Ella Hempel-Zippel
Ella Hempel was born on 4 March 1900.1AMM, K5/6; WTA Selters i.T., data collection on the female Jehovah’s Witnesses incarcerated at St. Lambrecht. She lived in Grethen, in Saxony, and was married at the time of her arrest.
Her husband was not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. When Ella was deported to the Lichtenburg concentration camp in 1938, she had to leave her four children behind with her husband in Grethen. In May 1939 all the female prisoners were transferred from Lichtenburg to Ravensbrück. Ella was placed in the so-called model Block 3, side A. The political prisoner and senior block prisoner of the model block, Margarete Buber-Neumann, had contact with Ella, and describes her as being an ‘overzealous Saxon’,2Buber-Neumann 2009, p. 191. who swept and polished and checked that the windows and doors were spick-and-span, in compliance with the regulations for a ‘model block’.
In Ravensbrück, Ella regularly received letters from home. Her husband sent her letters, invariably with the request for her to return:
‘My dear Ella, when will you make up your mind to come home at last? The children are asking for you every day. The household is going more and more to rack and ruin, and the children aren’t getting the proper attention. The garden is overgrown with weeds. How can you be so hard-hearted and leave your nearest and dearest like this? I’m sure God can’t want you to do that.’3Buber-Neumann 2009, p. 201.
These lines show that Ella’s husband was indirectly putting her under pressure to sign the declaration to renounce her faith. Despite this, Ella remained loyal to her beliefs and, according to Margarete Buber-Neumann, said through her tears: ‘Jehovah demands that His followers should leave wife and child – and that means husband as well – and follow Him.’4Buber-Neumann 2009, p. 201.
The Bible Student interpreted this Bible text literally and viewed her imprisonment in concentration camps as a test of her faith, with the painful separation from her family as a consequence.
The female Jehovah’s Witnesses, including Ella, were selected for work in St. Lambrecht concentration camp, and were transferred to Styria in May 1943. In St. Lambrecht she was put to work as the prison cook. Ella was often ill. She could not lift or carry heavy loads. She did this same work during the entire period of her imprisonment. Because of this specific assignment, she had close contact with the kitchen staff as she had to cook for both the male and female concentration camp prisoners. It was part of Ella’s job to awaken the head housekeeper, Lore Kröll, every day before commencing her own work.5PA, interview Kröll, Lore, 18-11-2002. She developed a close motherly relationship with the kitchen help, Margarete Messnarz-Günter. This strictly forbidden, but nevertheless existing, relationship, helped the deeply religious Bible Student to actively practise her faith. She tried to persuade the civilian kitchen staff, and especially Margarete, to turn to the Bible Students’ faith. Ella never managed to persuade anyone there to become a Bible Student. Margarete would not be converted, but she and Ella discussed Bible texts and faith in general.6PA, interview Messnarz-Günter, Margarete, 13-09-2002. By doing this, the Bible Student fulfilled her religious commitment.
Ella Hempel got permission to receive family visits at St. Lambrecht. Her children and husband begged Ella to come home. She replied that she’d stay in the concentration camp until God said it was enough.7PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002. The head housekeeper, Lore Kröll, also remembered the Hempel family visit. She couldn’t understand Ella’s attitude at all, that Ella viewed her religious conviction as being more important than her freedom and being reunited with her family.8PA, interview Kröll, Lore, 18-11-2002.
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