On April 20th 1938, at the death camp called Buchenwald in honor of Hitler’s 49th birthday The prisoners were ordered to remove their berets and venerate the Nazi swastika flag. They all did it as they were ordered except one man, his name was Paul Schneider.
Paul Schneider’s name was changed from Pastor Schneider, to Prisoner Schneider due to the fact that his sermons contained references on how the Bible and Nazism were in total disagreement.
He was ripped away from his wife and six children and thrown into a nasty death camp where he would eventually die as a Christian martyr. That day, being Hitler’s birthday, Schneider would not bow to the threats of the SS guards demanding he remove his hat for the swastika flag, being Germany’s idol. Schneider would not comply.
For this, he was viciously struck 25 times with an oxhide whip. His bleeding body was left in solitary confinement for 15 months. By the way, his cell was only 4 feet wide and 10 feet long.
There was no furniture, no lights, and he was only given a small amount of bread and water daily. He was not even allowed his Bible. Before long he became nothing more than a broken skeleton. His clothes became rags and his body crawled with vermin.
One Sunday morning, 28 August 1938, Paul Schneider preached through the bars of his cell to men lined up for the 06.30 roll call.
Survivors recorded what he said, He cried out, ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from our sins. If we have faith in him, We need not fear what man may do to us! After a few minutes of his preaching, guards rushed into his cell and pulled him away from the bars of the window and beat him almost to death.
A guard said to him, ‘If we released you, what would you do?’
Paul replied through broken teeth and a shattered face with a boldness that could have only been wrought by God, and said, ‘I would go to [the nearest town] and the first curbstone would become a pulpit from which I would denounce the brutal crimes committed here!’
For saying that, he was then suspended by his wrists from the window bars, with his feet hanging off the floor, for hours until he lost consciousness.
Every time he preached from his bunker, his tortures increased, but his faith, it was said in the Lord, increased!
When a friend approached Schneider and told him to quiet down or he would be killed, his reply was simple. ‘Somebody has to preach God’s word in this hell.’
Finally, on 18 July 1939, Paul Schneider, starved, beaten, and bleeding, fell asleep in the Lord. Paul was forty-one years old.
Somebody has to preach God’s Word in this hell, should be our response as we see thousands of perishing souls dying and going to hell. It’s hard to read this story, and walk away without thinking to ourselves, ” what about me,?.. if this guys can be tortured like this, and then be killed for his love for Christ, and continue to preach the gospel, can’t we?”
Let us turn away from the fear of man, and look to Christ, Who will enable us to preach His word in the face of an angry world.