SUSTAINED BY CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Refusal to Make Weapons

In the mines near the camp, some 1,500 feet below ground, prisoners were put to work making parts for bombers. When I refused to do the work, I received  a few hard blows.  (Isaiah 2:4) The guard snarled that I had better prepare to work the following day. 

The next morning I did not report for roll call, remaining in the barracks. I felt certain that  I would be shot, so I prayed that Jehovah would reward me for my faith. I kept repeating to myself the Bible psalm:  "In God I have put my trust.  I shall not be afraid. What can earthling man do to me?" -Psalm 56:11. 

The barracks were searched, and I was brought out. That is when one of the guards hit me repeatedly, asking" Who is it that does not allow you to work?"  Each time, I said that it was God. That is when another guard told her:  "You might has well stop. Those bibelforscher will let themselves be beat to death for their God."  Her words strengthened me enormously. 

Since cleaning toilets was assigned as punishment and was the filthiest work I could think of, I offered to do it. I was happy to receive that assignment because it was work that I could conscientiously do.  One morning the camp commander, who was feared by everyone, came along.  He stood in front of me and said: "So, are you the Jew that doesn't want to work?" 

"You can see that I am working," I replied.  

"But you will not work for the ward effort, will you?"

"No," I answered.  "God does not want that."

"But you would not be taking part in killing, would you?"

I explained that if I took part in making weapons, I would be violating my Christian conscience.

He took my broom and said: "I can kill you with this, can't I?"

"Oh, sure," I answered, "but a broom is not made for that.  A gun is."

We talked about Jesus' being a Jew and about the fact that even though I was Jewish, I had become one of Jehovah's Witnesses.  When he walked away, fellow prisoners came to up me, surprised  that I had the nerve to speak to the camp commander so calmly. I told them that  It was not a matter of nerve but that I could do it because my God had given me the strength to do so. 

Next time: SUSTAINED BY CONFIDENCE IN GOD -Surviving the War's End

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2001