Corrie 10 BOOM.

This is Dutchess.

A couple of weeks ago mom recommended "youhavenochoice:readit" The Hiding Place for us to read. None of us were super enthusiastic about reading about an old lady's biography. We were so wrong. I was captivated by Corrie Ten Boom's story and awed when we saw her house, with THE Hiding Place, in her home town, Haarlem, in the Netherlands. TEN BOOM WATCHES is now a nice TEN BOOM JEWELERS.

 It was surreal saying, "Oh, that's the cupboard where they hid the food rations."

 "Those are the stairs Opa went up every day, and on which the Nazi soldiers tromped up and down looking for Jews and young men." The most impressive place of all was the actual Hiding Place, of course:

It didn't look like this when the Jews hid in it (the big hole in the wall, I mean.) Six Jews hid in that 7 by 3 ft space (length by width) for 48 hours. They all survived.  Even though the Nazis patrolled all entrances to the house. The Jews kept ready all their essential belongings in there, and they climbed in, one by one, into that little space on the bottom left, having 70 seconds to get in there from eating a full meal on the first floor, or from whatever they may have been doing from anywhere in the house. 

This is where the piano playing took place, entertainment, chatter. The living room.

Corrie was crazily risky. This city hall  was occupied as the Gestapo headquarters...100 feet down the road from her house!! 

Then right across from Gestapo hdqs., the church Corrie attended with her family:

Here we all are, arguing over the Dorito. They only eat weird flavored ones over here. Tangy cheese, anyone?

Talk to you soon...doei! (Bye in Dutch.)

We'll see you later! Sorry for the delay.