After Christian Science was denounced as pro-jewish by the Nazis and declared illegal in 1941, the official distribution of Christian Science literature became extremely dangerous. In fact, it was possible that anyone involved could be arrested and sent off to a concentration camp. But this danger did not stop Church members from disseminating literature—especially the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons, which provided for weekly spiritual study and for Christian Science church services.
While many people in countries outside Germany helped in this work, one of the key figures was Marcel Silver, the Christian Science Committee on Publication for France. Located in Paris, Silver courageously and openly engaged in church-related activities in Nazi-occupied France and in Germany. An underground network—created by church members—ensured that the Quarterly, and in some cases the French or German issues of the Herald —were disseminated in areas that were closed to regular sources for religious materials.
Silver, who bravely printed the Bible Lessons at a Paris print shop that was also used by the Nazis, came home one Saturday to find that two men had left an order for him to report to the Gestapo the following Monday. Silver and his wife, Rachel, used the few hours remaining as an opportunity to pray. The unpublished papers of Birse Shepard, who was Secretary of the Christian Science War Relief Committee, and who obtained reports from individuals and churches in Europe after the war, records what Silver told her happened next.
