The Ten Boom family who lived in the Netherlands were devout Christians who joined the Dutch resistant movement to hide Jews from Nazi authorities during the Second World War. They constructed a hiding place for six people in their home who could be sequestered for several days until another “safe house” could be located for them. An estimated eight hundred people made their way through the Ten Boom rescue network. In 1944, an informant reported their activities to the Nazi authorities, leading to their arrest, although the six Jews hiding in the secret room were never found and made it to safety. The father of the Ten Boom family died in prison ten days later and sisters, Betsie and Corrie, were sentenced to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women and children. They were two of the one hundred thirty-two thousand political and religious prisoners incarcerated at the camp from 1939-1945. Betsie was one of fifty thousand who died there. Betsie said to Corrie before she died, “There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still.” Corrie was later released due to a clerical error shortly before others in her barracks went to the gas chamber. After the war, Corrie opened a rehabilitation center for concentration camp survivors and wrote The Hiding Place as a testimony to Christ’s presence in the midst of horrendous evil.
Today’s prayer from an unknown source in the Ravensbrück camp was scrawled on wrapping paper found near a dead girl’s body after the camp was liberated by Allied forces. It’s one of the most powerful prayers on forgiveness I have ever read, the closest I have known to Jesus’ words on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23.34).
Ravensbruck Prayer
O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill-will. But do not remember only the suffering they have inflicted on us, remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering–our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgment. let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.