Thursday, May 26, 2011

Prison Letters - Corrie ten Boom

This is a collection of letters Corrie and her sister, Bessie, both wrote and received while in prison for helping Jews during World War II. Additionally, there are little snippets of observations and ponderings Corrie wrote down on scraps of paper.

I am a little torn on this book. It was a very quick read, so worth the time. It was a very personal account of some of the issues and horrors in prison and concentration camp during WWII. You feel for Corrie and her sister and what they experienced. You marvel at their strength of faith and courage. That they can still praise and believe in a good God after what they experiences. You know that can only be because of a strong foundation and lifestyle that had previous to the war. And you marvel at their good attitude and positive outlook.
And that’s where I’m torn. It might be my more cynical side, but I’ve also read The Hiding Place. There were tough times and it wasn’t all “praise God” – especially where Corrie was concerned. She had some real bad attitude, defeated, depressed moments. And none of that is clear in the letters. Now, that is possibly because they didn’t want to let on to their family all of the misery. They didn’t want their family to worry further. And I can understand that. But parts of it were just a bit too cheery for me for “prison letters.”

No comments:

Post a Comment