Simone Maria Liebster was a French victim of Nazi persecution during World War II as she was a Jehovah's Witness. Simone was also notable as the author of a book called Facing the lion - memoirs of a young girl In Nazi Europe in which she wrote about her experiences at the hands of the Nazis.
Family
Liebster was born to Adolphe Arnold and Emma Borot in Husseren-Wesserling, Haut-Rhin. In 1933, the family moved to Mulhouse. She was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witness in 1941. In 1951, she traveled to New York to study at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead, to become a missionary. She married Max Liebster, another survivor of Nazi persecution in 1956 and "together they have devoted their lives to their ministry and to peace education."
Religious persecution
In July 1943, Liebster received a letter, from the German government, ordering her to report to the train station. She "was arrested by juvenile authorities, taken to Konstanz, Germany, and put in a Nazi penitentiary home. For nearly two years, Simone was forbidden to talk and was forced to do hard labor. Both her parents by this time had been imprisoned in Nazi camps, and none expected to live to see the family reunited. The end of the war arrived, though, and the Arnolds all returned home and rebuilt their lives."
Reception
The philosopher and religious scientist Volker Zotz wrote about Alone in front of the Lion of Simone Arnold Liebster: "The book as a historical document is significant in at least two ways. Once it provides an insight into the way in which the Nazi system tried to reeducate children. Then it provides a new source to a group of previously rather neglected Nazi victims, the Jehovah's Witnesses. But regardless of what gaps this book of historical research may conclude, it is of the highest interest as a personal testimony. How a child, under cruel conditions, preserves his inner dignity and his belief in God and the people, even though he knows his father in the concentration camp and his mother, even though he knows that close friends must die as conscientious objectors, is one in many ways challenging reading. The child can withstand the lion, as it feels the cruel Nazi machinery, because religious and ethical values give it an unconditional support. "
