On 27 January 2025 there was a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. All Auschwitz survivors were invited to the commemoration. The German Nazis murdered 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities. At the time of the liberation there were 7000 prisoners remaining at the camp. It is amazing that any who were there survived. Auschwitz is a terrifying reminder to us all of the depths of devilish evil to which human beings can sink.
Corrie Ten Boom was the daughter of a Dutch watchmaker. Corrie and her sister Betsie opened their home to Jewish refugees and members of the resistance movement and were sought after by the Gestapo. They built a secret hiding place in their home which could hold 6 people. In February 1944 a Dutch informer betrayed the Ten Boom family, and they were all arrested, but the people in the hiding place were not discovered and later escaped. Eventually Corrie and Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where Betsie died.
After the war Corrie spoke at churches in Germany with the message God forgives. It was a message the people desperately needed to hear. One evening in 1947 after she had spoken at a meeting in Munich a man came forward. He had been a guard at Ravensbrück and Corrie remembered him. He said that since the war he had become a Christian and now knew God had forgiven him for the cruel things he had done. He held out his hand and asked Corrie, “Will you forgive me?” Corrie struggled as memories of the concentration camp and the death of Betsie came flooding back.
Corrie said, “It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. I stood there with coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion – I knew that. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ‘Help!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’ And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing happened. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. ‘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.”