Emma Arnold, née Bortot, was born on April 17, 1898 in Strasbourg, Alsace. At the tender age of four she had already lost her father. She grew up in poverty on a farm in the mountains. The French and German armies fought ferociously against each other on the battlefields near their home during World War I. When Emma was sixteen, therefore, she had to tend to wounded and dying soldiers from both armies.
Emma grew up in a devout Catholic home and wanted to be a nun. However, because of the family’s poverty, she began working in a factory as a damask weaver. There she met Adolphe Arnold. They married when she was 25 years old. Emma won Adolphe’s heart with her devoted manner. The consequences of her poverty were alleviated by Emma’s skill at sewing and cooking, turning her humble home into a real home. After their daughter Simone was born in August 1930, Emma raised her with a firm, loving hand. It was important to her that her daughter develop a love for God and respect her hard-working father. She also encouraged Simon’s love of flowers.
The neighbors in the house to which the family moved in Mühlhausen came to know and respect Emma as a kind, dignified and honest woman. In the spring of 1937, Emma began an intensive study of the Bible, and soon she was sharing her newfound faith as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many residents of Mühlhausen enjoyed listening to her sincere and logical explanations. Simone, and subsequently Adolphe, embraced the Jehovah’s Witness faith despite the looming threat of Nazism approaching the French border.
The Gestapo first arrested only male Jehovah’s Witnesses, believing it would mean the end of the Witnesses’ religious activities. After Adolphe was arrested, Emma continued her Bible teaching work in secret, but the Gestapo soon came to her. They interrogated her for four hours, trying unsuccessfully to force her to betray her fellow believers. They came back several times to search the home and intimidate her. In July 1943 custody of Simone was transferred to the youth welfare office. The next month, Emma was arrested and taken to the Schirmeck and Gaggenau concentration camps.
Because Emma refused to do work that would have supported the war, she was placed in solitary confinement in the concentration camp. Another time, the guards locked them in the cell next to the interrogation room. There she heard the screams of the tortured victims and saw their blood seeping under her cell door. Once back in the barracks, Emma helped other prisoners survive until she became seriously ill herself in the final weeks of the war. Four fellow Witnesses saved her life by smuggling food to her and even staying with her during a bombing raid.
After the German army retreated and the Allies released the prisoners, Emma went in search of Simone. After a tearful reunion, they returned to Mühlhausen together. They hoped to find Adolphe there and rebuild their lives. Weeks went by with no news. But when all hope seemed lost, Adolphe came home half dead. Emma nursed him patiently and helped him learn to live with the physical injuries he would carry for the rest of his life. The tight-knit Arnold family had passed a fiery test that bound them together in an even closer bond of understanding and love.
You can find a more detailed biography here: https://alst.org/geschichte/biographien-2/emma-arnold-biografie-1898-1979unerschoepflicher-mut/
