Memorial Plaque for Murdered Witnesses of Jehovah

The memorial plaque mounted on the fence of the Kingdom Hall of the market community of Straßwalchen recalls community members who were murdered by the National Socialists between 1939 and 1944 due to their affiliation with the Witnesses of Jehovah. The first gatherings of Straßwalchen Witnesses of Jehovah – then still called Bible Students – took place as early as 1931. The first arrests and deportations to concentration camps occurred in 1939, and only a few years later, in 1943, already 18 community members were in a concentration camp or prison. Ten did not survive the National Socialist regime. Today, the Kingdom Hall in Straßwalchen is located in the former home of Gottfried Herzog, who was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1940.