Elisabeth ten Boom (19 August 1885 – 16 December 1944) was a Dutch woman, the daughter of a watchmaker, who suffered persecution under the Nazi regime in World War II, including incarceration in Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died aged 59.

[1] The oldest of four Ten Boom children, she neither left the family nor married, but remained at home until World War II.

Betsie ten Boom suffered from a case of pernicious anemia, believed to be caused by a malfunction of the gastric juices of intrinsic factor during the nine weeks before birth.

The ten Boom family belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church and believed strongly in the equality of all people before God.

[5] During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the family began to hide numerous Jews and resisters in their home and built a secret room to protect them.

Her sister Corrie was released due to a clerical error and went on to set up the projects that she had seen in her visions, including traveling the world to speak about her faith.