Keeping Integrity in Communist Germany
REPORTS coming out of Communist East Germany indicate that the authorities there are very much disturbed because of the effectiveness of the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses. In all sections and divisions of the government this matter is being discussed and officials and government employees have been urged to ferret out all who may be having any contact with the witnesses of Jehovah. At one meeting of party officials Jehovah’s witnesses were described as parasites that must be destroyed. At another, Communists were told that the only solution was to deport or arrest Jehovah’s witnesses.
But arresting does not seem to help much. In fact, the report of one of the courts of Schwerin revealed that the arrest of a person who merely had been interested in the work of the witnesses and not yet baptized crystallized in him the determination not only to continue afterward, as before, to tell others about the things he had learned but also to recognize himself now as one of the witnesses.
The hatred of the Communists is in actuality directed against God’s Word, the Bible. Note the expression of a commando-leader of the peoples’ police at a penitentiary: “A Bible in the hand of one of Jehovah’s witnesses is just as harmful as a torch in the hand of an incendiary.”
Repeatedly in court Jehovah’s witnesses are heard to say: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” Indicating the determination of the brothers to stand by this is the following experience: A brother had been beaten daily for four months as well as otherwise mistreated and made to suffer from hunger and cold. After this he was taunted with the words: “We will make you soft and weak. Remember, every general surrenders when he realizes that his situation is hopeless. Why do you refuse to surrender?” Pale and emaciated, and hardly able to stand erect, but with strong voice, the brother answered: “I have promised faithfulness to Jehovah. You can carry me out of this place as a dead body but not as a traitor.”
From another penitentiary a brother writes: “Here we have among us strong unity. Not a single brother has been overpowered by the enemy to deny Jehovah. Even the officers admit it is impossible to suppress the theocratic organization.”
A sister reported joyfully from her prison: “Jehovah gave us an opportunity to praise him in the midst of a camp of his enemies, and he gave us success and much joy. It was glorious to feed the sheep of Jehovah. One interested woman said that she had implored God that she might get in touch with the witnesses. Another one said: ‘Now for the first time I know why it was good for me that I got in a penitentiary. Maybe outside I would never have been forced to listen to reason.’ Many hearts are being made happy and even behind prison walls their eyes are beaming with joy.”
A brother, sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary, writes his family at the end of four years: “I hope you are all well and happy, which is what I can say for myself. I have no reason to be unhappy or to murmur. On the contrary! If I really think about it all I can sincerely say, I am happy! I recognize the blessings and favors which I receive so undeservedly, and I have an unshakable confidence and a faith as strong as a rock in the almighty power of our great God. The loving sympathy of so many united with us is always a source of great joy.”
The brothers in prison are greatly strengthened by the love, care and zeal for service shown by those who are still free, and on the other hand those who go from house to house in Eastern Germany are stimulated by the courage and zeal expressed by those in prison. Telling of the joys received by those still free to go from house to house is the following:
“I left the booklet Evolution versus The New World with a Catholic doctor. Calling back on the doctor, he, pointing to the booklet, said, ‘With that booklet you rendered me a very pleasurable service. I studied it with my daughter and I can tell you that its presentation has hands and feet. [A German idiom meaning that it is effective and solid or substantial.] We have copied several pages on the typewriter and intend to invite the professor and doctors of the high school and those on the board of education, and present to them our arguments.’ From our discussion it was apparent that he had studied the booklet from beginning to end. He asked many questions and wanted to know more about the time of the end and the resurrection.”