During Stalin's time in the country of Czechoslovakia, a leading communist named Loeb was imprisoned by his comrades and subjected to brainwashing. Alone in a cell, he had to listen day and night to a loudspeaker blaring at him maddening words: "Spy! Traitor! Counter-revolutionist! Oh, no, I beg your pardon. Dear and faithful comrade, no, spy! Traitor! No, comrade! You will be hanged! It is a confusion; you will be released soon. Your arrest has been a mistake. Rogue, rascal, beloved comrade, innocent victim of injustice!" This went on for weeks. Then he had a moment of illumination. The thought occurred to him: "If communists torture Christians or other enemies, it makes sense. We cannot triumph without destroying them. But if communists torture communists, this is wickedness without any sense; it is evil for evil's sake. I have now seen the final depth of evil. But there is no electricity without two poles, no coin without two faces. If there exists an extreme depth of wickedness, there must also be an extreme height of love. This then is God."
After this, when he was called to a new interrogation, he told the police officer: "You can switch off the loudspeaker now. I have found God."
(from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, August 2012)
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