Education
Survivor Testimony
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
University of Minnesota
The Buchenwald Series, watercolors by Johannes Steyer, a Jehovah’s Witness survivor. As prisoner #1795, Steyer shares 27 freeze-frame visions in chronological order that contrast ten years of Nazi terror with individual religious determination and hope. The artist chose to use bright colors, perhaps reflecting the hope and optimistic yearning that infused his Christian faith. Includes commentary on history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
"We Honor and Remember Jehovah's Witness Victims of the Nazi Era"
On October 5, 2006, the Museum offered a full day of programs about Jehovah’s Witnesses. Videos of interviews with Magdalena Kusserow Reuter and Franz Wohlfahrt.
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Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
University of Minnesota
Testimony of Rudolf Graichen, recorded at University of Minnesota Summer Teacher Institute, 2003. Withstanding intense pressure to join the Hitler Youth, he was put in reform school, sent to live with a Nazi family, and eventually sentenced to four years in a Nazi prison, more than a year of which was spent in solitary confinement.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Testimony of Robert Wagemann, Jehovah’s Witness survivor. Shortly before his birth in 1937, Robert’s mother was imprisoned briefly for distributing religious materials. Robert’s hip was injured during delivery, leaving him with a disability. When Robert was five years old, he was ordered to report for a physical. His mother overheard staff comments about putting Robert “to sleep.” Fearing they intended to kill him, Robert’s mother grabbed him and ran from the clinic. Nazi physicians had begun systematic killing of those they deemed physically and mentally disabled in the fall of 1939.
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
Testimony of Simone Arnold Liebster.
© Arnold-Liebster Foundation 2008