To Nazi Germans, his difference mattered

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer

Published January 26, 2005



ST. PETERSBURG - The Holocaust may be in the past, but the hatred that
caused its horrors remains, said Rudolf Graichen, a German-born
Jehovah's Witness who was persecuted by the Nazis.



"If you look what happens today in the world, the Nazis are gone, sure,
but the attitudes, the conditions are still here," Graichen, 79, said
during a telephone interview.



"Look what happened in Rwanda or what happens in the Middle East or in
Yugoslavia, in Kosovo. We're just out to eliminate a certain group of
people we don't like and many times, they return the favor. Jehovah's
Witnesses in many countries are still banned. That hasn't ended yet."



Graichen is scheduled to tell his story at 7 tonight at the Florida
Holocaust Museum. The program, "Conscience or Conformity: The Price of
Being Different in Nazi Germany," is in conjunction with an exhibition
on Jehovah's Witnesses that will run through March 27. Graichen, whose
parents became Jehovah's Witnesses before he was born, said the faith
they instilled was a source of strength through his ordeals. His family
was among the thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses persecuted for refusing
to abandon their beliefs. Members of the group were among the
11-million men, women and children who died during the Holocaust.



In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, there were about 25,000
Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany. Unlike Jews and Sinti and Roma (known
as the Gypsies), members of the religious group were considered
valuable racial stock and potentially redeemable.



They had only to acquiesce to the regime to gain their freedom, but
most Jehovah's Witnesses refused to do so. Adhering to their beliefs,
members of the religious group declined to sign a document renouncing
their faith and pledging allegiance to the state. Their faith allowed
them to pledge allegiance only to God and his kingdom and did not
permit them to participate in politics, vote or serve in the military.



The Nazis took away their children. Adults were sent to prison and
concentration camps. More than 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were
imprisoned. About 2,000 died. For Graichen, Nazi rule meant being
ordered to join a Hitler youth group.



"So they started in school. Nothing was acceptable except for 100
percent participation. In my class, the teacher was just one boy short
of 100 percent," said Graichen, a widower from Brady, Texas.



He was that boy. To get him to participate, his teacher announced that
the class would take a field trip and that everyone was required to
wear the youth group's uniform. Graichen turned up without one.



"He called me to the front and said, "Look at your schoolmates and look
at yourself,' " Graichen said. The teacher then opened his desk and
pointed to a new Nazi youth uniform he had bought.



"So he said," Graichen continued, " "I wonder what you would look like
in the uniform?' He was very enthusiastic. I just felt that I would
rather drop dead."



When coercion failed, the teacher threatened to prevent Graichen from
going on the trip.



"Finally, he had to take me along, like me or not," the retiree said.



The situation began to get worse. In 1938, then 12, he and his twin
sister, Ruth, were taken from home and sent to a reform school. His
father had been picked up the previous year.



After about six months, Graichen and his sister were sent to a foster
home. He finished school and learned to make harnesses. He remained in
contact with his mother. He was later arrested for having Jehovah's
Witnesses literature. A week later his mother was also arrested and
imprisoned. Graichen was 17. He was held until his 18th birthday and
put on trial at the same time as his mother.



"That was the last time I saw my mother, sitting on the bench for the
court case," he said.



She died of typhus in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp. Graichen's
time in prison included more than a year in solitary confinement. He
was released at the end of the war.



Also persecuted for his beliefs when the Soviet Union took control of
East Germany, Graichen credits his faith in God and the Bible with
helping him through difficult times.



"One lesson is it's not worth it to join the crowd for evil ends. I
have clean hands and a clean conscience," he said. "I don't have to
say, "I should have known better.' "





"Conscience or Conformity: The Price of Being Different in Nazi
Germany," with Rudolf Graichen, 7 p.m. today at the Florida Holocaust
Museum, 55 Fifth St. S, St. Petersburg. The museum will be open for
tours at 6 p.m. Call (727) 820-0100 ext. 232 for reservations. Regular
museum admission.



http://www.sptimes.com/2005/01/26/Neighborhoodtimes/To_Nazi_Germans__his_.s