Jehovah s Witnesses containing report for the service year of

90 Yearbook
thrown down, but not destroyed." (2 Cor. 4: 8, 9,
NW) That is the way many of our brothers
behind the Iron Curtain feel, and it shows that
their real confidence is in Jehovah God and that
he will bring them relief in his own time and in
his own way. Our brothers in this part of the
world live more like the early Christians than
those in the Western part of the world, or in what
are called free nations, because they are continually
hounded by the totalitarian rulers. Godless
persons would have all Christians annihilated, for
these Communists say there is no God and they
hate people who believe in God. But the truth
that was brought to the world by Christ Jesus will
never fade from this earth. In proof of this we
have a very wonderful report from the branch
in Berlin. Here are but a few of the interesting
experiences.
It seems not to be advisable to tell much about the
development of the work within the territory of the
Berlin branch, in which also East Germany is embraced,
where the work is still banned by the Communist rulers.
But it can be said that it has proved to be a very good
thing to have a close organizational connection between
West Berlin and East Germany, which permits the West
Berlin publishers to cO'operate full scale with their
brothers in East Germany. When these come to the
"island" of West Berlin to get spiritual food for them·
selves and their brothers at home, the Berlin brothers
see their privileges in cultivating the Christian virtue of
hospitality, and they in turn receive great encourage·
ment from the faithful endurance and devotion mani·
fested by their brothers in East Germany.
It makes us very glad to say that since the downfall
of the Stalin idol outright persecution has diminished
noticeably. New arrests of brothers decreased to a very
few cases a month, and it is for the first time during the
six years of the ban that the number of brothers released
from prison exceeds the one of new incarcera·
tions. There were 102 new cases reported of publishers
who were imprisoned, while 211 were released, forty·
eight of them even ahead of the time of their full prison
terms. But it would be premature to speak of a termina·
tion of the persecution. Still more than 1,300 brothers
and sisters suffer in East German prisons. Yet they are