A historic note on the amount of faithful witnesses in Germany

by Saintbertholdt 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Saintbertholdt

  Hi there all,

  What percentage of Witnesses were actually faithful in Germany after 1936?

  What I mean by the above question is what percentage of Witnesses actually remained active? (Those who went to underground meetings/memorials and attempted field ministry)

  The actual number might surprise you:

  The Watchtower of 1 April 1937 reported that about 3,600 were active and about 4000 under arrest during 1936.

  However there was a total of just over 22 000 witnesses in 1933.

  Note: The popular figure today for the amount of interred witnesses in the Nazi camps totals just over 10 000. So who are the other 3000 prisoners? (This is if you assume that almost all of the 7600 active German witnesses ended up in the camps. This is a reasonable assumption as the Gestapo was relentless in tracking active witnesses) Well those were Russian JW prisoners and the rest which hailed from the other parts of central and western Europe.
  

  So what the 1936 and 1933 statistics mean is that only 34.5 % of Witnesses were active in Germany after 1936 and they are the ones who mostly ended up in the concentration camps. In other words in general the most devoted German JW followers were interred which might go a long way in explaining their solidarity and also their resolute devotion to the JW cause.

  Final footnote: The 1 January 1949 Watchtower reported that the active number had surpassed the 1933 number (29,172 witnesses). It would seem most of the inactive lost sheep had rapidly returned just four years after the persecution ended.

  Greetings

  SB
• 

  OrphanCrow

  The historical numbers that the WTS throws around about JWs in Germany during WW2 are far from accurate.

  Factors that the WTS fails to account for:

  - the WT was a fragmented religion leading up to, and including, WW2. There was a major split in the German WT around 1925 that saw Conrad Binkele leave the WTS and continue to support the "Earnest Bible Students". Many of the numbers that the WTS claim as their own were actually "Bible Students" who did not follow the WTS - they were not JWs who followed the WTS.

  - the purple triangle that the JWs claim as being exclusively their own was also wore by other prisoners even though the JWs/Bible Students made up the majority of the purple triangles.

  From the book Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime by Hans Hesse:

  pg 72 - the purple triangles were assigned 1937/8

  The Purple Triangle designated the following prisoner groups:

  - Bible Students

  - Seventh Day Adventists

  - Baptists

  - pacifists

  - possibly New Apostolic community

  Final footnote: The 1 January 1949 Watchtower reported that the active number had surpassed the 1933 number (29,172 witnesses). It would seem most of the inactive lost sheep had rapidly returned just four years after the persecution ended.

  Included in the the number of JWs in Germany after the war would be all the SS officers and guards who converted to the JW religion. I have often wondered how many actually did convert. After the magical year of 1942, the JWs who were still in the camps (those who didn't get assigned to a position of privilege working with the SS), were split up into separate barracks and received little opposition to their conversion preaching. Some SS guards and officers and other German citizens converted during that time and after. It was very easy for some Germans to substitute one "god" (Hitler) for another "god" (Jehovah) and to adopt the dream of a "Thousand Year Reign of Christ" in favor of a "Thousand Year Reign of the Third Reich".
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  CalebInFloroda

  According to the Holocaust Museum (Washington DC) site:

  In the Nazi years, about 10,000 Witnesses, most of them of German nationality, were imprisoned in concentration camps. After 1939, small numbers of Witnesses from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland (some of them refugees from Germany) were arrested and deported to Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and other concentration camps. An estimated 2,500 to 5,000 Witnesses died in the camps or prisons. More than 200 men were tried by the German War Court and executed for refusing military service.--Jehovah’s Witnesses: Wartime Persecution.
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  LorenzoSmithXVII

  pg 72 - the purple triangles were assigned 1937/8
  The Purple Triangle designated the following prisoner groups:
  - Bible Students
  - Seventh Day Adventists
  - Baptists
  - pacifists
  - possibly New Apostolic community
  
  

  This is quite fascinating. I didn't really know the numbers. But in general, the purple triangle seems to have represented JWs. In the movie, "Holocaust," for instance, when what the various patches meant, it mentions the purple triangle referred to "Jehovah's Witnesses." That segment can be seen in a video presentation of "Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses" below.

  The fulfillment of the "disgusting thing in a holy place" requires fulfillment in connection with the "holy ones" and the "holy ones" have two branches, the "greater number" and the "lesser number," The "greater number" is a reference to the Jews, the "lesser number" is a reference to Jehovah's Witnesses. The focus of the Nazis on Jews and JWs, thus is not incidental.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnTy8_EhE0Y
  
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  Saintbertholdt

  Hi Orphancrow,

  The historical numbers that the WTS throws around about JWs in Germany during WW2 are far from accurate.Factors that the WTS fails to account for: - the WT was a fragmented religion leading up to, and including, WW2. There was a major split in the German WT around 1925 that saw Conrad Binkele leave the WTS and continue to support the "Earnest Bible Students". Many of the numbers that the WTS claim as their own were actually "Bible Students" who did not follow the WTS - they werenot JWs who followed the WTS.

  I'll admit the 22 000 may be overblown by about 2 000. Penton 2004 (Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecution) reports 20 000 witnesses in 1933 which aligns well with the memorial attendance (25 000) which is always a greater figure but is also a good indicator of approximate adherents. The Watchtower has historically been pedantic about the memorial figures. I took the figure of 20 000 and 25 000 and took an average and then rounded it down. The reason being because I wanted a reasonable but round figure. I cannot be exactly certain about 22 000 but I suspect its accurate because up until 1935 there was still active preaching being done which would have meant an increase in numbers. After 1935 when the National Defense act came to pass all that changed and so did the Nazi persecution methods.
  

  - the purple triangle that the JWs claim as being exclusively their own was also wore by other prisoners even though the JWs/Bible Students made up the majority of the purple triangles.From the book Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime by Hans Hesse: pg 72 - the purple triangles were assigned 1937/8 The Purple Triangle designated the following prisoner groups: - Bible Students - Seventh Day Adventists - Baptists - pacifists - possibly New Apostolic community

  Well these other groups accounted for less than 1% of the Bibleforce purple triangle group.

  Johannes S. Wrobel, Jehovah’s Witnesses in National Socialist Concentration Camps, 1933 – 45, Religion, State & Society, Vol. 34, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 89-125 "The concentration camp prisoner category ‘Bible Student’ at times apparently included a few members from small Bible Student splinter groups, as well as adherents of other religious groups which played only a secondary role during the time of the National Socialist regime, such as Adventists, Baptists and the New Apostolic community (Garbe 1999, pp. 82, 406; Zeiger, 2001, p. 72). Since their numbers in the camps were quite small compared with the total number of Jehovah’s Witness prisoners, I shall not consider them separately in this article. Historian Antje Zeiger (2001, p. 88) writes about Sachsenhausen camp: ‘In May 1938, every tenth prisoner was a Jehovah’s Witness. Less than one percent of the Witnesses included other religious nonconformists (Adventists, Baptists, pacifists), who were placed in the same prisoner classification.’"

  Included in the the number of JWs in Germany after the war would be all the SS officers and guards who converted to the JW religion.

  I strongly disagree. Between 1947 and 48 there was an increase from just over 15 000 to just over 29 000 witnesses in ONE year. In 47/48 marks the return of civilian services like commercial airlines etc. and the Nuremberg trials are in full swing. Now either mass conversions occurred or the coast was now clear for inactive witnesses to return to the fold. Which is more plausible?
  
  

  Greetings
  
  
• 

  Saintbertholdt

  Hi CalebinFloroda,

  According to the Holocaust Museum (Washington DC) site: In the Nazi years, about 10,000 Witnesses, most of them of German nationality, were imprisoned in concentration camps. After 1939, small numbers of Witnesses from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland (some of them refugees from Germany) were arrested and deported to Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and other concentration camps. An estimated 2,500 to 5,000 Witnesses died in the camps or prisons. More than 200 men were tried by the German War Court and executed for refusing military service.--Jehovah’s Witnesses: Wartime Persecution.

  I can confidently state that Russian JW's were among the group. To clarify I consider the Ukraine as part of the Russian group because by 1940 it was partially annexed by the Soviet Union and for the most part Ukraine fought alongside the Soviets against the Nazis. After WW II it was incorporated into the Soviet Union) So why can I state that Russian JW's were in concentration camps?

  Because in the 2003-2005 Swiss banking restitution which was done for Holocaust survivors, for the first time Central European and Russian JW's were recognized and compensated. The numbers compensated break down as follows:

  Croatia 3
  Hungary 12
  Moldova 186
  Poland 109
  Romania 243
  Russian Federation 23
  Ukraine 1 300

  Total 1 876
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  OrphanCrow

  Now either mass conversions occurred or the coast was now clear for inactive witnesses to return to the fold. Which is more plausible?

  
  Both are plausible. I think both reasons account for the increase. I don't see why it has to be one or the other.

  *to add -

  I'll admit the 22 000 may be overblown by about 2 000. Penton 2004 (Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecution) reports 20 000 witnesses in 1933 which aligns well with the memorial attendance (25 000) which is always a greater figure but is also a good indicator of approximate adherents. The Watchtower has historically been pedantic about the memorial figures. I took the figure of 20 000 and 25 000 and took an average and then rounded it down.
  

  James Penton is using figures given by the WTS.

  Marley Cole, in his book The New World Society, gives the figure for JWs in Germany in 1928 as 9,755. That number also originated from WTS records.

  It does not seem plausible that the increase in Germany during the five years between 1928 and 1933 was over double. If the WTS numbers are to be believed, then you also have to believe that there were 12,245 Germans who converted during those 5 years - almost 2500 per year (using 22,000 as the number in 1933).

  Oh well...maybe the Germans were really receptive to Rutherford's message after he disrupted the German Watchtower in 1925, causing a major schism in the religion.
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  Saintbertholdt

  Hi Orphancrow,

  Now either mass conversions occurred or the coast was now clear for inactive witnesses to return to the fold. Which is more plausible?Both are plausible. I think both reasons account for the increase. I don't see why it has to be one or the other.

  Let me clarify why I think the bulk of the increase is due to a return of previously inactive JW's.

  I have to admit that there are reports of Nazi soldiers becoming JW's. However I will also state that because those conversions were viewed as significant victories for the Watchtower those instances have been well reported. Could a person argue that the JW conduct and philosophy was so compelling that thousands of soldiers converted after the war? I guess you could perhaps make a case for a few hundred but even that figure would be quite optimistic.

  So why would I submit that something else is happening between 1947 and 48?

  I think the 1933 number of 22 000 is reasonable (based on the memorial figures and the reported adherents). Erich Frost reports the 1936 numbers. He may even have been inflating the actual numbers but he only gets to 7600.

  So between 1935-45 approximately 14 400 witnesses evaporate. These are witnesses who support Paul Balzereits conciliatory tone and use the 1933 letter from overseer Martin Harbeck as argument to follow the Nazi ban. They still accept the theology though. After 1936 those inactive witnesses either have to fall in with the Nazi state or go to jail. The concentration camp numbers support that they remain inactive.

  In 1946 the first numbers to emerge state that there are over 11 000 Witnesses in Germany. This aligns with the concentration camp numbers as many cannot return to their lands of origin yet. In 1947 the Witnesses increase to over 15 000. This can be explained by radio broadcasts that the witnesses are allowed to make which may convert many and call many who are inactive.

  In 1947 Germany starts to return to some measure of civil society. Before that military law is still prime. In 1947 the first commercial airlines begin to operate where before only military aircraft are allowed. Men like Hoss who ran Auschwitz are prosecuted and executed which is a major indicator that a new free society will be born. Also in 1947 Knorr and Covington visit Germany. Now if you adhered to the Watchtower dogma in the 1930's but became inactive, these new unfolding events would allow you to return in safety. There were even reports that some camp survivors did not want people to attend JW meetings who had not suffered in the camps. The Watchtower reported that the accounts were false and on the contrary they made special efforts to welcome people back (well that's according to the Watchtower).

  So my argument rests on the ideas that although there were converts from the military that it would not account for the massive increase in 47 to 48. Most probably the political climate allowed the inactive to become active again.

  Now I can argue your point of view as well. Lets assume that of the 14 400 witnesses that adhere to the Nazi ban a significant percentage are male and between 18 and 45 years old. They are conscripted and join the military. After the war they now return to civil society and their former religion. It would not look good for the Tower to report that former witnesses who had joined the military are now back in the fold. This would not make for good watchtower or awake! material. What does make good reading is former SS camp soldiers converting because of the sterling example they saw within witness conduct etc.

  So I could see your point of view, but only sort of. I may be wrong about my conclusions because I was not physically there to see the events for myself, however I think they are reasonably based on the figures and facts as I see them. Perhaps you have some other evidence to change my mind?
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  OrphanCrow

  Good material, Saint.

  Number crunching JW membership is a formidable task. There are so many factors to consider and conflicting numbers to deal with. It is difficult to sort othrough the estimates, the sources of data, etc.

  Your theories are reasonably sound, at least, based on the information that is available. There is one thing though, that might need consideration. You speak of the Bible Students/JW men who signed the declaration, or simply went inactive, as being conscripted, and then returning after the war. I think it is reasonable to assume that not many returned. A large number would have died as war casualties.

  I still, however, hard a hard time reconciling the numbers of JWs with the numbers of the Bible Students. The WTS always claims all the Bible Student numbers as their own, when there is much historical documentation that many German Bible Students did not consider themselves part of the WTS in the years leading up to WW2 and during the war. The numbers that the WTS claim as their own are padded with many Bible Students who did not follow the Rutherford/JW doctrine and who had already left to form groups such as "Free Bible Students Association". Those Bible Students who had broke away from the WTS would also have worn the purple triangle in the camps but they would not have considered themselves Jehovah's witnesses or part of the WTS.
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  Saintbertholdt

  Hi there Orhpancrow,

  Marley Cole, in his book The New World Society, gives the figure for JWs in Germany in 1928 as 9,755. That number also originated from WTS records.

  It does not seem plausible that the increase in Germany during the five years between 1928 and 1933 was over double. If the WTS numbers are to be believed, then you also have to believe that there were 12,245 Germans who converted during those 5 years - almost 2500 per year (using 22,000 as the number in 1933).

  To address the reported 22 000 number in 1933.

  Firstly are there numbers to support that value in the 1920's? (Before 1925 and the drop off?)

  Yes. You can refer to Detlef Garbe Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich – Page 47. Jehovah's Witnesses already numbered 20 000 in 1922.

  So 1925 comes and goes and many in Germany are disappointed with new worlds no show and numbers decline. What happens between 1928 and 1933? The Great depression starts in earnest. Jehovah's Witness numbers always grow rapidly in times of uncertainty.

  For comparable growth the Nazi party went from only 2.6% of the public vote in 1928 according to Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 to a coalition MAJORITY in 1933! So I would argue that Watchtower growth in the face of German Fascism and the Great Depression is not just plausible but mandatory. Also as mentioned before the Watchtower is very particular in reporting accurate memorial attendance numbers. To fudge them would be something that I would find very hard to believe.

  Finally I don't know where Marley Cole got the numbers because the 15 July 1927 Watchtower gives a breakdown of memorial attendance by individual congregations. The American and German numbers are comparable upon visual inspection. I have not tabulated the exact numbers but there's 15000+ attendees in Germany at least (it would seem), so I am puzzled by Cole's numbers.