The Hiding Place (film)

The Hiding Place is the dramatization of the book of the same name, written (with help) by Corrie ten Boom in the early seventies.  It's the story of the ten Boom's family's involvement in the Dutch resistence during World War II, particularly their work hiding Jews.  The family were active in Christian Haarlem before the war, holding Bible classes, working with the youth and with the disabled.  Papa ten Boom was a very religious man and in the course of his studies had made a number of friends in the Jewish community.  When the Nazis began to persecute and take away Jews, he and his daughters considered that they had no choice but to try and hide their friends and any other Jews who came to their door. 

The ten Boom family did not have the stuff spies were made of.  Papa ten Boom was elderly and Corrie and Betsie were middle aged.  All of them were set in their ways and unused to either technology or deception.  Scrupulously honest, they refused to lie to the authorities which put them and their fugitives in danger.  They believed strongly that if they stuck to their guns and committed no wrong, God would protect them.  By nature unsuspicious, they had a hard time believing that anyone they interacted with personally could be a wrongdoer.  They were also afraid that by not taking a risk, they might be responsible for someone else's death.  Before their set up and arrest in February 1944, however, they managed to pass 800 Jews in and out of their house, the Beje, and house a number of them there permanently.  Family members in the Dutch underground helped to get Jews in and out and build a secret room, the story's hiding place, out of bricks (which wouldn't sound hollow when kicked) smuggled in a little at a time in packages and other seemingly innocent containers.

The ten Booms' downfall came when a man showed up looking for a place to hide his Jewish wife.  He demanded money for a bribe for the police who would then release her.  The family did not know him and the amount he asked was high, but they determined to help anyway.  When the appointed time came, the Nazis were the ones at the door, and Corrie, her sister, and her father were dragged away.  [The actual story is even more dramatic as the Nazis guarded the house all day and took away anyone who entered - about 30 people.]  Corrie then spent some time in a sort of regular prison, where, to her great joy, she managed to acquire a small Bible, and then eventually she and all the other prisoners were transferred to Ravensbruck, a work camp.*  Life there was almost unbearable.  Food was scarce, the work was grueling, and there was no exception made for the old, the sick, or the infirm, and Betsie was all of these.  The Nazi guards were unbelievably cruel, and very few of the other prisoners shared the ten Booms' faith.  Still Corrie and Betsie continued to minister when they can to the other prisoners' souls and to remind them that God loves them and is with them even in a place like Ravensbruck.

The Hiding Place is, in its details, very faithful to Corrie ten Boom's book, especially in its emphasis on the ten Booms' religious beliefs and spiritual lives.  This is surely because Billy Graham's film company made it and had a vested interest in keeping the focus on Christ.  Ten Boom was on set throughout and was happy with the result.  Small details were changed, but the whole is remarkably similar.

This is a Holocaust story, but the focus isn't on the Holocaust itself - it only offers a context for this family's amazing faith and courage.  The story is a sort of How to Maintain Faith when the World is (Literally) Ending, not a treatise on the Jews and their suffering or their place in European society, or the death of the Shtetl.  It is kind of remarkable to see in what high regard Papa ten Boom held the Jews.  He had more than tolerance for them; instead he acted out of true love and respect.

The film quality and cinematography is definitely 1970's quality, but the costuming and set design is very good.   Jeannette Clift and Julie Harris are both convincing as well.  Their Dutch accents are probably wrong, but they are at least consistent.  Clift has the richer role.  Her Corrie is at first mild and kind, then determined but inexperienced when her hiding work begins.  In prison, she remains optimistic and hopeful in God, but once in Ravensbruck, her faith falters and she becomes consumed with anger when she has the energy for that.  Betsie's faith, in comparison, never wavers and she never gives in to hate.  Clearly, Betsie was a saint.  Usually saint-like characters aren't terribly interesting, but the loving relationship between Corrie and Betsie is well portrayed, and Betsie in Corrie's eyes is both amazing and beautiful.  I cried for Betsie and Corrie, and I rarely cry in films.  

There are moments when the audience will probably not identify with the ten Booms, however.  For all their goodness, they were a stiff-necked family.  There is one scene when Corrie, called to the police station, is told by a police head that there is a man, a collaborator, who is betraying members of the Dutch resistence to the Nazis for money.  The police head writes down the name on a piece of paper and asks Corrie to pass it along to the resistence who will take care of him.  Corrie, determined to do no harm, refuses and says that instead she will pray for him.  She doesn't stop to consider that more (innocent) people will die because of this man because he wasn't stopped in a timely fashion.  It's possible even that this was the man who would eventually betray the ten Boom family and send four of them to their deaths.

Corrie and Betsie continually preach forgiveness, which in theory, at least is very noble.  But is it possible to forgive people for things they didn't do to you?  And can forgiveness be achieved if it isn't asked for or sought?  And shouldn't forgiveness go hand-in-hand with restitution?  One concentration camp survivor cannot blanketly forgive a Nazi guard.  She can extend her forgiveness for wrongs committed against her, but that guard must atone for each act she committed against each of her victims.  Really, an impossible task, but one that should nevertheless, be attempted.

The Hiding Place is a rather amazing story, and this film is a good translation, but, honestly, viewing it in 2007, it's hard to believe this ever premiered in Hollywood or was ever shown on TV - it's so utterly Christian.  And not Christian in a this-is-one-type-of-belief-among-many-that-we-respect-or-you-can-believe-in-nothing-that's-okay-with-us way.  The ten Boom family talks constantly about God and Jesus and what they believe in and how it informs their actions.  They pray, they read the Bible.  They blatantly live their faith.  And the movie shows it.  Showing it makes the ten Booms seem like real people with actual religious beliefs, but it's been so long since something like this was on TV, it seems unbelievable in a way.  I'm not certain how comfortable an unreligious person would be watching this, since so many people are touchy these days about Christianity, but it is well done and the ten Boom faith is inspiring.  It's the story of people who decided to be more than just human.  They made a significant attempt at living beyond their own comforts and foibles, utilizing their faith in God to channel the divine in a horrific time.

*I believe the movie refers to Ravensbruck as a "death camp" which is inaccurate.  Certainly far more people entered through the gates of Ravensbruck than passed out (at least alive).  However, the camp's primary (stated) purpose was to work its inmates and not necessarily to kill them.  That is to say, killing them was not the main goal, merely a bonus.  Compare to Treblinka which killed 750,000, almost everyone who entered.