On January 18, 1940, the Ministry of Justice declared that the booklets Government and Peace and Freedom for the Peoples were to be confiscated. Four months later, on May 28, 1940, and after a dragged-out legal battle, the court ruled to dissolve the local Watch Tower Society.

Literature Is Used Despite Ban

When it became clear that the police would confiscate the literature at the branch, most of it was dispatched to various brothers’ homes. Since the police did not try to seize the literature in the possession of the brothers, we had quite a cache that could be used in the field.

When the printing of the magazines had to be stopped at the end of 1942, the brothers started to mimeograph the main articles from The Watchtower. These copies were called “solid food,” and they could not be sent through the mail. Therefore several couriers transported them throughout the country to be delivered to the congregations. This arrangement functioned well during the remainder of the war.