Acknowledgements and Word of Thanks
I started this research in 2001. In autumn 2003 it was accepted as a thesis in the discipline of educational sciences of the University of Klagenfurt, and it was updated for publication in 2004. I acquired new insight before publication had been incorporated.
Much has been published about people who were persecuted in the Nazi era. This book gives an account of religious persons who were persecuted because of their faith in God.
Since 11 July 1998, the Austrian government has officially recognised the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses (formerly also known as Bible Students) as a religious society, after they had faced decades of discrimination. The public’s view on this religious community varies from open and interested to distrusting and rejecting. People are often sceptical of the believers; their house to house preaching work is not always met with acceptance and tolerance. In Nazi times they were ruthlessly persecuted by the National Socialist rulers, but that did not break the community’s loyalty to their faith.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have a strong sense of religious unity and collectively resisted the demands of the fascist-dictatorial ‘Third Reich’. This unity helped the religious community to even endure the hardship of concentration camps. This book tells the history of a small group of female Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose life stories and experience of persecution have not been given a place in history until now. As female inmates of St. Lambrecht they belong to the forgotten women of history. This thesis will bring their life stories back into the here and now, thus giving them a place in our society’s collective memory. As women and sisters in faith, the inmates of St. Lambrecht concentration camp made up a minority in a double sense of the word. The fate of the female victims of the Nazi regime, as well as that of the persecuted religious ones, has had much less attention in scientific research than that of their male fellow-sufferers.
Not being a Jehovah’s Witness, the field of research was unknown territory to me. During my research I was confronted with many of my own prejudices and reserve I held toward this religious community. I had to overcome some hesitation and fear. An interpreter translated a number of my interviews with the survivors. The mechanisms of communication that were used made explanation and editing necessary. My critical distance to the faith doctrines and organizational structure of the Watchtower Society remains unchanged.
At the same time, I feel a deep respect for those Witnesses who did not lose their respect for life despite the severe oppression under the Nazi regime. In their steadfastness and actions that resulted therefrom, they were a paragon of compassion. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know female Witnesses of Jehovah who supported and motivated my activities in every possible way. For allowing this work to be made public ‘the Bible Students of St. Lambrecht’ ought to receive all possible recognition.
My presentation of this theme is also meant to fill a gap in the annals of the National Socialist past of Styria, in which a concentration camp for women existed alongside six concentration camps for men at St. Lambrecht. The history of this sub camp of Ravensbrück and Mauthausen is so intertwined with the life stories of 23 exploited women from different lands that they should be wrested away from oblivion, to make this history part of the collective memory of society once again.
This project would not have been possible without support and many valuable suggestions. I would especially like to thank both my scientific mentors, Professor Doctor Peter Gstettner and Professor Doctor Karl Stuhlpfarrer for their patience and extensive advice on my work.
I would also like to thank Heidi Gsell (historical archives of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Vienna, Austria) and Meinard Tydeman (historical archives Watchtower Society in Emmen, the Netherlands). They made it possible to interview the Dutch survivors of the concentration camp at St. Lambrecht and provided the collected archive material of the Watchtower Society.
My sister Sonja Sommersguter I would like to thank from my heart for the countless checks she made on my manuscripts; Judith Langwieser I thank for her excellent translations of the video-interviews from Dutch.
I owe special thanks to the former inmates Jans Hoogers, Gerdina Huisman and Toos Berkers. My interviews with them made it possible to reconstruct the main part of the history of the women’s concentration camp St. Lambrecht. I also thank Cobie Pronk, who was also willing to be interviewed.
Furthermore I would like to thank Margarete Günter, who was willing to talk to me and gave me a tour of the St. Lambrecht monastery. She recounted her memories to me and made photographs available for publication.
My greatest thanks go out to my husband Peter Farkas, who coached me, motivated me and supported me in every possible way. I especially thank him for the constructive talks and discussions that inspired me and at the same time helped me to maintain a good balance during the often taxing and time-consuming studies. I want to dedicate this work to him.
Anita Farkas
Next →