Arrest and Death
On February 28, 1944, the Gestapo raided his house and arrested ten Boom and his daughters, as well his son Willem and third daughter, and a nephew, who were visiting. The Gestapo arrested other supporters who visited the house during the day, taking a total of about 30 people to Scheveningen prison.
When ten Boom was interrogated in prison, the Gestapo told him they would release him because of his age so that he could "die in his own bed". He replied: "If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door to anyone who knocks for help". When asked if he knew he could die for helping Jews, he replied, "It would be an honor to give my life for God's chosen people." On March 10, Casper died at the Hague Municipal Hospital at the age of 84 after ten days in Scheveningen prison.
His daughter Betsie died at Ravensbruck in December 1944. His son Willem contracted spinal tuberculosis (TB) while imprisoned for his resistance work. Although he was released, he died of TB shortly after the war. Ten Boom's nephew Christiaan, then 24, was sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp for his work in the underground, and died there during the war.
Read more about this topic: Casper Ten Boom
Famous quotes containing the words arrest and/or death:
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“You stars that reigned at my nativity,
Whose influence hath allotted death and hell.”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)