A twentieth century martyrPaul Schneider was an ordinary German pastor. He was not a particularly great theologian, preacher or evangelist. No one would have heard of him but for the fact that he resisted Nazi wickedness and died in a concentration camp. He was a man of integrity who stood for what he believed. Other more brilliant men found reasons for co-operating with the Nazis but Paul Schneider could not betray himself. When one of his fellow prisoners stood beneath his window and pleaded with him to save himself, and think of his wife and children, he got a straight answer: “I know why I am here”. He had only to sign a piece of paper promising to give up the care of his church and he would be allowed to go free. Officers would goad him at every camp roll call, “Sign and go free”. In the torment of the prison house it took the grace of God to make that stand. His Training He was born in 1897, the son of a Calvinistic village minister. His father rightly laid great stress on the law and the fear of God and this remained with Paul all his days. Fighting in the first world war he was badly wounded in the stomach but he had a sense of purpose which helped him to recovery. He had intended studying medicine but after the war he began to study for the ministry believing that spiritual healing is more important. He came into contact with liberalism and was greatly troubled by it. However, one day a ray of eternal life entered his soul and he was filled with great joy and peace. The following year having completed his university studies he went to work in a blast furnace in Dortmund in order to experience the hardships, to get to know real people and to understand life. After some months he proceeded to the college in Soest for his year of study for the ministry. There he completely turned his back on liberalism recovering fully the gospel message. When he finished his training he spent some months working in a mission in Berlin. The Ministry Ordained in 1925 he became assistant pastor in Essen-Alstadt. When his father died shortly afterwards, he was unanimously elected to be his successor, as pastor of Hochelheim. He was conscientious and diligent and had a special ministry to the sick. One young dying woman spoke of how he taught her that, “A happy dying hour is better than the whole of life”. A young man said “I can die at peace and with no fear of the dark grave - for that I thank our pastor! Now I am at peace with my God and the devil has no power over me”. He would not water down the Biblical message to please either worldly Church leaders or the increasingly powerful Nazi Party. While trying to exercise church discipline he came into conflict with his elders. Like Calvin, he believed “Church discipline is like the sinews of the Church. If the sinews are cut, the whole body is without strength”. He rebuked those who openly broke the commandments. He stressed the importance of keeping marriage vows. This brought him into conflict with many, including the young Nazis. Although he felt he had the majority of the people behind him, because his elders did not support him he accepted a call to Dickenschied in 1934. Dickenschied At his induction the Superintendent preached on the highly relevant words: “I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jer.15:20). He received a tremendous welcome to his new church. But the peace did not last long. Later that year at the funeral of a young man he rebuked the local Nazi leader who had come to the graveside and declared that he was enrolling the deceased in the Storm Troops of heaven. Three days later Schneider was arrested and imprisoned for a week. After many protests from local people he was released. He wrote to the authorities that if there was to be peace between the church and the state then the Party must respect the order, doctrine and outlook of the church. The year 1934 remained a troubled year. He and his associates had to declare their disobedience to their Church’s National Synod and its laws. He wrote “This I do gladly, because I do not believe that we can ever achieve an honourable peace for the church of Christ with these lying machinations”. That autumn he and the pastors who stood with him were dismissed and their stipends withdrawn but their congregations rose up and supported them making collections for them and after about three months they were reinstated. He was often called to the mayor’s office and rebuked for what he preached, but he could not be a “reed shaken with the wind” repeating only what men wanted to hear or what was safe. He, with the support of his elders, tried to discipline those whose lives were inconsistent, including Nazi Party officials. Prison He was arrested on the 31st May 1937 by the Gestapo, and imprisoned in Coblenz where he spent his time studying the Bible, learning it off by heart and witnessing as he was able to fellow-prisoners. He was regarded as an enemy of the state because he would not compromise in his religion. An official informed him that the reason for his arrest was his insistence on church discipline. He was released after some weeks but was banished from Rhineland, the area where his congregation was situated. He was taken by car to Wiesbaden outside Rhineland. He walked straight to the railway station, threw the banishment order in the rubbish bin and caught the next train home. He had been appointed by God to his church and man could not remove him from it. He preached in one of his churches in the morning but was arrested on his way to the other in the evening. He instructed his wife: “Tell the church that I am and remain your pastor”. The congregation supported him and did not appoint a successor to him till his death. He writes from prison: “We shall not find our lives dear when the wolf attacks the sheep, greedy for the souls of our people and especially for our young people. Where there is an hireling, the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep”. If he had accepted the banishment and separation from his flock he would have been set free. Concentration Camp In November he was taken to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The last his wife saw of her Paul was in the prison lorry. She records “He went away from me smiling”. It was hard for him parting from his darling wife and little children. To begin with he seemed to survive relatively well. But in the spring of 1938 there was an order that all prisoners passing the Nazi flag should take their caps off. Schneider declared that this saluting of the Nazi flag was idolatry and he refused to obey the order. He was given 25 lashes and put into a dark cell. He remained in solitary confinement till his death. He received repeated heavy tortures and pains but they could not break him. Morning and evening, whenever his cell door was opened or he was taken out for fresh torment, he could be heard shouting aloud to all who could hear, words of comfort and judgment from the Bible. In the early summer of 1939 for several days he was hung up with his hands behind him and his body permanently bent. This devilish device caused him continuous pain but he suffered it patiently. What a witness he was to his fellow-sufferers and to their tormentors. Death They never released him from the punishment cell because he had become the pastor to the rest of the prisoners and they feared his influence. In his last letter to his wife shortly before his death he wrote “If only we could learn from all this and mature by that which is come upon us and overcome the sorrows!” On 18th July his wife received a telegram: “Paul Schneider, born 29th August, 1897, died today. If it is wished to bury at own cost, contact within 24 hours, Registrar of deaths, Weimar. Otherwise cremation. Camp Commandant, Buchenwald”. He was buried among his beloved flock at Dickenschied. A fellow-minister said of him at the time: “He is delivered, his faith has become sight, he has gone home”. He challenges us today to faithfully stand for the truth whatever the cost. Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the Editor. [Back to Reformed Christian Pages][Back to Free Church Foundations] |