Contact with Other Social Groups
Contact between inmates and people from other social groups was forbidden on principle in St. Lambrecht women’s concentration camp. Yet this happened, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses did meet other layers of society through their work. They were relatively free to go wherever they wanted because of the lack of security staff and because they were to be trusted by reason of their well-known religious principles.
Thus, they could meet with the male inmates, the civilian staff and – although sporadically – with the local population. A few Jehovah’s Witnesses managed to develop close relationships through their work.
Such a close relationship arose between the German Jehovah’s Witness Ella Hempel and the civilian kitchen help Margarete Messnarz-Günter. Both women worked in the kitchen. They cooked across from each other at the same kitchen range, which separated the inmates’ part of the kitchen from the part for the civilian staff. As already indicated, there were no more SS guards in the kitchen after the arrival of the female prisoners. This enabled a virtually unrestricted communication between the inmates who worked there and the kitchen staff. Margarete Messnarz-Günter developed a mother-daughter relationship with this twenty-five-year older German Jehovah’s Witness and sustained a close friendship with her.
Moreover, Ella Hempel helped to exchange letters between the Spanish inmate Emilio Viana and the young kitchen help. The German Bible Student used the opportunity of her unguarded place of work to speak about her faith and she attempted to convince kitchen help Margarete Messnarz-Günter of the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. ‘I listened to it all and thought: It would be nice if paradise should come in the way Jehovah’s Witnesses portray it. But I didn’t believe in it. I could not be convinced that it really would happen someday, knowing mankind. The Bible Students working in the kitchen time and again told me they didn’t understand why I didn’t spread the message. I should spread it!’1PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002.
This example demonstrates the resistance of Jehovah’s Witnesses at St. Lambrecht. They used every opportunity to live according to their religious principles, such as that of preaching. Whereas this was as a violation of the rules and precisely the reason for their imprisonment.
Personal contact with relatives was also possible at St. Lambrecht. Ella Hempel for instance was visited by her husband and children. Her children pleaded with her to come home, which would have been possible if she signed the declaration of renouncement. For Ella Hempel this was out of the question: she answered that she would remain in the concentration camp just ‘until Jehovah says that it has been enough’.2PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002. The former head housekeeper too remembers this fact. She had no sympathy whatsoever for the strong conviction of the Bible Students, who refused to renounce their faith (PA, interview Kröll, Lore, 18-11-2002). Even these family visits could not break the religious conviction of this Bible Student.
Elisabeth (Lisbeth) Schütt, a Polish Bible Student, managed to contact a sister in the faith living incognito in St. Lambrecht. Seemingly Elisabeth Schütt met this Jehovah’s Witness through her outdoor work and was able to persuade her to smuggle bread and wine into the camp for the ‘Memorial Service’.3PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002; PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002.
‘On a certain morning there was a large cardboard box left beside the gate at the place where roll call was held. Lisbeth immediately knew what it was. The female guard kicked the box and wanted to know what it was. When the guard had left, she immediately removed the box. That is how the bread and wine came into the camp. In this way the Memorial Service could be held.’4PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002.
This incident is typical of the steadfastness of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who looked for opportunities despite risks, and found them too, to live according to their faith even in the concentration camp.
The example just cited concerns one of the rare contacts with the population outside the convent walls. Conversation with the local population was strictly forbidden. Allegedly conversation with the convent apothecary took place now and again. The female interviewees described him as a ‘dear man who hated the Nazis’.5PA, interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002. He detested the sight of the roll call and after liberation generously gave many medicines to the Jehovah’s Witnesses for the return journey to their home country.6PA, interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002.
As a shepherdess, Corstiaantje Pronk had contact with a war invalid who hadn’t been conscripted because of his handicap. He seemingly often helped her take care of the sheep.7PA, interview Pronk, Cobie, 18-10-2002. The SS guards didn’t suspect a threat through contact with the local population at the remote sheep pasture grounds.
Toos Berkers, who worked as a nanny with officer Stadler’s family, had to get bread from the village bakery now and then. The baker inquired after the reason for her imprisonment, whereupon she told him that ‘she obeyed God rather than men’.8PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002. Thereupon the baker gave her a Bible, which she hid in her straw mattress. This too shows that various contacts with the outside world were used to obtain help to enable them to actively practice their faith.
Within the walls of the SS property, the young Dutch women especially who worked as chambermaids managed to contact a few Spanish inmates. Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen, who was trusted by the head housekeeper, was in a special position to do so. Lore Kröll – probably for practical reasons – gave Jans the keys to the various rooms she had to clean. In this context it is interesting that Lore Kröll used to address both chambermaids as ‘Fräulein Gerdi’ and ‘Fräulein Jans’.9PA, interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002. The social contact with this civilian employee in a high position thus took on a clearly personal character.
Household appliances were repaired by mechanic Juan Anguera Canals. Jans Hoogers-Elbertsen remembers him repairing a broken-down vacuum cleaner that she took to the workshop underneath the men’s camp.10PA interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002; interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002. The mechanic, who harboured a special sympathy for Jans, made a little wooden sewing box for her and gave it to her along with a copper thimble. She continued using the sewing box after leaving the camp.11PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002.
That the Polish physician-inmate took care of the sick female Bible Students has already been referred to here. Besides the leather splint for her fractured arm, the cobbler, Jose Lopez Saez, one of the Spanish inmates, also made a pair of shoes for Gerdina Huisman.12PA, interview Hoogers-Elbertsen, Jans, 16-10-2002. A kind gesture that he somehow managed to contrive within the concentration camp. Both young Dutch Witnesses, as well as the kitchen help Margarete Messnarz-Günter had come to the attention of the usually young Spanish prisoners. The Spaniards left no stone unturned in trying to contact them and build up friendships.
The male inmates who came to the kitchen to fetch food also crossed the path of the chambermaids nearly every day. The Spaniard Manuel Amoros Lafuente used the opportunity to slip letters to Gerdina Huisman, who had drawn his special attention. When she once lost one of these letters, it was found by an SS man. Gerdina Huisman feared that the Spaniard would be sent back to Mauthausen and wanted to prevent this. She asked camp commandant Schöller for a voluntary ‘punitive transfer’. Gerdina argued that further contact would be impossible if she were to work outside the SS estate. Schöller accepted her proposal. Manuel Amoros Lafuente was allowed to remain at St. Lambrecht. Guarding the food transport was intensified. Yet the contact between Gerdina Huisman and the Spaniard continued. Even after liberation – when Gerdina rejected his request that she should follow him to Spain – the two kept up correspondence until Gerdina’s marriage.13PA, interview Huisman, Gerdina, 15-10-2002. The Nazi power had not succeeded in smothering a close friendship by punitive measures.
Neither could contact between the female and male groups of inmates be totally prevented during activities outside the SS estate. In fact, when the concentration camp for women was first set up, security was more rigorous and stricter. Through shortage of staff and by bringing in ethnic Germans (so-called Volksdeutschen), who tolerated contact between the inmates, the conversation prohibitions were relaxed.14PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002.
For instance, besides the female Bible Students, male inmates including the Spaniard Emilio Viana also worked in the vegetable gardens. Male inmates could also communicate with the Witnesses during forestry activities.
Based on the above it may be stated that the female Bible Students kept in touch with various social groups, letting themselves above all be guided by their religious faith. Attempting to obtain religious literature through outside contacts put them at risk. They also tried, just as they had done in Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp, to give Biblical witness and even to convert people.
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