Progress in Supplying Spiritual Food

Jehovah, as a loving Father, also provides his people with spiritual food, doing so even when they experience adversity. Despite persecution, literature was delivered to the congregations on a fairly regular basis.

At first only very primitive manual mimeographing devices were available for reproducing Bible literature. A brother recalls: “The quality of print was poor and the number of copies small. Mimeographing required much paper. It had to be brought to where the work was done, and then the finished magazines had to be distributed, all of this, of course, under the cover of darkness. If a location was discovered by the police, it meant several years of imprisonment for the landlord and the workers.”

More was needed, however, than just the ability to reproduce some literature. There was a need to increase the quantity of what was printed and to improve the quality of the printing. So in the late 1950’s, a Rotaprint offset press, a small machine, was obtained; later, others were added. A kindly disposed manager of a small printery in Kraków showed our brothers how to use the machine and how to prepare aluminum stencils. These stencils were much more durable, so more copies could be made in less time.

Later a brother mastered the art of photochemical platemaking​—which he even learned at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Then the brothers themselves proceeded to manufacture the necessary equipment. It proved to be a success. Now the size of type could be photographically reduced, thus getting more text on the same amount of hard-to-get paper. Books were printed in addition to magazines, the first book being From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, published in Poland in 1960.

There were many problems. For example, more electric power was now required. To avoid arousing suspicion, the brothers arranged to bypass the electric meter. But for the sake of conscience, they made anonymous remittances to the power company. Security forces once discovered one of the Witnesses’ “bakeries,” as the printeries were called, near Gdańsk. The workers were taken to court and charged, among other things, with stealing electricity. But once the brothers proved that they had actually made anonymous payments for the power used, this charge was dropped. An excellent witness was given.

According to statistics of the security forces, between 1956 and 1969, they uncovered and put out of operation 34 of the Witnesses’ literature production and distribution centers. One of their officers from Bydgoszcz bragged: “The Intelligence Service is so well organized that a secret printery of Jehovah’s Witnesses can be located within no more than six months.”

This was quite an overstatement. Nonetheless, every Rotaprint confiscated meant a real loss. These complicated machines were not manufactured anywhere in Poland, and because of State control it was very difficult to buy them. Therefore, a large proportion of those we had​—about 50 of them—​were produced by our own brothers, with Jehovah’s support.

[Pictures on page 235]

Printing presses constructed and used by the Witnesses to print Bible literature when under ban, and a group of sisters who for many years risked their lives and freedom to print and deliver that literature