Buchenwald
Paul Schneider was incarcerated in Buchenwald, near Weimar, on November 27, 1937, just a few months after the camp opened. In the labor commandos, Pastor Schneider watched out for his fellow inmates. After being sentenced to solitary confinement, he preached the “Good News” from the window of his prison cell. He “earned” the new accommodations when he refused to remove his beret in tribute to Hitler on the Führer’s birthday, April 20, 1938 and in tribute of the swastika flag. He explained his behaviour by saying "I can not salute this criminal symbol". He also refused, as he had done earlier, the Hitler salute, saying that "one can only expect salvation (Heil) from the Lord and not from a human". From his cell, Paul Schneider accused his captors and encouraged his fellow inmates. On one occasion on Easter Sunday, when thousands of prisoners were assembled for mustering, despite being severely handicapped by previous torture he climbed to the cell window and shouted: "Comrades, hear me. Here speaks Pastor Schneider. Here is tortured and murdered. So speaks the Lord: I am the resurrection and the life!" His speech was interrupted by his tormentors. As others had pleaded years earlier, the man who mopped the floors in the solitary confinement building begged Paul Schneider, “Please stop provoking the SS against you… They will beat you to death if you continue preaching from your cell window”.
Read more about this topic: Paul Schneider (pastor)