Martin Poetzinger

Martin Poetzinger was born in Munich Germany, and from young he had a desire to understand the deeper questions of life. He asked, "Why do people die?" and "Is the death the end of our existence?" The scripture in Amos 8:11 touched his heart, where it speaks about a time, when there would be "a famine" not for food, but for hearing the Word of God. That motivated him to use his time to share with others the hope of God's Kingdom, where the Bible promises that sickness, death and pain will be no more. Revelation 21:3,4.

The words at Isaiah 6:8 also touched his heart, where the Bible asks, Who will go to preach? Who will I send? The Bible itself answers, "Here I am send me!" Brother Poetzinger started preaching at a young age, before World War II in Bavaria, Germany.

He describes the kingdom preaching work as life-saving, and related an experience, how this was so. He had been preaching in the Bavarian Forest area, when it seemed as if a storm was approaching. At the same time, he saw a distant house on a hill. Though it seemed an inopportune time to climb the hill, a sense of responsibility moved him to do so. When he reached the top, the house was locked up, but he heard a noise in the barn. When he went there, he met a man with a rope in his hand. The man was about to hang himself. Brother Poetzinger shared with him the hope of God's Kingdom, what if promises for the broken, tired, and weary hearted, and how God promises to help. The man hesitated, and stated, "For this kingdom I have courage," and he hung up the rope. The preaching work in imitation of Jesus' work 2,000 years ago, truly is life-saving.

However, freedom in Germany wouldn't last, and the Nazi's mobilized against the Bible Students, as Jehovah's Witnesses were then called. Brother Poetzinger found himself in concentration camps such as Dahau and Mauthauesen. He describes his first impression of a concentration camp as, "a madhouse of demons". At Mathausen, a work camp, prisoners were worked to death carrying stones from a quarry. All sorts of tortures were tried to get the Jehovah's Witnesses in the concentration camp to renounce their faith. However, the Nazi's were not successful.

When the Americans freed the camps, many used this as an opportunity for revenge against the SS, but the Witnesses, as Jesus taught, didn't take vengeance on their oppressors. When asked how he survived so many years (nine years) in the concentration camps, Brother Poetzinger responded, "You must have a reason to live." "God's name must be sanctified." So rather than compromise with these enemies of God, Jehovah's Witnesses stayed closed to God, and endured years of torture at the hands of these Nazis.

When Poetzinger was released he became again, a full-time minister of Jehovah's Witnesses, as a circuit overseer, visiting various congregations, and eventually became a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses until his death in the 1980s.

He recalled in September of 1946, on the day that 21 members of the Nazi party were sentenced to death, Jehovah's Witnesses enjoyed freedom at the onetime assembly ground of the Nazis, at this same Zeppelinwiese, with its 144 pillars, considering the Bible at their Bible convention, even as Jehovah's Witnesses today have just completed their international conventions, held throughout the world.