As previously reported on jw.org and in The New York Times, the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany, refuses to relinquish Sister Annemarie Kusserow’s archive, defying her last will and testament. But newly discovered evidence supports the position of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This has moved our organization to pursue a new legal case against the museum.

For more than seven years, Jehovah’s Witnesses tried to reach an amicable agreement with the museum to acquire the archive but without success. Our organization then filed a claim in court. Disappointingly, the claim was dismissed in 2021, as it was the court’s opinion that the museum had acquired the archive in good faith.

When she was 26 years old, Annemarie began meticulously compiling the archive of materials related to Jehovah’s Witnesses during the Holocaust. She preserved it, at times even at the risk of her life, for over 65 years until her death in 2005. What she preserved for posterity, and especially for her fellow believers, has been appreciated internationally as a historical treasure.

Annemarie compiled the archive because she sincerely wanted as many people as possible—both Jehovah’s Witnesses and others—to continue to learn from her family’s history of faithfulness. To ensure this, she named the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses to be the sole heir. Her will has yet to be honored.

Annemarie, together with four of her siblings, was featured in the 1991 British documentary Purple Triangles. The film focused on the Kusserow family’s experiences as a way to explain how the Nazi regime persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses for their refusal to renounce their faith and pledge their allegiance to Hitler. Annemarie appears in the documentary with her precious documents and photographs.

In an interview conducted shortly before she died, Annemarie recounted the time when the Gestapo arrested her in her apartment and she almost lost vital pieces of the archive. She said: “I had this briefcase standing in the entrance hall. There were letters underneath it and all the other remaining documents.” She had filled the large briefcase with apples, hoping to deter the officers from looking underneath. She told herself in case her plan failed, ‘At least you’ll have something to eat in prison.’ Thankfully, her plan worked.

Soon after Annemarie’s death, the archive disappeared from her house. It was later discovered that one of Annemarie’s brothers, who was no longer associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses, had sold the archive to the museum. Annemarie had never authorized her brother to do such a thing. He has since died.

The surviving members of the Kusserow family, well-aware of Annemarie’s will, were shocked when the court ruled in favor of the museum keeping the archive. Since that time, family, friends, and other Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted by the Nazis have written hundreds of letters to the museum and to the Ministry of Defense, under whose authority the museum operates, pleading for the archive to be returned to Jehovah’s Witnesses as Annemarie wished.

Among the notable documents in the archive is a farewell letter from Annemarie’s brother, Wilhelm, who wrote his last words on April 26, 1940. As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he refused to perform military service. For his conscientious objection, the Nazis sentenced him to death.

Wilhelm’s letter reads: “Dear parents, brothers, and sisters: All of you know how much you mean to me, and I am repeatedly reminded of this every time I look at our family photo. How harmonious things always were at home. Nevertheless, above all we must love God, as our Leader Jesus Christ commanded. If we stand up for him, he will reward us.” He was shot to death on the morning of April 27 at 25 years of age.

Annemarie’s parents, Franz and Hilda Kusserow, had 11 children. Like Wilhelm, Franz and the older sons were imprisoned for refusing to participate in the war. The younger children refused to perform the Hitler salute and were separated from their parents and sent to reform schools and later to foster families.

When Wolfgang, one of the younger Kusserow brothers, was brought before a military tribunal, he courageously stated: “I was brought up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to God’s word contained in the Holy Scriptures. The greatest and most holy law he gave mankind is: ‘You shall love your God above all else and your neighbor as yourself.’ Other commandments read: ‘You must not kill.’ Did our Creator have all this written down for the trees?”

On March 28, 1942, 20-year-old Wolfgang was beheaded by guillotine.

Annemarie and her family paid a high price for their faith and their firm stance against the Nazi war effort—some gave their lives for refusing to kill. Cumulatively, the family spent 47 years in detention.

The archive brings to life the family’s exceptional example of faith. The materials vividly illustrate how faith can impart strength in the face of severe persecution and the threat of death. This central theme of the archive can only be fully appreciated within the museums of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In October 2022, Paul Gerhard Kusserow, the last surviving son of the family, passed away. He had hoped to see the day when the military museum would honor the will of his sister—something he publicly campaigned for until his death. He would explain: “My brothers died because they refused to perform military service. I do not believe it is right for this estate to be kept in a military museum of all places.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses agree. It is a gross moral injustice for the museum to disregard Annemarie’s unambiguous wishes. The Kusserow family’s will was disrespected in the past during National Socialism, and it is being disrespected again in modern Germany.

Sadly, the archive itself is also being disrespected. All but 6 of the more than 1,000 pieces of the archive are sitting in the museum’s storage—of no benefit to the general public.

We pray that the court will finally grant the archive to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have both the legal and moral right to it.—Luke 18:7.