THE HIDING PLACE

THE HIDING PLACE is a filmed theatrical production based on the eponymous memoir by Corrie ten Boom, the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker who, along with her father and siblings, helped over 800 Jews to escape capture by the Hitler’s National Socialists during the Holocaust. The filmed play follows the ten Boom family from the beginning of their efforts, through their imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps, to the end of World War II, when Corrie ten Boom is released from prison and makes the difficult choice to forgive her captors for the suffering they inflicted. 

For the video recording of a play, THE HIDING PLACE has remarkable cinematography and editing. The producers and directors clearly intended from the beginning to make this production simultaneously theatre and cinema. The play is a bit overlong. However, the small cast delivers beautiful performances that make the light of Christ, which indwelt every member of the ten Boom family and their clandestine operation, shine through the dialogue in the script. 

Since most of the play is lifted straight from the words of ten Boom herself, reflecting back on her own life, her unapologetic Christian worldview is ever-present in the narrative. Corrie wrestles with having faith in God as she endures the suffering of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Rather than forcing her to be a model Christian to preach to the audience, as all too many Christian writers are wont to do, playwright A.S. Peterson allows Corrie to be an authentically imperfect human being who faces the challenges of maintaining hope and forgiving her enemies with courage as well as doubt. This enables the character of ten Boom to be a powerful witness to the strength of God’s mercy and protection, especially in THE HIDING PLACE’s heart-wrenching final half-hour. Although the filmed play deals frankly with the harsh reality of Nazi persecution, viewers of all ages will find THE HIDING PLACE spiritually and morally edifying.