50 Fun Facts About The Hiding Place

In The Hiding Place, which pests kept guards out of Barracks 28, letting the sisters hold Bible readings?

Fleas swarmed the bunks so thickly that the guards refused to step inside. Betsie had insisted on thanking God for them weeks before either sister knew why the room went unsupervised.

Corrie ten Boom's release from Ravensbrück, days after her sister Betsie died there, was later blamed on what?

A clerical error set her free, she was told afterwards. A week after she walked out, the women of her age group in the camp were sent to the gas chambers.

Corrie ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place, died in 1983 at the age of 91 on which day?

Her own birthday, 15 April, was also the day she died in 1983. A stroke five years earlier had taken away the speech that carried her story to more than 60 countries.

In The Hiding Place, the ten Booms hide Jews half a block from the police station in which Dutch city?

Haarlem had known the family shop since 1837. The house stood on the main shopping street, so close to police headquarters that every new arrival was a risk.

In The Hiding Place, what does Fred Koornstra supply to Corrie each month after faking a robbery at his office?

Ration cards were the key to placing fugitives, because none were issued to Jews. Corrie meant to ask for a few and heard herself request a hundred; Fred turned up with two black eyes and the full stack.

In The Hiding Place, prisoners at Corrie's jail shout news between cells while the guards attend a party for whom?

Adolf Hitler was being toasted by the guards that April afternoon, so names could be relayed down the corridor. Corrie learned that everyone seized in the raid had been freed except Betsie, with no word of Father.

In The Hiding Place, Father calms young Corrie's dread of death by comparing God's strength to which everyday item?

A train ticket, Father says, is handed over only at the moment of boarding, and strength arrives the same way. Corrie leans on the lesson decades later in the camps.

In The Hiding Place, which Dickens-inspired nickname does the ten Boom family give its wealthy friend Herman Sluring?

Pickwick earned the name by looking like the illustrations of the Dickens character. Corrie later finds the genial customer at the centre of the local underground, and he sends the architect who builds the secret room.

In The Hiding Place, the architect builds the secret room behind a false brick wall in which room of the Beje?

Corrie's bedroom sat at the very top of the house, giving fugitives the longest head start on a search. The space held six people, and all six stayed undiscovered during the raid.

In The Hiding Place, what does Corrie's nephew Peter play on a church organ that leads to his arrest?

The Dutch national anthem had just been outlawed by the occupiers, and the whole congregation rose to sing along. The Gestapo came for Peter within days and held him for two months.

In The Hiding Place, which university friend of Corrie's brother wins her heart, then marries a wealthier woman?

Karel walked with her daily and talked of a shared future, but his family expected a rich match. Father's advice that night, to give the blocked love back to God, stayed with Corrie for life.

In The Hiding Place, which Dutch informer betrays the ten Booms after asking for money to free his wife?

Jan Vogel worked with the Gestapo and exposed several resistance groups. When Corrie learns his name in the camps she cannot sleep for rage, until Betsie's pity for him moves her to pray for him too.

In The Hiding Place, which woman in Corrie's family tells the Gestapo that her houseguest Annaliese is Jewish?

Nollie believed that God honours the truth and would protect the girl. She went to prison for her answer, yet within a week the underground had freed Annaliese along with dozens of other Jews held in Amsterdam.

In The Hiding Place, which ordained brother of Corrie arrives at a family party with a Jewish refugee from Germany?

Willem had studied antisemitism for his doctorate in Germany and saw the danger early. By the late 1930s his nursing home was already a refuge for Jews fleeing the Nazis.

In The Hiding Place, which German apprentice does Father dismiss for abusing the old repairman Christoffels?

Otto bragged of his Nazi youth group and sneered at the Old Testament, yet Father kept excusing him as lonely. He was sent away only after shoving the old man's face against a brick wall.

In The Hiding Place, which nickname do Corrie and Father give Harry de Vries, a stranger met on daily walks?

The Bulldog walked two dogs whose faces matched his own. Under the occupation Harry poisoned his pets rather than leave them behind if he was taken, and the ten Booms began welcoming him after dark.

In The Hiding Place, which nickname does Corrie give the Ravensbrück guard with a shiny dress under her uniform?

The Snake is vicious at roll call, yet she is the guard who orders a stretcher when Betsie can no longer move. The General, another nickname in the book, belongs to a silent prison matron.

In The Hiding Place, which German lieutenant questions Corrie in a hut, then asks her about the Bible?

Rahms confesses that he hates his prison work and fears for his wife and children in Germany. Corrie had expected a trap, and instead found herself telling her interrogator about light in a dark world.

In The Hiding Place, which surname do the underground workers Corrie meets all use as an alias?

Smit was such a common cover name that Father asked the architect which Smits he was related to. Meyer Mossel got it too, joining the household as Eusebius Smit.

What was the first name of Corrie ten Boom's father, who died in custody days after the family's arrest?

Casper ten Boom was 84 when the Gestapo offered to send him home if he caused no more trouble. He answered that he would open his door to the next person who knocked, and he stayed a prisoner.

After the raid in The Hiding Place, the ten Booms are held at which seaside prison nicknamed the Oranjehotel?

Scheveningen prison in The Hague was dubbed the Oranjehotel as a wry salute to inmates loyal to the House of Orange. More than 25,000 people passed through its cells under the occupation.

In The Hiding Place, Corrie and Betsie are reunited on the way to which concentration camp inside the Netherlands?

Vught raised and crushed the sisters' hopes in a single day. They were handed pink forms said to mean release, gave away their few belongings, and were then marched into the main camp.

In The Hiding Place, which illness has kept Corrie in bed for two days when the Gestapo raid the Beje?

Influenza left her too feverish to weigh up the stranger who came asking for money, and she was back in bed when the raid began. A prison doctor later noted her as pre-tubercular, hoping it would help her.

In The Hiding Place, what does a prison nurse slip to the sick Corrie along with soap and safety pins?

The four Gospels came as small booklets tucked in with the soap, and her cellmates would not touch them. Being caught with scripture meant extra punishment, yet Corrie later gave the booklets away one by one.

In The Hiding Place, which small visitors to her solitary cell does Corrie feed crumbs to keep them coming back?

Ants were her only company after weeks alone, so she saved bread crumbs to draw them back. She learned later that she had been isolated because her illness was thought contagious, not as a punishment.

In The Hiding Place, which legal formality does a kindly German officer use as a pretext to reunite Corrie's family?

Reading Father's will required the family to be present under Dutch law, or so the officer claimed. In that courtyard Corrie heard that the Jews left in the secret room had all slipped out past the police watch.

In The Hiding Place, which garment from a family parcel does Corrie smuggle into Ravensbrück to keep Betsie warm?

A blue sweater came in the parcel her married sister sent to the prison, and it gives a late chapter its title. Corrie hid it with her Bible under shower-room benches to get both past the camp search.

In The Hiding Place, which of Corrie's smuggled supplies never seems to run out, however many prisoners share it?

A bottle of vitamin oil went on giving drops for a widening circle of sick women, which Betsie compared to the widow's oil jar in scripture. It ran dry the night a hospital worker smuggled them a new supply.

In The Hiding Place, the radios Corrie assembles as a prisoner, and is told to botch, are destined for which machines?

Fighter planes of the German air force were to carry the sets, so the prisoner-foreman told Corrie to slow down and quietly miswired each one. She later learned his son had been shot in the camp.

In The Hiding Place, which condition in Corrie's legs keeps her in the camp hospital after her discharge is signed?

Edema had swollen her legs, and no prisoner was sent out looking unfit. She spent the wait carrying bedpans around a ward where nobody else would, stunned at how grateful the patients were.

What are the ten Booms celebrating with a houseful of guests in the opening chapter of The Hiding Place?

The shop's centenary fell in January 1937, and the whole town came with flowers. The mood turns when Corrie's brother arrives with a Jewish man whose beard had been set alight by youths in Germany.

The title of The Hiding Place echoes a verse Father reads aloud from which book of the Bible?

Psalms supplied the phrase: Father reads it at breakfast on the morning six-year-old Corrie refuses to go to school. The title also points to the literal secret room, so it carries a double meaning.

The Beje, the ten Boom home where the secret room of The Hiding Place survives, now serves as what?

A museum has filled the house since 1988. Visitors can peer into the secret room through an opening cut in the false wall, and see how little space six people had.

In The Hiding Place, the ten Booms are dismayed when which Dutch queen leaves for England during the invasion?

Wilhelmina crossed the North Sea on a British destroyer and led the government in exile. Her radio broadcasts home made her a symbol of resistance, and the ten Booms hid a set so they could keep listening.

In The Hiding Place, which lifelong illness leaves Betsie ten Boom frail and leads her never to marry?

Pernicious anemia had kept Betsie from skating and games as a child, and she grew up the careful elder sister. She ran the house while Corrie took over the shop's books.

In The Hiding Place, which illness does Corrie track in her aunt Tante Jans with a weekly blood test?

Diabetes was then a death sentence, and Corrie learned to run the test at home to save the doctor's fee. When the liquid finally turned black, Jans met the news with a calm that astonished the family.

In The Hiding Place, which condition makes 76-year-old Mary Itallie the riskiest guest to hide in the secret room?

Asthma made her wheeze loudly enough to give the others away, so the household put her stay to a secret ballot. Everyone voted to keep her, and Corrie prayed for her breathing to quieten as the Gestapo searched.

In The Hiding Place, where are Corrie's nephews hiding when their young sister tells soldiers the truth?

Under the kitchen table lay a trap door to a hollow in the basement, and Corrie had just draped a cloth over it. When the soldiers looked and saw nobody, the girl's laughter made it pass as a prank.

In The Hiding Place, what does Father ask young Corrie to lift to show some knowledge is too heavy for children?

His travelling case, packed with timepieces and spare parts from the Amsterdam wholesalers, was more than she could budge. In the camps Corrie asks God to carry the sight of cruelty for her in the same way.

After a church service in which German city, in The Hiding Place, does a former camp guard offer Corrie his hand?

Munich is where she froze, unable at first to lift her arm to a man who had guarded her and Betsie. She prayed for a forgiveness she could not feel, and found her hand rising to take his.

The 1975 film of The Hiding Place was produced by World Wide Pictures, the film arm of which evangelist's ministry?

Billy Graham's wife Ruth had met Corrie in Switzerland years earlier and urged writers to take up her story. The film became the most widely seen picture his studio ever made.

What was thrown into the Beverly Hills cinema at the 1975 premiere of The Hiding Place, forcing an evacuation?

A tear-gas canister marked with a swastika cleared the theatre, and the preacher whose studio made the film held an impromptu street meeting outside. The premiere went ahead the following night.

Which couple, co-writers of The Cross and the Switchblade, shaped Corrie ten Boom's story into The Hiding Place?

John and Elizabeth Sherrill met Corrie's story while researching another book and judged that she deserved one of her own. She was already in her mid-seventies when they began.

Which title did Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem confer on Corrie ten Boom in 1967?

Righteous Among the Nations is the honour Israel reserves for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. Corrie was invited to plant a tree at the memorial, and her father and Betsie were added decades later.

In The Hiding Place, what had Meyer Mossel, the fugitive renamed Eusie, been at an Amsterdam synagogue?

The cantor showed in his voice: asked to give the evening Bible reading, he half sang it. His features were thought too recognisably Jewish for other safe houses, so he stayed for good.

In The Hiding Place, a window sign for which wristwatch brand signals that the Beje is safe to enter?

Alpina was the name on a small triangular sign set in the window when the coast was clear. After the raid began it was put back in place, and callers kept walking into the Gestapo trap all day.

In The Hiding Place, which colour does Corrie have a former concentration camp painted when it becomes a refuge?

Green, the colour of spring shoots, was what Betsie had pictured for the barracks before she died, along with window boxes. The camp reopened as a home for Germans left homeless by the war.

In The Hiding Place, a widow donates her 56-room mansion as Corrie's first recovery home in which Dutch town?

Bloemendaal's mansion matched what Betsie had described from her prison bunk, down to the inlaid floors. Its owner had vowed to give it up if her youngest son came home from the war, and he did.

The co-writers of The Hiding Place first heard Corrie's story while researching which book about Brother Andrew?

God's Smuggler follows a Dutch missionary who carried Bibles across Cold War borders, with Corrie as a favourite travelling companion. Her stories kept interrupting the interviews until she got a book of her own.

Jeannette Clift's turn as Corrie in the 1975 film The Hiding Place earned a nomination for which American award?

A Golden Globe nod for New Star of the Year went to a Houston stage actress who had founded her own theatre company. Julie Harris, cast as Betsie, already held four Tony Awards.