In June 1950, a month before our work was officially banned, I was arrested along with other brothers at Bethel. I was taken to prison, and as it turned out, I was to face a cruel interrogation.

Because my father worked on a ship that regularly sailed to New York, the officers conducting the investigation tried to make me admit that he spied for the United States. I was subjected to merciless interrogation. In addition, four officers simultaneously tried to make me testify against Brother Wilhelm Scheider, who was then supervising our activity in Poland. They beat me on my heels with thick sticks. As I lay on the floor bleeding, feeling that I could not bear it anymore, I cried, “Jehovah, help me!” My persecutors were surprised and stopped beating me. Within a few minutes, they fell asleep. I felt relieved and regained my strength. This convinced me that Jehovah lovingly responds to his dedicated servants when they cry out to him. It strengthened my faith and taught me to place my full confidence in God.

The final report of the investigation included false testimony supposedly given by me. When I protested, an officer told me, “You will explain it in court!” A friendly cell mate advised me not to worry, since the final report had to be verified by a military prosecutor, which would give me a chance to refute the false testimony. That turned out to be so.

One day in April 1951, after attending a Christian meeting, I was arrested in the street by security officers who had been watching me carefully. Because I refused to answer their questions, they took me to a prison in Bydgoszcz and started interrogating me that same night. I was ordered to stand against a wall for six days and six nights, with no food or drink and in dense tobacco smoke from the officers’ cigarettes. I was beaten with a club and burned with cigarettes. When I fainted, they poured water on me and resumed the interrogation. I begged Jehovah for strength to endure, and he supported me.

Staying in Bydgoszcz prison had its good side. There I was able to share Bible truth with people who could not otherwise be reached. And truly, there were many opportunities to give a witness. Because of their sad, often hopeless, situation, the prisoners readily opened their ears and hearts to the good news.

Alojzy Prostak, a traveling overseer from Kraków, was so brutally treated during interrogation that he had to be taken to the prison hospital. His firm stand in the face of mental and physical torture earned him the respect and admiration of the other prisoners in the hospital. One of them was a lawyer named Witold Lis-Olszewski, who was impressed with the courage of Brother Prostak. He talked to him several times and promised, “As soon as I am released and allowed to resume my practice, I will be willing to defend Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He meant what he said.