The following quotations are important at various points in the story: (A
Bantam Book, published by arrangement with Fleming H. Revell Company,
November 1971)
1.) Young and old, poor and rich, scholarly gentlemen and illiterate
servant girls - only to Father did it seem that they were all alike.
(pg. 13)
Here Corrie points out the deep kindness that filled her father.
2.) A full ten years ago . . . Willem had written in his doctoral
thesis, done in Germany, that . . . the seeds were being planted of a
contempt for human life such as the world had never seen. (pg. 13)
In this quote. Corrie relates the fear that was building as far back as
1927 for the Hitler war machine.
3.) I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use
them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will
give us to do. (pg. 15)
This perfectly expresses what Corrie learned about God's plan for her
life.
4.) Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings .
. . It's something we make inside ourselves. (pg. 33)
This was Corrie's mother's philosophy about how we should live our lives.
5.) Oh, Corrie! It's the happiest home in Holland! (pg. 43)
Karel said this to Corrie the last time he spoke to her before leaving
for home. Ironically, he would never live in that happy home, because
he must marry within his own class.
6.) My task then was to give up my feeling for Karel without giving
up the joy and wonder that had grown with it. (pg. 45)
Here Corrie explains how she came to accept the loss of Karel, the only
man she would ever love.
7.) And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut
it in. (pg. 48)
Here Corrie marvels at how much love Mama could show even when she was
trapped in a body ravaged by stroke.
8.) That's why He sometimes shows us things, you know - to tell
us that this too is in His hands. (pg. 63)
These words were Betsie's response to Corrie's explanation of her vision
of the whole family in a wagon being led out of Haarlem.
9.) There are no ifs in God's world. (pg. 67)
Betsie tells Corrie this after Corrie discovers how close she had come
to dying from a piece of shrapnel.
10.) I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple
of God's eye. (pg. 69)
Father makes this comment after they see the Germans rounding up the Jews
in Holland.
11.) How should a Christian act when evil was in power? (pg.
71)
Corrie asks this question in her confusion over lying, stealing, and murder
as ways of dealing with evil.
12.) How could God Himself show truth and love at the same time
in a world like this? By dying. (pg. 92)
This is how Corrie discovers the way Christians must behave when evil
is in power.
13.) You say we could lose our lives for this child? I would consider
that the greatest honor that could come to my family. (pg. 98)
Here Father declares to the minister who refuses to take a Jewish child
into his home the greatest love one could ever show for his fellow man.
14.) This was evil's hour: we could not run away from it. Perhaps
only when human effort had done its best and failed, would God's power
alone be free to work. (pg. 123)
These words reflect Corrie's belief that they had to do everything in
their power to help as many people as they could escape the Nazis.
15.) Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word
. . . Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe . . . (pg. 135)
This quote is the Scripture from the Book of Isaiah which reveals the
great faith of the ten Booms and is the source of the title of Corrie's
story.
16.) Was it possible that this - all of this that seemed so wasteful
and so needless - this war, Scheveningen prison, this very cell, none
of it was unforeseen or accidental? Could it be part of the pattern first
revealed in the Gospels? Hadn't Jesus - and here my reading became intent
indeed - hadn't Jesus been defeated as utterly and unarguably as our little
group and our small plans had been? (pg. 150)
Corrie comes to this realization as she tries to find a way out of her
despair in prison.
17.) And I wondered, not for the first time, what sort of person
she was, this sister of mine . . . what kind of road she followed while
I trudged beside her on the all-too-solid earth. (pg. 175)
Corrie makes this comment after Betsie tells her that they must find away
to make the people who hate them so much learn to love again.
18.) Betsie, they took His clothes, too! (pg. 196)
Corrie makes this comforting realization when she feels humiliated at
having to strip naked before SS guards.
19.) And so I left behind the last physical tie (the blue sweater).
It was just as well. It was better. Now what tied me to Betsie was the
hope of heaven. (pg. 220)
This is Corrie's final thought as she leaves Betsie's body behind in the
camp hospital.
20.) We mustn't let the clock run down. (pg. 232)
This is one of the first tasks Corrie's sees to after she returns to the
Beje. It is a reminder of how clocks were almost symbolic of the continuation
of her family no how much smaller it had become.
21.) We must tell people, Corrie. We must tell them what we learned.
(pg. 234)
Once she is home, Corrie seems restless, not sure what her purpose in
life should now be. It's only when she remembers these words of Betsie's
that she knows she must begin to speak about what happened to them in
prison.
22.) But the place where the hunger was the greatest was Germany.
Germany was a land in ruins, cities of ashes and rubble, but more terrifying
still, minds and hearts of ashes. Just to cross the border was to feel
the great weight that hung over that land. (pg. 238)
These lines exemplify the final mission to which Corrie feels herself
called - to help Germany heal.
|
Cite this page:
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on The Hiding Place".
TheBestNotes.com.
|