Richard Rudolph (concentration camp survivor)

Richard Rudolph (June 11, 1911 – January 31, 2014) was the last surviving victim of "double persecution"[1] in that he was incarcerated for nearly nine years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps and then was imprisoned for a further ten years in the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany). He was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme,[2] and Ravensbrück concentration camps and the Salzgitter-Watenstedt Leinde subcamp of Neuengamme in addition to various police, penitentiary and juvenile prisons.

Grounds for his imprisonment and persecution in the Nazi era were his stand as a conscientious objector, for which he barely escaped being executed on several occasions, and his beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness.[3] Jehovah's Witnesses supported neither Nazi racist and militaristic policies nor communist suppression of religion. Rudolph's experiences have been documented in the book Im Zeugenstand: Was wir noch sagen sollten, 100 Fragen—900 Antworten, Interviews mit Holocaust-Überlebenden und NS-Opfern,[1] released in English as Taking the Stand: We Have More to Say, 100 Questions—900 Answers, Interviews with Holocaust Survivors and Victims of Nazi Tyranny,[4] by Bernhard Rammerstorfer, an author and film producer regarding Holocaust subject matter.