Reverend and Mrs. Otto Samuel
before the concentration camp
Otto Samuel was hired in 1937 to continue the work of the Mission in Germany after Herbert Singer immigrated to America due to the rising
tide of antisemitism. Otto himself came to faith in 1914. While in the military, he was sent to the hospital for an illness. In the hospital bed next
to him was a believer who had long prayed that the Lord would give him the opportunity to share the gospel with a Jewish person. They spoke
late into the night, and, shortly after, Otto received Yeshua as his Messiah. Otto became a pastor, serving for five years at a church in Halle
(Salle) and for another ten years at the Evangelical Free Church of Gelsenkirchen-Horst. In 1937, he resigned from the pastorate to help Jewish
people. Otto became a hunted enemy of the Nazis for his work in bringing help and relief to his people. He and Mrs. Samuel fled Germany
and settled in Brussels, Belgium, where they established a relief ministry for refugees. The Samuels were both passionate in their witness to
the Jewish people and fervently shared the gospel. Otto was arrested and sent to an internment camp in the Spanish Pyrenees along with 50
other Jewish believers and 40 Jewish refugees. Mrs. Samuel continued in Brussels, anxiously waiting her husband’s release. In 1941, Otto was
released from Camp de Gurs in unoccupied France and escaped to America. Joseph Hoffman Cohn sent some money to Mr. Samuel. Having
immigrated, Otto was sent by the Mission to assist at the Philadelphia branch. Sadly, however, his time as a prisoner changed him so that he
was unable to continue the work and resigned. It is unknown whether Mrs. Samuel escaped from Brussels.
APRIL 2020 | 04
Otto Samuel was hired in 1937 to continue the work of the Mission in Germany after Herbert Singer immigrated to America due to t