Prison, Torture and Death for Witnesses in Soviet Zone

Communist puppets in East Germany push their drive to smash Jehovah’s witnesses, and continue to cloak their hatred and persecution in false political charges. Under the headlines “SED Sets Ransom on Jehovah’s Witnesses; Terror in the Soviet Zone Is Increasing; Inspector of People’s Police Brings Own Wife into the Concentration Camp” the West Berlin paper Die Neue Zeitung reported:

“According to the notice of the Berlin office of Jehovah’s witnesses on Tuesday, members of this religious group in the Soviet zone are being forcibly persecuted and arrested. By home searches doors and windows were broken, the members of this sect mistreated and robbed. The preacher Erich Boppe from Meissen, who was arrested some days ago, died in one of the Dresden hospitals due to injuries suffered when arrested. Further, 60 members of Jehovah’s witnesses, among them numerous old men, children and women, were brought with serious injuries into the concentration camp Bautzen. As DPA reports supplementarily, a ransom of 50 East marks was set on the ascertainment of each leading preacher of this religious organization.” [September 20, 1950]

An AP dispatch from Berlin dated November 26 reported that three of Jehovah’s witnesses were given life sentences by an East German court, and 18 others were sentenced to two years or longer. A few days later a UP dispatch said that on November 30 nine of Jehovah’s witnesses got prison terms ranging from two years to life. On December 8 the New York Daily News carried this report:

“Berlin, Dec. 7 (Reuters).—West Berlin leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses charged today that East German police imprisoned and tortured 500 members of the sect after it had been banned in the Russian zone last summer. Five died from ill-treatment and others were severely injured by beatings with fists and clubs, they said. But leaders of the sect, largely financed by contributions from the United States, said they would continue activities in East Germany despite persecution. Of 1,200 members arrested since August, when the ban took effect, 611 are still in prison, the statement said. It charged that several had been kept waist-deep in water ‘for days on end’.”

Concerning such persecution the Miami Herald recently said: “The charges against the Berlin Witnesses of being spies seems preposterous. What probably happened was that the sect refused to break down under Soviet pounding. No faith surpasses the Witnesses in constancy toward its tenets.”