When I think of stories that exemplify the kind of forgiveness that we can offer through the strength of Jesus, I can't help but think of Corrie Ten Boom.
Corrie and her sister Betsie were Dutch ladies captured by the German Gestapo during World War II and imprisoned. They had been trying to hide and save Jews from the Holocaust. They were finally sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.
At Ravensbruck they witnessed all the horrors of the camps that have since become all too familiar. They were surrounded with women that faced terrible torture and horrific suffering at the brutal hands of their captors.
Each morning they were forced to stand, rain, hail or snow, for 2-3 hours for roll-call. In her book, the Hiding Place, Corrie recounts the events of one morning, in the middle of winter, when a guard began to whip and beat a young disabled girl two rows ahead of the sisters until she stopped screaming and lay still in the street.
“Betsie,” Corrie whispered to her sister, “what can we do for these people? Afterwards I mean. Can’t we make a home for them and care for them and love them?”
“Corrie, I pray every day that we will be allowed to do this! To show them that love is greater!”
Corrie, goes on to write, “…it wasn’t until I was gathering twigs later in the morning that I realized that I had been thinking of the [disabled], and Betsie of their persecutors.”
Six months after her arrest Betsie died in the concentration camp. Before she died she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still."
Less that a fortnight after her sister's death Corrie was mistakenly released due to a clerical error. Only a few days after her release all the women in her age group were executed by the guards.
When the war finished Corrie ran a recovery center in Holland for all the people who needed a home. Not just for the disabled and her fellow prisoners, but even the 'traitorous' Dutch who had collaborated with the Germans; many of whom were outcast by society. Additionally, Corrie travelled the world sharing her story, preaching the Gospel, and encouraging people to forgive.
Then one day, only a year after she had been released, speaking in Munich, Germany, one of her S.S. prison guards approached her after the service. She writes,
Corrie and her sister Betsie were Dutch ladies captured by the German Gestapo during World War II and imprisoned. They had been trying to hide and save Jews from the Holocaust. They were finally sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany.
At Ravensbruck they witnessed all the horrors of the camps that have since become all too familiar. They were surrounded with women that faced terrible torture and horrific suffering at the brutal hands of their captors.
Each morning they were forced to stand, rain, hail or snow, for 2-3 hours for roll-call. In her book, the Hiding Place, Corrie recounts the events of one morning, in the middle of winter, when a guard began to whip and beat a young disabled girl two rows ahead of the sisters until she stopped screaming and lay still in the street.
“Betsie,” Corrie whispered to her sister, “what can we do for these people? Afterwards I mean. Can’t we make a home for them and care for them and love them?”
“Corrie, I pray every day that we will be allowed to do this! To show them that love is greater!”
Corrie, goes on to write, “…it wasn’t until I was gathering twigs later in the morning that I realized that I had been thinking of the [disabled], and Betsie of their persecutors.”
Six months after her arrest Betsie died in the concentration camp. Before she died she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still."
Less that a fortnight after her sister's death Corrie was mistakenly released due to a clerical error. Only a few days after her release all the women in her age group were executed by the guards.
When the war finished Corrie ran a recovery center in Holland for all the people who needed a home. Not just for the disabled and her fellow prisoners, but even the 'traitorous' Dutch who had collaborated with the Germans; many of whom were outcast by society. Additionally, Corrie travelled the world sharing her story, preaching the Gospel, and encouraging people to forgive.
Then one day, only a year after she had been released, speaking in Munich, Germany, one of her S.S. prison guards approached her after the service. She writes,
“[there] I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck…He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing.
‘How grateful I am for your message Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often…the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. 'Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.'
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.”
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often…the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. 'Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.'
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.”
Corrie goes on to write,
“And so I discovered, that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
- What is significant about Corrie's story of forgiveness?
- How was Corrie able to show such forgiveness?
- How does that lead you to pray?
You can read the dramatic story of Corrie and the Ten Boom family in The Hiding Place.