coffee afternoon

[bohemian]

My wife and I visit a congregation in Czechia via zoom and share in the meetings.

This week we received an invitation to a “coffee afternoon” - bring your own coffee! - on Saturday.  A couple in the congregation there were involved in underground printing of literature under the Communist regime when the brothers were banned.

They are going to talk about their experience and answer questions from the brothers.

We are really looking forward to being a part of this and hope our language skills are up to the challenge.

 

There was a book (in Czech only) about this work “I Was The Manager Of An Illegal Printery” - I have a copy somewhere! 

[redvet]

I would love to sit in on the conversation if possible brothers.

[bohemian]

Well we understood some of the interview and questions but it was quite tough for us.

There was a photograph or two of the house that was used and the brother, but the best bit was a video (actually a series of very short videos) showing how they accessed the printery in the roof and made it secure and soundproof.

Amazing work under such a dangerous regime.  Just over 15,000 Watchtowers printed! Plus all the current books - they told how brothers brought microfilm etc from the branch in Vienna and how the literature was printed and then distributed to congregations!
It was very encouraging.

 

 

[bohemian]

Brother and sister Soumary ran the printery in their roof space and worked night and day to produce the literature. Pavel also had a full-time job, so you can imagine the effort and loss of sleep.

They told us that when the Revelation Climax book was published there were two underground printeries assigned to it, the one that this brother and his wife ran and one in Moldova. However, the Moldovan one broke down so they were all printed by the Soumary’s.

Brother Lösch visited secretly from the Austrian branch and told Pavel that his wife looked tired and he should look after her!
 

This is just a snippet from the interview.

On the video we saw them producing Watchtower magazines in Czech, Slovak and Hungarian.