BLOG 2...: Facing the Lion Part 1

I started a book called Facing The Lion. The author of such book is Simone Arnold Liebster. This is the life story of a young girl in Nazi Europe who had to deal with the religious oppression. When she was born, she was involved in the Catholic faith. Throughout her story she transmit’s a message of her personal search for faith and identity which creates friction in the political and social activities of the time. In 1938, her mother converted to the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Despite family opposition, her dad got baptized and in time Simone followed her parents example, by being baptized in 1941. By 1940, in France, the German government had taken control. Almost immediately, the Germans established their political and social values, which excluded the so called “undesirables”. This included the Jehovah’s Witnesses. After her father was arrested for his believes, her mother and Simone faced harsh economic status. For the next 2 years, her and her mother did small jobs in exchange for food. During that time, Simone’s father was put in a concentration camp for individuals who would damage the reputation of the German authority. Jehovah’s Witnesses were categorized in such manner because their religion did not allow them to render unconditional obedience to the government. After 1941, Simone became physically and mentally intimidated at her school. When the children of Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to enroll in the Hitler Youth group, the League of German Girls or to follow the rules of the Nazi’s social and political behavior, school officials took the parental custody and sent them to Nazi homes and juvenile institutions. To this, more than 500 minor Jehovah’s Witnesses children were separated from their parents. Simone was one of them.