The Ten Booms have received favorable attention in the secular media because of their involvement in the resistance movement on behalf of the Jews. But what is not commonly known is that their first commitment was to evangelism. It was their evangelistic zeal in conducting illegal prayer meetings in Ravensbruck that brought upon them the wrath of the German guards. It was their fidelity to Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, that prompted them to defy the Nazi interdict against the Jews, who still remained in some sense God's special people. Christians today should look to these two sisters for inspiration because of both their social involvement on behalf of the oppressed and their steadfast commitment to the faith once delivered to the saints.
Nor should we forget the challenging witness of Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian Catholic layman who was beheaded by the Nazis in August 1943. Although not directly involved in political subversion, he did make a public confession of faith in Christ in open defiance of the Nazi regime, refusing to serve in the German army. It was not simply his refusal to be a soldier but his reason for refusing, namely, his intransigent opposition to Nazism, that led to his arrest, imprisonment, and execution. He recognized that loyalty to Christ and the gospel conflicted with loyalty to the Fuhrer and Nazism. He was well aware of the fact that one had to take the oath of unconditional allegiance to the Fuhrer upon induction in Hitler's army. He also saw that Hitler was waging a war that involved the shameful slaughter of innocent people. To serve in the military would therefore be tantamount to apostasy.
Jagerstatter was motivated not by pacifist convictions, nor by romantic idealism, but simply by fidelity to the gospel. ..After his arrest and incarceration he was given the opportunity to regain his freedom. But he adamantly refused to cooperate with a regime that was persecuting the church and demanding the kind of loyalty that should be reserved only for God. [Go to part IV]