Two sisters, who have been widows now for more than thirty-two years, look back on those turbulent times grateful for the help Jehovah gave them. Sisters Bühler and Ballreich, from Neulosheim near Speyer, both got married near the beginning of the ban and learned the truth around the same time. In 1940 both husbands got their draft call and, upon refusal to take up military service, were arrested.

Sister Ballreich went to the district draft officials in Mannheim, where she learned that the two brothers had been sent to Wiesbaden to appear before a military court. Sister Ballreich received permission to visit her husband on the condition that she try to persuade him to change his mind. Sister Bühler was given permission to visit her husband on the same condition. Both sisters at once went to Wiesbaden. Sister Bühler reports:

“I can hardly describe how sad the reunion was. He (her husband) asked: ‘Why have you come?’ I answered that I was supposed to try to influence him. But he comforted me, gave me Biblical counsel and told me not to be sad like the rest who have no hope but to place my entire confidence in our great God, Jehovah. . . . A young court clerk, who had accompanied us to the prison, advised us to stay in Wiesbaden until Tuesday, which was the day the case was to be heard. If we were there we would certainly be permitted to attend. So we stayed until Tuesday. We waited outside on the street until our husbands, accompanied by two soldiers with loaded weapons, were led through the street like professional criminals. Truly a spectacle for men and angels. Sister Ballreich and I walked along. We were able to attend the trial. It lasted less than an hour, ending up with two blameless and brave men being sentenced to death. Afterward we could be with them for about two hours in a room on the ground floor. But after we had left the courthouse we walked the streets of Wiesbaden like two lost sheep.”

Shortly thereafter the two young sisters received notification that their husbands had been shot to death on June 25, 1940, with the words on their lips “Jehovah forever!”

“So it was that on the morning of July 3, supervisors from two juvenile homes came to pick up our children. The woman who took charge of my fifteen- and ten-year-old girls, Christa and Waltraud, told me: ‘I have known for several weeks that I was to pick up your children, and I have been unable to sleep at night since, knowing that I am taking children out of a well-organized family. But I must do it.’

“Some of the neighbors did not refrain from showing their dislike of the action being taken, but a warning was soon circulated by the responsible authorities that ‘anyone speaking about the Appel case is committing national sedition!’ Just to make sure, three police officials were sent to oversee the matter of taking away the children. . . . My husband was naturally notified by the officials of the steps that had been taken in regard to the business and the children. They hoped that this would soften him up. He was accused of being dishonest and unscrupulous in having left his family in the lurch. My husband wrote me a very loving letter saying how he had got up very early the next morning, got down on his knees and in prayer committed the care of his family to Jehovah. . . .

“The same day the children were picked up I received notification from the military court in Berlin-Charlottenburg to come there. I was taken before the chief public prosecutor, who asked me to try to influence my husband to put on the uniform. When I told him the Biblical reason for being unable to do this, he shouted full of rage: ‘Then he’ll get his head chopped off!’ Despite this, I asked for permission to speak to my husband. He gave me no answer but pressed a bell that summoned a soldier who took me down one story where several officers greeted me with icy glares and accusations. When I left, one of them followed me, took my hand and said: ‘Mrs. Appel, always stay as steadfast as you are now. You are doing the right thing.’ I was truly surprised. What was important, however, was that I could speak to my husband.

“While I was in Berlin the Nazis had already sold our business. I was forced to sign the bill of sale because​—as I was told—​I would otherwise be put into a concentration camp.

“After I had visited my husband in Berlin several times, he was sentenced to death. The lawyer who ‘defended’ him remarked: ‘Your husband has been given a golden opportunity to get out of this, but he has refused to make use of it.’ To which my husband replied: ‘I have made my decision for Jehovah and his kingdom and that is the end of the matter.’

“On October 11, 1941, my husband was beheaded. In his last letter, which he was permitted to write just a few hours before his execution, he said: ‘When you get this letter, my beloved Maria and my four children, Christa, Walter, Waltraud and Wolfgang, everything will already be over and I will have won the victory through Jesus Christ and my hope is that I have been a conqueror. From my heart I wish you a blessed entry into Jehovah’s kingdom. Remain faithful! Three young brothers, who will be going the same way that I am tomorrow morning, are here beside me. Their eyes are aglow!’

“A short time later I was forced to vacate my home in Süderbrarup. The furniture was stored in five different places. I personally landed penniless at my mother’s.

“My son Walter was taken out of school by the juvenile home and sent to Hamburg where he took up an apprenticeship in printing. In 1944, he was drafted, although he was only seventeen years old. In a most wonderful way he had come into possession of the book The Harp of God before this and had learned a great deal from it during the nights of bombings in Hamburg in his little room in the attic. His desire was to dedicate himself to Jehovah. After many difficulties he was able to go to Malente, at New Year’s time of 1943/1944, where, in a darkened laundry, a brother baptized him secretly. . . .

“He was able to get in touch with me secretly and I waited in the streets of Hamburg several hours until he came, because I was forbidden to see my children under any circumstances.

“For his encouragement I could tell him that I had received a letter from the brothers in Sachsenhausen who had heard of our lot. Brother Ernst Seliger wrote that after the camp had quieted down at night several hundred brothers from various nations would bow their knees to Jehovah and make mention of us in their prayers. Then my son was taken by force to East Prussia to the military group to which he was assigned. In the icy cold they took away his clothes and laid his uniform down in front of him, but he refused to put it on. It was two days before he got something warm to eat. But he remained firm.

“In Hamburg we had bidden each other farewell. He told me he would be going the way of his father. Some seven months later, after his papers had been falsified to make him appear to be older, he actually was beheaded, without ever having had a trial. According to law, he was still underage and under juvenile jurisdiction.

“A Süderbrarup policeman visited me and read me the police report from East Prussia. I myself was given nothing at all. Although I had not really counted on my boy having to go through what his father had, since he was so young and the end of the war was so near, yet despite the great pain I felt, I offered a prayer of thanksgiving to Jehovah. I could now say: ‘Thank you, Jehovah, that he has fallen on the battlefield for you.’