CHRIST IN THE COMMUNIST PRISONS

This is a clumsily written record of a Lutheran pastor's fourteen years in a Communist prison in his native Rumania. For all of the ""ghost's"" incredible little-did-I-know-and-never-would-I-have-imagined style, after the first few pages the spell of such a story begins to work and the reader is fascinated by the account of a somewhat naive faith that was strong enough to withstand years of torture, both mental and physical, and, at the same time, to sustain not only Pastor Wurmbrand himself but also many of his fellow prisoners. Even Wurmbrand's emotion-laden attempts to convert his jailers are of interest, not so much because of the pastor's message as because of the Communists' reactions to Christian apologetic. The most informative and stimulating parts of the book describe in some detail the brain-washing techniques of the prison, aimed first at forcing the prisoner to disclaim the value of his non-Communist life and then to accept Communism so as to fill the vacuum. A competent writer would have made of this another With God in Russia. As it stands, however, Christ in the Communist Prisons will have to survive purely on the strength of its topical interest and in spite of its literary liabilities.