I marked down "research" next to this paragraph w13 1/15 p.11 par. 17), and have yet to do so fully.
"Modern Christians held in Nazi concentration camps with possible death facing them were given repeated opportunities to gain their freedom by signing a declaration renouncing Jehovah."
Was the declaration to renounce Jehovah? I ask because there's a big difference between renouncing one's religion and renouncing Jehovah (a sticking point that we here know all too well.) I thought I had once seen a photo of this declaration, so I'm going to try to find it later. However....
w07 9/1 p. 10: "The SS guards made me an offer. I could be released from the camp and even become an officer in the Nazi army on one condition. “You must renounce the Bible Students’ ideas, which are hostile to the Third Reich.” No other prisoners received a comparable offer. Only Jehovah’s Witnesses were given the opportunity to escape the camps." (A life story)
w06 4/1 p. 23 par. 10: "For example, in the Buchenwald concentration camp of Nazi Germany, Witnesses who refused to renounce their faith were required to sign the following printed statement: “I am still a committed Bible Student and will never break the oath I have sworn to Jehovah."
w00 4/1 p. 19 par. 5: "Thousands were thrown into concentration camps because they refused to renounce their faith."
w97 4/15 p. 16 par. 9: "The courage the vast majority displayed in refusing [to renounce their religion],..."
w83 5/1 p. 14 par. 9: "From the time of arrest and repeatedly throughout the internment of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi concentration camps, efforts were made to force them to renounce Jehovah and refuse to have any further contact with his people."
w76 2/15 p. 115 par. 9: "What about the modern examples of those that have remained friends with God? Wouldn’t you like to imitate the loyalty and endurance of your brothers who have withstood the brunt of dictatorships like Hitler’s Nazi regime or the Communist types, because they would not renounce their friendship with Jehovah?"
w72 3/1 p. 144 par. 17: "Just as previously when the Witnesses were persecuted under the Nazi regime, Jehovah’s witnesses are suffering similarly on the other side of the Iron Curtain, where the Communists have employed severe persecution to break their integrity. In many instances those endeavoring to maintain faithfulness are brought before fellow-worker courts and threatened with loss of job, allotment, home, pension, and so forth, if they do not publicly renounce their religion."
w64 12/15 p. 746 par. 27: "They were thrown into prisons and the horrible concentration camps for refusing to renounce God’s kingdom and to worship the Nazi State."
w57 5/15 p. 310 par. 18: "But right knowledge does stir those who have it to tell it out to others, to stand firm against persecution and even to face death rather than renounce their faith, as many of Jehovah’s witnesses have done under the violent Nazi and Communist persecutions, where even leaders of other religions capitulated!"
w54 12/1 p. 724-725 par. 17: "It is a familiar story about the fight for freedom fought by Jehovah’s witnesses to preach in Nazi- and Fascist-dominated lands from 1933 to 1945. Thousands were thrown into the concentration camps. Many were tortured and killed. Countless numbers died because of their loyalty to Jehovah God. They could have lived had they chosen to renounce the name of Jehovah God."
Did the declaration ask them to renounce both their faith AND Jehovah? If anyone knows where I can find a copy of that declaration, it would be helpful putting this to rest.
