Betsie & Corrie Ten Boom

"Betsie, don't you feel anything about Jan Vogel? Doesn't it bother you?"

"Oh yes, Corrie! Terribly! I've felt for him ever since I knew - and pray for him whenever his name comes into my mind. How dreadfully he must be suffering!'

For a long time I lay silent in the huge shadowy barracks restless with the sighs, snores, and stirrings of hundreds of women. Once again I had the feeling that this sister with whom I had spent all of my life belonged somehow to another order of beings. Wasn't she telling me in her gentle way that I was as guilty as Jan Vogel? Didn't he and I stand together before an all-seeing God convicted of the same sin of murder? For I had murdered him with my heart and with my tongue.

"Lord Jesus," I whispered into the lumpy ticking of the bed, "I forgive Jan Vogel and I pray you will forgive me. I have done him great damage. Bless him now, and his family ..." That night for the first time since our betrayer had a name, I slept deep and dreamlessly until the whistle summoned us to roll call.

Source: Corrie Ten Boom - "The Hiding Place", Ch. 12, pp 192-193