Hitler was not quite the idiot, he recognised that religion is a political force. Sure he got everything else wrong and should be damned for all eternity but leaders all know what the religion game is.
Yesterday's WT Study par 17
by leaving_quietly 43 Replies latest watchtower bible
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BluesBrother
The WTS has done a great job of convincing the sheep that to leave "The Society", "The Truth" "The Watchtower" .....is actually renouncing God, Jehovah.....
I conversation with them if you have faded, one is asked "How could you possibly turn your back on Jehovah?" If you point out the shortcomings of the WTS one is told " If you love Jehovah enough, you still trust him".....Doh!
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slimboyfat
Yeah, you definitely said it better 00DAD. Have you ever read "A People for his Name" by Timothy White? He goes to great lengths to argue in Russell's time the Bible Students made a distinction between loyalty to Jehovah and association with the organisation, and that it was only under Rutherford's tenure that "the Society" came to equal Jehovah for all intents and purposes. It really is one of the better books written about JWs, well worth reading despite its age.
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DATA-DOG
Any PDF copies of this book?
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Bella15
@ Fiddler
That the IBSA is proclaiming erroneous teachings and under the cloak of religion.
DAMN! The third Reich got that right!
I thought exactly the same ...LOL
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dogon
The dubbers lied about the numbers, it went from thousands to a couple of hundred. The Nazi regime was not all that concerned with the Dubbers. They had to make themselves outspoken to get noticed. All that clap trap about how worried the third reich was about the Dubbers is all horse shit to make themselves feel important.
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slimboyfat
The dubbers lied about the numbers, it went from thousands to a couple of hundred. The Nazi regime was not all that concerned with the Dubbers. They had to make themselves outspoken to get noticed. All that clap trap about how worried the third reich was about the Dubbers is all horse shit to make themselves feel important.
I don't agree on a number of points.
1. It is true the Watchtower has quoted wildly varying figures for casualties under the Third Reich. But the best explanation for this is that they were relying on other sources for those figures and there was no attempt to mislead. Indeed sometimes they underestated the numbers as well as overestating them as a result of relying on outside sources.
2. Detlef Garbe came up with the best estimate in the 1990s that there were around 1,200 Jehovah's Witnesses killed by the Nazi regime.
3. The Witnesses only represented a tiny minority in Germany yet the Nazi regime dealt with them out of proportion to their small size. They are mentioned in Hitler's table talk, Alfred Rosenberg talks about them, Himmler took an interest in them as an example of loyalty for the SS to follow, posters were made specifically to target them, and most famously they were given their own purple triangles in the concentration camps. So I think it is fair to conclude there was some degree of interest in JWs from the Nazi regime.
4. The Nazis were not afraid of JWs in terms of the numbers involved, and they were pascifists (after a fashion) after all. But don't underestimate how nervous any totalitarian regime can get about any level of dissent, never mind outright defiance of the kind JWs displayed.
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00DAD
SBF: But don't underestimate how nervous any totalitarian regime can get about any level of dissent, never mind outright defiance of the kind JWs displayed.
Just consider the example of the WTBTS and their treatment of dissenters!
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dreamgolfer
My parents were BOTH holocaust survivors, I went to DC and had an eye opening visit/talk with the head Historian, Peter Black
THEY (Holocaust Musuem) HAVE THE RECORDS, ALL OF it - less than 1,000 JW's were killed in the Camps, it's all been blown out of proportion,
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slimboyfat
Detlef Garbe came up with the 1,200 figure. I don't think there are centralised records on who the Nazis killed, JWs or otherwise. That's why it's impossible to be precise about the numbers killed.
Well sure 00DAD but they don't murder dissenters as the Nazis did of course.