Didn't work with Hitler ...........not going to work with Putin.
Rutherford sent a complimentary letter to Hitler to say that the WT Society understood their problem with those pesky Jews and basically, they the WTBTS, felt the same way and that the WT society was not supportive of the Jews...... leaving out that their Founder C. T. Russell was. Zion was a big deal for Russell.
“In June of the so-called “Holy Year” of 1933 Adolf Hitler’s regime seized the Watch Tower Society’s property in Magdeburg and banned the activities of Jehovah’s people in Germany as regards meetings and literature distribution, though the property was returned that October.” Yearbook 1975 p.174
In an effort to overturn the ban
Rutherford sent a complimentary letter to Hitler:
#Following is part of an English translation of the Letter to Hitler.
"Dear Reichskanzler,
…
The Brooklyn headquarter of the Watchtower 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 proclaimed respecting 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 to 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"
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6333184082968576/facing-future-events-courage-will-mark-compromise
Hitler, after glancing at Rutherford's letter, said "who is this idiot!".
Rutherford didn't take the rejection well and wrote to Hitler that their 1000 years of paradise would out last Hitlers thousand year third Reich! Hitler may have read this 2nd letter from Rutherford as he was reviewing the new tanks or some other weapons system coming out the factory doors.
After that....... the JW's were rounded up, about 1500 of them and sent to the concentration camps. Where about 500 to 1200 died. Others who were in the camps were snapped up by German officers and private corporations involved in the war effort as home servants as they were considered honest and gentle people.
The rest of the JW's................. signed off on a pledge to the Third Reich to cooperate and they abandoned their connection to the JW's.
So now the history of the JW's in Russia is one of disrespect and danger. Nothing has changed.
