German "JW's" just after WW2 (page 2)

prologos

Jws in german concentration camps could have been freed upon signing a statement renouncing the brooklyn religion AND vowing to SUPPORT the Nazi (german survival) cause.

A brother (now multi millionaire) here in North America remarked that the German post-war JW emigrees (late 40s 50s) were greedy materialists doing anything to amass money, They, at that time, had to serve time in the forest as lumberjacks, regardless of skills.

I would say that striving for comfort, security was a natural reaction, seeing the cushy life JWs enloyed in the west, courtesy of 'Ceasar'. Having seen the EXTREME deprivation, life-endangerment, like a starving body, the reaction is: NEVER AGAIN, putting on fat.

65 years after their escape from war-torn and war-mongering Europe, their feathering their nest in America, Australia was a GREAT reward.

a reward WT promises failed to keep.

Phizzy

I don't blame any that did want to make a good life for themselves and their families, in fact, I applaud them !

I was simply wondering if anyone had proof that a good number left, not for those reasons, as given by the WT, but because the Doctrinal changes that had gone on were too much for them.

It must have been awful to risk your life for a religion you believed in, and then find that a bunch of non-combatant JW's sitting out the War in Brooklyn had changed the faith you were prepared to die for.

We would need a German XJW who lived through that time to confirm or deny I guess.

I just smell a rat with the WT's version of events.

rebel8

Yeah I remember that teaching.

Materialism in post-war Germany. hmm. I wonder what that entailed. Were they greedy for 2 slices of bread per day instead of 1?

Maybe there was no major exodus at all. Or maybe it was for the reasons others have mentioned.

The wts really screwed them with their strategy of, "We're going to cuddle up to Hitler, but you keep neutral." Oh, and then the final insult of claiming they were materialistic, of all things!

NewYork44M

Phizzy, if you are looking for numbers, I think that will be difficult. In part, because I think the society has always overstated the number in concetration camps.

trujw

http://the-true-jw.oltenia.ro. You mean like these guys. When communism was lifted in 1989 and they were able to read the new new new light they left and formed this group.

Syme

For the ones that were located in the East part, maybe they abandoned the religion because of the atheist culture that was cultivated there. Don't underestimate the power of propaganda that the communist parties had; it was not all prisons and exiles, people were actually persuaded by marxism there. Proof of this is that 25 years later, people in former Eastern Bloc countries are still atheist in a larger proportion than western countries, even though they are completely free now and can be as religious they want. Even today, former East Germany regions are a lot more atheistic than former West Germany regions.

As for West Germany, it was a country in ruins and extreme poverty for many years after 1945, as rebel8 mentioned. Can you imagine being back from a concentration camp, devastated, trying to survive after the war, and having the ''Org'' telling you to go out preaching or ''reaching out'' and stuff?

The Org putting the blame on poor JWs who survived the camps in order to obey THEIR directives, is outrageous but it is expected. Didn't they do the same with 1975-ers? The GB seeded and cultivated the expectation, and when some poor dubs left after, they were blamed personally, as if it was their idea. It's a very old trick, you see.

German "JW's" just after WW2