Geertruida passed away from tuberculosis in 1856 and in 1858, Willem married Elizabeth Bell. Their first son, Casper eventually opened his own watchmaking shop. After the death of his father, Casper and his wife, Cor, along with their family of four children, Elisabeth (Betsie), Willem, Arnolda (Nollie) and Cornelia (Corrie), returned to Haarlem, where they took over the shop. It was Corrie who expressed interest in continuing the family business, while Willem decided to study theology at the University of Leiden. Eventually he became pastor at a church in Zuylen near Utrecht. Willem became interested in the development of anti-Semitism, which was particularly evident in both France and Germany.
Corrie's mother died in 1921, the year that Corrie became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland. Meanwhile, Willem continued studying the evil of anti-Semitism and accepted a position as a special missionary to the Jews in Amsterdam. Incredibly, he studied at the Institutum Judaicum in Leipzig, Germany where for the next three years he completed work on his doctoral thesis, "The birth of modern racial anti-Semitism in France and Germany". At this time, Adolf Hitler was writing Mein Kampf which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926. Willem's dissertation was published in 1928, just five years before Hitler would rise to power in Germany.
After finishing his Ph.D, Willem began his ministry to Jews in Amsterdam. In 1933, German president Paul von Hindenburg installed Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany and the persecution of Jews began. Boycotts of Jewish businesses, and the barring of Jews from all civil service jobs, schools and universities included, as well as the prohibition of Jews from practicing law or medicine became the law. The Nuremberg Laws, enacted in 1935 stripped German Jews of citizenship and made it illegal for them to marry "Aryans". Persecution of Jews and Christians who opposed the persecution was ramped up after the 1936 Olympics.
While the situation remained normal in Holland, in March 1938, Germany annexed Austria and the persecution of Austrian Jews began. The Munich Agreement between Germany, France and Britain did little to stop Hitler. The attempted assassination of Third Secretary Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in retaliation for the forced transport of eighteen thousand German Jews brought on Kristallnacht - Night of the Broken Glass on November 9th.
The first hint of the coming storm in Holland arrived within the Beje when Casper had to fire a young German apprentice, Otto Altschuler after they learned he brutally assaulted a man the shop had hired to help with repairs. That man was the elderly, gentle Mr. Christoffels.
As Hitler began his march through Europe, Holland was invaded on May 10, 1940. Despite fierce resistance, the Germans quickly occupied the Netherlands and began to target the Jewish population with ever-restrictive laws. As the persecution raged on in 1941, Corrie and her father, Casper began discussing and planning how they would help their Jewish neighbours. Soon they began hiding Jews who came to Beje for help, sending them on to safe houses. But this was only the beginning of resistance by the ten Boom family and in particular Corrie and her brother Willem. They quickly became involved in the underground, and built a secret room at the back of their house which became "the hiding place". What was once just a simple task of hiding Jews for a night before they could be moved, became a high stakes "cat and mouse" game with the Nazis. Corrie and her family would not escape unscathed.
Discussion
The Watchmaker's Daughter is a moving account of the life of Corrie ten Boom, beginning from her early life, through the war years as she and her family worked to save Jews, her arrest and imprisonment in various concentration camps, and her ministry after the war to both camp survivors and the German people.
Loftis who had authored a number of narrative nonfiction books focused on World War II espionage, was looking for new subject material. He knew about Corrie ten Boom and that her experience focused on the Dutch Resistance - potentially a new topic to explore. Corrie had written six books about her family and the war, including The Hiding Place, but much of what happened was not included. Loftis was able to draw on a number of key primary sources to write The Watchmaker's Daughter: long time refugee Hans Poley's Return to the Hiding Place, nephew Peter van Woerden's memoir The Secret Place, and Corrie's own collection of letters, photos and much more which were held in an archival collection at Wheaton College. Loftis also wanted to focus on Corrie's efforts after the war, to heal the wounds suffered by so many, including the German people.
Writing The Watchmaker's Daughter had a lasting impact on Loftis as well. He writes in his Author's Note that "...writing about Corrie's message of faith, hope, love, and forgiveness was an empowering experience for me..." Loftis succeeds in capturing this message throughout The Watchmaker's Daughter. In fact, the most inspirational aspect of Corrie's story is not her survival, but the heroic virtue displayed by her entire family, but most especially by her sister Betsie, in the face of great cruelty. The ten Boom's encounters with Lieutenant Hans Rahms at Scheveningen Prison, proved that such virtue could change minds and hearts.
Loftis takes care to set Corrie's story within the larger context of events that were occurring each year during World War II. For example, he includes not only historical details from the war, but also mentions Audrey Hepburn who played a part in the Dutch Resistance, and Anne Frank and her family who were in hiding in Amsterdam, until their betrayal in August of 1944. There are also many black and white photographs throughout, helping readers to know many of the people in Corrie's story.
The Watchmaker's Daughter is ultimately a story of hope and forgiveness. This is very evident in Corrie's struggle both during the war, but even more so after the war. Especially poignant, is the account of her meeting the man, who had been an SS guard in a shower room at Ravensbruck, at a speaking event in Munich. Repulsed at the sight of this man who had been so cruel, Corrie struggled to offer him the forgiveness he asked for. And yet she did, through God's grace, despite this man not apologizing for what he did to her.
To those who loved The Hiding Place, this work provides a richer context and backstory, informing readers as to how the ten Boom's resistance to the Nazis began a century earlier with their immense love and charity towards God's "ancient people", the Jews. Loftis lays out the history that shaped a family and their courageous resistance at great personal cost.
To those who loved The Hiding Place, this work provides a richer context and backstory, informing readers as to how the ten Boom's resistance to the Nazis began a century earlier with their immense love and charity towards God's "ancient people", the Jews. Loftis lays out the history that shaped a family and their courageous resistance at great personal cost.
Loftis offers his readers a list of major people in the Dramatis Personae at the front of the book. This includes the members of the ten Book family, refugees in the Beje and the Dutch Resistance. At the back of the book, The Rest of the Story informs readers of the fate of many of the major German and Dutch people in the book. An Appendix offers a list of Jewish or Dutch diver refugees at the Beje during the war. The author has also provided an extensive Notes section for each chapter. Maps of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Germany during World War II would have been much appreciated.
The Watchmaker's Daughter will appeal to not just those interested in Corrie ten Boom, but also those interested in World War II history and resistance.
Book Details:
The Watchman's Daughter by Larry Loftis
New York: HarperCollins Publishers 2023
370 pp.
Book Details:
The Watchman's Daughter by Larry Loftis
New York: HarperCollins Publishers 2023
370 pp.
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