*thanks to reddit poster ahilexxx for this information*.
the watchtower society was invested in the german branch of ford motor.
in 1943, their investment was worth $597,595 ($8,363,677.95 in today's value - over 8 million!)..
This is a list of the TOP 59 US companies in Germany in 1943.
This table just shows that the US Watch Tower had invested $597,595 in their German subsidiary and that is was the 47th biggest US investment in Germany present in that year.
So: no connection between Watchtower and Ford, except they are on the same list
johannes wrobel, the founder of the watchtower history archives in germany, responsible for the stand firm-video and the stand-firm-exhibitions resigned in november 2008 and left the german branch office.
he was also the responsible person for many of the wt sponsored websites on jw in the 'third reich'!.
there are no further details known yet but this could be big news!.
He was some kind of Bethel "heavy" who made contributions for both Awake! and Watchtower magazine as outlined in his cv.
As stated above, there is a lot between the lines. I perceive that he writes very carefully - maybe because he does not want to threaten relationships he still has or potentially could reactivate. He states that he was not ready to write about his past and he is pointing out to future information he might share. Wrobel seems to have left the JW since he speaks about starting a new life in 2008 "after having been a good member of a religious grouping for 45 years". I think he would not have left if he still thought this is the truth. I assume that he kept himself busy with the documentation work and fell into a dark hole after that was taken away.
He writes quite readable but with the distance of a historian - with a little hint here and there about his feelings.
I am looking forward to reading how his story is developing.
last weekend was regional convention and mark sanderson was the bethel speaker for the last talks every day.
his talks were video streamed from zurich to other cities in switzerland, austria and germany.
one interesting point was that he wore an apple watch, stainless steel edition (link).
As a JW I would Quote John 12: "3Then Mary took about a pinta of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.b ” 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you,c but you will not always have me.”
how long will it take for a jw to see that even the overlapping generation is wrong?.
the org waited and waited to see if their interpretation of it came true.
those alive in 1914 would still be alive obviously it didn't and jws have to believe in an overlapping generation.
a year to a year and a half ago, i would have taken this article at face value and believed it.. now, i realize this article comes from a dubious source.
world news daily has a die-hard right-wing bias.
so, in an effort to get real information, i'm asking my european exjw's, is this article all true?
on the german board we recently had a discussion about the people that were involved in the production of the aid-book and that later left the organization.
in coc the following persons are mentioned in connection with the aid-book project: lyman swingle, john wischuk, raymond franz and reinhard lengtat.
franz and lengtat later left the jw.
I spotted him on the 2015 production "The Kingdom - 100 Years and Counting"
i watched the stephen lett video @ jw.org .
the first minutes he shows himself as a nice chap.
uncle stephen knows what's best for you.. and then i see the extreme fundamentalist he is, talking short about apostates.
Interesting change in eye-blinking when he refers to the pedophile topic.
"is someone takes action (blink, blink, blink)...it is Jehovah's Organization" (blink)
typical sign for a lie.
km august 2014, page 3 paragraph 6(article for this week's service meeting):.
"the month of october 2014 will see the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the kingdom.
for this occasion a special edition of the watchtower will be on this theme.".
I remember that I read a QfR in a German Edition of an old WT (IIRC end 1940s) in our KH library that dealt with this and the official answers was really that Satan was aware of Bible chronology and made some turmoil on earth to distract humankind from the birth of the kingdom. Sounded already odd to me back than.
edited: there was another QfR in the early 70s.
can't...tear...my...eyes...away.... .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8db7m5mzq.
i apologize if this is old news or has already been discussed, but i notice the society has posted a video commenting on the annual meeting and the adjusted understanding of matthew 24:45 on jw.org.. here is the link.... http://www.jw.org/en/news/events-activities/video-clip-2012-annual-meeting-program/.
thoughts?.
cedars.
Lett looks odd to me.
