Punishment Card of Johann Ludwig Rachuba

Johann Ludwig Rachuba was a Jehovah’s Witness¹ who lived in the town of Datteln in northwestern Germany. He was a miner by trade, and he and his wife Emma had three children. Rachuba was 39 years old when he was arrested by the Gestapo in June 1935. He was imprisoned in a series of concentration camps, where he endured years of cruel punishments by Nazi SS guards. The card featured here describes some of the abuse he experienced.

Although he had no criminal record, the Gestapo confined Rachuba to so-called “protective custody.”² The Gestapo used the status of “protective custody” to imprison people indefinitely in concentration camps without a trial or the possibility of judicial review. Rachuba was first imprisoned at Esterwegen concentration camp before he and the other prisoners were transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin.

Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned in concentration camps developed a reputation for refusing to obey orders that violated their religious beliefs—but otherwise being well-behaved prisoners. Some imprisoned Witnesses were assigned to forced labor in SS homes without guards because they were nonviolent and did not believe in trying to escape.³ But others sometimes became the target of cruel punishments for refusing to obey orders.⁴

Rachuba’s card lists several such punishments—including many beatings. Camp authorities often beat him for not showing proper obedience, including refusing to do forced labor, defying camp orders in front of the other prisoners, declining to stand or remove his hat during the German national anthem, speaking out against the Nazi government, and laughing at a Nazi camp leader during a speech.

The Sachsenhausen camp administration believed that Rachuba’s acts of defiance were inspiring other imprisoned Witnesses to resist SS demands.⁵ The featured card shows that Rachuba had refused to sign a statement pledging to break all ties with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and rejoin the so-called “national community” (“Volksgemeinschaft”) of Nazi Germany.⁶ Camp authorities believed that many other Witnesses might sign these statements if Rachuba could be made to sign—and Nazi leaders were eager to enlist more so-called “Aryan” men in the German armed forces as increasing numbers of German soldiers were captured, wounded, or killed.

Other prisoners would later recall how guards repeatedly tortured Rachuba but did not break his will to resist. One fellow Jehovah’s Witness remembered that Rachuba endured 25 blows with a club without groaning. Another prisoner remembered how Rachuba kept his composure even when the SS beat him so badly that he could not even crawl. In 1947, a fellow prisoner testified that two SS guards at Sachsenhausen even ordered several prisoners to dig a hole and then had Rachuba buried up to his neck before the guards urinated on his head and face.⁷

Rachuba was transferred to Niederhagen concentration camp near Wewelsburg,⁸ where he died in September 1942. His exact cause of death was not recorded—his death certificate only states that he died from “physical weakness.” Rachuba’s experience illustrates the terrible abuse that many Jehovah’s Witnesses within the Nazi camp system faced from SS guards.

Originally known as Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian religious movement founded in the late 1800s in the United States. Jehovah’s Witnesses often refuse to serve in national military forces. Spreading their teachings is also an important part of their faith, which has made them a highly visible religious minority for generations.

The use of "protective custody" gave the Gestapo the ability to jail anyone they decided was a threat to national security. The Kripo (Criminal Police) also had the authority to place those they considered professional criminals or threats to public order under "preventive arrest." For a related primary source, see the Experiencing History item, Protective Custody Order for Herbert Fröhlich.

To learn more, see the related Experiencing History items, Memo by Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Paint Roller Used by Franz Wohlfahrt.

For another primary source documenting SS guards' physical abuse and public humiliation of imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses, see the related Experiencing History item, Letter from J.L. Published in the Golden Age.

This came to light during the televised 1950s trial of Gustav Sorge and Wilhelm Schubert, two former guards at Sachsenhausen. To learn more, see Götz Lachwitz, "Concentration Camp Crimes on Trial, on TV, and in Civic Education: Bonn 1958-1959," in Seeking Accountability for Nazi and War Crimes in East Europe: A People’s Justice? edited by Eric Le Bourhis, Irina Tcherneva, and Vanessa Voisin (Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2022), 190-220; and Detlef Garbe, Between Resistance & Martyrdom: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich, translated by Dagmar G. Grimm (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), 407.

Some individuals targeted as social "outsiders" who were considered racially "Aryan" by the Nazis were able to rejoin the "national community" to some degree if they chose to conform to Nazi social and political demands. Nazi leaders wanted as many "Aryan" men to serve in the German military as possible, especially as German losses in the war mounted. For a related primary source, see the Experiencing History item, Oral History with Albrecht Becker.

To learn more about the abuse directed at Rachuba by the SS, see Antje Zeiger, "Jehovah's Witnesses in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp," in Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime, 1933-1945, edited by Hans Hesse (Bremen: Ed. Temmen, 2001): 79; and Detlef Garbe, Between Resistance & Martyrdom: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich, 406-8.

For more on the Niederhagen camp (also known as Wewelsburg) see the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos.

Probably I.B.V. (Internationale Bibelforschervereinigung / International Association of Bible Students).

Or: "Locking in a crooked position, because of not following orders." See Detlef Garbe, Between Resistance & Martyrdom: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Third Reich, translated by Dagmar G. Grimm (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), 700.

Or: "Ten days of severe detention and twenty-five strokes with a club for his refusal to work." Garbe, 700.

Or: "Ten days of detention and twenty-five strokes with a club for propagating Jehovah in the camp." Garbe, 700.

Or: "Twenty-one days of severe detention for repeated refusal to work." Garbe, 700.

Or: "Eighteen days of severe detention for refusal to work and undisciplined behavior." Garbe, 700.

"KPA": Possibly company or group. "Agitated": Possibly incited them to murder or revolt.

"Schutzhaftlagerführer": First protective custody camp supervisor.

"Deutschlandlied": German national anthem.

Or: "Ten days of detention and twenty-five strokes with a club for propagating Jehovah in the camp." Garbe, 700.

Unknown word, possibly "verschärfte."

*Translation note: some alternate wording is supplied in brackets, and footnotes include alternate transtlations.*

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Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Niederhagen

Surname: Rachuba
First name: Johann Ludwig
born: April 28, 1896 in Kyschienen Neidenburg
Profession: Miner
Religion: without (none)
State (Nationality): German
married / unmarried / divorced: Emma born Karrasch
Children: 3
Reason: Bible Student

J.B.V.¹ Prisoner no. 194
Block:
Protective custody ordered: on June 27, 1935 by (authority):
Gestapo (Secret State Police) Münster W. (prob. “west”)
Previous party affiliation: none
Criminal record: none
Committal to prison: July 23, 1935
Release from prison:
Transferred:

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Punishments in the camp

August 13, 1935

Chain penalty during the night from August 13 to 14, 1935, because he did not obey (comply with) any command.²

July 1, 1936

10 days of strict confinement and 25 canings (beatings with a stick) because he refused work.³

November 5, 1936

10 days of strict confinement (or: severe detention) and 25 canings (beatings with a stick) because he advertised Jehovah in the camp⁴

January 11, 1937

21 days of strict confinement because he repeatedly refused work⁵

May 1, 1937

18 days strict confinement because he refused work and behaved in an undisciplined manner⁶

May 3, 1937

21 days strict confinement, 3 months penal group because he agitated the other prisoners during a community reception and railed against the government⁷

March 7, 1938

30 days of aggravated (intensified) detention and 25 canings because he laughed at the First Schutzhaftlagerführer during a lecture⁸

March 12, 1938

8 days of strict confinement and 15 canings because he remained seated during the singing of the Deutschlandlied⁹ and did not remove his cap¹⁰

April 6, 1938

5 days of strict confinement and 15 canings because he refused to sign the [versch.]¹¹ aggravated [intensified] detention

October 10, 1938

2 x 2 hours at the stake because of laziness

October 18, 1938

8 days standing at the door without dinner

September 13, 1940

4 hours of penal drill [exercise] because he talked to another prisoner for a lengthy period of time during working hours and did not work