The Buchenwald Series: Watercolors by the Jehovah's Witness Johannes Steyer

When Johannes Steyer from Wittgensdorf, Germany, died on March 1, 1998, he left 27 impressive watercolor paintings to the Wachtturm-Gesellschaft, History Archive, in Selters/Taunus, Germany. The paintings depict his experience of victimization and persecution in the Third Reich.
Johannes Steyer was born in Röhrsdorf, near Chemnitz, on September 28, 1908. Together with two sisters and one brother, he grew up in poverty, since his father did not earn much as a railroad worker. His mother stayed at home and took care of the family. After attending elementary school, Johannes Steyer went to work straightening needles on knitting machines, a skill he acquired on his own.
He first encountered the Bible Students in 1931, the year when this Christian religious association adopted the name "Jehovah's Witnesses." He was baptized that same year and became active. Until 1935, Steyer was apparently able to disseminate the Biblical teachings of the Witnesses without Nazi interference. During the 1970s he completed an artistic portrayal from memory of what happened to him after 1935. He was under police surveillance while preaching (painting 1), and denounced to the police (painting 2). It was not long before he was arrested and interrogated (painting 3). Shortly thereafter, he was sent to a concentration camp (painting 4).
On March 5, 1935, Johannes Steyer was arrested and sent to Sachsenburg concentration camp. He was caned with 25 strokes for refusing to salute the swastika flag (painting 8), and was confined to an unlighted cell for 70 days. After Sachsenburg concentration camp was closed in July 1937, he and other prisoners were taken to Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, then under construction (paintings 5 and 6). There he was assigned prisoner number 1795. He told friends about painting 5: "This picture shows the construction of Buchenwald concentration camp. We had to do everything, from clearing the forest and laying building foundations to building barracks. Doing everything by hand was hard manual labor. At Sachsenburg, Camp Commandant SS Major (Sturmbannführer) Rödel had already told us: ›We'll give you less to eat so that you won't be so daring.‹ This actually occurred in Buchenwald; we were also prohibited from receiving assistance from home. We were thus unable even to buy a dry roll in the canteen, since we were not allowed to receive money. Even on Sundays, all Witnesses had to work until noon - without lunch. Our portions were distributed among the other prisoners."
The other watercolors depict Johannes Steyer's experiences from his arrest to liberation, impressions which continued to haunt him. (He arranged the watercolors by number in chronological order.) These works include: the exhausting hours standing during roll calls (painting 7), flogging (painting 8), and hard labor (paintings 9 and 10). He once explained painting 8: "An inmate was often missing during roll call. After a long search, the prisoner was finally found, sometimes only the next morning. These prisoners were then beaten or simply shot. Even the smallest of offenses incurred severe punishments. I was considered an ›incorrigible‹ prisoner, and personally experienced what is depicted in this picture. The reason was my refusal to sign military induction papers."
Johannes Steyer recorded not only the cruel and inhuman treatment in vibrant colors. He also probably used bright friendly pigments to reveal that his Christian faith was one of hope and deliverance. During his incarceration, he always felt reassured of hope and his yearning for freedom when he saw the first spring flowers, whereas a "hopeless one" found death at the electrified fence (painting 11). He recalled that "despair drove some to suicide. As depicted here, an inmate who couldn't stand it any longer, threw himself on the electrified fence, and volleys of gun-fire ended his life and suffering."
The harsh concentration camp life and forced labor were made even more onerous by sadistic Kapos, who served the SS (painting 12). They brutally drove their fellow prisoners to the roll call yard (painting 13). Johannes Steyer described the surprise that sometimes awaited them: "As a deterrent to future resistance, prisoners who had been shot while trying to escape were dragged into the roll call yard in front of the assembled prisoners." (painting 14)
His paintings deal repeatedly with compulsory hard labor, including the prisoner labor details marched out after morning roll call (painting 18). The thoroughly exhausted inmates returned, together with their guards, to the camp every evening (painting 15); some were near death and unable to walk (paintings 16 and 17).
The Buchenwald concentration camp was securely guarded (painting 19). On occasion, instead of reporting to work after morning roll call, prisoners would have to report for an interrogation (painting 20). Prisoners were also summoned by loudspeaker to report to the camp commandant (painting 21). This scene could have taken place in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, north of Berlin, where Johannes Steyer was transferred on May 8, 1940, after again refusing military service.
Like most Jehovah's Witnesses, Johannes Steyer refused to serve in Hitler's army, and he portrayed himself, in painting 22, refusing to accept military induction papers. He considered Hitler as the "sword of the church," who was behind the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses (painting 23). On October 7, 1934, after receiving numerous protest letters and telegrams, Hitler screamed: "This brood will be exterminated in Germany!" (painting 24) The Nazis were, however, unable to completely obliterate this small but unyielding religious community in Germany.
Johannes Steyer was sentenced to death by hanging for refusing military service. He only escaped this fate by luck, when he was assigned to a forced labor unit in Düsseldorf, demolishing rubble and ruins after bomb attacks. He was subsequently transferred to Alderney, Channel Islands, from where he and other Witnesses were transported to Steyr, part of the Mauthausen concentration camp complex in Austria.
The last three watercolors deal with liberation: how "glad tidings" spread through the camp (painting 25), and the Witnesses thanked God that the "power of the evil ones" had been defeated and the SS had fled (painting 26). "Free!" at last, the gate at Buchenwald opened, promising a new future for the survivors (painting 27). Johannes Steyer said in retprospect: "We were beside ourselves and leapt for joy because we secured freedom after ten years. The endless slavery finally stopped. It was as if nature awakening also shared our joy. Flowers bloomed, everything awoke to a new life."