Also, about that time seven issues of The Watchtower were smuggled in that dealt with the prophecies of Daniel. And we obtained a few Bibles, too. So on Sunday afternoons we would crowd together in one wing of the barracks for Bible study; there would be about 200 of us. A few would be posted outside to signal if any SS guard approached. These were very memorable, faith-strengthening meetings for me.

‘Smuggled Watchtowers?’ you might wonder. That in itself is a story of faith and courage. Some Witness prisoners worked outside the camp and came in contact with brothers who had not yet been arrested. Thus they could secretly get some literature to smuggle back into the camp. Brother Seliger, who was like our overseer in the camp, worked in the prison infirmary, and he would hide the smuggled Bible literature behind a tile in the bathroom there.

One day in 1944, while marching in with my work brigade for the noon meal, I saw my brothers standing in the courtyard. Recognized as a Witness, I was told to join them. Somehow the SS had learned about our secret mail service in and out of the camp (and from one camp to another), as well as how we would meet in small groups of two or three in the roll-call square and discuss a daily Bible text. We were ordered to stop this illegal activity, but we stood unitedly in our determination to continue strengthening one another spiritually. When Brother Seliger, who was a chief link in the secret mail service, was asked if he was going to continue preaching in the camp, he said: “Yes, that is exactly what I am going to do, and not only I, but also all my brothers.” The spirit of faith and courage that Jehovah’s Witnesses had clearly was not broken, and the Nazis again saw that there was nothing they could do to break our integrity to God.