In May 1942, a well-dressed woman came to the Ten Booms' with a suitcase in hand and told them that she was a Jew, her husband had been arrested several months earlier, her son had gone into hiding and Occupation authorities had recently visited her so she was afraid to go back. One of their restrictions was the banning of the youth club. In May 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands. Some important tenets of their faith included the fact that the Jews were precious to God and that all people are created equal – powerful motivation for the selfless rescue work she would later become involved in. She and her family were Calvinist Christians in the Dutch Reformed Church, and their faith inspired them to serve their society, which they did by offering shelter, food and money to those who were in need. Over the next decade, in addition to working in her father's shop, she established a youth club for teenage girls, which provided religious instruction and classes in the performing arts, sewing, and handicrafts. She trained to be a watchmaker herself, and in 1922, she became the first woman to be licensed as a watchmaker in the Netherlands. Even when Betsie recovered, Corrie kept her place in the shop and Betsie managed the housework, to the delight of them both. She quickly discovered that she loved the "business side" of the watch shop, and she organized the financial proceedings by developing a system of billings and ledgers. However, when a cold sent Betsie, Corrie's sister, to bed for an extended period, Corrie took Betsie's place and began to work in the family watch shop. Corrie spent the first part of her life in charge of the housekeeping. The Ten Boom family lived above Casper's watch shop in what Corrie called "the Beje," a house named for the Barteljorisstraat where they lived. Her father was fascinated by the craft of watchmaking and often became so engrossed in his work that he forgot to charge customers for his services. Her three maternal aunts, Tante Bepa, Tante Jans, and Tante Anna, lived with the family.
Corrie had three older siblings: Betsie, Willem, and Nollie. She was named after her mother but known as Corrie all her life. Corrie ten Boom was born on 15 April 1892 in Haarlem, Netherlands, the youngest child of Casper ten Boom, a jeweler and watchmaker, and Cornelia (commonly known as "Cor") Johanna Arnolda, née Luitingh, whom he married in 1884.
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