How Can I Forgive Someone I Hate?

When people talk about the three little words that are so hard to say, they usually mean "I love you." But three other little words can be a lot tougher: "I forgive you."

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"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

Corrie ten Boom

1893-1983

Much of what we know about Corrie is found in her autobiographical book, The Hiding Place. A 1975 movie by the same name also tells her story, and you can probably find both the movie and the book at your local library.

Corrie grew up in Haarlem, Holland, living with many family members in a small, cramped house. Downstairs was the watch shop where she and her father worked. During WWII, while Germans occupied Holland, the ten Boom family joined an underground movement to protect fugitive Jews. The watch shop served as a "front" for helping Jews escape, and a secret room upstairs hid them when the Nazis made their rounds.

When their involvement was discovered, Corrie, her father, her brother Willem and her sister Betsie were arrested and imprisoned. Corrie was the only one who survived; through a clerical error, she was released from Ravensbruck days before a scheduled execution of all women her age. After the war, Corrie started rehabilitation homes for Nazi victims and for Nazi aggressors. She went on to travel the world, sharing stories of what God can do in even the darkest places.

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