a friend in need,
Before we go any further here, would you mind telling me exactly what religious beliefs you follow? It's difficult to converse with someone who doesn't believe in the basic tenets of the bible.
Yes
You really lost me when you said the WT said they would back Hitler. That's about as far out as it gets.
http://home.zonnet.nl/rsingelenberg/Hessereview.html
This extensive statement by the WBTS was promulgated during a convention in Berlin. Since the Nazis had initially aligned the JWs with the Jews, considering them the vanguards of Zionist-Bolshevik plot to conquer the world, the writers of the resolution went to great lengths to distance themselves from their alleged co-conspirators.[18] Moreover, during the previous months, many German provinces had banned the organization. Members expected some form of protest was highly appropriate. The next fragments still give rise to numerous disputes as regards the movement?s stance towards Judaism during the 1930s. Preceded by the charge that the Jews persecuted Jesus Christ and still reject him, the statement included the following:
?The greatest and 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.?[19]
The text went on to assert that the WBTS and the Nazis both reject these ?Big Business oppressors? and it stressed their common aversion for the then League of Nations ?that laid upon the shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens.? In the accompanying letter, addressed to Hitler personally, the movement not only made clear that ? . . . in the United States . . . commercialistic Jews? were among ?the most eager persecutors of our Society?s work? [during the First World War], but in addition:
?[T]he purely religious and apolitical goals and objectives of the Bible Students [the previous name of the JWs] . . . are in complete harmony with the similar goals of the National Government of the German Reich.?
?The Bible Student-Watch Tower organization stands for the maintenance of order and the security of the state as well as for the enhancement of the . . . religiously related high ideals of the National Government.?[20]
Many JWs at that time had the opinion that the petition renounced the Nazi regime only too weakly and refused to support it.[21] The movement?s historiography does not indicate if the Judaic references were additional factors that underlay these objections. Initially, the organization attributed the toothless content of the resolution to the German translation produced by the branch manager in Magdeburg. Reportedly, he had diluted the original text written by Rutherford, the then president of the WBTS, so as to avoid problems with the regime. The WBTS retracted this assertion in 1998 .[22]
[18] Detlef Garbe, '?Sendboten des Jüdischen Bolschewismus.? Antisemitismus als Motiv national-sozialistischer Verfolgung der Zeugen Jehovas', Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte 23(1994) p. 45-171
[19] Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1934 Year Book of Jehovah?s Witnesses (WBTS 1933, p.134).
[20] Quoted from "The Hitler Letter", 3 The Christian Quest 3(1990) p. 79,80 which includes the original German text and an English translation. This journal, edited and published by disgruntled former JWs, has ceased to exist.
[21] Conversely, Konrad Franke, then German branch manager, noted in The Watchtower (Mar. 15, 1963, p.181), that the declaration was adopted ?unanimously.? Awake! (July 8, 1998) is vague about the amount of support for the resolution by stating, ?The delegates adopted [the Declaration].?
[22] Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1974 Year Book of Jehovah?s Witnesses (WBTS 1973, p.111); Awake! ( July 8, 1998, p.14).
Also see http://docbob1.home.comcast.net/comments.htm
Faraon
Edited for formatting and also letter to Hitler http://docbob1.home.comcast.net/hitlerltr.htm
