Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

 

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Corrie is struck by a German officer. A Jewish man is kicked repeatedly. People are shot, die and are buried, but few details are given. It is stated that 700 men were executed in a prison in one day. A “feeble minded” prisoner is beaten.

Adult Themes: Jews are arrested and imprisoned as well as those who aid them. Nollie is to be married and the night before the wedding Aunt Anna takes her upstairs for a talk about intimacy. Prisoners are wedged into a cargo train for three days under terrible conditions, there is no water or any form of sanitation. Female prisoners are forced to undress for medical inspections in front of male officers. The old and sick are taken away from camps. It is assumed that they will be killed. The inhumane way people are capable of treating one another.

Synopsis

The Ten Boom family is an ideal Christian family, they read the Bible together, take care of family members and friends in need, help their neighbors and run a family watch making business. They are a well-loved and integral part of the fabric of Haarlem, but when World War II and its atrocities come to their doorstep in Holland, the family is tested to its very limits. With true Christian love and courage, the family becomes instrumental in helping many in danger find safety, but they cannot protect themselves from the brutality and madness that was rampant during the war. Several members of the Ten Boom family are imprisoned for helping Jews escape the Nazis, but while Corrie and Betsy are imprisoned, they find a way to spread the Savior’s love to all they come in contact with. They are able, somehow, to defeat the human tendency of self preservation at any cost, and focus on helping and sharing with their fellow inmates. They bring light and love to a hideous place and make a difference in the lives of the people around them.

After her release from prison, Corrie spends the rest of her life ministering to those in need and developing the ability to love and forgive those who imprisoned and harmed her.

A beautiful story illustrating the difference one person, or one family, can make. As children, the Ten Booms were taught by a loving father who counted all kinds of people as his friends, “young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate servant girls – only to father did it seem that they were all alike. That was Father’s secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn’t know they were there.” With this background of love and acceptance, the family was prepared to help numerous people find safety during an inherently unsafe period of history. But once Corrie and Betsy were imprisoned, their real work began, ministering to and serving those around them, sharing their small, threadbare quilt, tearing their Bible into sections to share with others, distributing what little they had to other prisoners and all the while fighting the “special temptation of concentration-camp life: the temptation to think only of oneself.” Their ability to put others first and trust in Jesus Christ is inspirational and humbling. Corrie’s introspection made me look at my own comfortable life and think about how I can better serve others in my own circumstance.

Although The Hiding Place deals with difficult subject matter, it is written entirely without the gruesome detail often present in books about World War II. Recommended for grades 8 and older.