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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNISM
______
HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I am grateful Dr. Derek
W.H. Thomas of The First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South
Carolina, in the weekly First Things (Monday, March 1) newsletter
published a tribute for Richard Wurmbrand of Bucharest, Romania. This
tribute is a reminder to all Americans of the tragic true inhumanity of
totalitarian communism enforced by Soviet Socialists.
The Voice of the Martyrs
This Saturday . . .
The Voice of the Martyrs
This Saturday, February 29 (it is a leap year), is the
anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of Richard
Wurmbrand in 1948. Born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1909,
Richard was sent to Moscow as an adolescent to study Marxism.
He was pursued by the Soviet secret police, and upon his
return to Romania, he became a Comintern for the communist
regime. At the outbreak of the second World War, he was
converted to Christianity and was later ordained, first as an
Anglican and then, as the war was almost over and his country
occupied by the Soviet Union, a Lutheran. In 1944, he began a
ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to Red Army soldiers.
As the Soviet regime began to control churches, Wurmbrand
began an ``underground'' ministry to his people. Within a few
years, he denounced communism as incompatible with
Christianity. He was arrested on February 29, 1948, while on
his way to church.
Richard Wurmbrand passed through several penal facilities
and would spend three years in solitary confinement, twelve
feet below ground without light or sound (the guards put felt
under their shoes). He later recounted that he maintained his
sanity by sleeping by day and staying awake at night
preaching out loud a sermon to himself.
Wurmbrand was released from prison in 1956 after eight and
half years. Warned not to preach again, he continued to serve
the underground churches and was arrested again in 1959 and
sentenced to 25 years. During this second imprisonment, he
was beaten and tortured, including mutilation, burning, and
being locked in a freezer icebox. Later, he recounted how his
feet were beaten until the flesh was exposed, and then the
next day beaten until the bones were exposed.
In 1964, Norwegians paid the Communist regime $10,000 for
his release, and Wurmbrand and his wife would eventually
emigrate to the United States. He died in 2001 in California.
During his time in the United States he authored almost 20
books and founded The Voice of the Martyrs, an organization
that draws attention to the persecuted church worldwide.
Here is one of Wurmbrand's famous quotes: ``I have seen
Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains
on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose
throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept
afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from
cold--and praying with fervor for the Communists. This is
humanly inexplicable! It is the love of Christ, which was
poured out in our hearts.''
--Derek W.H. Thomas, Senior Minister.
____________________