Corrie ten Boom

Cornelia 'Corrie' ten Boom (1892 – 1983) was a Dutch watchmaker and Christian humanitarian whose home became a sanctuary during the Holocaust. The first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands, Corrie and her elderly father Casper and sister Betsie converted their home (*The Béje*) into a major hub of the Dutch underground resistance (*De Schuilplaats*, 'The Hiding Place').

Behind a false brick wall in Corrie's bedroom, they constructed a tiny secret room capable of hiding six people. The Ten Boom family sheltered hundreds of Jews, underground students, and Dutch resisters, providing stolen ration cards and organizing safe country houses. Betrayed in February 1944, the family was arrested, though the six people in the secret room went undiscovered and were later rescued. Corrie survived the horrors of the Ravensbrück concentration camp—where her sister Betsie perished—due to a clerical error in December 1944. She spent the rest of her life traveling sixty countries preaching forgiveness, reconciliation, and building rehabilitation centers for victims of war.