Corrie ten Boom: The Day She Forgave Her Prison Guard (Romans 8:1)

The true story of Corrie ten Boom, the Holocaust survivor who came face to face with her Ravensbrück prison guard and chose forgiveness (Romans 8:1).

It was 1947, and Corrie ten Boom had just finished speaking in a Munich church basement about God's forgiveness. Then she saw him in the back: the guard from Ravensbrück. The man who had stood at the shower door watching her sister Betsie die.

He walked up the aisle with his hand extended. "A fine message, Fräulein. How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea."

Corrie froze. The blood drained from her face. And then she did the most impossible thing a human being can do.

This is the true story of Corrie ten Boom — the watchmaker's daughter from Haarlem who hid Jews behind a false wall in her family's home, was sent to Ravensbrück, watched her sister Betsie die there, and lived to tell the world about forgiveness that only Jesus could give.

If you've been trying to forgive someone in your own strength and failing — this 5-minute devotional is for you. Corrie's famous line: "Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."

Scripture: Romans 8:1 · Micah 7:19 · Matthew 6:14

Free 7-day devotional When Worry Won't Let Go: rodneycoe.com/worry-devotional

More from Pastor Rodney Coe: rodneycoe.com

Keep Looking Up. — Pastor Rodney Coe

#CorrieTenBoom #TheHidingPlace #Forgiveness #Romans8 #ChristianDevotional #Holocaust #LiftUpYourDay #TrueStoriesOfFaith

Transcript

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She was standing in a church basement in Munich. It was 1947. The war had been over for two years, but the war inside her, that one, was still raging. She had just finished telling a crowd of Germans about forgiveness, about a god who throws our sins to the bottom of the sea and puts up a sign that reads, No fishing allowed. And then she saw him. He was moving toward her through the crowd, a heavyset man in a grey overcoat, but she didn't see the overcoat. She saw a blue uniform, a visored cap with a skull and crossbones. She saw the leather crop swinging from his belt. She saw Ravensbrook. He extended his hand. Fraulein, he said, will you forgive me? And her arm stayed frozen at her side. Welcome to Lift Up Your Day. I'm Rodney Coe, and every episode I bring you a true story that just might change the way you see your day and remember how God is walking through it with you. Corey Ten Boom was a watchmaker's daughter from Erlum Holland. She never married, she never planned to be a missionary, she certainly never planned to be a hero. For 50 years she fixed watches and taught Sunday school above her father's workshop. Then the Nazis came. When the Germans occupied Holland, the Ten Boom family began hiding Jewish refugees behind a false wall in Corey's bedroom. A space barely big enough for six people to stand in. Over the course of the war, that hiding place saved an estimated 800 Jewish lives until an informer betrayed them. On February 28, 1944, the Gestapo raided their home. Corey's father, Casper, 84 years old, died in prison ten days later. The soldiers had asked if he knew he could die for helping Jews. He looked at them and said, It would be an honor to give my life for God's ancient people. Corey and her sister Betsy were sent to Ravensbrook, a woman's concentration camp where over ninety six thousand women died. The conditions were unspeakable, but even as she faded, Betsy kept whispering something Corey couldn't shake. Corey, there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Betsy died in Corey's arms on december sixteenth, nineteen forty four. Twelve days later, Cory was released, later discovered to be a clerical error. One week after her release, every woman her age in the camp was sent to the gas chambers. A clerical error, or, as Cory would spend the rest of her life telling anyone who would listen, the hand of God. After the war, Corey packed a suitcase and became what she called a tramp for the Lord. For thirty three years she traveled to more than sixty countries, preaching one message everywhere she went forgiveness, grace, no condemnation. But there was one moment that tested every word she had ever preached, that moment in Munich. The man standing before her was a guard at Ravensbrook. He had stood in that shower room where the women were forced to walk past leering SS men. He had been there when Betsy suffered, when Betsy faded. Now he was a Christian, and he wanted Corey's forgiveness. She stood there, her arm would not move. She had just preached forgiveness to an entire room. She believed it with every fiber of her theology. But she had nothing, nothing to give. She prayed the most honest prayer of her life. Jesus, I cannot forgive this man. I cannot do it. Give me your forgiveness. And then, mechanically, woodenly, she thrust her hand into his. She wrote later that what happened next was unlike anything she had ever experienced. A current, like electricity, flooded from her shoulder, down through her arm and into their clasped hands, warm, supernatural, not from inside her. She looked at him and said, I forgive you, brother, with all my heart, and she wept, not from grief, from grace. She later called it the most powerful experience of God's love she had ever known, not because she mustered the forgiveness herself, but because God supplied it when she had absolutely none of her own to give. Romans 8 1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, not for the prisoner, not for the guard, not for the broken, not for the ashamed. Corey Temboom spent 33 years living in that verse, carrying the worst memories a human being can carry, and telling the world that the God who forgave her sins could also empower her to forgive someone else's. She once said forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. Is there a name you can't say without your chest tightening? A memory that still has a grip? You don't have to muster what you don't have. You just have to ask, because the same God who supplied forgiveness in a Munich church basement will supply whatever you need today. A watchmaker's daughter, a hiding place behind a false wall, a frozen arm in a church basement, and a current of grace that moved anyway. Corey Tim Boone died on April 15th, 1983, her ninety-first birthday. And that, friend, is how God lifts up your day. Keep looking up. May God bless your day.