It's reprehensible the wts is vandalizing the Jewish history.
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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LoisLane looking for Superman
Psychopaths lie all over the place.
LL
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Aunt Fancy
^^^ So true Lois. I have always been interested in the history of the concentration camps and have read a couple of books by JW's who were in them. It really broke my hear they had to suffer along with the millions of others. What really makes me angry is that the drunken Rutherford caused this to happy because of his arrogance. He is a true psychopath as Lois pointed out.
An interesting point that others may be aware of, the first time I went to the Holocost Museum shortly after it opened they had a section with quit a bit of JW information and artifacts. The next time I went a few years ago they had taken down most of the exhibit. I am not sure why and no one would say at the museum. It seems to me they must have done more research and found out the info we know about their history.
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Heartofaboy
If it had happened in the US of A, I bet Rutherford would have found some weasle way of saving himself from the same fate the european JW's went through.
'Oh Geee, you mean that li'l piece of er paper I just er signed........... ping noo lite............well in my heart I didn't renounce my faith. No need to tell the truth to those who don' need to know it...........its in the bible you know.
Jeeeeez Franz ged the cadillac & ged me owda 'eeer!
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Band on the Run
The Roman Catholic regions of Germany (I forget the names of the regions. Bavaria)) opposed Hitler. Many Roman Catholics died in concentration camps. They were a large population with political and social legitimacy. The Witnesses were minor riff raff. Unfortunately, the Pope during WWII traded his conscience to protect Vatican lands and treasures. Catholics resisted. Witnesses did their JW thing.
The persecution of Witnesses happened. It is objective fact. Gays, gypsies, disabled people. communists, socialists, far outnumbered Witnesses. Also, I believe that Witnesses could leave the camps if they signed a loyalty statement. Jews had no such option.
As a girl, I was obsessed with Witness Holocaust stories. I don't believe Hitler was Roman Catholic as an adult. He was into German pagan myths. I don't understand the Witness obsession with Roman Catholicism. Perhaps no one has read Luther.
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Terry
This exerpt is from my book I WEPT BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON (A Prisoner of Conscience in a Time of War)
Nazi Era
From the year 1922, the German branch of the Bible Students (called Earnest Bible Students) had been banned for their door-to-door peddling and preaching in the streets.
5,000 arrests were made. By 1932, charges were still pending in 2,300 cases.
Adolf Hitler had laid out his plans and prejudices in Mein Kampf, published in 1927. By January 30, 1933, Hitler had assumed enough political leverage as Chancellor to act upon what he had written.
J. F. Rutherford and Nathan Knorr had visited the German Branch Overseer, Paul Balzereit, and drafted a Declaration of Facts. Two million copies were distributed to German officials and Chancellor Hitler himself, the Reichskanzler.
"Dear Reichskanzler,
The Brooklyn headquarter of the Watch Tower Society is pro German in an exemplary way and has been so for many years. For that reason, in 1918, the president of the Society and seven members of the board of directors were sentenced to 80 years in prison, because the president refused to use two of the magazines published in America under his direction for war propaganda against Germany. These two magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Bible Student" were the only magazines in America which refused to engage in anti-German propaganda and for that reason were prohibited and suppressed in America during the war.
In the very same manner, in course of the recent months the board of directors of our Society not only refused to engage in propaganda against Germany, but has even taken a position against it. The enclosed Declaration underlines this fact and emphasizes that the people leading in such propaganda (Jewish businessmen and Catholics) also are the most rigorous persecutors of the work of our Society and its board of directors. This and other Statements of the Declaration are meant to repudiate the slanderous accusation, that Bible Researchers are supported by the Jews.
The conference of five thousand delegates also noted - as is expressed in the Declaration - that the Bible Researchers of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimedrespecting the relationship of humans to God, namely: honesty of the created being towards its creator.
The conference came to the conclusion that there are no contradictions when it comes to the relationship between the Bible Researchers of Germany and the national government of the German Reich.
To the contrary, referring to the purely religious and unpolitical goals and efforts of the Bible Researchers, it can be said that these are in full agreement with the identical goals of the national government of the German Reich. We are looking forward to your kind approval, which we hope to receive soon, and want to assure our highest respect to you, honorable Mr. Reichskanzler.
Yours faithfully,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Magdeburg"
Judge Rutherford had formerly proclaimed himself a pro-Zionist "friend of the Hebrew people" much like his predecessor, Pastor C. T. Russell, yet an indecent deep-seated anti-Semitism seemed to boil to the surface on occasion.
For example, while giving a sermon on biblical prophecies concerning the return of the Jews to Palestine at a Canadian Bible Student convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the early 1920s, he blurted:
"I'm speaking of the Palestine Jew, not the hooked-nosed, stooped-shouldered little individual who stands on the street corner trying to gyp you out of every nickel you've got." [1]
His true opinions of the Jews are reflected in his writings of that era:
"Be it known once and for all that those profiteering, conscienceless, selfish men who call themselves Jews, and who control the greater portion of the finances of the world and the business of the world, will never be the rulers in this new earth. God would not risk such selfish men with such an important position. [2]
Jews [are] no longer important to God . . .the Balfour Declaration, sponsored by the heathen governments of Satan's organization, came forth, recognized the Jews, and bestowed upon them great favors. The Jews have received more attention at their hands than they really deserved." [3]
On June 25, 1933, seven thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses at their Berlin Convention adopted a “Declaration of Facts” to demonstrate they were in full accord with the high ideals of the Nazis. Therefore, Earnest Bible Students should not be banned by Hitler.
Millions of copies of the “Declaration” were distributed throughout Germany. [4] It presented Witnesses in the best possible light vis-à-vis the Nazi anti-Jew policies, stating:
"We are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe upon Him as the Savior of the world, whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus Christ and emphatically deny that he is the Savior of the world sent of God for man's good. …
The greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American Empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American Empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold of Big Business.
This fact is so manifest in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York which says: The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.” [5]
The “Declaration” maligned the Jews by characterization and resorted to popular prejudice. However, Rutherford grossly miscalculated if he thought the “Declaration” would appease Hitler.
Forty years later in the 1974 Year Book of Jehovah’s Witnesses, an effort was made to walk back what had been said and done! A blame-shift occurred, accusing the German Branch Overseer, Paul Balzsereit, of “watering down” Rutherford’s words and of being “dishonest.” [6]
Watch Tower Society leaders were forced into apologizing in the July, 1998 Awake!,absolving Balzsereit. [7] Also, the article quotes only parts of the “Declaration” in order to misrepresent the Statements it had made about Jews.
Rutherford continually pressured the German Earnest Bible Students to ignore the bans Hitler was enforcing. The sect was already banned all over Germany. On June 28, the Magdeburg headquarters were again seized and much literature confiscated and publicly burned, mostly Rutherford’s own published writings.
Rutherford insisted German Witnesses hold a high profile and engage in banned public preaching campaigns leading to their arrest. Watchtower articles practically encouraged martyrdom. In the November 1, 1933 issue, printed a month later in German, Rutherford wrote:
“Some will say: ‘If in the face of so much persecution and opposition we continue to go out amongst the people and publicly tell these truths, then I fear we may be killed.’
That is true; and probably many of the faithful will be killed because they continue to faithfully proclaim the truth which they have learned in the secret place of the Most High.” [8]
What “truth” was Rutherford referencing here? Did it not consist of his own published interpretations of End of the World events in the light of Russell’s theology?
For what “truth” were they dying? Hubris was leading to Nemesis for every loyal reader of the Watchtower.
On June 24, 1936, State police and the Gestapo formed a special unit to fight the Watchtower movement. Through a number of arrests and infiltration, it succeeded in bringing the movement to a standstill in September 1937.
Nazi prison wardens offered immediate release to any Bible Student who renounced Rutherford’s propaganda. [9]
Of the 25,000 Witnesses and Earnest Bible Students in Germany, 13,400 spent at least some time serving prison sentences.
According to Gestapo files, more than half recanted. This was known as “swearing off.” German Branch Overseer, Paul Balzsereit, had tried in vain to discourage incautious publicity. For this he was disfellowshipped and scorned. Rutherford’s implacable attitude had cost many fine souls their lives for no other reason than his gamble with absolute certainty.
Chutzpah
The following action on the part of the Watch Tower Society, in view of its policies and instigations leading to the persecution of its members, is presented here for the sake of illuminating what can only be called chutzpah.
The Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) CV-96-4849 is a fund to compensate people suffering from the Holocaust. Included is a request dated Mar 3, 2006 to receive a portion of the Holocaust Victim funds on the following basis:
"Some Witnesses died prematurely and left no heirs to make a claim to the Swiss Bank Settlement Fund.
However, the legacy of spiritual resistance that they left behind is of great value in the education of future generations about the importance of standing up for the dignity and value of human life.
Representing these individuals, the Watch Tower would be pleased to devote any allocated moneys solely to the interests of Holocaust education and the remembrance of the prisoners who bore the purple triangle, according as the court might stipulate."
How much of this was really necessary?
The martyrdom of the JWs during WWII had a profound effect on the movement after the war. First, it gave Jehovah’s Witnesses a moral boost in the public eye.
Second, it helped unite the community which had fractured into disunity before WWII.
Visitors to the holocaust museum today are told by the tour guide a full one-third of all Jehovah’s Witnesses who were imprisoned in concentration camps died due to the brutal conditions.
They were not systematically executed like the Jews and Gypsies were. Instead they were treated the same as the political prisoners. They were worked as slaves, barely fed, etc., but not taken to the gas chambers. [10]
Biased Neutrality
Watch Tower Society efforts at encouraging Bible Students/Witnesses to flout Germany’s strict laws might seem unconscionable to other Christians. These true believers actually believed the world was ending. For many of them, it was. JW’s still believed Jehovah was speaking through Rutherford.
He was a de facto governing body whose every word was such that no Witness in good standing could dare go against him without suffering the curse of heresy.
Rutherford declared Jehovah’s Witnesses were “neutral” and yet his description of the Anglo-American Empire as "the most oppressive empire on earth" exposes a clear bias which is self-repudiating.
Suffice it to say, today’s Jehovah’s Witness only knows the sanitized version of the Nazi Era mishandling.
13,400 German Witnesses spent time in prisons, often for years. 2,000 died. 270 were executed.
Practically nothing these faithful dead were taught was worth dying for nor is it still taught and believed by Witnesses. The “progressive” truth has wiped it away, replacing it with new things to die for.
The Nazis treated Witnesses as ideological prisoners, preferring to persuade them to conform to the State rather than exterminate them. After all, other than their strange beliefs, they were ideal citizens of the Reich!
Jehovah’s Witnesses did as their leader told them to do without questioning or resisting. What better prospects could there be? [11]
Konrad Franke, later Watch Tower Society branch servant (director or overseer) for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany, was present at the June 26, 1933 Witness convention in Berlin. In 1976, he gave a series of lectures entitled, “The History of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany.” These lectures were recorded and transcribed. Concerning the convention, Franke gave this testimony:
“What kind of leaders did we have who brought us [into] such dangers—and the danger of faltering under these circumstances—instead of helping and supporting us, so that we could take a fearless stand [against Nazism]. May all elders who are here among us [listening to this lecture] learn something from these examples, and may they recognize their responsibilities in such matters in the near future."
[1] Jehovah's Witnesses, Anti-Semitism and the Third Reich: The Watch Tower Society's Attempted Compromise with Nazism by Prof. M. James Penton University of Lethbridge
[2] The Golden Age 1927 Feb 23 p. 343
[3] Vindication - Book II (1932) pp. 257, 258
[4] 1934 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 131
[5] 1934 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 134
[6] 1974 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 107
[7] Awake! July 8, 1998, page 14
Source: Jehovah's Witnesses, Anti-Semitism and the Third Reich: The Watch Tower Society's Attempted Compromise with Nazism, by Professor M. James Penton University of Lethbridge
[8] Watchtower, November 1, 1933. p. 328
[9] Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses, page 73, by George D. Chryssides
[10] History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictionary, pp. 218, 239, 266, 448, by Abraham J. Edelheit and Hershel Edelheit (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994)
[11] Historical Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses. Scarecrow Press. By George D. Chryssides
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Heartofaboy
Really interseting Terry, thank you.
Hoab
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EdenOne
Marked
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Band on the Run
Does anyone know if certain areas of Germany had larger amounts of JWs? I wonder how the executed Witnesses were selected. We should never minimize the Nazi persecution against the Witnesses. One would think only JWs suffered. Why does the Society lie so much? I am sincere. Why read secular books to distort the content. Why not just skip the point?
Don't forget that within the last year the Society quoted a Nuremberg convicted and executed Nazi theologian with approval in the Watchtower. He was no show trial good German selected at random. His work made the Nazis acceptable to many Lutherans. The movement may have lost steam without his input.He was no Dietrich Bonhoffer.
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rebel8
Hi Aunt Fancy, You may be interested in this thread. In short, a few ex-jws tried getting the museum to put the wts documents in its library and the dubs successfully fought it. Years later, I heard about it and started contacting them to ask again. They agreed and put the Yearbook with the Hitler conciliation letter in it. Dubs should have nothing to fear from having their own literature in the museum. Let the Truth be told!
So anyway, I was thinking about this thread and was hoping someone could give me scans of these articles. If I can get scans, I will donate them to the museum.
Again, let Truth be told, in their own words.