitement, however I still found it to be informational and filled with charming stories. 

Corrie, the youngest of 3 children, grew up in Haarlem living in her family home above her fathers watch shop, and trained in Switzerland to become the Netherlands first ever female watch maker. A smart and compassionate character, when the Netherlands became Nazi occupied in 1940 she began a resistance movement running from the family house, aiming to provide help to all people in need and to conceal the persecuted. She worked closely with a network of neighbours and townspeople to provide help, and to create safe space at her house, where the doors where always open. Through these activities, the ten Boom family and friends saved hundreds of lives.

In 1944, after her mother had passed away, Corrie was living with her father, her sister, and 6 others in hiding made up of 2 members of the resistance, 2 young boys who had refused to cooperate with the enemy, and 2 Jews. They had hired an architect to build a false wall in Corrie's bedroom (with a small trap door hidden in a wardrobe) to create a space for hiding, and had made an alarm buzzer system at the entrance to the house with which to warn those upstairs to get to the hiding place if ever Nazi soldiers came to search the premises. Practicing this everyday, the 6 were able to get into the tiny space in a staggering 70 seconds. On February 28 1944, this system was put to the test when Corrie's sister Betsie rang the alarm bell in the middle of the night when soldiers arrived to search the house, as a result of a betrayal by one of their neighbours. Fortunately all the 6 were able to get into the safe space in time and were not discovered by the soldiers, despite the violent interrogations carried out against Corrie and her sister. While being interrogated in the family dining room, Corrie noticed that the 'safe signal' (a watch brand advertisement displayed in the window of the dining room to indicate that the house was free from Nazis and people were free to enter) was still standing. Unfortunately after an attempt by Corrie to remove it from the window it was replaced by one of the soldiers, meaning that over the following day the house became a sort of trap for resistance members of the community, and 36 arrests (including 6 ten Booms) were made. Following the arrests the Nazi soldiers occupied the ten Boom house for two and a half more days (convinced that people were hiding there) until their places were taken by local policemen who were secretly part of the resistance, allowing the 2 small boys to escape back to their families through a window in the house, and the other 4 to be given food, water, and fresh air. 

In prison Corrie's father (Casper, 84), sister (Betsie, 59), and nephew (Christiaan, 24), all died. Corrie herself survived 2 years in Ravensbruck concentration camp teaching bible studies after long days of hard work, until the war ended and she was released age 52 as a result of a clerical error. 

It was in the discussion of Corrie's work after she had been released that the enthusiasm of the tour guide picked up, and the primary purpose of the foundation became clearer. Over the next 32 years of her life Corrie traveled to 64 different countries and wrote multiple books about her experience and spreading information about Christianity. Of course this is an interesting and essential part to Corrie's story, but personally I would have preferred more of a focus on her life in Haarlem and the good work she did there, rather than on the belief that she was freed as a result of miracles in order for her to fulfill her religious purpose to spread the message of Christianity. 

Tn Boom living room

Although none of the furniture in the living room is original, there are many family portraits and 2 original clocks. The more interesting looking of the clocks, the sun shaped one, was supposedly thought to be ugly by Corrie's father but he bought it anyway as it reminded him of one once owned by his grandfather - and later he discovered a name inscription on the back revealing that it was the very same clock.

ten Boom clocks

a "dangerous photograph" of the ten Boom family in their living room
 with several resistance members and Jewish people

From the living room we were lead to Corrie's room, and the sight of the famed hiding place. Here we were given the opportunity to crawl into the space (as difficult as could be predicted, made worse by my choice of skirt) and were told the story of what happened to the 6 people who spent 2 and a half days trapped there after they were finally released. It was thought that only 1 of the 2 young boys had survived the war. A few years after the war had ended the young boy, now a man, had returned to the house to meet with 1 of the 2 policemen (as the second had since died) who had liberated him from the hiding place. The guide told us that they had since had a discovery, as a few years ago a visitor who had kept quiet in the tour up until the point he was in Corrie's bedroom suddenly broke down and revealed that he was the second young boy who had hidden there, and that he'd immigrated to live in South Africa before returning to Haarlem for the 50th anniversary of Liberation day. 

removed section of the wall to show the hiding place, and photograph of the meeting of the boy who escaped and the policeman 

entrance via the wardrobe, accessible via a lifting
trap door in the back of the wardrobe

We then visited the roof to see the small area that would have been relished by the people living in the house as the only safe way to get some fresh air. Featured in a lot of the pictures downstairs of members of the household together, it was nice to experience this and have a view over Haarlem. 

my very own panorama of the view

the street below

Haarlem

Next we were guided through the main body of the house and shown where each of the other family members bedrooms used to be (shockingly small for the tallest nation in the world, as the guide said "everything in the Netherlands is small, except the people") which now serves as a museum. The first room displayed food ration cards from the wartime, tins used to send food supplies to local residents from the British, an original Jood (Jew) star, and maps of the Netherlands and surrounding areas showing the location of concentration camps and the devastatingly high number of people killed there.

ration cards, photographs of treatment of Jewish people,
and the original Jewish star 

map of concentration camps

the window used by the 2 young boys to escape

Throughout the next 2 rooms there were more photographs of the ten Boom family, mementos from the families time during the war (including a secret radio used to listen to updates about the war via the BBC), and photographs of Corrie in her later years travelling the world. 

still getting the hang of panoramas...

photos of Corrie in her later life

narrow corridors (previously bedrooms!)

The final stop on the tour was the dining room, now acting as the souvenir shop for the museum, featuring a small jewelry display cabinet, of antique style watches and clocks engraved with the ten Boom name. Here the guide showed us the wooden safety signal from the story, and concluded the tour with a final anecdote about the necessity of weaving of life's threads with light and dark colours in order to create a beautiful overall image. 

safety signal

ten Boom clocks

After a long discussion about living and working in the Netherlands with the guide, who was thrilled to learn that as a Brit I had been endeavoring to master the Dutch language, I headed back to the hostel with thoughts about the ways in which people deal with hardship, the ways in which we can help those in need, and the ten Boom slogan "The best is yet to come". Tot volgende keer.