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“That Is the Way True Christians Should Behave”

IN HIS 1990 book Arbeit macht tot​—Eine Jugend in Auschwitz (Work Kills You—​Young Manhood in Auschwitz), Auschwitz survivor Tibor Wohl documents a conversation he overheard between two fellow prisoners. One, an Austrian, claimed to be a “nonbeliever.” Yet, he praised the prisoners who wore the purple-triangle insignia​—the Bible Students, as Jehovah’s Witnesses were called in the camp.

“They do not go to war,” said the Austrian to his companion. “They would rather be killed than kill anyone else. In my view that is the way true Christians should behave. I must tell you about a very pleasant episode I had with them. We were together with both Jews and Bible Students in one block in the camp of Stutthof. In those days the Bible Students had to do hard labor, outdoors in the bitter cold. We could not understand how they survived. They said Jehovah gave them strength. They needed their bread desperately, since they were famished. But what did they do? They collected all the bread they had, took half of it and gave the other half to their brothers, their spiritual brothers, who came in ravenous from other camps. And they welcomed them and kissed them. Before they ate, they prayed, and afterward their faces beamed with happiness. They said that nobody was hungry anymore. So, you see, then I thought to myself, ‘These are true Christians.’ That was how I always imagined they should be. How nice it would have been to give starving comrades such a welcome here in Auschwitz!”