20 At Buchenwald concentration camp (1937-1945), located near Weimar, and at other camps, from 1938 onward the SS isolated Jehovah’s Witnesses in special barracks behind barbed wire, not allowing them to write letters for nine months. During the following three and a half years (at Buchenwald​—where the Witnesses made up the greatest number of prisoners in the “penal labor unit”—​even until the end of the war), they were not allowed to write to their relatives more than 25 words once a month.

21 The following text was stamped or printed on the camp stationery: “The prisoner remains, as before, a stubborn Bible Student and refuses to reject the Bible Students’ false teachings. For this reason the usual privileges of correspondence have been denied him.”

22 The SS would often present to the Witnesses a declaration. By signing this and renouncing their faith, the Witnesses could have been set free. Yet, few signed it.

23 At the risk of his life, Wilhelm Töllner gave Bible talks at Buchenwald.