In March 1939, Hungary, with the support of Nazi Germany, occupied Transcarpathia. A ban was imposed on the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all Kingdom Halls were closed. The authorities brutally mistreated the brothers and sent many to prison. Most Witnesses from the Ukrainian villages of Velykyi Bychkiv and Kobyletska Poliana were imprisoned.

Later, Nazi armies invaded Ukraine. During the German occupation, the clergy began to stir up the masses against Jehovah’s people. In Halychyna fierce persecution raged. Windows in the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses were smashed, and many brothers were severely beaten. In winter, some of the brothers were forced to stand in cold water for hours because they would not make the sign of the cross. Some sisters received 50 blows with a stick. A number of brothers lost their lives keeping their integrity. For example, the Gestapo executed Illia Hovuchak, a full-time minister from the Carpathian Mountains. A Catholic priest had handed him over to the Gestapo because Brother Hovuchak zealously preached about God’s Kingdom. It was a time of severe testing. Nevertheless, Jehovah’s servants continued to stand firm.

Jehovah’s Witnesses helped one another, even though doing so was often dangerous. In the city of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankovsk), a woman of Jewish origin and her two daughters became Witnesses. They lived in a Jewish ghetto. The brothers learned that the Nazis planned to execute all Jews in the city, so they organized an escape for the three sisters. Risking their own lives, the Witnesses hid these Jewish sisters throughout the entire period of the war.