The Hiding Place Corrie ten Boom

The Hiding Place is a 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom, written by ten Boom together with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.


The idea of a book on ten Boom’s life began as John and Elizabeth Sherrill were doing research for the book God’s Smuggler, about ten Boom’s fellow Dutchman, Brother Andrew. Corrie ten Boom was already in her mid-seventies when the Sherrills first heard about her. She was one of Brother Andrew’s favorite traveling companions and many of his recollections were about her. In the preface to the book, the Sherrills recount:

…his [Brother Andrew's] fascinating stories about her in Vietnam, where she had earned that most honorable title “Double-old Grandmother” – and in a dozen other Communist countries – came to mind so often that we finally had to hold up her hands to stop his flow of reminiscence. “We could never fit her into the book,” we said. “She sounds like a book in herself.” It’s the sort of thing you say. Not meaning anything.

It was later made into a film of the same name, along with a comic book adaptation.

The title refers to both the physical hiding place where the ten Boom family secreted Jews from the Nazis, and also to the Scriptural message found in Psalm 119:114 which states, “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word… “