Tortured for Christ

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Richard Wurmbrand, a priest from Romania, spent fourteen years in prison under torture and communist rule. After his release, he recounts the work of the Martyrs' Church and the atrocities he and other Christians suffered. Despite all the hardships, they remained steadfast and held fast to their faith.

An atheist finds Christ

I grew up in a family where no religion was recognized, and I received no religious instruction during my childhood, so by the age of fourteen I was a convinced, hardened atheist. Nevertheless, as I later came to understand, I was granted the grace of being one of God's chosen, for reasons I cannot comprehend rationally. Although I was an atheist, something inexplicable constantly drew me to churches. I found it difficult to pass a church and not go in. I listened to the sermons, but they didn't penetrate my heart, and so I was certain that there was no God.

One day I found myself praying to God, asking Him to reveal Himself to me and confirm His existence. At the same time, in a village in the mountains of Romania, an old carpenter was praying to God to send him a Jew whom the old man could lead to Christ before his death. I was eventually drawn to this village. When the carpenter learned that I was Jewish, he approached me. He saw in me the answer to his prayer and gave me the Bible to read. I had already read the Bible before, as it was considered part of general knowledge.

But the Bible he gave me was a different kind of Bible, for it wasn't actually written in letters, but in flames of love kindled by his prayers. I could barely read it; I could only weep as I compared my miserable life to the life of Jesus. And he accepted me so that I, too, might be one of his. Soon after me, my wife also turned to God. She brought other people to Christ, and they, in turn, brought others to Christ, and that's how our church in Romania came into being.

Then came the Nazi era, and we suffered greatly. Long before I was trained for my ministry, I was already the head of the church, as I was the founder and bore the responsibility for it. My wife and I were arrested several times, beaten, and dragged before Nazi judges. The Nazi terror was terrible, but only a taste of the horrors to come under the Communists.

Despite everything, the time under the Nazi regime held a great benefit, for it taught us that physical abuse was bearable and that, with God's help, human spiritual strength can endure even terrible suffering. It also taught us the method of clandestine church work, which was preparation for a far worse trial that was to come—a trial by fire that was imminent.

After the Communists came to power, they masterfully used deception against the churches, because the language of love and the language of seduction sound alike. Jesus admonishes us in His Word to distinguish the language of seduction from the language of love and to differentiate between wolves in sheep's clothing and true sheep. Thousands of priests, pastors, and preachers were unable to distinguish between the two languages.

The Communists held a congress of all Christian bodies in Bucharest. Four thousand priests, pastors, and preachers of all denominations gathered there and elected Joseph Stalin as honorary president of the congress. At the same time, Stalin was the acting president of the World Federation of Atheists and a mass murderer of Christians. One after another, they rose and publicly declared that Communism and Christianity were fundamentally the same and could coexist peacefully. One clergyman after another praised Communism and assured the new government of the Church's faithful cooperation.

My wife, who was sitting next to me, urged me to stand up and wash the shame from the face of Christ, as she didn't want a cowardly husband. So I stood up and praised not the murderers of Christians, but Christ and God, saying that we owed our loyalty first and foremost to Him. The convention was broadcast on the radio so that the whole country could hear the message of Jesus Christ. Later I had to pay for it, but it was worth it.

The rise of communism and the betrayal of many official church leaders forced us to create an underground church, as it was forbidden to proclaim the Good News and win children for Jesus Christ. So I began to conduct church work in secret. Outwardly, I held a very respected social position, which had nothing to do with my actual, hidden work for the Kingdom of God and served only as a cover. I was the pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission and simultaneously worked on the Romanian committee of the World Council of Churches. These two positions gave me a very strong position with the authorities, who knew nothing of my underground work.

A people with thirsty souls

The soldiers of the Red Army were predominantly Russian. It was a truly heavenly experience for me to proclaim the message of the Gospel to the Russians. Never before had I encountered a people who absorbed the Gospel so deeply as the Russians. One day, a Russian officer came to me, longing for God. He had never seen a Bible or attended a church service before. He harbored a love for God without having the slightest knowledge of Him. I read him the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of Jesus, and the Passion of Christ. We prayed together, and thus another man was won for Christ.

In a shop, I met a Russian captain and a female officer while they were shopping. They had great difficulty understanding the shopkeeper, so I offered to interpret for them and afterwards invited them to my apartment for a meal. Before the meal, I explained to them that they were in a Christian home and that it was customary to pray. They asked many questions about God and the Bible. I told them parables and recounted the birth of Jesus. The captain and the officer came to faith in God that very day. Subsequently, they greatly assisted us in our clandestine missionary work among the soldiers of the Red Army.

We secretly printed numerous New Testaments and other Christian literature for distribution among Soviet soldiers. Through soldiers who had been converted from atheism to a living faith in God, we were able to smuggle many Bibles and Bible portions into the Soviet Union. We also found another way to get God's Word into the hands of the Soviets.

The Red Army soldiers had been at the front for years, and many of them hadn't seen their children at home for that long. My son Mihai and other children under ten years old sought out the Soviets daily on the streets and in the parks, always carrying Bibles, Gospels, and Christian pamphlets in their bags. In this way, our children often did what would have been too dangerous for adults to do in the open street, completely unchallenged. They were young missionaries to the Soviets. The results of this work were remarkable. Many Soviet soldiers received the Gospel in this way, something that would otherwise have been impossible.

Among the Soviet soldiers, we worked not only through our testimony in personal conversations, but we were also able to carry out missionary work in small gatherings. The Red Army soldiers were particularly interested in wristwatches. They "acquired" watches wherever they could. On the street, they stopped people and everyone had to hand over their watch. This gave us in the underground church a good pretext—namely, to sell watches—to gain entry as well.

In this way, we were able to proclaim the good news of Christ, and through the kind help of the Christians among the Russian soldiers, I was able to repeat such visits many more times. Many of their comrades also found Christ. We secretly distributed thousands of Gospels with them. Many of our brothers and sisters from the underground church were captured and severely mistreated, but they never betrayed our organization.

Our second area of work was our secret missionary work among the Romanians. Very soon, the communists dropped their masks here as well. At first, they had used methods to win over the church leaders—but then the open terror began: thousands were arrested. Winning someone for Christ now became an exciting prospect for us, just as it had long been for the Russians. Later, I myself was in prison with such people whom God had previously allowed me to win for Christ. I shared a cell with one man who had left behind six children and was now imprisoned for his faith.

It wasn't easy to preach Christ under the new conditions. We managed to print various Christian tracts and get them past the strict communist censorship. We submitted a pamphlet to the communist censors that featured a picture of Karl Marx, the founder of communism, on its cover. The book was titled "Religion is the Opium of the People," and others had similar titles. The official considered this communist literature and stamped it. In these books, after a few pages of quotations from Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, which satisfied the censors, we presented our message of Jesus Christ.

An underground church isn't entirely hidden. Like an iceberg, a small part of the work remains visible. So we went to communist mass rallies and distributed our "communist" pamphlets. The communists crowded around to buy the book when they saw the picture of Karl Marx on it. They only got to page ten, and by the time they finally figured out that what followed was about God and Jesus Christ, we were already gone.

Impact of the underground church

The underground church gathered in private homes, in forests, in basements – wherever possible. There, in secret, they prepared their work for the public. Under the watchful eyes of the communists, we devised our plan for a street mission. This work became increasingly dangerous over time, but in this way we reached many people we otherwise would never have reached.

The underground church operated not only in secret meetings and covert operations, but also through fearless, open proclamation of the Gospel in the streets and before high-ranking communist officials. This came at a price, and we were prepared to pay it. The secret police persecuted the underground church so fiercely because they recognized it as the only truly effective resistance, for only this kind of resistance—spiritual resistance—could undermine their atheistic power.

We commissioned Christians to join the secret police and put on the despised uniform in our country so they could report the secret police's actions to the underground church. Several brothers of the underground church followed this instruction and kept their faith hidden. One Sunday, on my way to church, I was forcibly abducted from the street by the secret police. A closed secret police car stopped directly in front of me, four men jumped out, and shoved me inside. I remained missing for years.

For over eight years, no one knew whether I was alive or dead. My wife was visited by secret police officers posing as released fellow prisoners. They told her they had attended my funeral. During this period of strict secrecy in prison, a Christian doctor became a member of the secret police in order to find out my whereabouts. As a confidential physician for the secret police, he had access to patient files, and it is thanks to him that it became known I was still alive. When prisoners were pardoned during the Eisenhower-Khrushchev Thaw in 1956, Christians from the underground church also submitted a request for my release, and I was granted temporary freedom.

Had this Christian doctor not decided to join the secret police, primarily to track me down, I would never have gotten out. I would still be in prison or in my grave today. These members of the underground church used their position in the secret police to warn us on a case-by-case basis and were a great help to us.

Unspeakable torture

The handcuffs placed around our wrists had sharp spikes on the inside. If we remained completely still, they didn't sting much, but in the freezing cells, our wrists trembled with cold, and the sharp iron spikes cut our skin. Some Christians were hung upside down by ropes and then beaten so violently that their bodies swung like pendulums. Others were placed in the freezer compartments where the frost had melted the ice off the walls.

I myself was locked in such an ice cell, thinly clothed. Prison doctors monitored us through an opening until they noticed the first symptoms of lethal rigor mortis. Then they gave a warning signal, whereupon guards rushed to take us out of the ice and warm us up again. Once our bodies had warmed up somewhat, we were put back into the freezers – and this continued over and over.

We Christians were also put in wooden cubicles that were barely bigger than ourselves. There was no freedom of movement inside. Dozens of sharp nails were driven into the sides, their jagged ends protruding into the cubicle. As long as we stood completely still, it was bearable. But we had to stand in these cubicles for hours on end. When we grew weak and swayed from exhaustion, the nails dug into our bodies. Even the slightest movement or twitch of a muscle immediately caused the tormenting nails to prick us.

The prisons were overcrowded, and the guards didn't know us by name. They were calling out those sentenced to 25 lashes. Countless times, a priest named Milan Haimovici stepped forward to receive the flogging in place of someone else. In doing so, he won the respect of the other prisoners, not only for himself but also for his Lord Christ, whose ambassador he was.

What brainwashing looks like

I had to go through brainwashing: for years we had to sit still for 16 hours a day and constantly hear: "Communism is good! Christianity is stupid! Give up!" There is only one way to resist brainwashing, and it's called "heartwashing." When the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and the heart then loves Him, one can withstand all torture. The brutal torture was endless.

If I occasionally lost consciousness or was too dazed to give my tormentors any hope of a confession, I was usually put back in my cell. There I lay half-dead, but unattended, gathering some strength so they could torture me again.

Many died during this stage of torture. But my strength always returned. Over the following years, in various prisons, they broke four vertebrae and several other bones. They carved deep wounds into my skin in twelve places. They burned and cut a total of 18 holes in my body.

Doctors in Oslo, who saw all of this and also the scarring from the pulmonary tuberculosis I suffered at that time, declared it a pure miracle that I was still alive. According to their medical textbooks, I should have been dead for several years. I know all too well that it is a miracle. God is a God of miracles.

After eight and a half years in prison, I had lost a lot of weight, acquired nasty scars, been brutally beaten and kicked, mocked, nearly starved to death, subjected to psychological pressure, interrogated to the point of vomiting, threatened, and then abandoned. None of these methods had achieved the result my captors desired.

So, much to their disappointment, they finally released me. Furthermore, they constantly received protests regarding my imprisonment. I was allowed to return to my old position—but only for a week. I delivered just two sermons. Then they summoned me and informed me that I was no longer permitted to preach or perform any other religious work, but I continued working discreetly. Eventually, the secret police's relentless interest in my activities and whereabouts paid off. I was discovered and imprisoned again. I had spent eight and a half years in prison and three years of relative freedom.

Now I was to spend another five and a half years behind prison walls. My second imprisonment was worse than the first in many ways, because I knew all too well what awaited me. My physical condition deteriorated rapidly as a result, yet we continued the work of the underground church, even in the communist prisons.

We preached – they beat

It was strictly forbidden to preach God's word to the other prisoners. An unwritten law stipulated that anyone caught doing so would receive a severe beating. A number of us were willing to accept these conditions and pay the price. It was a kind of agreement: we preached, and they were happy to beat us—so everyone was happy.

This usually unfolded as follows: A fellow believer was preaching to the other prisoners when the guards suddenly burst in, catching him mid-sentence. They dragged him down a long corridor to the "beating room." After countless blows, they dragged him back, covered in blood and battered, and threw him onto the concrete floor. Slowly, he straightened his broken limbs. He adjusted his clothes and said, "Now, brothers, where was I when I was interrupted?" And he continued with his message of Christ. From all the beatings, torture, and slaughter, a profound realization dawned on us: that the spirit is master over the body.

Very often, when we were tortured, we felt the torture, but as if from a distance, far removed from our spirit, which was absorbed into the glory of Christ and his living presence. When they gave us only a slice of bread each week and a dirty soup daily, we resolved to conscientiously give a tenth of even that. Every tenth week, we gave the slice of bread to weaker brothers as our tithe to the Lord.

During my 14 years of imprisonment, I never saw a Bible or any book whatsoever; I had almost forgotten how to write. Under the constant, agonizing hunger, mental weakness, and torture, I could no longer even retain the Holy Scriptures from my memory. But on the day my 14 years in prison were up, a verse rose from the oblivion of my mind into my consciousness: "Jacob labored for Rachel 14 years, and it seemed to him a short time, for he loved her."

Soon after, I was released due to a general amnesty that had been enacted in our country. I saw my wife again, who had faithfully waited for me for over 14 years, and we started our lives anew—in abject poverty, because the communist state confiscated everything from those imprisoned. The priests and pastors who were released were assigned small churches. I was given a church in the city of Orsova, but since the secret police strictly guarded the churches, I resumed my ministry in the underground church. In the meantime, we received support from members of various Christian churches in the West, who had established a relief organization.

Through secret channels, we received many Bibles and Christian literature, as well as financial aid for the families of Christian martyrs. They crept into houses surrounded by the secret police, and the police didn't notice their entry. The value of the Bibles smuggled in this way is immeasurable. Because of my work in the underground church, I was in grave danger of being arrested again. At that point, in 1965, two Christian organizations paid a ransom of 2,500 British pounds (approximately €60,000) to the government for my release, and I was thus able to leave Romania.

Despite all the dangers, I would not have left Romania, but the leaders of the underground church commissioned me to use this opportunity to become the "voice" of the underground church in the free world. It was their wish that I speak in their name about their suffering and their hardships in the free, Western world. Had I not so clearly seen the urgent need to report on the suffering and the fearless work of the underground church, I would never have left Romania. This was my special mission.

Full of joy – even in prison

Looking back on my 14 years in prison, it was, despite everything, also a time full of joy. Other prisoners and even our guards were constantly amazed at how Christians could remain joyful even under the most terrible circumstances. We refused to be stopped from singing, even though we were beaten for it. In our persecutors, I could see Saul of Tarsus, the future "Pauls."

Some of our persecutors experienced this transformation. Secret police officers, to whom we testified about Christ, themselves became Christians. They considered themselves fortunate to suffer in prison for having found Christ. In the jailers who flogged us, we saw the possibility of the transformation of a Philippian jailer who had also first beaten Paul and then been converted to Christ.

In those who mockingly watched as Christians were smeared with excrement and bound to crosses, we saw the representatives of those crowds on Golgotha who, a short time later, beat their breasts in repentance for their sins. There in prison, our hope for the tormentors was confirmed: that they, too, could receive salvation in Christ. It was there that we were particularly struck by the realization that we bear responsibility toward them.

And we learned to truly love them while we were tortured. God sees things differently than we do. From a human perspective, being bound to a cross is a terrible thing. Yet the Bible describes the sufferings of martyrs as "a little trouble" (2 Corinthians 4:17). Fourteen years in prison seems like a long time to us. But the Bible calls it "only a moment, which will earn us the crown of glory."

“For our afflictions, which are momentary and light, are preparing for us an eternal and immeasurable weight of glory, because we do not look at what is seen, but at what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Richard Wurmbrand (1909 – 2001)

From "Tortured for Christ",

Aid to the Church of the Martyrs (HMK)