Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany
Encyclopedia
Jehovah's Witnesses
were persecuted
in Nazi Germany
between 1933 and 1945. Members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi
government, for which hundreds were executed. An estimated 10,000 were sent to concentration camps where approximately 2,500 of them were killed. Historian Sybil Milton concludes that "their courage and defiance in the face of torture and death punctures the myth of a monolithic Nazi state ruling over docile and submissive subjects."
and Romani people (Gypsies) who were persecuted on the basis of their ethnicity, Jehovah's Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option of release by signing a document indicating renouncement of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
were persecuted
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....
in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
between 1933 and 1945. Members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
government, for which hundreds were executed. An estimated 10,000 were sent to concentration camps where approximately 2,500 of them were killed. Historian Sybil Milton concludes that "their courage and defiance in the face of torture and death punctures the myth of a monolithic Nazi state ruling over docile and submissive subjects."
Persecution
Unlike JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Romani people (Gypsies) who were persecuted on the basis of their ethnicity, Jehovah's Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option of release by signing a document indicating renouncement of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military.
Department II
DECLARATION
I, the ...................................................
born on ..................................................
in .......................................................
herewith make the following declaration:
- I have come to know that the International Bible Students Association is proclaiming erroneous teachings and under the cloak of religion follows hostile purposes against the State.
- I have therefore left the organization entirely and made myself absolutely free from the teachings of this sect.
- I herewith give assurance that I will never again take any part in the activity of the International Bible Students Association. Any persons approaching me with the teaching of the Bible Students, or who in any manner reveal their connections with them, I will denounce immediately. All literature from the Bible Students that should be sent to my address I will at once deliver to the nearest police station.
- I will in the future esteem the laws of the State, especially in the event of war will I, with weapon in hand, defend the fatherland, and join in every way the community of the people.
- I have been informed that I will at once be taken again into protective custody if I should act against the declaration given today.
.................................., Dated ................
...........................................................
Signature
(Quoted from Jehovah's Witnesses--Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, p. 661. Original)
In a book on Jehovah's Witnesses under the Nazi regime, historian Hans Hesse commented, "Some five thousand Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they alone were 'voluntary prisoners', so termed because the moment they recanted their views, they could be freed. Some lost their lives in the camps, but few renounced their faith".
Pre-Nazi era
The Bible StudentsBible Student movement
The Bible Student movement is the name adopted by a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement that emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell, also known as Pastor Russell...
began missionary work in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the 1890s. In 1902, the first branch office of the Watch Tower Society
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and develop doctrines for the religion...
opened in Elberfeld, Germany. By the early 1930s, some 25,000 to 30,000 Germans were either adherents or interested sympathizers.
Even before 1933, Jehovah's Witnesses were targets of prejudice. Mainstream Lutheran and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
churches deemed them heretics
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
. Individual German states
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
had long sought to curb the missionary work through strict enforcement of statutes on illegal solicitation
Solicitation
Literally, solicitation means: 'urgently asking'. It is the action or instance of soliciting; petition; proposal. In criminal law, it most commonly refers to either the act of offering goods or services, or the act of attempting to purchase such goods or services...
. At various times individual jurisdictions banned their religious literature
Jehovah's Witnesses publications
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society produces a large amount of literature for use by Jehovah's Witnesses; their best known publications are the magazines, The Watchtower and Awake!. The Watchtower was first published by Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Bible Student movement, in 1879,...
, including the magazines The Watchtower
The Watchtower
The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom is an illustrated religious magazine, published semi-monthly in 194 languages by Jehovah's Witnesses via the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and printed in various branch offices around the world...
and The Golden Age
Awake!
Awake! is a monthly illustrated magazine published by Jehovah's Witnesses via the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and printed in various branch offices around the world. It is considered to be a companion magazine of The Watchtower, and is distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses in...
. During the Weimar
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
period, however, the German courts often ruled in their favor.
As early as 1921, political and religious factions accused the Witnesses of being linked with the Jews in subversive political movements.
Bible Students were branded as the dangerous, Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
, "Jewish worm". Swiss theologian Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
later wrote about this charge: "The accusation that Jehovah's Witnesses are linked with the Communists can only be due to an involuntary or even intentional misunderstanding."
The April 15, 1930 German edition of The Golden Age stated: "We have no reason to regard this false accusation as an insult as we are convinced that the Jew is at least as valuable a person as a nominal Christian; but we reject the above untruth of the church tabloid because it is aimed at deprecating our work, as if it were being done not for the sake of the Gospel but for the Jews."
Before the Nazis came to power, individual groups of local Nazis (party functionaries or SA men), acting outside the law, broke up Bible study meetings and assaulted individual Witnesses.
Nazi era
After the Nazis came to power on 30 January 1933, when Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was appointed chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
, persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses intensified. Witnesses considered all worldly powers as tools of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, and refused to swear loyalty to the Nazi regime. Initially, Witness indifference to the Nazi state manifested itself in the refusal to raise their arms in the Heil Hitler salute, join the German Labor Front (which all salaried and wage workers were forced to join after the Nazis outlawed trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s), participate in Nazi welfare collections, and vote in elections. Neither would they participate in Nazi rallies and parade
Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
s.
Nazi authorities denounced Jehovah's Witnesses for their ties to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and derided the apparent revolutionary millennialism
Millennialism
Millennialism , or chiliasm in Greek, is a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state...
of their preaching that a battle of Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
would precede the rule of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
on earth. They linked Jehovah's Witnesses to "international Jewry" by pointing to Witness reliance on certain Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
texts. The Nazis had grievances with many of the smaller Protestant groups on these issues, but only the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphian Church refused to bear arms or swear loyalty to the state.
When Germany reintroduced universal military service in 1935, Jehovah's Witnesses generally refused to enroll. Although they were not pacifists, they refused to bear arms for any political power. The Nazis prosecuted Jehovah's Witnesses for failing to report for conscription and arrested those who did missionary work for undermining the morale of the nation. John Conway, a British historian, stated that they were “against any form of collaboration with the Nazis and against service in the army.”
Children of Jehovah's Witnesses also suffered under the Nazi regime. In classrooms, teachers ridiculed children who refused to give the Heil Hitler salute or sing patriotic songs. Principals found reasons to expel them from school. Following the lead of adults, classmates shunned or beat the children of Witnesses. On occasion, authorities sought to remove children from their Witness parents and send them to other schools, orphanages, or private homes to be brought up as "good Germans".
"Declaration of Facts"
On April 24, 1933, officials seized and shut down the Watch Tower office in Magdeburg, Germany. Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the police returned the property. By May 1933 the Witnesses were banned in several German states.Concerned about the rising tensions in Germany, the president of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph F. Rutherford and Paul Balzereit, manager of the German branch office in Magdeburg, decided to mount a campaign to inform Chancellor Hitler, government officials, and the public that Jehovah's Witnesses posed no threat to the German people and the State.
Therefore, the Magdeburg office arranged a convention. Bible Students from all over Germany were invited to the Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen in Berlin on June 25, 1933. About 5,000 delegates were expected, but more than 7,000 attended. The delegates adopted a resolution entitled "Declaration of Facts." It read:
After stating that "it is impossible for our literature and our work to be a menace to the peace and safety of the nation," the Declaration went on: and: "Employment, housing, health, ... self-respect, and a generous old-age pension" were among the goals of the 25-point program set by the Nazi party platform of February 24, 1920. After quoting these ideals, the book Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi-Regime went on to say that "The "Declaration" agreed in general with the "principles advocated by the German government.""
In responding to the claim they were being funded by the Jews they wrote:
Critical review of the Declaration
Dr. M. James PentonJames Penton
James Penton is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.Born in April 1932, Penton was raised as a fourth-generation Jehovah's Witness. He gradually came to disagree with the teachings of the religion during the 1970s and was eventually...
, professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Lethbridge
University of Lethbridge
The University of Lethbridge is a publicly-funded comprehensive academic and research university, founded in the liberal education tradition, located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with two other urban campuses in Calgary and Edmonton. The main building sits among the coulees on the west side of...
, in his book Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich, drawing on his own Witness background and years of research on Witness history, interprets antisemitic attitudes on the part of Jehovah's Witnesses and a "friendly" rapport with the Nazi regime. Historian Detlef Garbe, director at the Neuengamme (Hamburg) Memorial, stated that Penton's book is based on "aversion" and "assumptions" and perhaps shows "a lack of scientific objectivity."
Dr. Garbe stated "Numerous judgments found in literature about the Wilmersdorf Declaration include erroneous criticism, or rather, are not fair to the text and the situation. Therefore, one could not say that Jehovah's Witnesses had professed antisemitism... or promoted themselves "as a possible ally." Labels such as "congress supporting the Nazis", or the assertion that the Watch Tower management had attempted to "conclude a pact with Hitler"... resulted from conclusions motivated by a desire to discredit [them] as in Manfred Gebhard's 1970 GDR documentation Die Zeugen Jehovas: Eine Dokumentation uber die Watchtturm-Gesellschaft alleging the "criminal support of the antisemitic Hitler policy" in the Declaration.
Garbe also notes that the charge of collaboration with the Nazis and other manufactured propaganda about the Witnesses was promoted by the East German Stasi in the 1960s. Garbe has described Gebhard's book as "biased", saying that it "was based on a manuscript by [Guenther Pape, an excommunicated Witness] which he compiled at the end of the 1960s". Garbe refers to it as having, "distorted quotations" and characterized by a "selective use of quotes".
Gebhard later expressly disassociated himself from Guenther Pape's manuscript and its "exaggerations and falsifications" "and called it a mistake that he had agreed to the use of his name without knowing the results."
Dr. Gabriele Yonan, of the Free University of Berlin
Free University of Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...
, stated: "When the entire text of the June 25, 1933 'Declaration of Facts,' along with the letter to Hitler is, in retrospect, put into the context of the history of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi regime, their resistance, and the Holocaust, it consequently has nothing to do with 'antisemitic statements and currying favor with Hitler.' These accusations made by today's church circles are deliberate manipulations and historical misrepresentations, and their obvious motivation is the discomfort of a moral inferiority."
In Social Disinterest, Governmental Disinformation, Renewed Persecution, and Now Manipulation of History? Garbe stated, "Taking everything into consideration, it has been established that no other religious movement resisted the pressure to conform to National Socialism with comparable unanimity and steadfastness." He later went on to say that at "no point did they support Nazi rule. Rather, the stand taken by Jehovah's Witnesses would have, according to Klaus Drobisch, "been befitting" for the majority of the population".
Concentration camps
In concentration camps, Jehovah's Witnesses, wore purple trianglePurple triangle
The purple triangle was a concentration camp badge used by the Nazis to identify Bibelforscher , the German name for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany. A small number of Adventists, Baptists and pacifists were also identified by the badge...
badges that identified
Nazi concentration camp badges
Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of identification in Nazi camps. They were used in the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on...
them as Bibelforscher (Bible Students). The Watchtower has claimed that during the Nazi era Jehovah’s Witnesses "underwent persecution equal to that heaped upon the Jews." 11,300 Jehovah's Witnesses were placed in camps, and about 1,490 died, of whom 270 were executed as conscientious objectors.
See also
- Freedom of religionFreedom of religionFreedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
- Holocaust
- Nazi concentration campsNazi concentration campsNazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
- KirchenkampfKirchenkampfKirchenkampf is a German term that translates as "struggle of the churches" or "church struggle" in English. The term is sometimes used ambiguously, and may refer to one or more of the following different church struggles:...
Further reading
- Garbe, Detlef. Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich (2007, University of Wisconsin PressUniversity of Wisconsin PressThe University of Wisconsin Press is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It primarily publishes work by scholars from the global academic community but also serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and...
)ISBN 0-299-20790-0 - Penton, James M. Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecution ISBN 978-0-8020-8678-5
- Hesse, Hans (editor) Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi-Regime: 1933-1945
- Reynaud, Michael. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Nazis: Persecution, Deportation, and Murder, 1933-1945
- Paul Johnson, A History of ChristianityA History of Christianity (Paul Johnson)A History of Christianity is a historical study of the Christian religion written by British journalist and author Paul Johnson. The book was published in 1976 and aims to be a factual comprehensive history of the Christian religion...
, ISBN 0-689-10728-5 - Judith Tydor Baumel, Walter Laqueur:The Holocaust Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-300-08432-3
- Michael Berenbaum,The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ISBN 0-316-09134-0
External links
- Jehovah's Witnesses under Nazism and Communism - List of books
- Jehovah's Witnesses under dictatorships - List of Internet resources
- The Case of the Jehovah's Witnesses - Shoah Resource Center - Yad Vashem
- Non-Jewish Victims of Persecution in Nazi Germany - About the Holocaust - Yad Vashem
- English Translation of "Declaration of Facts"
- English Translation of Declaration of Facts Cover Letter
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Memorial and Museum AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU