Boom ten Cornelia ; Father: Casper ; Sister: Elisabeth

Boom Ten, Casper Boom Ten, Cornelia Arnolda Johanna Boom Ten, Elisabeth Casper ten Boom, known as Grandpa, and his two daughters, Cornelia, known as Corrie or Aunt Kees, and Elisabeth, nicknamed Betsie or Aunt Bep, owned a shop where they sold watches and clocks in Haarlem, North Holland. Together they ran a household that became legendary, remembered for being committed to hiding Jews and also for being a major base for resistance activities. The family belonged to the Calvinist Church and they were fiercely anti-German. In late 1942, Casper, Corrie and Betsie joined the BeJe Resistance group, an organization whose name came from the abbreviation of Bartelijorisstraat, the street where the Ten Boom family lived. The Beje group found shelter for dozens of Jews, including many children. Corrie then helped the children to find a safe house, or she passed them on to a representative from another district. The Ten Booms also opened their home to a large amount of fugitives and Resistance workers. During the war, about eighty Resistance workers belonging to various underground movements were regular visitors at the Ten Boom’s home. Throughout all this time, Corrie took charge of providing food for the many people hiding in her home, including some Jews: Meijer Mossel (alias Eusie), and Hansje Frankfort-Israels (alias Thea), a nurse. Whenever a Jewish woman in hiding in their home was about to give birth, Corrie or Betsie arranged a bed in a maternity ward. If it was a baby boy, the circumstances dictated that the circumcision was postponed. Over and above the deep concern the Ten Booms showed for those hiding in their home, Corrie also looked out for fugitives hiding elsewhere. Whenever other safe addresses were located, Corrie insisted on checking them out before sending people to hide in them. After Jews had moved into a hideout, Corrie maintained regular contact with them and supplied them with ration cards. Throughout the war the Ten Booms managed to maintaingood relations with the police. This proved especially useful after Corrie’s sister Nollie was arrested, and the police warned Corrie of imminent problems. Nollie knew about the Jews hiding with the Ten Booms and about BeJe, and consequently all those involved fled to various other addresses. Financing the upkeep of so many people was never a problem. The wealthier Jews paid for the less well off; BeJe members acquired money from various sources; and the remainder was paid from the revenue earned by the Ten Boom’s lucrative jewelry shop. On February 28, 1944, the Ten Boom family was betrayed and their home was raided. The people in hiding managed to escape in time. However, all the members of the Ten Boom family and thirty other co-workers were apprehended and taken to prison for interrogation. The prisoners did not reveal any new information to their interrogators. Casper, who was aged eighty-four at the time, held out for only ten days, before he died in the Oranjehotel in Scheveningen, South Holland. Nollie survived the imprisonment, and her brother, Willem, survived the incarceration but died shortly after being released. The Jewish fugitives remained hidden for the rest of the war. Throughout this period, Corrie and Betsie remained interned in various camps. They were held in the Oranjehotel for three months before being taken to the Vught concentration camp. They tried to keep up their courage and to not let their faith waver. In Germany, in September 1944, they were transferred, along with all the other inmates in Vught, to Ravensbrück. In December 1944, Betsie died. Corrie was released two weeks later, and she returned to Haarlem where she stayed until the liberation in May 1945. After the war Corrie wrote several books about her wartime experiences. On December 12, 1967, Yad Vashem recognized Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom as Righteous Among the Nations. On July 22, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Casper and Elisabeth Ten Boom as Righteous Amongthe Nations.