He brought me back to Stuttgart, where I got secular work. My real work, however, starting in March 1939, was that of distributing suitcases full of duplicated Watchtower magazines in Stuttgart and its surroundings. Other Witnesses courageously shared in this work.

Meanwhile, Brother Cyranek covered all but the northeastern part of the country. Since the Witnesses’ residences were being watched, he had to move with great caution and sometimes even had to sleep in the woods. Express trains brought him from time to time to Stuttgart, where he dictated to me special reports about our situation in Germany. I wrote ordinary letters, putting these messages between the lines in invisible ink and then sent them, via a cover address, to the Netherlands Bethel.

Sad to say, a second brother had turned traitor in hopes of escaping detention. A year later, he betrayed the teams in Stuttgart and elsewhere to the Gestapo.

He Never Forsakes His Friends

Both Anna and I, together with other faithful sisters, had been sent to the Stuttgart jail. Often I could hear prisoners being beaten. Solitary confinement with nothing to do is a horrible experience. But since we had never missed a Christian meeting and we were still young, we could recall almost all the Watchtower articles. Consequently, our faith kept strong, and we were able to endure.

One day, two Gestapo men came from Dresden to pick up my fellow prisoner Gertrud Pfisterer (now Wulle) and me for identification.

The Gestapo in Stuttgart​—very proud of their “catch”—​asked their colleagues in Dresden in May 1940 to send us back. Our cases were to be tried in southern Germany. But the Gestapo in the north and in the south were apparently not on good terms, so the Dresden office refused, whereupon those from Stuttgart came and hauled us away personally. What now? The drive to the station became a pleasant trip along the river Elbe; in our cells we had not seen green trees and the blue sky for ages. As before, a whole train compartment was reserved for us alone, and we were even allowed to sing Kingdom songs. When we changed trains, we received a meal in the station restaurant. Imagine, in the morning we had had only a dry piece of bread, and now this!

My case came to court in Stuttgart on September 17, 1940. By writing and forwarding Ludwig Cyranek’s letters, I had informed people living in foreign countries about our underground activity and our persecution. That was high treason, which carried the death penalty. It therefore seemed like a miracle that I, the principal defendant in Stuttgart, was sentenced to only three and a half years of solitary confinement!