Instead of being set free after having completed my sentence, I was picked up by the Gestapo. I was supposed to sign a declaration stating that I would no longer be active as a Witness of Jehovah. I steadfastly refused, upon which the official became furious, sprang to his feet, and issued a warrant for me to be placed in detention. The warrant is shown in the picture. Without being allowed to see my parents, I was immediately taken to a small concentration camp for women at Lichtenburg on the river Elbe. Shortly thereafter I met Käthe. She had been in the concentration camp at Moringen since December 1936, but when that concentration camp was closed, she, along with many other sisters, came to Lichtenburg. My father was also in detention, and not until 1945 did I see him again.

At Lichtenburg

I was not permitted to join the other female Witnesses straightaway, as they were being punished for something or other. In one of the halls, I observed two groups of prisoners—women who usually sat at tables and the Witnesses who had to sit the whole day on stools and were given nothing to eat.b

I readily accepted any work assignment, in hopes of coming across Käthe somehow. And that is exactly what happened. She was on her way to work with two other prisoners when our paths crossed. Overjoyed, I gave her a big hug. But the female guard reported us straightaway. We were questioned, and from that time on, we were deliberately kept apart. That was extremely hard.

Two other incidents at Lichtenburg have stuck in my memory. On one occasion all prisoners were to assemble in the courtyard to listen to one of Hitler’s political speeches on the radio. We Jehovah’s Witnesses refused, since patriotic ceremonies were involved. So the guards turned the fire hoses on us, spraying us with the powerful jet of water from a hydrant and chasing us defenseless women from the fourth floor down to the courtyard. There we had to stand, saturated.

On another occasion I, together with Gertrud Oehme and Gertel Bürlen, was ordered to decorate the commandant’s headquarters with lights, as Hitler’s birthday was approaching. We refused, recognizing Satan’s tactics of trying to maneuver us into breaking our integrity through compromises in small things. As punishment, each of us young sisters had to spend the next three weeks alone in a small, dark cell. But Jehovah stayed close to us and, even in such a dreadful place, proved himself to be a refuge.