My husband?s family was under Russian communist rule and escaped when he was a boy. Then for several years they were the victims of Nazi oppression. During that time they became Witnesses and have been for many years.
The other day he was reminiscing about family life under, and getting away from the three systems.
His Uncle was taken by the secret police because he was not a communist sympathizer. The family decided they must escape. They spent many hours talking about how they could flee their situation, discussing the means and destination of their escape. It was talked about with the extended family on both sides and some of them also escaped.
With just the clothes on his back and in the middle of the northern winter, my husband left everything behind except his family. He escaped Communism.
At least they weren?t in constant danger of death in
During the war they listened to the allied radio broadcasts, which of course risked jail or worse. One would keep watch while the others would huddle around the radio. They had talked about what they would do and say if they were caught. Their family bond was only strengthened by the oppression. It was them against the oppressor and their support of each other reinforced their relationships. My husband would go out and search the trash cans for food, not to keep for himself but to be shared with the rest of the family. Often his parents would have nothing so the children could eat. They were wonderful self-sacrificing parents. There is no doubt in my husband?s mind that his parents would have died for my husband and his siblings.
Again they spent many hours, as a family, and with close friends, talking about how they could escape their circumstances. They wanted a life of freedom and together they planned how they could make that dream a reality.
Yes he escaped the Nazis, with his family still intact.
After the war they pooled together and were able to come here where they settled on the east coast. When the children were old enough they pioneered and with their part time money they again supported each other.
Now my husband is again trying to extricate himself from yet another totalitarian regime, the WTS.
What a difference from the previous two. Now I am the one and only family member he can confide in, the only one he is sure will support him. He is not sure what his parents would say if they knew but thinks his father would have only minimal contact. He tried to speak to one of his siblings and got the ?Are you questioning God?s organization?? routine.
So when he was under Communism and the Nazis he could confide in his family and at all times and every way they supported each other. Now, under the cloud of the WTS he can no longer confide in his family and knows that support is something he would never receive. In fact he feels he is in a very risky situation at the moment, at risk of loosing what the Communists and Nazis could not take away from him, his family.
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