Throughout the Second World War there were millions of people who were persecuted inside
of the concentration camps and inside of occupied lands.
The Third Reich and the Nazis aimed to destroy certain races of people, and also people who
held specific religious beliefs and convictions.
There were some people inside of German churches that openly supported the Nazis, but there
were others who opposed them and the horrific treatment they were instilling onto people.
The Nazis saw the church as a dissenting threat at times, as statements of protest were read
from the pulpits.
But there was one group of people who suffered terribly inside of Nazi Germany, and their
fate isn’t the most well known.
Jehovah’s witnesses would be a problem for Hitler as many would refuse to perform military
service, join Nazi groups and organisations and refuse to support Hitler and the Nazi
party.
It’s believed that 10,000 Jehovah’s witnesses were imprisoned and around 1200 of these died
inside of concentration camps, and 250 were executed.
They were the first Christian denomination to be banned by the Nazis, and the most heavily
persecuted group of christians.
But there was one woman who suffered the ultimate fate for her religious beliefs, and she was
taken to the execution chamber of Plotzensee Prison where she was executed by the guillotine.
Join us today as we look at the execution of Helene Gotthold, and remember to support
our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Helene Gotthold was born on the 31st December 1896 in Dortmund in Germany.
She lived in Herne and Bochum in Western Germany, and in it’s not known what her early life
was like.
She grew up as a teenager whilst the First World War was erupting, and she married a
coal miner who then suffered financial hardship.
Between 1927 and 1938 Helene’s husband was unemployed as there were economic issues inside
of Germany.
But even after Hitler rose to prominence, her husband could still not find work.
However the pair were both religious, and they became disillusioned with the German
Lutheran Church, and following this they then turned towards becoming Jehovah’s witnesses.
The couple would regularly attend the Jehovah’s witness services, and they raised their two
children according to this way of live also.
However as mentioned, Jehovah’s witnesses were persecuted heavily by the Nazis.
They were attacked for their missionary work, and also as they believed their only allegiance
was to God and his commandments and not to political figures or any political party.
Before Hitler’s time in power, Jehovah’s witnesses had been criticised and in Bavaria
they issued a decree against them, with a police order to confiscate publications made
by them.
This then increased to other German states, and many people were charged with distributing
Jehovah’s propaganda.
But when Hitler became chancellor the persecution ramped up, and they Nazi party SA stormtroopers
raided the homes of witnesses who refused to vote in November 1933 over whether the
Germans should withdraw from the League of Nations.
They then marched them under duress to go and vote, and some were beaten badly and were
forced to hold placards saying they were traitors of the fatherland.
In one town, mobs gathered outside their homes and threw stones and chanted, but the Nazis
hated them because of their ties towards America also.
They linked them to the Jews also, and when many witnesses went door to door distributing
leaflets and booklets they were arrested and were sent to prison.
Prussia, the biggest German state imposed a ban saying ‘they ...are obviously involved
in agitation against political and religious institutions in word and written form.
By declaring both institutions as agencies of Satan, they undermine the very foundation
of life in the people's community.
In their numerous publications ... they deliberately and maliciously misrepresent Bible accounts
for the purpose of ridiculing State and church institutions.
One of the characteristics of their struggle is a fanatical manipulation of their followers
... It is therefore obvious that the above-mentioned association tends to be in complete opposition
to the present state and its cultural and moral structures.’
Further demonstrations took place, and many people burned Witness’ leaflets and literature.
They were living under the threat of Gestapo raids, but the punishment they suffered was
very serious.
From 1933, they were sacked from jobs such as working in post offices, railway stations
and other civil service positions as they refused to give the compulsory Hitler salute.
Teachers were forced to sign a statement confirming they were not members of the church, and if
they refused they were sacked.
The state confiscated their motor cars and bicycles, and withdrew their driving licenses,
pensions and also evicted them from their homes.
Things got more violent for them though from 1936, as Jehovah’s witnesses were beaten
with horse whips daily, and their family members were tortured and they were threatened with
execution by shooting.
Sterilisation was also ordered for those who refused to denounce their faith.
The Gestapo continued their roundups, and from 19355 the authorities began to send 100s
of Jehovah’s Witnesses to concentration camps where they were imprisoned with Communists,
and other political prisoners.
In May 1938, they made up 12% of all prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp.
They were forced to wear purple triangles to identify them, and they were subject to
very harsh treatment.
The SS guards would beat them heavily, whip them and humiliate them.
They were forced to do the hardest and dirtiest work including cleaning toilets, and for refusing
to to stand to attention and sing Nazi songs they were brutalised.
They were also attacked with high pressure jets of ice cold water, and were also tortured.
They were forced to pull a full wheel barrow with their necks whilst crawling on their
hands and kneels.
Others were forced to stand still for an entire day in the hot or cold, and some were stuffed
into small closets where they were suffocated.
They were also subjected to drills and hard work, but then executions were ordered also
for those specific Jehovah’s witnesses who were very obstinate and could not desert their
beliefs, no matter how hard it got.
Helen Gotthold and her husband stayed true to their beliefs and religious convictions,
and some of their neighbours outcasted them and they refused to speak to them.
There was a danger that someone would tell on them to the Gestapo, and this is what happened
as Helene’s husband was arrested in 1936.
But then the Gestapo returned the year later, and the Gestapo searched her house from top
to bottom and during this the Gestapo agents beat her severely with rods and batons, to
the point that Helene who was pregnant lost her unborn child.
She was then brought to trial, and a judge sentenced her to 18 months imprisonment.
But for some reason Helene and her husband were released from prison, and she was reunited
with her children.
The family then lived together quietly keeping their heads down for a few years.
But as the Second World War waged on and turned against the Germans, Hitler violently looked
inwards inside of Germany, and ordered strong actions against those who he believed were
the enemies of the Nazis, and were undermining the regime and war effort from within.
However in February 1944, the Nazis ordered the arrest of Helene and her husband yet again.
They were accused of illegally holding bible meetings, undermining the nation’s morale
and giving shelter and asylum to men who refused to fight for the Nazis.
Helene was accused of opening her house up to other Jehovah’s witnesses who were being
hunted.
The couple were imprisoned in Essen, however the prison was attacked and destroyed in an
Allied bombing raid, and they were transferred to a prison in Potsdam.
Following a stay behind bars for a number of months, they were brought to trial in front
of the People’s Court.
Helena dn her husband along with five other Jehovah’s witnesses were screamed at by
the Nazi judge for their actions, and it was clear before the trial finished what their
sentence would be.
Helene and five others were sentenced to death for their religious beliefs.
It’s believed that her husband did survive, but Helene then wrote to her husband and children
whilst she was awaiting execution.
Helene was transferred to Berlin’s Plotzensee Prison, a place where thousands of people
would be executed throughout the Nazis’ time in control.
The executioner chamber there had a hanging beam where many were killed in the most savage
ways, including using piano wire to hang.
But inside of the execution chamber there was also a guillotine, or a German fallbeil
which was used to execute many people also.
The Germans used the guillotine as an efficient method of killing dissenters.
Helene Gotthold on the 18th December 1944, around 6 months before the Second World War
came to an end and Hitler died, was taken from her prison cell to the execution chamber.
She was led from her cell and was taken into the courtyard where the brick built chamber
was complete with the executioners instruments of death.
She was greeted by the executioner’s assistant who tied her hands together and then fastened
her to a wooden board.
She was then taken to the guillotine, where she was quickly slid under the blade, before
an executioner made a few speedy checks, and then he released the sharp blade that fell,
beheading Helene Gotthold.
Helen Gotthold was a woman who remained true to her religious beliefs, and remained a Jehovah’s
witness even when she knew how dangerous it was for her to do this.
She was executed for hiding other witnesses and for holding illegal bible meetings.
She was one of many people during the Second World War who’s execution and story as been
forgotten about.
But throughout Germany, thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses who were persecuted and many were
executed for refusing to conform to the ideas of the Nazi party.
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