Introduction

The Hiding Place is a 1975 film based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Corrie ten Boom that recounts her and her family’s experiences before and during their imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust during World War II.

Also see War of Resistance (2011) and Return to the Hiding Place (2013).

Outline

As the Nazis invade the Netherlands in 1940, Corrie (Jeannette Clift George) and the rest of her family allow Jews to hide in a part of their home that is specially remodelled by members of the Dutch resistance. However, the Nazis eventually discover that the family is hiding Jews, and on 28 February 1944, the entire family and its friends are arrested after their betrayal by a Dutch collaborator. The hidden Jews are never found by authorities.

Corrie’s father, Casper, dies before he reaches the concentration camp, and Corrie worries that she will never see her home again. The Nazis send Corrie and her sister, Betsie (Julie Harris), to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Germany, for hiding Jews in their home. At the concentration camp, Betsie encourages Corrie to remain hopeful that God will rescue them from the brutalities they experience.

With little food and constant work, the women suffer constantly, and Betsie dies. Ultimately, Corrie leaves the camp in December 1944 through what is discovered years later to have been a clerical error, as everyone else in her group of prisoners was gassed the next month (January 1945). Her life after the ordeal was dedicated to showing that Jesus’ love is greater than the deepest pit into which humankind finds itself.

Cast

• Jeannette Clift as Corrie ten Boom.
• Julie Harris as Betsie ten Boom.
• Arthur O’Connell as Casper ten Boom, ‘Papa’.
• Robert Rietti as Willem ten Boom.
• Pamela Sholto as Tine.
• Paul Henley as Peter ten Boom.
• Richard Wren as Kik ten Boom.
• Broes Hartman as Dutch Policeman.
• Lex van Delden as Young German Officer.
• Tom van Beek as Dr. Heemstra.
• Nigel Hawthorne as Pastor De Ruiter.
• John Gabriel as Professor Zeiner.
• Edward Burnham as Underground Leader.
• Cyril Shaps as Building Inspector Smit.
• Forbes Collins as Mason Smit.
• Eileen Heckart as Katje.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): James F. Collier.
• Producer(s): Frank R. Jacobson and William F. Brown.
• Writer(s): Allan Sloane, Lawrence Holben, Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill.
• Music: Tedd Smith.
• Cinematography: Michael Reed.
• Editor(s): Ann Chegwidden.
• Production:
• Distributor(s): World Wide Pictures.
• Release Date: May 1975.
• Running Time: 150 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.