Snapshot Book Review: The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As distressing as the Holocaust is, this book--unlike most WWII novels--was more a tale of the beauty of human kindness than an account of a gruesome war.

The Hiding Place is the true account of Corrie Ten Boom's experience during WWII, first as a key player in the Dutch underground resistance to the Nazis and then as a prisoner shipped off to a concentration camp. Yet despite the violent drama that typically surrounds these sorts of narratives, Corrie's account is one of love and admiration for those around her.

As a character and as a narrator, I especially related to Corrie because her sister Betsie is the "perfect Christian" who always seems to think of God and others first, while Corrie, the narrator, always finds herself falling short and wondering how Betsie can manage to be so selfless. This is one of the truer, more heartfelt accounts of the struggle that not just Christians, but anyone who upholds a moral code faces when they are confronted with horrific, all-consuming evil on one side and seemingly perfect selflessness and kindness on the other. Few if any of us fit into one category or the other, and Corrie's observations about each are worth reading.

View all my reviews