'The terrible persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses by Hitler, worse than that he inflicted on the Jews, took place.'' WT 1966 15th Oct page 635.
I never realized that Hitler's persecution of the Witnesses was worse than that of the Jews
by ThomasCovenant 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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AndDontCallMeShirley
Of course JWs have always felt they are the most persecuted people on the planet. But, when it comes to how many JWs died in concentration camps, WT has been all over the map. Regardless, the number of JWs in comparison to Jews isn't even a comparison by any styretch of the imagination:
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- Arrested: 6,019
- Total number of arrests (some were arrested many times): 8,917
- Total number in concentration camps: 2,000
- Died in prison: 635
- Actually executed: 203
With these numbers in mind, let us then investigate what the Watchtower has claimed elsewhere. The above figures is from 1974 and was given the year before Armageddon (that was supposed to be in the autumn [October] 1975). Let us look at other figures:
1950
- 1,000 Witnesses executed
- 1,000 died in prison and concentration camps
- The Watchtower, December 15, 1950, p. 500: "Already during the Hitler regime about 1,000 Jehovah's witnesses were executed as traitors, because they not only refused to serve in the war but openly opposed Hitler's authority. Another 1,000 of Jehovah's witnesses died in prisons and concentration camps."
1951
- 2,000 Witnesses died cruel deaths
- The Watchtower, February 15, 1951, pp. 105-106: "That is why during the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 to 1945 Jehovah's witnesses in that land refused to heil Hitler! as their Fuehrer or Leader, and went to concentration camps and prisons, where 2,000 died cruel deaths, and of the 8,000 that came out alive, 2,000 were invalided for the rest of their lives."
1960
- 10,000 Witnesses were tortured
- The Watchtower, June, 1, 1960, p. 327: "Hitler failed to break them in prisons and concentration camps where he tortured10,000 of them, and the Communists are failing to do it in their frightful prisons and slave-labor camps."
1964
- Over 4,000 Witnesses died
- 10,000 Witnesses were put in concentration camps
- The Watchtower, January 1, 1964, p. 13: "Hitler, a Roman Catholic, the arm of his church in Germany, forbade Jehovah's witnesses to preach the kingdom of God, and these modern-day Christians had to say to Hitler's Gestapo police: 'Whether it is righteous in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves.' They kept preaching even though 10,000 of them were put in concentration camps and over 4,000 died there. The rest nearly starved to death. The war's end aided their survival."
1976
- 203 Witnesses executed
- 635 Witnesses died in prison
- A total of 6,019 Witnesses was arrested
- The Watchtower, February 1, 1976, p. 82: "a total of 6,019 had been arrested, several of them two, three, or even more times, so that, all together, 8,917 arrests were registered; and these persons served sentences amounting to 13,924 years in prison. Many of these faithful men and women were put into concentration camps and thus collectively spent 8,078 years undergoing vicious treatment there. A total of 635 died in prison, 253 were sentenced to death, with 203 of these actually being executed."
1979
- 203 Witnesses executed
- 635 Witnesses died in prison
- A total of 6,019 Witnesses was arrested
- The Watchtower, July 1, 1979, pp. 7-8: "By way of illustration, please consider the years 1933 to 1945, when Adolf Hitler's "Third Reich" tried to exterminate Jehovah's Witnesses in the German Reich. Their activities were banned and 6,019 were arrested, several of them two, three or more times. Two thousand suffered in concentration camps. A total of 635 Witnesses died in prison, 203 being executed."
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designs
Shirely- there must have been a resurrection running concurrent with the executions, that's the only way those figures work out...
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nonjwspouse
Oh so typical, Placing the Roman Catholic Church as part of Hitler's Nazi Germany, and a center of the most important ( and obiously inflated) percecutions in the eyes of the WT......
(The July Plot to attampt to assasinate Hitler was lead by Roman Catholics with backing from the vatican.)
1964
Over 4,000 Witnesses died
- 10,000 Witnesses were put in concentration camps
- The Watchtower, January 1, 1964, p. 13: "Hitler, a Roman Catholic, the arm of his church in Germany, forbade Jehovah's witnesses to preach the kingdom of God, and these modern-day Christians had to say to Hitler's Gestapo police: 'Whether it is righteous in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves.' They kept preaching even though 10,000 of them were put in concentration camps and over 4,000 died there. The rest nearly starved to death. The war's end aided their survival."
Shirer wrote that "under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler—backed by Hitler—the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists."The Nazi party had decidedly pagan elements" - Laqueur, Walter (1996). Fascism: Past, Present, Future
In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest.
— Extract from Hitler: a Study in Tyranny, by Alan Bullock
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suavojr
marking
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keyser soze
Hard to believe that the WT would rewrite history for it's own self-aggrandizing purposes.
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Finkelstein
I never realized that Hitler's persecution of the Witnesses was worse than that of the Jews
A bit of over statement , whoever says it.
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There were also other Christian based religious groups who got thrown into the concentration
camps as well for their nonconformist views against Hitler's political ideologies.
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rip van winkle
The difference between the Jews and JW's was not just in numbers, but that the JW's had a " get out of concentration camp free card", which the Jews and others in concentration camps did NOT have.
Why didn't the JW's sign that simple piece of paper renouncing their faith? They would have been set free. It would have been a great use of "theocratic warfare". Guess Rutherford thought it best to let JW's be persecuted to further promote "true" religion.
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MadGiant
'The terrible persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses by Hitler, worse than that he inflicted on the Jews, took place.'' WT 1966 15th Oct page 635.
Religious propaganda is invaluable at teaching two timeless lessons: Your religious leaders thinks you’re stupid (and some are), and when faced with unreasonable expectations, some people will lose their mind in hilarious ways.
They are a delusional bunch full of crap. I really know that one is one to many, but "terrible persecution" is disrespectful to all the Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, communists, homosexuals, the mentally, physically disabled and members of other groups that were targeted and methodically murdered in the largest genocide of the 20th century.
Slavs 10.547 million
Jews 5.9 million
Soviet POWs 2–3 million
Ethnic Poles 1.8–2 million
Romani 220,000–1,500,000
Disabled 200,000–250,000
Freemasons 80,000–200,000
Slovenes 20,000–25,000
Homosexuals 5,000–15,000
Jehovah's Witnesses 2,500–5,000
Spanish Republicans 7000The higher figure is 85 million deads (total for WW- II), includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totaled from 38 to 55 million, including 19 to 25 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
I already mention that one is one to many but, compared to other groups, 5,000 Jehovah's Witnesses no es la gran cosa.
Ismael
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BobFlanagan007
Hitler wanted to replace Christianity with paganism? Good man! Shame pretty much everything else he said or did was utter horse ****.