The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place

Corrie Ten Boom

Published 1971

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This has been on my to-do list for two weeks. Today we are stuck at home awaiting Hurricane Ian, and everything has been shut down for at least two days;  I suppose this is a good time to write.

The Hiding Place is a gem. This is a memoir, a history, and a faithful testimony to God's grace, mercy, and power combined into a fast-paced Holocaust narrative. Corrie Ten Boom lived in Holland during the occupation of the Nazis and participated in smuggling and hiding Jews in, out, and around Holland. She lived with her elderly father and older sister, Betsie, running a very successful watch and repair business on the ground floor of their three-story home. They were Christians, and they consistently and daily practiced their deep faith of loving their neighbors. Hence it was no surprise that during the occupation, Corrie, Betsie, and her father, as well as the extended family quickly became involved in the "underground," doing all they could to protect Jews from the Nazis. 

But the story is not about the underground operation. It is about what happened after the operation was exposed and they were all arrested. After three months in solitary confinement, only Corrie and Betsie were sent to a political concentration camp and later Ravensbrük. It was then that Corrie began to understand and learn more about the Hand of God, particularly through the faith of Betsie. Keep in mind, Corrie grew up in a faithful household and very well knew the Lord; however, it is through trials that faith grows and matures, and that is the lesson of The Hiding Place.

LESSONS AND THEMES

Normally, I like to do a narrative of the books I read, including spoilers, but I am not in a position to do that right now, given all that is going on about me. But I want to stress how important this story is to people, even today. This is truly what loving one's neighbor looks like. Even the world likes to use the phrase; and I ask you, "Is this what their version of 'love your neighbor' looks like?" I doubt this is what they mean. 

Love your neighbor is so difficult and impossible without God. Loving your neighbor means sacrificing your comfort, safety, and well-being in exchange for the comfort, safety, and well-being of others. Loving your neighbor means forgiving your enemies. How many of us can do that? Betsie demonstrated to Corrie how to pray for the ones who beat them, cursed them, and hated them. Betsie showed Corrie how to love their enemies. Forgiveness is a major theme of the story, and with forgiveness is love, as well as God's power.

Of the examples about forgiveness, love, and God's power, Corrie said: 

And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness and 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. 

Other exceptional truths from this story include how perfect God's timing is; how He uses people and events for His purpose; how He rewards obedience, especially for telling the truth; and how we cannot do anything difficult apart from Him. Naturally, we do not want to do anything hard; but if we first obey, God gives the power to do so, and later our hearts will follow. (This is why follow your heart is bad advice.)

Taken from the preface of my copy, there are other lessons to learn from The Hiding Place, such as 

• handling separation
• getting along with less
• security in the midst of insecurity
• how God can use weakness
• facing death
• dealing with difficult people
• what to do when evil wins.

On that last point, Corrie asked within the story this pertinent question: "How should a Christian act when evil [is] in power?" If that is not a relevant question today, I am not sure I know what is. 

I will share this: the title The Hiding Place has two-fold meaning. The first is that the Ten Booms used their home to hide Jews, yes. However, the most beautiful meaning is another major theme, and it is that God is our hiding place. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path . . . Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word . . .

WHO SHOULD READ THIS?

The Hiding Place is essential reading for Christians to be encouraged about how to live in an evil world; however it is good for non-Christians to read, too, because so many complain that they know Christians who live as hypocrites. Many do. And it may be because they are not truly Christian. If you want to know what a true Christian looks like, learn from the Ten Booms. Don't get the wrong idea from a hypocrite. 

Finally, I will leave you with a statement Corrie made about recalling the past. She said:

But this is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see. 

(Don't listen to those who shun history - or the past. History is absolutely necessary to the present! Learn it!) 

Helga's Diary by Helga Weiss

Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp

Helga Weiss

Published 2013

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Why bother reading another Holocaust story? 

To answer that, Francine Prose noted in her introduction of Helga's Diary that more than a century later it still seems amazing that such a thing could have happened: 

that millions of innocent men, women, and children could have been murdered by the Nazi's remarkably efficient killing system, in broad daylight and with the full knowledge of so many.  The further these horrors recede into history, the fewer the living witnesses who remain to provide us with firsthand accounts, the more important it is for those amazing stories to continue to be told. 

Helga was a young Jewish girl in Prague, who began a diary at age ten. It was 1938, before the Nazi occupation. Helga recorded her observations and experiences of the Nazi treatment --  the increasing  demoralization, humiliation, and absolute seclusion from society; the growing prohibitions of public use, like theaters, parks, schools, and travel; and later the physical mark of the yellow star. She saw her neighbors, friends, and family taken away when called up for transport, which they suspected would mean a work camp. 

As is typical of young children, Helga adapted to the changes in her new world, and seemed to only want order and sanity. She remained cheerfully optimistic throughout much of her experiences, including suppressing any feelings of anguish or sadness. 

The Guardian: artwork of Helga Weiss

At the end of December 1941, Helga and her parents were selected for transport and ended up at Terezin. Here the Jews recreated and maintained as close to normal life as possible by working, keeping house, cooking, playing, and doing school. Their lives were made more difficult, almost impossible, and yet they still rose to the occasion to confront every challenge and excelled. 

Helga's writings in her diary demonstrated the spirit to overcome obstacles, even tolerate things like bed bugs and fleas, and at times hunger. At one point she said:

They want to destroy us but we won't give in.

By October 1944, Helga and her mother were selected for transport out of Terezin, to Auschwitz. She gave her diary to an uncle, along with her drawings, in which he hid behind a brick wall. The remainder of her entries were from memory, written down after she was liberated. 

She recalled the miserable long trip to Auschwitz, the hunger, the sleeplessness, the cold. She described how freezing was worse than starving, and I remembered that Frederick Douglass said the same: he could stand being hungry, but being cold was unbearable. 

At Auschwitz, Helga and her mother lied about their ages so that they would remain together, not too young or too old, which could mean instant gas chamber. It worked. They were given very little to wear and very little to eat. Their work was tedious and dangerous, but again, they rose to the occasion. Often times they stood for hours and hours in insufferable temperatures for roll call, and sometimes it was just to wear them down mentally. 

As it became obvious that the Allies were closing in on Germany, the prisoners were removed to Freiberg and then Mauthausen. They had been on one transport for sixteen days. Then the Nazis forced them on foot. Helga wrote:

I can't go on. I'll lie down here - let them shoot me. If they'd only let us rest a moment, an instant, just to catch our breath. Or allow us a drink. If we'd been allowed to drink from the pump at the train station, we'd be able to go on. They drive us on at a mad pace. A drop of water, a single swallow. . . I can't go on. 

May 1945, something was happening. In the middle of distributing soup, Helga heard voices. The people dispersed. She dropped her soup bowl and ran outside. "A white flag flutters! A flag of peace!"

Mauthusen has capitulated, peace has come to us. My legs break into a run all by themselves. Muddied, in my bare stockings just the way I'd run out, I arrive back at our space. Mom stands up- where has she found the strength all of a sudden? I hang myself around her neck and, between kisses, I spill out, jubilantly, the word we've dreamed of for years. The word we indulged ourselves with in the most secret corner of our being and feared to pronounce aloud. That sacred word, which contains so many beautiful unbelievable  things: liberty, freedom. The end of tyranny, misery, slavery, hunger. 

We survived the war. PEACE IS HERE. 

Helga and her mother returned to Prague, only to suffer under the Communist regime of the U.S.S.R. She never saw her father again. He probably died in the gas chamber immediately after arriving at Auschwitz. Helga went on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts and became an artist. 

At the end of the diary, there is an interview with Helga. She was asked what contribution her diary [brought] to the stories of the Holocaust, and she said that her diary is truthful. It is "half-childish, accessible and expressive, and it will help people to understand those times." 

What I take away most is this passage: toward the very end of the war, as she sees the demise of the people in the camp, what she describes as "Death herself walking past." And, yet, even in her own demise she longs to reach them, to encourage them. 

You want to entice a smile on to these people's faces? Fool! Weeks, maybe months without food and drink. Yes, that's the last system. Physical and spiritual torture became commonplace and then -- the mortality rate wasn't high enough -- the sickbed, at the whim of lice and the typhus bacilli, what have these -- people? -- gone through?

Yes, they were once people. Healthy, strong, with their own will and thoughts, with feelings, interests, and love. Love for life, for good things, for beauty, with faith in a better tomorrow. What's left are phantoms, bodies, skeletons without souls. 

* * *

For me, I still need to read these Holocaust stories. They deserve to be read. I wish not to believe that man can be this evil, but -- yes, he can. There was a time when I did not think the Holocaust could ever happen again, but in the last two years, I have changed my mind. Man is still willing to practice segregation, prejudice, humiliation, separation, public shaming, class and group warfare, and just plain evil in order to gain power and control -- including my own government. Man does not seem to want to learn from history; but some, in fact, are desirous to capitalize on the very devilish systems of centralized power, control of the masses, suppression of truth, and elimination of powerless groups. Today's global power grabs are no different than the Nazis or the Romans. Man is all the same; he just finds new creative and technological ways to accomplish his evil.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer and Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer / Annie Barrows

Published 2008

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THE PLOT

After the end of WWII, Juliet, an aspiring British writer in a slump, was struggling to find new inspiration. Then a man named Dawsey contacted her for a book recommendation. He had read a book by Charles Lamb, and her name was on the inside cover.

They began to correspond, and Juliet learned that Dawsey was part of an intimate literary society that organized during the German Occupation of Guernsey, the mainland of the Channel Islands. The Society still met together to discuss books. Dawsey encouraged its current members to write to Juliet and talk about themselves, what they read, and what life was like during the Occupation.

Juliet

At the same time, Juliet was being pursued by a wealthy American journalist -- a relationship that developed very quickly. However, Juliet's interests were aching to know and understand more about the people of the Guernsey Lit Society, and she decided to spend some time in Guernsey and interview the members in person.

Because this novel is epistolary, Juliet kept in touch with her publisher, her publisher's sister, and a few others, and readers were able to continue to learn about the developments between Juliet and the literary members. For example, the founder of the Society, Elizabeth, had been missing since the Occupation. She had developed an intimate relationship with a kind German soldier and they had a child together. The little girl's name was Kit, and the members of the Society took turns caring for her since Elizabeth had been arrested and taken away. No one at the time knew Elizabeth's fate, and they hoped she would return home since the War had ended. 

Obviously, the relationship between Juliet and Dawsey was warming up, while Juliet's other love interest, the rich American, had shown himself to be controlling and suffocating; he surprised Juliet and Dawsey by arriving on Guernsey, and that was the end of that relationship. Juliet told him it was over, but not before it was apparent to Dawsey that Juliet had someone else in her life. So now he backed off.

Then one miscommunication led to another, and Juliet grew to believe that Dawsey had affections for a woman named Remy who had contacted Dawsey with news about Elizabeth. Because of Remy, the Society members now learned the sad truth about their dear friend Elizabeth. And now began the perplexing question of what to do about Kit.

The interesting character of Juliet, the kind of person she was, and how she cared about others mirrored the missing character, Elizabeth. Furthermore, Juliet's publisher suggested that instead of writing broadly about the Society and the history of the Occupation, Juliet should focus on Elizabeth and write the story through the narration of her life. Soon the history became a biography. Or was it really an autobiography?

THE THEME

One of the main themes of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is that you may never really know someone as well as you think you do. People will surprise you. There are always exceptions, and this seems to be a big message.

The Guernsey Literary Society

THE OPINION

My only complaint about this story is that the ending was too abrupt and I wanted to know more about the biography of Elizabeth. Gosh, I wanted to READ an actual biography about the fictional character! I wonder if it seemed abrupt because Mary Ann Shaffer started the story and her niece Annie Barrows finished it for her while Shaffer battled with illness. I did not look into it. 

But the good news is: everyone I talked to about this book told me it was her "favorite." Some had read it over and over again. Seems like everyone who read it wanted to rave about it. It definitely appealed to me in many ways. While it was heart breaking at times, it remained historically enlightening, entertaining, sweet, and engaging. Overall, it was a great idea for a story. Very agreeable. 

Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman

 

Maus I & II

My Father Bleeds History

And Here My Troubles Began

Art Spiegelman

Serialized 1980 - 1991 

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If you do not mind reading true accounts about the Holocaust, here is a powerful story. 

Art Spiegelman wrote about his father's life in Poland, before and during WWII, and particularly of his experience during Nazi occupation and inside the death camps, and afterward as a survivor while living in the United States. The story is drawn out as a graphic novel, and all of the characters are appointed as animals. For example, the Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Poles are pigs, Americans are dogs, and the British are fish, etc. 

The story switched back and forth between the modern period, while Art interviewed his father, and back into the past, as the main story unfolded in Europe. 

In the modern period, Art struggled in his relationship with his estranged father, who was neurotic and controlling; Art was candid about his father's racism, too, which is ironic given what he, Vladak, suffered at the hands of the Nazis. 

Vladak shared very personal and painful truths about his experiences, including the loss of his first child with his first wife, Anja, who was also part of the story. Vladak told of how he married into Anja's extremely wealthy and influential family; how privilege sustained them through the rapid economic and societal decline during Hitler's destruction of Europe; how Vladak had many connections and access to valuable items that he used throughout the occupation and later inside the labor camps to keep himself and his wife alive. At one point, they had to make a difficult decision about their young son, and it was devastating. While some of their decisions proved good and some not, they survived through to liberation. 

A few years later, Vladak and Anja had a second son, Art, and soon after immigrated to the United States. When Art was 20, his mother committed suicide. In despair, Vladak destroyed all of Anja's journals about her own experience in Auschwitz, which grieved Art because he would have really appreciated her story, too. 

These graphic novels - parts I and II - are quick reads, but also powerful, searing truth into the mind. Art decided to tell his father's story because, aside from sharing the truth with the world, he believed it would be beneficial to his father's well being to talk about it. And in addition, it helped change his heart about his relationship with his father.

Again, this is a very heavy topic, but one that I believe is a necessary part of history to learn and understand. It is also a story about survival, and it makes you wonder what you would do in order to survive such horror. I admit, it kept me up a few nights, but thankfully I am finally getting more sleep. 

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place

Corrie Ten Boom 

Published 1971

Dutch Biography

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The Hiding Place is about the ten Boom family, of Holland, who, with the aid of an underground organization, smuggled nearly 800 Dutch Jewish men, women, and children to safety, preserving their lives during WWII. They - the ten Boom family - paid the ultimate price with their own lives.

Corrie ten Boom was in her 40s when Hitler invaded Holland, and life changed drastically for her family and their watch repair business. Food and supplies became scarce and were rationed, curfews were set, young Dutch men were kidnapped and forced into the German army, and all forms of communication were confiscated. 

The ten Booms witnessed Jewish businesses close, Jews forced to wear the yellow Star of David, and finally, the disappearance of people. It was then that Corrie and her family wanted to do something to help God's people, as they referred to them. 

The ten Booms worked with the Dutch underground resistance smuggling Jews to the country, to homes where people willingly hid them. She managed to receive stolen ration cards, though she hated lying and stealing; nonetheless, it helped feed the extra people passing through her home. 

Eventually, the ten Booms had a secret space built inside Corrie's bedroom wall so they could hide the Jews staying with them. It was to be the hiding place. 

They knew it was only time before a raid, and they were prepared. In February, 1944, Corrie and her family, as well as 30 members of the underground, were arrested, but not before the six Jews in the ten Boom home fled into the hiding space. There they safely remained for three days until someone from the underground was able to rescue and secure them in another location. 

As for Corrie and her sister, Betsie, it was a different ending, an ordeal I struggle to put it into words. The specifics are horrifying, but I do suggest you read this for yourself.

What I rather write about is Corrie's character, and Betsie's, too. The ten Booms were a Christian family...the kind that followed Christ's example. Lying and stealing were frowned upon, but when  [man's government]* violated God's law, it was right to disobey government. And they did everything they needed to do to save the Jewish people who were targeted by the German occupation. 

*Sidebar: This was not a legitimate government because Holland was invaded, and a usurper was making his own perverse law the law of the land.

When I first read The Hiding Place several years ago, it made sense that the book was named after the hiding place in Corrie's bedroom; however, after this second read, I realize there is a second meaning. Corrie noted Scripture her father quoted: 

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word . . . Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe . . . 

 For I too had a hiding place when things were bad. Jesus was this place, the Rock cleft for me. 

Jesus was their hiding place; He is our hiding place. 

Corrie and Betsie remembered this throughout the year they were in prison, and it sustained them in the most amazing ways. Considering her situation, she reflected how the Gospels were a "pattern of God's activity," and, she wondered, "if defeat was only the beginning..."

     . . . what conceivable victory could come from a place like this."

Soon, Corrie learned that Betsie was safe in a separate cell, and that all of their other family members and friends had been released. Through a letter, she read that "all the watches in the closet [were] safe," which was code for "All six Jews left hiding in the closet were safe and placed in other locations. They escaped and were free!" She also found out that her father had died ten days after his arrest; though difficult to absorb, she found it a comfort to know he was now seeing Jesus face to face.

After four months at the Dutch holding prison, Corrie and Betsie were reunited and sent to Scheveningen prison, in Holland, for political dissidents. For the first time, Corrie marveled what kind of person her sister was because she prayed for the prison guards. "Betsie saw a wounded human being."

Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes...

Some how the sisters found out who had exposed their underground operations to the Gestapo.  Corrie said she could kill him, but Betsie had been praying for him. When Corrie was alone with her thoughts, she felt convicted that she had been guilty of the same sin, murder, because she murdered him with her heart and mouth. That night she forgave him.

When the world was closing in on Germany, in 1944, the prisoners were moved again, into Germany. Ravensbruck was the notorious women's extermination camp. It was here that one thing became evident to Corrie and Betsie "...from morning until lights-out, whenever we were not in ranks for roll call, our Bible was the center of an ever-widening circle of help and hope."

The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loves us."

The bunks in their barrack were infested with fleas, something Betsie said they should be thankful for..."Give thanks in all circumstances." Corrie was sure that there was no way she could be thankful for fleas, but Betsie clarified that it did not say to be thankful only in pleasant circumstances. Fleas were part of the world God had placed the sisters.

Since Corrie and Betsie had smuggled a Bible into Ravensbruck, they held nightly Bible meetings in their barrack with the other women. Initially, they were extremely careful not to alert the guards; but soon after, it was apparent that no guard would ever enter their barracks. Why? Fleas! (Be thankful in all things.)

Meanwhile, Betsie was physically perishing. Her health had been weak since they were arrested. Corrie did all she could to care for her sister's health, while her sister was always more concerned with the health and well being of others. It also seemed, the weaker she became, the bolder her witness.

When Corrie was thinking about how to help the prisoners after their release, providing a place for people to go, to care for and love them...Betsie was thinking about a place to help the German guards, "to show them that love is greater." Betsie loved their enemies and prayed for those who persecuted them.

Corrie wrote about how she struggled with the sin of selfishness and self-centeredness. She called it "the ploy of Satan." During a brief time when Betsie was in the "hospital" - which was not really a hospital, and I doubt there was actual medical help anywhere on the grounds - Corrie had to lead Bible meetings without her sister. She came to the story of Paul and his affliction. Three times he requested God to remove it from him, and three times God told Paul to rely on Him. It was then that Corrie understood that her sin had been a false belief in her own strength and power to transform, when it was all Christ.

I am sad to say that Betsie died shortly after this, and only twelve days before Corrie was released. Later it was learned that her release was probably a mistake, and furthermore, two weeks later, the women in her age group from her barracks were sent to the gas chamber.

Getting home was not easy. It seemed the whole world was void of love and care; but Corrie did make it back to her family home, to learn the fate of loved ones and more sad news.

In 1945, she opened a rehabilitation home in Holland for hurting people. Some had spent time in concentration camps and others spent years in hiding. Some were prisoners of the Japanese in Indonesia. Everyone had to learn forgiveness and to work out the sorrow within him.

One day, after a speaking engagement, a former S. S. guard of Ravensbruck came up to shake Corrie's hand, and Corrie froze.

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. 

Suddenly, when she raised her hand out to meet his, she felt "a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed [her]." Corrie learned that it is not our forgiveness or 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.

Isn't that beautiful? And it is true, too.

There are no 'ifs' in God's kingdom. I could hear [Betsie's] soft voice saying it. His timing is perfect. His will is our hiding place. Lord Jesus, keep me in Your will! Don't let me go mad by poking about outside it.

Is this book for you?

I am very tempted to say that everyone should read this book. It is written in a way that anyone who reads it, junior high age and up, can understand it. It speaks to the heart. It is about hatred and forgiveness, suffering and caring and true love. It is about the human condition. It is about changing hearts. It is about perseverance and doing hard things. It is a testament of God using others to do His work in this sin-filled world, so that it is not so ugly. And it is historical -- one gets a first hand account of the results of Nazi-Germany's evil and destruction beyond the Jewish people. It affected everyone. Yes, actually, everyone needs to read this book. 

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank  

Published 1947

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I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.

This was my third read of The Diary of a Young Girl. My first time was in high school, and instantly Anne Frank became my heroine because of her courage. I read it a second time as an adult to remind myself of specifics before I had one of my teenagers read it. But this third time was because I was eagerly craving to read it. Today it remains one of the most essential books I have ever read. I love this story, which is why it is part of my Personal Canon. 

Imagine how it came to be: Anne received a writing journal on her 13th birthday; but a few months later, she and her family were forced into hiding where Anne recorded life in the Secret Annex for the next two years, until discovery. Her diary was preserved and returned to her father, Otto Frank, who was the only surviving member of her family and the four other Jews living in the annex. Later Otto made the decision to share her writings, first privately, and later publicly with the world. 

Anne Frank was a spirited young girl, a German Jew living in Nazi-occupied Holland, during WWII. Her family was forced into hiding when it was apparent that time had run out and they had no other escape. They secretly moved into a hidden area of Otto's business, with the help of several Christian employees who worked there. Another couple, the Van Daans, their teenage son, Peter, and an elderly dentist, all shared the hiding place, which Anne called, "The Secret Annex." 

For two years, Anne wrote honestly of her life in hiding. She shared her hopes and joys, conflicts and burdens, fears and disappointments. It was, for Anne, an accelerated journey to maturity, as she wrote about her anticipated changes as a young woman and exposed her heart's desire for affection, love, justice, and truth. 

She was a young woman before her time, and dreamed of doing so much more with her life than to just follow in the footsteps of her mother and other women. She considered becoming a writer -- maybe a journalist or an author -- and said,

I want to get on; I can't imagine that I would have to lead the same sort of life as Mummy and Mrs. Van Daan and all the women who do their work and are then forgotten. I must have something besides a husband and children, something that I can devote myself to! 

She was extremely intelligent and thirsty for knowledge. Her favorite hobbies were writing and reading, collecting information to construct family trees of royal families (which is not an easy task), all kinds of history, Greek and Roman mythology, and film stars, art, poetry, and later, a deep appreciation for nature. Considering the situation the members of the Annex lived, there was never a shortage of books to read, while Otto regularly worked with Anne, her sister, Margot, and Peter, on their studies. 

She would have made a great teacher.

Anne was quick-witted and maybe a little too liberated, though extremely courageous, to take up a logical contest with the stubborn elder of the group, over sharing his writing desk. She knew her argument was fair and good, and she persisted for the right outcome, knowing she was up against his elder status. She appealed to him numerous times, and to her parents, until justice prevailed. 

She would have made a great lawyer or judge.

Sadly, Anne struggled in a strained relationship with her distant and critical mother. During their time in the hiding place, she openly wrote about their separation, declaring:

I am becoming still more independent of my parents, young as I am. I face life with more courage than Mummy, my feeling for justice is immovable, and truer than hers. I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know I'm a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage. 

  With all the burdens of hiding in a compromised small space, in silence, with little clothing, medicine, exercise, or healthy food, Anne asked which would be better: "...to be dead now and not going through all this misery, especially as we shouldn't be running our protectors into danger anymore"[?]

But we all recoil from these thoughts too, for we still love life; we haven't yet forgotten the voice of nature, we still hope, hope about everything. 

Later, Anne and Peter became emotionally dependent upon each other, and in many ways, Anne wanted to desperately "help" improve Peter, who suffered from the ineptitude of his own parents. She knew Peter was of weak character, and due to his admission, she said:

Quite honestly, I can't imagine how anyone can say: "I'm weak," and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character?

She was full of compassionate and empathy; the kind of person who wanted to fix people. 

She would have made a great counselor or advocate or mediator.

This is also a record of World War II, as told through the silenced victims of that war, and of course, Anne had an opinion about it, too. Naturally, she desired peace; but it was also war that brought hope because there was a promised victory, a finality to the war, and thus liberty of the people. 

In May, 1944, Anne defended the English for helping the Dutch by asking why Holland deserved England's help in the first place; after all, the English could just as quickly point fingers at other surrounding and unoccupied nations for "being asleep during the years when Germany was rearming."

We shan't get anywhere by following an ostrich policy. England and the whole world have seen that only too well now...

She would have made a great diplomat. 

Finally, Anne said of the Jews:

Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. 

Be brave! Let us remain aware of our task and not grumble. A solution will come, God has never deserted our people.  Right through the ages there have been Jews, through all the ages they have had to suffer, but it has made them strong too; the weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!

 And whoever is happy will make others happy too. He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery! ~ Anne Frank

OF A PERSONAL NOTE

Because I know that Anne was captured and died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp only a few months before liberation, I found myself unable to get the horror out of my mind. I could not sleep some nights. Her hopefulness for life and liberty was heavy in my heart all the time.

And also, I wanted to add that I agree with Vera Britton (author of Testament of Youth) who argued against the decision to place blame and responsibility solely on Germany, for WWI, which was explained in the afterward of my copy of Anne Frank's Diary; and I say this because history shows us that the German people were hardest hit, not the disheveled government. This gave rise to the vile creature of Hitler, who convinced the German people, and later the rest of Europe, that their troubles were really the fault of the Jews. 

IS THIS BOOK FOR YOU?

This is a book for everyone because it is universal in scope, theme, ideas, history, and nature. For some it could be overwhelmingly memorable and personal, and for others it may only be acceptably good; but whichever, it is for everyone. 

If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done, I shall not remain insignificant, I shall work in the world and for mankind!

I think Anne became greater than she even dreamed. 

Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiese

Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea

Elie Wiesel

Published 1995

Romanian-American Memoirs

The Well-Educated Mind Biographies

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Elie Wiesel was fifteen when he and his family were deported to a concentration camp in 1945.  By the time of his liberation, he had become an orphan.  All Rivers Run to the Sea recollects much of his life after liberation, including his travels all over the world, particularly as a young man without a country to call his home.

This was a long read, and at times I was frustrated because Wiesel was jumping around and rambling on; but that is because I had a specific expectation that this book would be about his best work, Night, the short memoir of his time in Buchenwald and Auschwitz.  Instead, he wrote about people and his later life experiences that inspired and influenced him and ultimately shaped his life path.  As soon as I removed my preconceived notions, I was able to appreciate this work.

Immediately after liberation he lived with other Jewish orphans in France, and continued his education and the study and practice of his Jewish religion.  As an adult, though, it was time to move out into the world, on his own.  Eventually, ten years after liberation, Wiesel was stirred to write about the brutal injustices of the Holocaust.  According to him, no one was talking or writing about it. How soon the world had conveniently forgotten the Holocaust.  So he wrote and published Night.

If you consider what he suffered - his parents, a sibling, other relatives, his birth home in Romania, his personal belongings, and his youth stolen from him - it is remarkable how quickly he rose up and continued on.  He became a journalist, traveled the world, and met world leaders, philosophers, Jewish teachers, authors, journalists, and social activists.  He became a writer and preserved the history of the Jewish people, especially the memory of the Holocaust.   He witnessed captivating events from history, including the rebirth of Israel, in 1948.  Eventually he became a citizen of the United States, and he was no longer a man without a home.

He provoked the consciences of the world with his questions why the free world and free Jews (especially in America) remained quiet assuming they knew what the fate of European Jews would be.  Why did they not expose Hitler?  And yet, he later learned that his father had purchased tickets for his entire family to escape to America, but then gave a portion of his tickets to another family member who survived by fleeing before the deportations.  Why did Elie's father wait?  Why did so many Jews wait until it was too late?  The warnings were given, but this is what Elie did not want to hear people ask or say. Instead he continued asking why free nations did not do more to expose the deportations, the camps, the murders, and Hitler's ultimate plans.  Elie focused mostly on preserving the memory of the Holocaust, so that it would never be forgotten, and never repeated.

All Rivers Run to the Sea was not published until the 1980s, but these memoirs end in the late tumultuous 1960s.  He included his thoughts about the sixties in The Fifth Son:

America, Europe, and Asia underwent deep, gripping convulsions on a global scale, shaking the youth of my generation . . .

Ideas and ideals, slogans and principles, rigid old systems and theories, anything linked to yesterday and yesteryear's supposed earthly paradise was rejected with rage and scorn.  Suddenly children struck fear in their parents, students in their teachers.  In the movies it was the criminal and not the police who won our sympathy, the malefactor and not the lawman who had the starring role.  In philosophy there was a flight to simplicity, in literature a negation of style.  In ethics humanism stirred laughter . . . Universities no longer taught literature or sociology but revolution and counterrevolution, or even counter-counterrevolution of the right, the left, or somewhere in between.  Students could no longer write a sentence or formulate a coherent thought, and they were proud of it.  If a professor happened to voice his displeasure, he was boycotted, called a reactionary, and told to go back to his university titles, scholarly works, and archaic concepts.  Next time let him be born into another society, another era.

WOW!!  Nothing has changed, right?

One last point: Wiesel took the title of his memoirs from Ecclesiastes 1:7.  It reads:

All the rivers run into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full;

To the place from which the rivers come,

There they return again.

 Elie Wiesel passed away July 2015, in New York.