Viktor Gutshmidt recalls: “Once when I came home from the ministry, everything in the apartment had been turned upside down. The KGB were looking for literature. They arrested me and interrogated me for two months. Yulia, our younger daughter, was 11 months old, and our elder daughter was 2 years old.

“During the investigation, the inspector said to me, ‘Aren’t you German?’ For many at that time, the word ‘German’ was synonymous with ‘Fascist.’ Germans were hated.

“‘I’m not a nationalist by nature,’ I said, ‘but if you’re talking about the Germans who were held in the concentration camps by the Nazis, then I am proud of those Germans! They were called Bibelforscher, and now they are called Jehovah’s Witnesses. I am proud that no Witness ever fired a bullet from a machine gun or a shell from a cannon. Of those Germans, I am proud!’

“The inspector was silent, so I continued: ‘I am confident that not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses has participated in any of the rebellions or uprisings. Even when the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses are under ban, they persist in worshipping God. At the same time, the Witnesses recognize and obey the lawful authorities if their laws do not break the higher laws of our Creator.’

“Unexpectedly, the inspector stopped me and said: ‘We have never studied any group as closely as we have studied the Witnesses and their activities. If anything in the records had been found against you, even the shedding of one drop of blood, we would have shot all of you.’

“Then I thought: ‘Our brothers have the courage to serve Jehovah throughout the world, and this example has saved our lives in the Soviet Union. So perhaps our serving God here might somehow help our brothers in other areas.’ This thought gave me added strength to hold fast to Jehovah’s ways.”

[Picture on page 110]

Viktor Gutshmidt