The Corrie ten Boom House

Thanks to a tiny, concealed room in their modest house in central Haarlem, Corrie ten Boom and her family saved the lives of hundreds of Jews and other underground figures during the German occupation of Holland in World War II.

The ten Booms were by no means the only family to risk their lives in this way but Corrie was a deeply religious woman who later exported her brand of evangelism to the rest of the world, inspired by her wartime experiences. Perhaps this is why even now, she is better known in hundreds of Christian communities abroad than she is in her native Holland, which has become more secular with each decade. Foreign visitors make up the majority of those who come to see the ten Boom museum nowadays, a restored version of the house as it would have been during the war.

The ten Boom family were all devoted members of the Dutch Reformed Church and were already involved in social work in Haarlem when Holland was invaded by the Germans in May 1940. As more and more Jews were deported, Corrie and her family gradually built up their own contact network with help from the Dutch Resistance, hiding refugees and passing them on to safe houses in nearby rural areas when the chance presented itself.

The whole operation ended in February 1944 when someone tipped off the Gestapo, who immediately raided the house. The occupants within were alerted by the buzzers but there was no time to set the window display warning. More than thirty visitors to the shop, including other ten Boom family members, were arrested that day along with Corrie, her sister and her father. The Germans found evidence of Resistance documents and arrested the family for possessing illegal ration-cards. However, they never did find the concealed room nor its last occupants.

Visiting address

Corrie ten Boom Museum - "The Hiding Place"
Barteljoristraat 19
2011 RA Haarlem
Tel: 023-5310823
Fax: 023-5251515

Opening hours

April-October: Tue-Sat, 10:00-16:00
November-March Tue-Sat 11:00-15:00
Closed on Sundays and public holidays.

Admittance

Free of charge, but donations may be left!

Sights in the Haarlem area

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