The Witness: Speaking Out for Love

At the height of World War II, hundreds of Christian women turned out in the middle of Berlin to protest the arrest of their Jewish husbands, whom the Nazis were about to deport to the death camps.

“Give us back our husbands,” the women chanted.

The Nazi police came out to disperse them with guns and fierce dogs. The women fled at first, but later regathered and continued their protest day after day before the eyes of ordinary Berliners, who served as Witnesses.

Although the Nazi regime had no compunctions about massacring innocents, they were nonetheless reluctant to attack the women for fear of demoralizing the larger population. In the end, the Nazis gave up and released two thousand men, the great majority of whom went on to survive the war.

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