Witnessing in the Courts

Mykhailo Dan, mentioned earlier, was arrested at the end of 1948. At that time he was married and had a one-year-old son, and his wife was expecting another child. During the trial, the public prosecutor demanded a sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment. In his last statement addressed to the judges, Brother Dan used the words of Jeremiah 26:14, 15: “Here I am in your hand. Do to me according to what is good and according to what is right in your eyes. Only you should by all means know that, if you are putting me to death, it is innocent blood that you are putting upon yourselves and upon this city and upon her inhabitants, for in truth Jehovah did send me to you to speak in your ears all these words.” Such a warning had an effect on the judges. They took counsel and made their decision: ten years of imprisonment and five years of exile to remote territories of Russia.

Brother Dan was convicted as a betrayer of the motherland. When he learned this, he said to the judges: “I was born in Ukraine under the Czechoslovakian government and later lived under the rule of Hungary; now the Soviet Union has come into our territory, and I am Romanian by nationality. Which motherland did I betray?” Of course, this question was left unanswered. After the trial, Brother Dan received the happy news that he had a new baby daughter. This helped him to endure all the indignities of prisons and camps in eastern Russia. In the late 1940’s, many of the brothers from Ukraine, Moldavia, and Belarus starved to death in Soviet prisons. Brother Dan himself lost 50 pounds [25 kg].

Just being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses was reason enough to be imprisoned. Often, false witnesses testified at court trials. As a rule, they were neighbors or colleagues who had been intimidated or bribed by the security services.