Two Soldiers’ Christian Testimonies

(1) Paul Gerzik

Mr. V. Kralicek, a Bohemian missionary in Chicago and head of the Bohemian Slovak Department of the Slavish training school gives the following story of Christian testimony. Brother Paul Gerzik was for several years a missionary of our denomination in Moravia. On August 1st 1914, he was called to military service, and was sent with his regiment to Galacia. May 25, 1915, he was shot while in a trench. The officers and men of his company were moved very deeply by his death. One of the officers was wounded some weeks later and was brought to a hospital in Bruno, where he called some of our brethren and gave them the following testimony regarding our dear Brother Paul Gerzik:

Paul Gerzik was a very peculiar soldier. The first week after we reached the Russian frontier in Ga1acia, he took a piece of blank cardboard and put upon it in golden letters the inscription, "God is Love." He fastened this inscription upon his musket so that everybody could read it when we were marching. In the trenches he laid the cardboard before himself so that everybody could see it. This puzzled us all and caused among us all, the officers and men, much agitation. We mocked him and put to him hundreds of questions. Thus he got the opportunity to speak, and when he began to speak everybody was silent. He became the preacher of our company. Once I said to him:

"If there is any God, then He does not love the people. The best proof is this terrible war with its awful sufferings."

You are wrong, captain,” he answered; “this war does not prove that God does not love the people, but it is the most powerful proof that people do not love God and each other. If the people of Europe loved God and each other, this terrible war would be an impossibility:” And I felt he spoke the truth.

On another occasion I told him, "Gerzik, you are not a good soldier. You do not use your musket as you ought to use it. I am observing you, and see you are sending the bullets elsewhere, in the hedges and trees but not into the bodies of the big Russians. Do you know that I can punish you with death on the spot?"

"I know, captain," he answered, "but I do not want to change my mind. I am here not to kill the enemies, but to save the friends. When I was called to the military service, I was resolved to refuse to go if even sentenced to death by the court martial; but I asked myself, What good would my death mean to the cause of my Lord and King, Jesus Christ? I could not see that it would do any good, and therefore I changed my resolution and went to the front with the firm purpose to kill no one, but to help everybody, and you see this I am doing with all my heart."

And truly he did it. He was the first at the side of every wounded, suffering and dying soldier. During the cold and wet winter days and nights, when our sufferings in the trenches were unspeakable, when men and officers were cursing the day of their birth, when frozen flesh was falling from our limbs, he was the only soldier who did not curse, who had words of cheer and comfort for us all, who encouraged us by his courage and cheered us by his joy. He was a fearless man. He walked under the hail of bullets like a child in a garden. "My life," he used to say, "is in my Lord's hands. When my work is done, He will call me to Himself and all the sufferings will be over."

At one o'clock in the afternoon, May 25th, the enemies' bullet got him. He fell to the ground. The comrades took him and brought him behind the firing line. He bade us good-by, and died with a smile on his lips. The most of us wept. We buried him with all honors and put upon his grave a wooden cross with the inscription, "God is Love." I took his New Testament from his pocket as a reminder of him. We all felt his absence from our ranks. For weeks and weeks his personality was a subject of our conversation. "I am a Jew," once said a fellow officer, "but in Gerzik I saw a real Christian:" and that he was. Now I am wounded myself and in a hospital, and I am reading his New Testament.


(2) Friedrich Abramzig

(This letter was written by a German soldier from a military jail after Germany's military fortunes had reversed and the army was no longer allowing "soldiers of conscience" to continue to serve as medics without also performing combat duties. German families were becoming separated from and losing track of each other. The letter is addressed to his sister Erika for dissemination to his wife and other family members.)


Beloved Erika and family,

My beloved wife and children! Today I arrived at life’s destination. Yesterday I received my death sentence. Today at 3 o'clock, my execution will be carried out because I refuse to carry weapons. I was first made a medic. But then they forced me to carry a weapon, which, as you know, I can not do because of my faith.

Yes beloved, I wish you the best from the Lord. Dearly beloved wife, I do not know where you are but I hope that you are still alive. After the war is over, you can do with our farm as is best and easiest for you. It is now the Lord’s will that we shall not live our final years together. It is hard for me to write this, but you know that my Savior stands next to me. Be comforted with the word of God and stay near to the Lord. He will care for your needs, both body and spirit. Hopefully, after the war is over, you and the other members of the family will find each other somehow somewhere.

I am writing to you, Erika, because you are probably the safest one to communicate with. So greet everybody: Edwig and the “Kinderchen” (little children); Frieda and the Kinderchen; Walter, Linda and the family; Waltraut Marthe and Ernst.

Beloved wife! The last time we were together, we didn’t think that it would literally be the last time. But I have placed everything under the grace of Christ. Everything the Lord sends our way is good. In about one hour I am supposed to be shot. Yes, the Lord will be there with me and will open the gates of Heaven for me.

Look they are waiting already at the throne, yes, they wait also for me, 
My loved ones stand and wait till I too get my victory” (a German hymn)

So, all I can tell you is: be faithful till the Lord will call you; blessings, till we see each other again in Eternity.

Greet everybody: Johann, Uncle Fritz and family and all the brothers and sisters in the Lord.

I have been ordered to stop writing. The Lord be with you all. Amen.

I greet you for the last time: your papa, your loving husband and your brother.

Let me leave, that I Jesus might receive. For my soul is full of yearning, 
for His eternal embracing, and to stand before His Throne” (a German hymn)

Friedrich Abramzig