DELIANA RADEMAKERS, born in 1923, was a Jehovah’s Witness, arrested while performing house-to-house ministry. After her initial incarceration in the occupied Netherlands, she was deported to Auschwitz via the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Deliana was registered on 20 November 1942 as prisoner 25563. In a final letter to her family, she shared her hope for freedom 'before Psalm 18:5 [The ropes of the Grave surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me] could be fulfilled' Within Deliana's religious tradition, the capitalization of the word 'Grave' implies that she was referring to Hell, rather than her final resting place. Deliana's letter continued, with greetings to the mother, her family, and the congregation of her Kingdom Hall, saying, "go bravely onwards without fear, Jehovah is with us, what can (mere) people do to us?" According to her death certificate, Deliana died in Auschwitz on 10 December 1942. The Nazi ideology was a complete contradiction between their morality and everyday practices. The incomplete nature of the documentation and the various ways that prisoners were categorized makes it impossible to determine the exact number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Auschwitz. However, it can be stated that at least 387 Witnesses passed through (or died at) the camp within a period of 5 years. This includes at least 138 people classified in the IBV category (Internationale Bibelforscher - Vereinigung [International Association of Bible Researchers]) and marked with a purple triangle.
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