MODERN DAY LION'S DEN - Integrity

[Guest Kurt]

This blog is about Integrity at its highest level. The integrity keeper is Leopold Engleitner. Leopold Engleitner was an Austrian conscientious objector and Holocaust survivor who spoke publicly about his experiences. There is a book and a short documentary film about his life. After viewing the film, I felt compelled to write about this man of integrity who survived a modern day Lion's Den. There are many others like him and I don't know most of their names but they fit in the category as Integrity Keepers. 

Leopold was born in Aigen Voglhub Austria on July 23, 1905. His father was a sawmill worker and his mother was a farmer's daughter. His parents were poor but hardworking people. He lived in an area of Austria that was breathtakingly beautiful with scenic lakes and scenic summits. 

As a child he often thought about the many injustices in the world because of being poor and also suffering from a curvature of the spine disorder. The backache caused by the disorder caused him to walk bent over and he received much ridicule from classmates. Today we would call it bullying. He also suffered from fevers from the Spanish Flu which he survived.

At the end of World War One and only 14 years old, he decided to look for a job because hunger was his constant companion. After being rejected because of his health by many farmers, one kind farmer decided to take a chance and hired him. 

Austria was mostly Catholic at the time of his upbringing. His mom was a devout Catholic but Leopold was disturbed by the worship of images in the Catholic Church. One day in 1931 he visited a meeting sponsored by the Bible Students. He learned through a study of the bible that God does not condone bloodthirsty wars. He also learned that God is "Love" and he does not cause the injustices we see today.  (James 1:13)

He studied the Bible intensively in the 1930's with the Bible Students and was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witness in 1932. Upon his baptism, he knew his allegiance would only go to his God and nobody else. In the period up to World War II he faced religious intolerance, even persecution, from his immediate neighborhood and the Austrian authorities. His parents were horrified when he quit the church and the priest wasted no time in spreading lies about Leopold. The political situation became very intense and from 1934-1938 persecution was his constant companion. He was regularly sentenced to prison terms for his preaching activity. Persecution eventually escalated and came from the fascist regime of Engelbert 

Dollfuss and also under Hitler's Nazi Germany.

In March 1938, Leopold was thrown into the Modern day Lion's Den. Hitler marched into Austria and over 90,000 people were arrested and sent to prison and concentration camps. From the day Hitler’s troops set foot in Austria, the meetings and the preaching activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses went underground. Even though Hitler tried every way possible he would never be able to stop the preaching work of Jehovah's Witnesses. After all, how can you stop what God has purposed? 

On April 4, 1939, three fellow Christians and Leopold were arrested by the Gestapo in Bad Ischl,  Austria. They were celebrating the Memorial of Jesus death. (Luke 22:19)  He was submitted to excruciating interrogations but never renounced his faith. The Gestapo wanted them to sign a 'renounce your faith paper', which Leopold refused. He was kept in custody until October 5, 1939, and was then notified that he would be taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. As soon as he arrived at Buchenwald, he was severely beaten. Then the SS Officer put a pistol to his head and asked him if he was ready to die because he stated Leopold was a hopeless case. Leopold closed his eyes and said he was ready to die and the SS Officer stated that he was too stupid to die and removed the gun from his head. I suppose the SS Officer felt like he had some power because he had a gun in his hand. But only Leopold could take away his own integrity and 

sign the 'renounce your faith' paper. He refused to do so. 

At the end of each workday, Leopold was always happy to associate with his spiritual family. A brother would write a Bible verse on a scrap of paper and pass it on to the others. A Bible was smuggled into the camp and was divided up.  For three months he had the book of Job in his possession which he hid in his socks. The book of Job helped him to remain steadfast and keep his integrity even though he was in the modern day Lion's Den. (Job Chapter 1)

Finally, on March 7, 1941, he was transferred to the Niederhagen concentration camp. He suffered severe persecution there also. Even though his health was deteriorating daily, he was ordered to pack tools in a crate. On the way back to the barracks, a SS Officer noticed that he was lagging 

behind and kicked Leopold from the back in his testicles. Because of that injury Leopold was never able to have children. 

In April of 1943, the Niederhagen camp was evacuated and he was transferred to the death camp at Ravensbrück. In June 1943, he was unexpectedly offered the opportunity of a discharge from the concentration camp. This time, release was not conditional on his faith but he had to agree to forced labor on a farm for the rest of his life. Of course, he chose the forced labor for life because that was better than any of the camps he lived in. He went to the camp doctor for his final physical and his health was horrific - his skin had been partly eaten away by lice, he was deaf in one ear because of the beatings he received and his whole body was covered with festering sores just like the Bible character Job. After almost 4 years of deprivation, endless hunger, and forced labor, he weighed only 62 pounds on release. He was discharged from Ravensbrück on July 15, 1943. I can only imagine what a man could look like weighing just 62 pounds. 

He was sent back to his hometown and ordered to work on a mountain farm. The farmer who was a childhood friend even agreed to pay him a salary. The army lost track of him for a while but then on April 17, 1945, he was drafted for service on the front lines. With a few provisions and his Bible he fled to the mountains and lived there until May 5, 1945. He was awakened by Allied airplanes flying low. At that moment, he knew that Hitler’s Third Reich had 

been overthrown! It was only after the U.S. occupation army intervened in April 1946 that he was released from forced agricultural labor for the rest of my life. 

God's spirit had strengthened him to endure an unbelievable ordeal in his life. (Psalms 55:22)

After the war, Leopold was married for 32 years and then lost his dear wife in 1981. She had a child from a previous marriage. He always continued his preaching even when he was eventually confined to a wheelchair. He would talk to people about the Kingdom hope which included a beautiful paradise earth for the near future.  Leopold died on April 21, 2013 at the age of 107 as a faithful integrity keeper. What an example for all of us who want to be Integrity Keepers?

Though already advanced in years, between 1999 and 2012 Leopold traveled with his biographer Bernhard Rammerstorfer more than 95,000 miles across Europe and the United States to schools, memorial sites, and universities, as a witness of history to ensure the past was never again repeated.  He became a model of Integrity and Peace.

 

Once a persecuted concentration camp survivor and outlawed conscientious objector, he was honored in May 2007 by the Republic of Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany for his courageous stand during the Nazi regime. 

First photograph is Buchenwald Camp

Second is Ravensbruck Camp of women holocaust survivors

Third is the Purple Triangle uniform worn by Jehovah's Witnesses in the camps 

Fourth is a photograph of male holocaust survivors wearing the purple triangle uniform. 

(None of the photographs are mine; unsure of the photographer's name)

Finally, what was distinctive about Jehovah's Witnesses during this time is that they could have left the camps at any time if they 'renounced their religion' and gave allegiance to Adolf Hitler. No other prisoner had that possibility set before them. They were a people who refused to 'Heil Hitler' or give him allegiance. No man on earth deserves worship that belongs to God and they refused to take away their integrity even though they were in the middle of the Lion's Den. This was the best decision that could have been made for many reasons. 

First - The most important reason is that they stayed loyal to Jehovah the True God of all the earth by NOT giving worship to a man (Psalms 83:18)

Second - They kept their integrity and stayed true to themselves

Third - They are not responsible for the 6 million plus people who lost their lives by Hitler during the war because they refused to be a part of the Third Reich that no longer exists. They do not share in the blood guilt of the mass killings that took place. They have a clean conscience with their God. 

Fourth - Leopold new that God's Kingdom (government) would soon make changes to the earth when he prayed, "Let your kingdom come, let your will take place as in heaven but also upon the Earth. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

April Ann Canada