In the Book Auschwitz - The Nazis and the "Final Solution" by Laurence Rees Publised 2005. ISBN 0-563-52296-8 pAGE 210 TO 212 States the Following:- For many, like Else Abt, believed Auschwitz was a test: 'I'd read in the Bible the story of Abraham. And he was told to sacrifice his son. And the Bible says he was willing to do it.But then our creator Jehovah saw that he was willing to and so he didn't allow it. He just wanted to test his faith. And that's what I thought.' And so the German Jehovah's Witnesses became the perfect house-servants for SS officers at Auschwitz - much preferred to Poles, who were used only when there weren't enough Witnesses to go around. Else Abt worked in the home of one of the senior SS members, his wife and their small daughter. She cleared the house, cooked their meals and looked after their little girl. Her attitude was: 'It wasn't the child's fault [that she was in Auschwitz]. It wasn't the wife's fault.' She performed her duties conscientiously and with compassion, even devotedly nursing the little girl when she fell sick and earning the thanks of her parents. It was scarcely any wonder, then, that the Jehovah's Witnesses were the prisoners Rudolf Hoess liked best, and not just because of their trouble-free behaviour. He had first come into contact with them in substantial numbers at Sachsenhausen in the late 1930s, when they were sent to the camp for refusing to do military service. Hoess records the extraordinary power of their belief, something that made a huge impression on him. When they were flogged because they did not conform to the rules of the camp he says that, far from begging for mercy, they asked to be thrashed again so that they could suffer more for their faith. He witnessed the execution of two Witnesses by firing squad, and was astonished to see that they held their hands up to the sky with blissful expressions as they awaited their fate. Hoess imagined that the early Christian martyrs must have gone to their deaths the same way. The behaviour of the Jehovah's Witnesses had a huge impact not just on Hoess, but on his superior officers as well. 'On many occasions,' Hoess records, 'Himmler as well as Eicke offered the fanatical faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses as an example. SS men must have the same fanatical and unshakeable faith in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Witnesses had in Jehovah. Only when all SS men believed as fanatically in their own philosophy would Adolf Hitler's state be permanently secure.'39 At Auschwitz, Hoess and his wife employed two Jehovah's Witnesses in their own house, and were touched by the care they lavished on their children. Hoess describes many of the Witnesses as 'wonderful beings' Significantly, Hoess also records that he believes the Witnesses felt it was 'right' that the Jews should be exterminated, as their ancestors had been the ones who had handed Jesus over to be killed; this, however, is an attitude of mind that Else Abt denies. She believed that the SS were doing wrong - serving a 'demon' - by murdering the Jews. However, she thought she should show her own faith by her 'attitude'. This created an odd situation. She was faithfully, almost lovingly, looking after the daughter of an SS officer at Auschwitz, whilst the Nazis denied her access to her own little girl. She explains how she attempted to rationalise her circumstances by saying she felt she had to 'do good for any person', including members of the SS. Indeed, she admits that she would have would have worked dutifully in Hitler's house had she been told to. And to add further to this complex mix she could walk away from the camp and to her daughter at any moment she chose, just by signing a paper that stated she had renounced her faith. But she never signed: 'That would have meant compromise I never did it’ In a further twist to this strange story, when Else Abt was able to return home after the war she discovered her little girl had been looked after by one of the few JW’s who had renounced their faith in order to gain freedom. 'We came to visit him and his wife because they had brought up our daughter, and he cried like a little child because he was a coward.' Else Abt was not particularly grateful to him for taking care of her daughter because 'I wasmn’t worried [about her]. There would always been people who would have helped. We weren't dependent on one person "0vr creator knows to send us what we need, when we need it - and will always intervene.' Her daughter became a Jehovahs Witness herself. As a result, Else Abt says, she knew and was happy that I stayed faithful - not to a human being but to our creator Jehovah, because he looked out for us as I found out during my time in Auschwitz. He is able to change all people. People that hated us started to think and stopped hating us - quite the opposite, in fact.' To those who lacked that certainty of faith expressed by Else Abt, it is hard to see how a creator was 'looking out' for the Jehovahs Witnesses whom Hoess describes as being shot in Sachsenhausen. Nor does he seem to have been 'looking out’ for the Poles, Soviet prisoners, the sick, Jews and countless others who lost their lives so cruelly at Auschwitz. But one of intriguing aspects of the theological position taken by Else Abt is that such atrocities are immediately explicable to her, simply evidence of the will of a higher power whom we cannot fully understand but in whom we must have absolute faith. If God permits this to happen, then it is for a reason; it is just that we do not yet fully understand what that reason is. One must be careful of making an immediate and glib comparison, as Himmler did, between this attitude of mind and the fanaticism of the Nazis; not least because Jehovah's Witnesses, unlike the Nazis, believe in treating people with compassion and kindness. Nonetheless, if one substitutes 'Hitler' for 'Jehovah' in Else Abt's testimony, the words do bear a striking resemblance to the ideological position taken by SS men like Hoess. NOTE THE STATEMENTS Nonetheless, if one substitutes 'Hitler' for 'Jehovah' in Else Abt's testimony, the words do bear a striking resemblance to the ideological position taken by SS men like Hoess(Hoess was the Head of the Concentration Camp) 'Himmler as well as Eickman offered the fanatical faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses as an example. SS men must have the same fanatical and unshakeable faith in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Witnesses had in Jehovah. Indeed, she admits that she would have would have worked dutifully in Hitler's house had she been told to. I also noted the Authors comments that:- To those who lacked that certainty of faith expressed by Else Abt, it is hard to see how a creator was 'looking out' for the Jehovahs Witnesses whom Hoess describes as being shot in Sachsenhausen. Nor does he seem to have been 'looking out’ for the Poles, Soviet prisoners, the sick, Jews and countless others who lost their lives so cruelly at Auschwitz. ========================================================================================== Food for thought indeed - especially when one ex Nazi d"Herr Van Oven described the 3rd Reich as "Paradise" (Page 9 of the Book)
Were Jehovahs Witness like the Nazi's and would have worked for Hitler?
by Jim Dee 4 Replies latest jw friends
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metatron
Dude, use some paragraphing! It makes it easier to read.
Would Jehovah's Witnesses have worked to help the Third Reich?
Emphatically, YES!
Himmler had plans to ship Witnesses to Russian territory to get them to pacify as much of the population there as possible,
to make Nazi rule easier. In addition, in total war, there is no real "neutrality" - a farmer may contribute more to a national war
machine than many soldiers do.
metatron
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DannyHaszard
In the Book Auschwitz - The Nazis and the "Final Solution" by Laurence Rees Publised 2005. ISBN 0-563-52296-8 pAGE 210 TO 212 States the Following:- For many, like Else Abt, believed Auschwitz was a test: 'I'd read in the Bible the story of Abraham. And he was told to sacrifice his son. And the Bible says he was willing to do it.But then our creator Jehovah saw that he was willing to and so he didn't allow it. He just wanted to test his faith. And that's what I thought.' And so the German Jehovah's Witnesses became the perfect house-servants for SS officers at Auschwitz - much preferred to Poles, who were used only when there weren't enough Witnesses to go around. Else Abt worked in the home of one of the senior SS members, his wife and their small daughter. She cleared the house, cooked their meals and looked after their little girl. Her attitude was: 'It wasn't the child's fault [that she was in Auschwitz]. It wasn't the wife's fault.' She performed her duties conscientiously and with compassion, even devotedly nursing the little girl when she fell sick and earning the thanks of her parents. It was scarcely any wonder, then, that the Jehovah's Witnesses were the prisoners Rudolf Hoess liked best, and not just because of their trouble-free behaviour. He had first come into contact with them in substantial numbers at Sachsenhausen in the late 1930s, when they were sent to the camp for refusing to do military service. Hoess records the extraordinary power of their belief, something that made a huge impression on him. When they were flogged because they did not conform to the rules of the camp he says that, far from begging for mercy, they asked to be thrashed again so that they could suffer more for their faith. He witnessed the execution of two Witnesses by firing squad, and was astonished to see that they held their hands up to the sky with blissful expressions as they awaited their fate. Hoess imagined that the early Christian martyrs must have gone to their deaths the same way. The behaviour of the Jehovah's Witnesses had a huge impact not just on Hoess, but on his superior officers as well. 'On many occasions,' Hoess records, 'Himmler as well as Eicke offered the fanatical faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses as an example. SS men must have the same fanatical and unshakeable faith in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Witnesses had in Jehovah. Only when all SS men believed as fanatically in their own philosophy would Adolf Hitler's state be permanently secure.'39 At Auschwitz, Hoess and his wife employed two Jehovah's Witnesses in their own house, and were touched by the care they lavished on their children. Hoess describes many of the Witnesses as 'wonderful beings' Significantly, Hoess also records that he believes the Witnesses felt it was 'right' that the Jews should be exterminated, as their ancestors had been the ones who had handed Jesus over to be killed; this, however, is an attitude of mind that Else Abt denies. She believed that the SS were doing wrong - serving a 'demon' - by murdering the Jews. However, she thought she should show her own faith by her 'attitude'. This created an odd situation. She was faithfully, almost lovingly, looking after the daughter of an SS officer at Auschwitz, whilst the Nazis denied her access to her own little girl. She explains how she attempted to rationalise her circumstances by saying she felt she had to 'do good for any person', including members of the SS. Indeed, she admits that she would have would have worked dutifully in Hitler's house had she been told to. And to add further to this complex mix she could walk away from the camp and to her daughter at any moment she chose, just by signing a paper that stated she had renounced her faith. But she never signed: 'That would have meant compromise I never did it’ In a further twist to this strange story, when Else Abt was able to return home after the war she discovered her little girl had been looked after by one of the few JW’s who had renounced their faith in order to gain freedom. 'We came to visit him and his wife because they had brought up our daughter, and he cried like a little child because he was a coward.' Else Abt was not particularly grateful to him for taking care of her daughter because 'I wasmn’t worried [about her]. There would always been people who would have helped. We weren't dependent on one person "0vr creator knows to send us what we need, when we need it - and will always intervene.' Her daughter became a Jehovahs Witness herself. As a result, Else Abt says, she knew and was happy that I stayed faithful - not to a human being but to our creator Jehovah, because he looked out for us as I found out during my time in Auschwitz. He is able to change all people. People that hated us started to think and stopped hating us - quite the opposite, in fact.' To those who lacked that certainty of faith expressed by Else Abt, it is hard to see how a creator was 'looking out' for the Jehovahs Witnesses whom Hoess describes as being shot in Sachsenhausen. Nor does he seem to have been 'looking out’ for the Poles, Soviet prisoners, the sick, Jews and countless others who lost their lives so cruelly at Auschwitz. But one of intriguing aspects of the theological position taken by Else Abt is that such atrocities are immediately explicable to her, simply evidence of the will of a higher power whom we cannot fully understand but in whom we must have absolute faith. If God permits this to happen, then it is for a reason; it is just that we do not yet fully understand what that reason is. One must be careful of making an immediate and glib comparison, as Himmler did, between this attitude of mind and the fanaticism of the Nazis; not least because Jehovah's Witnesses, unlike the Nazis, believe in treating people with compassion and kindness. Nonetheless, if one substitutes 'Hitler' for 'Jehovah' in Else Abt's testimony, the words do bear a striking resemblance to the ideological position taken by SS men like Hoess. NOTE THE STATEMENTS Nonetheless, if one substitutes 'Hitler' for 'Jehovah' in Else Abt's testimony, the words do bear a striking resemblance to the ideological position taken by SS men like Hoess(Hoess was the Head of the Concentration Camp) 'Himmler as well as Eickman offered the fanatical faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses as an example. SS men must have the same fanatical and unshakeable faith in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Witnesses had in Jehovah. Indeed, she admits that she would have would have worked dutifully in Hitler's house had she been told to. I also noted the Authors comments that:- To those who lacked that certainty of faith expressed by Else Abt, it is hard to see how a creator was 'looking out' for the Jehovahs Witnesses whom Hoess describes as being shot in Sachsenhausen. Nor does he seem to have been 'looking out’ for the Poles, Soviet prisoners, the sick, Jews and countless others who lost their lives so cruelly at Auschwitz. ====== Food for thought indeed - especially when one ex Nazi d"Herr Van Oven described the 3rd Reich as "Paradise" (Page 9 of the Book)
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DannyHaszard
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/108193/1.ashx related thread on JW's and the Nazis
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blondie
*** jv chap. 29 p. 663 "Objects of Hatred by All the Nations" ***
Jehovah’s Witnesses were not in the concentration camps because they were criminals. When officers wanted someone to shave them, they trusted a Witness with the razor, because they knew that no Witness would ever use such an instrument as a weapon to harm another human. When SS officers at the Auschwitz extermination camp needed someone to clean their homes or care for their children, they selected Witnesses, because they knew these would not try to poison them or try to escape.
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w72 10/1 p. 589 Facing Up to Questions of Conscience ***Even when they are unjustly persecuted and put into prisons and concentration camps, their fine conscientious work and respectful way has caused Jehovah’s servants to gain the esteem of officials, and they have been placed in positions of trust and responsibility, just as was Joseph in ancient Egypt.—Gen. 39:21-23.
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w84 10/1 p. 8 Impressed by the Integrity of Jehovah’s Witnesses ***Dr. King made this further
appraisal: "Theological principles were adhered to; Witnesses remained ‘neutral’, they were honest and completely trustworthy and as such, ironically, often found themselves employed as servants of the S.S. [the organization that operated the concentration camps]. One S.S. officer commented that only a Jehovah’s Witness could be trusted to shave his master with a cut throat razor without wielding the razor to most violent ends."