Susie Sandager, Author and Actress of Corrie Remembers

by Martin Finston

Susie Sandager’s moving solo performance, Corrie Remembers, brings to life the late Corrie ten Boom, legendary Dutch Holocaust survivor and rescuer. The show is set in the 1970s when Ten Boom was in her 80s. Susie Sandager, as the stooped, grey-haired senior, shares a mesmerizing account of Corrie ten Boom's efforts to help persecuted Jews. Despite the cruel realities of the Holocaust and her family's heartbreaking experiences, audiences leave with spirits uplifted and hope renewed. 

Corrie Remembers is a timeless story and one the world needs to hear.  

Corrie Remembers had its start back in the 1980s, when Susie began to reconnect with her Christian faith after a long dry spell.  She began reading the Bible in earnest.  She also read a copy of Corrie ten Boom’s 1971 autobiography, The Hiding Place.  “If you read this book,” Susie said, “pick a weekend when you have nothing else planned, because it’s a real page-turner.” 
Ten Boom and her family became involved in the Dutch underground, and it is estimated that they saved over 800 Jews before she, her sister, and her father were apprehended by the Gestapo. Of her family, she alone would survive prison and the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

The Hiding Place made a deep impression on Susie. She said, it tells the story of a woman who, with pure convictions, had the moral courage to do what was right in the face of the greatest danger to herself and her family and to hold on to her faith even after unimaginable suffering and sacrifice.  "Her family suffered for what they did and they did not regret it," Susie said. "This is a big statement of affirmation, that the people they saved were worth it even if her family did suffer."

Susie had an awakening of sorts when she launched a campaign in her church to raise money for the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.  She was met with initial skepticism until she circulated a letter explaining to her congregation why she felt this was a worthy cause.  The response was very generous, but when she presented a substantial check to the local Hadassah chapter, she was again met with skepticism. Then she showed them the letter she had written, and this, she said, opened the doors of understanding.  After that experience, Susie felt an even stronger call to promote Jewish-Christian understanding.

All that was in Susie’s mind when she attended a solo performance in which a Jewish actress portrayed the late Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir and saw Meir come alive through the words and actions of this performer. She found herself wishing that audiences could get to know Corrie ten Boom through the same kind of experience. She broached this idea with the actress, who suggested that the part needed to be played by Susie herself.  

Susie accepted the challenge. She researched her script using materials from the Corrie ten Boom archive at Dallas Baptist University. She spent a year rehearsing before her first audience performance in 1999.  As the project started to take on a life of its own, volunteers offered to coach and direct, and to provide music and projection, and the play matured into a full-fledged professional production.  

Susie estimates that she has performed the play over 400 times, including a performance to an audience of 5,000 at the Israel Convention Center in Jerusalem and a performance at Yad Vashem.  She said that audiences have included Holocaust survivors who were deeply affected by the play, and who made it a point to approach Susie after her performance to thank her.

Susie says that Corrie ten Boom had no thought of evangelizing to the Jewish victims she rescued. For Christians and Jews to reach a full understanding of each other, she said, it is necessary to accept one another's faith without any intentions to proselytize. We must learn to love one another unconditionally. 

“While I hope everyone is touched by the show in some way,” Susie says, “ I hope that in the end, there will be Christians who are challenged and Jews who are encouraged.”

Susie Sandager kindly consented to be interviewed for this article.  Below are edited and shortened versions of some of the questions we asked her, with her responses:

Has your writing and performing this play taught you anything about heroism?  The heroism of Corrie and her family was of the extreme kind.  But heroism starts in little ways.  When I visited Yad Vashem, I heard a story of a bystander in Nazi Germany who saved the life of a Jew fleeing a murderous band of Nazis simply by misdirecting them.  It was a small act that happened on the spur of the moment, but it made that man a hero.  You don’t have to be a special person to be a hero.  But you do need to practice being a hero in those little things for your whole life.  And not just you, but your children too.  

Many people who read books like The Hiding Place imagine themselves as having made the right choice in those circumstances.  But that is mostly an illusion.  By and large, there were only three types of people:  Murderers, victims, and bystanders.  The number of rescuers was miniscule.  So statistically speaking, none of us would have stood up.  So the truth is, when the time comes, you don’t know what you will do, unless you have already been preparing mentally and spiritually, and in some cases, with practical plans as well. 

What are some things we can do to fight intolerance? We don’t come out of the womb hating. What we must do is teach each other and our children to love one another. It’s the job of all of us to lift ourselves up.

Martin Finston is President, Congregation B'nai Israel, Albuquerque.

Please join us for Susie’s performance at Congregation B’nai Israel on Sunday, November 3, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets $10. REGISTER https://bnaiisrael-nm.org/event/the-hiding-place-corrie-remembers-the-true-story-of-corrie-ten-boom

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