Bible Study Materials Smuggled into Dachau

A Jehovah’s Witness¹ named Adolphe Arnold secretly received these banned religious writings while imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp during World War II. Arnold and his family were living in the French region of Alsace near the border with Germany when German forces invaded France in 1940. Arnold, his wife Emma, and their young daughter Simone² soon became targets of Nazi policies persecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses. In September 1941, the Gestapo arrested Adolphe Arnold while he was working in a textile factory. He was held at the local prison in the city of Mulhouse for several months before being transferred to Dachau.

Arnold’s wife Emma began smuggling banned religious writings to him during his time in Dachau. In 1942, Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler issued an order that permitted many concentration camp prisoners to receive small packages with food items.³ Emma copied passages from publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses on thin scraps of paper. Then she rolled the paper up tightly and hid it between two cookies that she pasted firmly together with an edible, honey-like glue.⁴ When Emma was arrested and imprisoned in 1943, her sister Eugenie took over for her and secretly sent Adolphe the writings featured here in 1944. The original scrap of paper is very small—roughly 1.5 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide. The handwritten passage urges Witnesses to remain brave, faithful, and united together in the face of their persecution.⁵

Jehovah’s Witnesses often managed to find ways to continue their religious practices even though they were imprisoned in the Nazi camp system. They shared these banned reading materials,⁶ held secret Bible study meetings, and sang religious songs.⁷ They also continued to share their teachings with other prisoners to recruit them to their religion. Jehovah’s Witness prisoners formed tightly knit communities of faith that helped many individuals endure the terrible conditions of the Nazi camp system.⁸

Arnold became ill with typhus shortly after he arrived at Dachau. He received his first package from his wife Emma shortly afterward, and her packages helped Arnold recover his health—as well as his psychological and spiritual strength. Arnold was physically abused by the SS in Dachau, and he was also abused as a test subject by SS doctors conducting unethical experiments on the prisoners against their will.⁹ Arnold survived these experiments and was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp.

Arnold and his fellow prisoners were liberated by American forces in May 1945. He was too weak to walk, and he had permanent hearing loss from the physical abuse that he endured at Mauthausen. Once he recovered his health sufficiently to travel, Arnold reunited with Emma and his daughter Simone in Alsace, France.

Originally known as Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian religious movement founded in the late 1800s in the United States. Pacifism is an important element of their beliefs, and Jehovah's Witnesses often refuse to serve in national military forces or otherwise do anything to violate these beliefs. Spreading their teachings is also an important part of their faith, which has made them a highly visible religious minority for generations. To learn more, see M. James Penton, Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997).

Simone Arnold Liebster can be heard singing in a related Experiencing History item, Jehovah's Witness Song Composed in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

Detlef Garbe, Between Resistance & Martyrdom: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich, translated by Dagmar G. Grimm (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), 42.

Wartime shortages forced Germans to use many substitute products known as "ersatz" goods, such as the ersatz honey Emma Arnold used to hide the banned reading materials.

The passage also equates Nazism and war with the forces of Satan, stating that "'the house of Beelzebub is itself once again' in this struggle for world domination." As the war turned against Nazi Germany, Nazi leaders became concerned that religious prophecies and predictions about the end of the world were spreading among the German population. They believed that Jehovah’s Witnesses were responsible for leaflets and rumors that claimed that Adolf Hitler was the Antichrist and German forces were facing defeat. To learn more, see the related Experiencing History item, Memo from Ernst Kaltenbrunner to Heinrich Himmler.

Jehovah's Witness prisoners at the Niederhagen concentration camp at Wewelsburg in north central Germany even ran an underground press and distributed Bibles and religious writings to other prisoners and people outside of the camp system. To learn more see "Wewelsburg," Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1521. For another primary source on the experiences of Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned in the Niederhagen camp at Wewelsburg, see the related Experiencing History item, Punishment Card of Johann Ludwig Rachuba.

Many prisoners of different faiths found comfort and strength through the continued practice of their faith despite Nazi prohibitions. To learn more, see the related Experiencing History item, Tefillin Owned by Alexander Kuechel.

To learn more, see Christoph Daxelmüller, "Solidarity and the Will to Survive: Religious and Social Behavior of Jehovah's Witnesses in Concentration Camps," in Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime, 1933-1945, edited by Hans Hesse (Bremen: Ed. Temmen, 2001): 23-35.

SS doctors intentionally infected Arnold with malaria in order to test vaccines. To learn more about Nazi medical experiments, see Paul Weindling, Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

German transcription

Warum müssen alle diese Diener des Herrn sich vereinigen um den Allmächtigen zu loben und Gott zu preisen? Und zwar in mutiger Weise und ohne Furcht? Hier der Grund: “Denn Er hat befestigt die Riegel deiner Tore, hat deine Kinder gesegnet in deiner Mitte. Er, der Frieden stellt in deinen Grenzen, dich sättigt mit dem Fette des Weizens” (Psalm147:13, 14). Hier haben wir die Antwort, warum die gesamte Theokratische Organisation, sowohl im Himmel als auf Erden, Grund hat sich zu freuen. Kein Sturmbock der Feindesorganisation kann die verriegelten Tore “Zions” und “Jerusalems” einrennen. Die Theokratie ist die mächtigste Organisation des Universums. Deshalb ist sie der einzige Ort der Rettung für den “Überrest” der “Kinder Zions” sowohl für die andern Schafe des Herrn. Inmitten aller Verfolgungen, die der “Überrest” und seine Gefährten zu erleiden haben, sind sie glücklich und gesegnet über allen anderen irdischen Geschöpfen. Es ist weder Friede noch Einigkeit in der Welt, und dies in keiner Nation, denn “das Haus Beelzebubs ist erneut [?] wieder sich selbst” in diesem Kampf zur Erlangung der Weltherrschaft. Aber unter denen, die von der “Welt” getrennt sind und sich in einem Bande mit Jehova befinden und ihm nach den Theokratischen Vorschriften dienen, herrscht Friede. In Frieden führen sie miteinander das Werk des Herrn hinaus. Sie nehmen sich vor denen in acht, welche Spaltungen und Unruhe hervorrufen und sie meiden sie als nicht zur Theokratischen Organisation gehörend.” (Romans 16: 17-18). Sie sind am “Tische des Herrn” vereinigt, den er ihnen bereitet hat im Angesicht ihrer Feinde.

Fortsetzung Nr. 4

English translation

Why must all these servants of the Lord unite in order to praise the Almighty and glorify God? And do so in a brave manner and without fear? Here [is] the reason: “For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, hath blessed thy children within thee. He, who maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat” (Psalm147:13, 14). Here we have the answer to why the entire Theocratic Organization, both in heaven and on earth, has cause to rejoice. No battering ram of the enemy’s organization can force open the barred gates of “Zion” and “Jerusalem.” The Theocracy is the most powerful organization in the universe. Therefore, it is the only place of salvation for the “remnant” of the “children of Zion,” as well as the Lord’s other sheep. Amidst all the persecutions that the “remnant” and its companions must suffer, they are happy and blessed above all other earthly creatures. There is neither peace nor unity in the world, nor in any nation, for the “house of Beelzebub is itself once again” in this struggle for world domination. But among those who are separate from the “world” and are bound together with Jehovah and serve him in accordance with the Theocratic Precepts, peace prevails. In peace, they do the work of the Lord together. They are wary of those who cause divisions and unrest, and they avoid them, as they are not part of the Theocratic Organization. (Romans 16: 17-18). They are united at the “Lord’s table,” which he has prepared for them in the face of their enemies.

Instalment No. 4

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