Keeping Integrity in Communist Poland
The facts herein related have been taken from two documents submitted to the general state attorney of Poland at Warsaw by the presiding minister of Jehovah’s witnesses in that land.
“THE rule of the Soviets knows neither freedom nor justice. It is built up consciously on the destruction of every individual will, on unconditional submission. But the masters are we. The repression is entrusted to us. Utter harshness is our duty. And in fulfilling this duty utter cruelty means highest merit.”—Lenin.
This could be the language of only one who has the very spirit of the Devil himself. Of course, Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution of 1917, did not believe in superhuman powers, either good or bad. He was an atheist, as are all orthodox Communists. For such men Darwin’s theory of evolution has been and still is a most welcome explanation for the existence of life and man, making unnecessary the giving of any credit to an almighty and all-wise Creator. The Communist conception of man as a product of evolution explains why man is valued so little. For them man is but an animal that has reached a higher evolutionary plane than the rest of the animals and that can be dealt with just as the interests of the Communist cause require.
The proof of this can be found in the history of the Soviet Union of the past four decades, in the millions of slave laborers it has kept in hundreds of camps and in the countless numbers who have perished miserably. It can also be seen in what has happened and is happening in Hungary, and it can be seen in the persecution that Jehovah’s witnesses have suffered under Communist rule since the end of World War II, such as that in Poland.
PERSECUTION BEGINS
In the fall of 1905 a dedicated Christian minister, a “Bible student,” moved from Switzerland to Warsaw, there becoming the manager of a lace factory. As do all such Christian ministers, he made known to others the hope he had regarding God’s kingdom, having to do this at first by means of an interpreter. Some heard, believed, dedicated themselves also to serve Jehovah and began telling the good news to others. From that small beginning, some fifty years ago, the work of Jehovah’s witnesses in Poland has grown to become a beautiful, strong and stately tree able to weather all the storms beating against it, including two world wars and the Nazi and Communist dictatorships.
With the end of World War II Jehovah’s witnesses gained freedom to preach, but not for long. Bit by bit Communist opposition began to manifest itself so that by 1948 it became impossible to hold annual and semiannual assemblies known as district and circuit assemblies. In a Nazi concentration camp some of Jehovah’s witnesses had been fellow prisoners of Josef Cyrankiewicz, who became prime minister from 1947 to 1952 and again from March 19, 1954, onward. They had shared their food with him, helped him in many other ways and their fine behavior had been an inspiration to him. He told them then that if he should ever occupy a high position in postwar Poland and the witnesses got in trouble they should come to see him. When in 1948 things got so dark for the witnesses a delegation of them visited him. He readily received them, told them he knew what was taking place but that he was powerless to do anything about it.
Before this time, however, in February, 1946, the district security office in Lodz arrested certain leading members of the Society’s branch office there. One of them was told: “You must swim with the stream, otherwise you will not be released.” When he asked what was meant by that expression an official told him:
“You will co-operate with us. You will sign a declaration which we will keep in a safe. You will be given a pseudonym and the reports signed by it you will bring to this office or to my private home or someone from here will fetch the reports at your address. You will organize Jehovah’s witnesses in such a way that they will attend all Roman Catholic services and listen carefully to the sermons of the priests. They will note all the statements directed against the people’s rule or which might be prejudicial to the state.”
The witness refused, saying that the witnesses fought their enemies only with Bible truth and that they loved their neighbors. The arrested witnesses were later released because of a protest lodged with the Polish ambassador at Berne, Switzerland.
In June, 1946, the official in Lodz came to the branch office and demanded that the witnesses co-operate. He warned of dire consequences in case of a refusal and promised the best halls in the various cities for the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses if they co-operated. “Nobody can stop us,” the witness was told. The witness remained firm and so the Communist agent left in a rage. The next day the witness was kidnaped in such a clever manner that no one noticed it. However, upon appearing before the government prosecutor he was released.
On April 21, 1950, at 10:30 p.m., security officials swooped down on the branch office and arrested the leading workers. No warrants had been issued, which showed that the raid was made without the knowledge of the government prosecutor. Shortly thereafter all the workers at the branch office were arrested and the work was officially banned throughout Poland.
IN THE HANDS OF THE POLISH SECURITY OFFICIALS
What kind of treatment was accorded the witnesses who were arrested? Typical instances are here given. Incidentally, it is of interest to note that the present Polish government under the leadership of Wladyslaw Gomulka has condemned the violations of “Socialist legality” by the Stalinists and has decided to call the officials of the former Ministry of Security to account for their evil deeds.
The witnesses were taken to the district security office in Lodz and “third degree” or inquisitorial methods were at once applied. Witness A was grilled and abused for eight days and eight nights without letup. Witness B was given like treatment for six days.
Witness A had blows rained upon him until he was black and blue. Repeatedly he was told that the ordeal would stop if he confessed to having been a spy. His tormentors also demanded that he sign a statement to the effect that he had ordered the building of a radio station by which information was broadcast that betrayed the interests of Poland. When he asked how he could sign a statement that was sheer nonsense he was told: “Nonsense or not, you sign or you do not get your freedom.”
When he lapsed into unconsciousness because of the beating, cold water was poured on him until he came to and until all the blood had been washed out of his clothing. At one time he was forced to remain in a kneeling position for seventy-two hours. After that he was sent to the Ministry of Security at Warsaw, the torture at Lodz having failed to break him. This ill-treatment ruined his health for life. But let it be noted that his integrity did not suffer; it shone out all the brighter!
Witness C was denied food for three days. He was clubbed because of refusing to sign a statement that falsely accused his fellow witnesses. They threatened to hang him but the bluff did not work! He was thrown on the floor, beaten, tramped upon by the officers and the soles of his feet were beaten with rubber bludgeons. He had his eardrums smashed and ribs broken. All together he suffered thirty-two days of such treatment.
In Warsaw, Witness A was put naked in a dark small hole in which he could neither sit down, lie down nor stand erect. For twenty-four days he remained there. Again and again his tormentors demanded that he yield, and finally threatened to destroy his wife and child and make a rag out of him. He told them that he could not be unfaithful to God regardless of what they did to him or to them.
Carrying out their threats, they arrested his wife and child. They so mistreated his wife that she suffered from hemorrhages for five years. The daughter was treated even worse, so that her mind was affected. In the cell next to his they put a girl having a voice like that of his daughter, who kept crying and pleading, “Let them out because they are innocent! Let me go to my mother!” etc. All the time Witness A thought it was the voice of his daughter.
At one time he was told that his own suffering, as well as that of his wife and daughter, would stop if he would work for the Communists; he was given three days to think it over. He replied: “I have never been a spy or informer and never will be. I shall have no other answer in three days. This is my final answer even if it costs my life and the lives of my wife and daughter.” He was then transferred to Mokotow, supposed to be a prison still worse.
How could the Mokotow prison be still worse? True, the torture could not have been much worse, although there Witness A did receive such blows on his chest that for years caused pain after every deep breath. Rather, there the Communists were especially adept in framing questions in such a way as to enmesh their victims. They distorted what the victims said and when these appeared in court the sentence was pronounced on the basis of such testimony.
Witness B received similar treatment. In addition to raining blows on his head and stomach they tore the ligaments of his jaw so that he could not eat for days. He was told: “Although you spent almost five years in a German concentration camp because of your opposition to Hitler, we will, if we want to, make out of you a first-class Gestapoman.” Witness D received treatment very similar to that of A, being placed in the small hole, in addition to beatings, and repeatedly brought forth with demands to confess espionage, which he steadfastly refused to do.
FAITHFUL MARTYRS
The foregoing witnesses and many who suffered like them lived to tell of the ordeals they went through, but others did not. Thus on August 2, 1950, Witness F was requested to appear at the Security Office in Cieszyn. Refusing to serve the Communists and to work against his fellow witnesses he was shot twice by an officer. Taken to a hospital, he died an hour later. Just before he died he told an attending doctor: “I was shot by an official of the Ministry of Security because I faithfully served Jehovah.” Truly a witness faithful until death.
On August 15, 1950, the Security Service of Kolbuszow arrested Witness G, an American citizen. He was beaten on the head and then the officers trod on his spine with their heels. His mind became affected and within six days he was dead.
Witness H was arrested on January 12, 1953, by the Security Office of Piczow. One agent was heard saying to another: “Tell him to say good-by to his wife because he won’t come back.” Eight days later he was done to death.
The S.S. of Rybnik arrested Witness I on August 10, 1950. On September 12, 1950, his wife was informed that he had been executed as a spy. Her request to see the body was refused, as was also the request to open the coffin at the time of the funeral. Similar requests were also denied relatives of Witness M of Lublin, who died after about four months of imprisonment. It was claimed that he had hanged himself.
On June 20, 1950, officers of Bialystok arrested Witness J. He was so tortured that he was unable to walk. He was literally beaten to death about five weeks after his arrest. But it was a year and a half later, February, 1952, before his mother was informed about what had happened to him.
The night of June 19, 1950, officers of Hrubieszow arrested Witness K. On the third day of his inquisition he was asked to make comment upon a printed Bible text and while doing so he was shot and killed. His body was found to be blue and lacerated from the mistreatment he had received.
On the same day Witness L was arrested by the S.S. officers of Sandomierz and taken to the S.S. of Kielce. During the examination he was thrown on the floor, kicked in the head and trampled on. His lungs and kidneys were torn loose and blood flowed from his mouth and rectum until he died.
Witness N was arrested in Staw near Kalisz on January 17, 1951. Six days of abuse were sufficient to kill him. He received the typical treatment accorded the witnesses at that place: He was forced to sit on a one-legged stool that had a dowel pin that penetrated into the rectum. Electric currents were applied to his feet and chin. Hanged until unconscious, he was thrown into a tub of water. After he revived tortures were resumed. His tormentors insisted that he confess espionage.
On January 25 his wife asked to see the body of her husband but was refused. However, in the evening she was advised by phone to get the body and bury it. The state attorney allowed her to enter the morgue. Although Witness N was only twenty-eight years old and healthy and strong six days before, he now appeared a skeleton. From head to foot his body bore the marks of abuse, with red and swollen spots. His genitals were also bruised and swollen, etc.
The S.S. of Stettin arrested Witness O on May 20, 1952, and took him to a prison in Warsaw and a few months later to one in Lodz. About two years later his wife heard of his being in a hospital and finally gained permission to see him. He was such a skeleton that she did not recognize him. A lawyer advised her to request her husband’s release from the “state of examination,” which was finally granted and she was able to have him brought home September 3, 1954. He had the joy of seeing his home and child once more but died eight days later. Two thousand attended the funeral and protested these sadistic methods of the Communist police, now commonly called “Berianism.”
RESPITE FOR WITNESSES
Other witnesses lost their sight because of abuse, others lost all their teeth, and many are crippled for life and unable ever to earn their own livelihood. After the meeting of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist party in Moscow, which marked the beginning of the “de-Stalinization” program, the charge of espionage was dropped. Berianism is a thing of the past as regards Poland, at least for the time being. Polish statesmen have said that their judiciary will do everything in its power to make amends for the wrongs done to thousands of innocent people, including Jehovah’s witnesses.
Pertinent here is the following excerpt from the 1957 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses: “One very prominent government official stated: ‘I am enthused about your stand.’ He further went on to say that there were three main reasons why Jehovah’s witnesses have been reconsidered by the government in Poland, and they are these: (1) The teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses have not changed in spite of the ban of six years. (2) That despite arrests and many other difficulties they courageously and fearlessly continue to practice their religion. (3) That during the whole period of the ban their numbers quadrupled.”
Truly the witnesses of Jehovah in Poland have kept integrity in spite of all that the Communist rulers did. They have shown the same spirit as Job when he stated: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”—Job 13:15.
Jehovah’s witnesses as well as all other lovers of righteousness throughout the world can rejoice in and take encouragement from the integrity-keeping course of the witnesses in Poland. They see in it a fulfillment of the words of the prophet: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me, saith Jehovah.”—Isa. 54:17, AS.