25 Facts About Richard Wurmbrand

Richard Wurmbrand, known as Nicolai Ionescu was a Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest, and professor of Jewish descent.

Richard Wurmbrand experienced imprisonment and torture by the Communist regime of Romania, which maintained a policy of state atheism.

Richard Wurmbrand wrote more than 18 books, the most widely known being Tortured for Christ and Answer to Moscow's Bible.

Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family.

Richard Wurmbrand lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while, his father died when he was 9, and the Wurmbrands returned to Romania when he was 15.

When returning to his mother country, Richard Wurmbrand was already an important Comintern agent, leader, and coordinator directly paid from Moscow.

In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing a communist regime, Richard Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to Red Army soldiers; the Socialist Republic of Romania had a doctrine of state atheism.

Richard Wurmbrand was a professor in the only Lutheran seminary in his country.

Richard Wurmbrand is remembered for his courage in standing up in a gathering of church leaders and denouncing government control of the churches.

Richard Wurmbrand was arrested on 29 February 1948, while on his way to a Divine Service.

Richard Wurmbrand later recounted that he maintained his sanity by sleeping during the day, staying awake at night, and exercising his mind and soul by composing and then delivering a sermon each night.

Richard Wurmbrand was released from his first imprisonment in 1956, after eight and a half years.

Richard Wurmbrand was arrested again in 1959 and sentenced to 25 years.

Richard Wurmbrand stated that his physical torture included mutilation, burning and being locked in a large frozen icebox.

Richard Wurmbrand's body bore the scars of physical torture for the rest of his life.

Concerned with the possibility that Richard Wurmbrand would be forced to undergo further imprisonment, the Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the Hebrew Christian Alliance negotiated with Communist authorities for his release from Romania for $10,000.

Richard Wurmbrand was convinced by underground church leaders to leave and become a voice for the persecuted church.

Richard Wurmbrand devoted the rest of his life to this effort, despite warnings and death threats.

Richard Wurmbrand was a friend of Costache Ioanid, the Romanian Christian poet.

Richard Wurmbrand travelled to Norway, England, and then the United States.

Richard Wurmbrand became known as "The Voice of the Underground Church", doing much to publicise the persecution of Christians in Communist countries.

Richard Wurmbrand compiled circumstantial evidence that Karl Marx was a Satanist.

Richard Wurmbrand engaged in preaching with local ministers of nearly all denominations.

Richard Wurmbrand wrote 18 books in English and others in Romanian.

Richard Wurmbrand died at the age of 91 on 17 February 2001 in a hospital in Torrance, California.