Reshaped: Day 19 - Corrie ten Boom

 Ravensbruck

A knock came. There stood a man begging money for his Jewish wife’s release. His claim - an officer would take bribe money for her release. Corrie hesitated. When the man persisted she told him to come back the next day. But when he returned, he brought the Gestapo with him. He was a plant. Casper, Corrie, and Betsie were arrested and thrown into prison. They faced solitary confinement in cells devoid of sunlight. To Corrie and Betsie’s horror, Casper passed away only ten days into his sentence. It would be three months before their cell doors would open but not to freedom. To somewhere else.

The prisoners were rounded up and loaded onto a train. Each car was overstuffed with passengers for days of inhumane conditions. After four days the train slowed and stopped. Like injured animals, the women slowly spilled from the mouth of the cars. After a long hike on wobbly legs barely able to carry their own weight, they came upon gray barracks towering ominous in the distance - Ravensbruck – the notorious women’s extermination camp.
 
Fear gripped their hearts. The stories of this dark place reached all the way to Haarlem. Corrie worried about Betsie. She had a fragile frame. How could she face such harsh conditions? Corrie’s protection of her older sister was fierce.
 
The soldiers were hardened, violent men and women. They corralled the prisoners like herded animals forcing them through inspections and community showers before they were made to stand in lines staring at a gray lifeless landscape. The barracks had wooden structures three rows high for the prisoners to pile onto. To their disdain, the straw was infested with fleas. The unsanitary camp was the perfect environment for the spread of disease. From morning till night the women were forced to work in barbaric conditions lifting, digging, and hauling what required the strength of men. If any faltered, they were met with many thrashes of a whip or even death. And yet…
 
Betsie and Corrie brought the gospel to the women who were so desperate for hope. God enabled Corrie to conceal a small Bible that went miraculously undetected in all inspections. At night they conducted Bible studies and held worship services. Amazingly the fleas kept the soldiers away from their barracks so they had the freedom to study and worship without disruption.

Corrie and Betsie brought the light of Jesus into the darkest haven. Love replaced hatred. Joy replaced sorrow. Salvation came to the lost. Had God spared the ten Booms from Ravensbruck, many lost souls would have perished forever.