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the hiding place Corrie ten boom Elizabeth & John sherrill baker publishing
T
he echoes of an imminent war between allied forces and Nazi Germany were coming to the nether lands of polders and tulips. One night, with the Dutch people glued to their radios, the prime minister assured the country that he had guaranteed the Netherlands’ neutrality in the conflict and that the war’s dark clouds did not cover the nation. Five hours later, the Luftwaffe bombers charged and the sound of sirens was heard across Amsterdam’s canals. And so were the first bombs.
Among the millions who couldn’t believe what was happening were two sisters in a typical house of the Haarlem, Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom, the daughters of an expert 12 COMPENDIUM 2018
watchmaker, whose lives were deeply affected by these events. Barteljoris Street was an example of ethnic and religious plurality of cosmopolitan Amsterdam. Christians, Baptists or
