Corrie ten Boom by Geoff & Janet Benge

The kids and I are studying World War II in our home school history right now. The curriculum that we use, My Father’s World, always assigns a read aloud book that coincides with our history studies, and right now we are reading Corrie ten Boom, Keeper of the Angels’ Den by Geoff and Janet Benge.  The book is so wonderful, so convicting, and so inspiring that I had to share it with you!

Set in Holland during WWII, the book focuses on Corrie ten Boom, a middle-aged Christian woman who has lived her whole life with her family in a house in a busy part of town. Corrie and her family are devout Christians who study God’s word multiple times daily and throughout their lives have worked in various ways to help others in their community.

Now WWII is raging and Germany has invaded and is occupying Holland. At first the Jewish people had some restrictions placed on them such as an earlier curfew and the conveniences of riding bicyles taken away. But as the weeks and months of the war drag on, Jewish people start disappearing from their town and the ten Boom family knows that they must act to save the people whom Corrie’s father calls “The apple of God’s eye.”

Corrie and her family go to extraordinary lengths to feed, house, and protect many Jewish people.  She and her family build a secret room in their house, “The Angels’ Den,” where Jewish people hide from the Gestapo. The kids and I are completely enthralled with their courage and strength to do what is right, save the lives others, even though they are risking their own lives. I think of the verse John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

I don’t want to tell you any more of the story because I hope you find this book and read it for yourselves.  Corrie’s strength and faith during the holocaust and her forgiveness for those who so badly wronged her are a testimony of what God can do in a surrendered life even in the darkest of times. It is truly an awe-inspiring page turner. You won’t believe some of the miracles that happened to her!

I’ll leave you with my favorite Corrie ten Boom quote.

This book is part of a series called Christian Heroes Then and Now, which our family loves. We have read the biographies of Eric Liddel, Ben Carson, Gladys Aylward, Elisbeth Elliot, and several others. And there are many, many more. If you love to read about Christian heroes, I encourage to check this series out!