Haarlem - the Ten Boom Museum (Corrie's home)

Haarlem, The Netherlands

Saturday August 6, 2016

If your heart’s been touched by the life of the Ten Boom family, especially through the writings of Corrie ten Boom, namely the Hiding Place, then you’ll understand why visiting the Ten Boom home, now a museum, was on my bucket list! Jeff and I set off early Saturday morning, as soon as the ship announced clearance to exit the gangway, on our heart felt adventure. What a glorious day! We navigated the local metro and the train station and an hour and a half later, we were walking the quaint streets of Haarlem. We missed the tulips (March – May) but throngs of flowers abound, as do bicycles. Bicycles outnumber people here. Only 17 million people live in Holland, but they own 19 million bicycles.  Everyone rides bikes!!

           

With our map in hand, we roamed the narrow brick roads, mainly for pedestrians and bicycles and within 15 minutes we found our treasure: The Ten Boom Museum, complete with the Ten Boom Jewelry Shop, which was Casper ten Boom’s watch shop – the first floor of their home.

                    

 Current jewelry shop sells Ten Boom watches       Narrow ally leading to entrance of home

                      

The small door to the secret room in on the bottom of this shelf

        

The life-saving secret room exposed

The Alpina clock used a secret code message telling Jews they could safely enter the home

 

I really cannot express in words what my heart felt. Throughout the tour I cried often, feeling the depth of love and faith expressed by this precious family - a Christian family who safely harbored Jews during WWII. Eventually, they added a secret room at the end of Corrie’s room where the Jewish people vanished safely when danger arose. Standing in Corrie’s tiny room, I felt the power of their sacrifice. I felt the fear of the people. I felt gratitude to God. I felt love. This was truly a safe haven, at least for a time to over 900 Jewish people. I was surprised by the size of Corrie’s bedroom. It was merely 2 ½ by 2 meters. Behind one wall lay the long and narrow secret room – ½ meter by 2 meters. Normally, they kept bread and water along with a chamber pot and heater in this tiny space, but on the fateful day that the German soldiers discovered the family’s anti-Semitic activities and raided the Beje, four Jewish people vanished into the secret room without food or water and stayed for 48 hours before being secretly rescued. The Ten Booms along with others attending a prayer meeting at their home, however, were captured, interrogated and taken to concentration camps, where Casper ten Boom died nine days later. Corrie was the only family member to survive their arrest and imprisonment, and after her “accidental” release, she began traveling and speaking about her faith in God, her love for the Jewish people, and forgiveness – the incredible power of forgiveness. Amen! Her words and life still impact countless people today, and I’m blessed to be one of those people, forever changed by Corrie’s life and her father’s faith, wisdom and love. I wholeheartedly pray you will be, too!

With full, happy hearts, we wandered a few shops down the road, stepped into a cheese shop and met a delightful young girl, Fredrica, who filled our tummies with delicious cheese samples. When we asked about Gouda cheese, she laughed and swept her arm around the shop as she enlightened us, “All this cheese is Gouda, and as a matter of fact, any cheese produced in Holland is called Gouda.” The most surprising insight we learned was that the city of Gouda does not actually produce any cheese; instead, it’s the place where all the cheese-makers used to gather to buy and sell cheeses, hence all Holland cheese began being referred to as Gouda cheese. We thoroughly enjoyed our picnic lunch of cheese and bread and stopped at the open-air market to add some delicious fresh fruit as well.

Our next stop was St. Bavo Church, the Dutch Reformed Church the Ten Boom family attended.  The spires of the church tower above the city center. The floor is completely covered in gravestones, and we learned that wealthy citizens could purchase tombstones here but only the wealthiest could actually be buried beneath their stones under the floor of the church.

 

It’s home to a famous colossal organ played by both Mozart, age 10, and Handel.

                     

We decided to spend the rest of the day wandering the streets of Haarlem. We crossed over a drawbridge, saw a windmill, walked through the only remaining city gate - with twelve-inch stone walls, and learned that the church (St. Bavo) would ring its bells each night at 9:30 to warn the citizens of Haarlem that the city gates were closing in thirty minutes.  Canals weave through this delightful city and we stopped often to simply peer across the water and watch ships journeying along. Hopefully, we’ll return to Haarlem, but regardless, it’s marked off my bucket-list, and when I teach Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place this year to my middle school students, I’ll teach with heightened passion and share new insights for sure!