Main board: Verfolgt und vertrieben - Persecution and Exile

Anabaptist beliefs were not tolerated in many parts of Europe until well into the 18th century. There was no question of freedom of faith and conscience. The authorities tried to keep their own territory "Anabaptist-free" with repressive measures.

^{List of Anabaptists deported from Bern in 1710 (excerpt), Gemeindearchiv Röthenbach, Schenk-Chronik Bd. II, 76f.}

Some Anabaptists gave in to the pressure and returned - at least outwardly - to conformist behavior. Others stuck to their convictions. Some hid or retreated so as not to attract attention. In this way, they hoped to remain unharmed.

It was a life of constant uncertainty. Again and again Anabaptists were betrayed and tracked down. Some did not even wait to be discovered. They left home beforehand. Others were imprisoned for life, sentenced to the galleys, expelled, deported, or banished forever. To go or to be gone: that seemed to be the only option for many.

One of the fundamental questions of being human is what is best to do in the face of difficulties in life: leave or stay?

Some argued for leaving with a verse from the Gospel: "If people do not welcome you and will not listen to your words, depart from that house or town and shake the dust off your feet." (Mt 10:14)

It was above all the Dutch Mennonites who urged their persecuted fellow believers in Bernbiet to leave. And it was above all the Amish baptized in the Bernese Oberland who left their homeland in this way. After 1800 there were hardly any Anabaptists there - unlike in the Emmental.