Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany
| Part of a series on |
| The Holocaust |
|---|
 |
| Part of a series on |
| Jehovah's Witnesses |
|---|
 |
| Overview |
| Organizational structure |
| History |
| Demographics |
| Literature |
| Teaching programs |
| People |
| Watch Tower presidents |
| Formative influences |
| Notable former members |
| Opposition |
Jehovah's Witnesses suffered religious persecution in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 after refusing to perform military service, join Naziorganizations or give allegiance to the Hitler regime. An estimated 10,000 Witnesses—half of the number of members in Germany during that period—were imprisoned, including 2,000 who were sent to Nazi concentration camps. An estimated 1,200 died in custody, including 250 who were executed. They were the first Christian denomination banned by the Nazi government and the most extensively and intensively persecuted.[1]
Unlike Jews and Romani who were persecuted on the basis of their ethnicity, Jehovah's Witnesses could escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs by signing a document indicating renunciation of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military.[2] 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."[3]
The group came under increasing public and governmental persecution from 1933, with many expelled from jobs and schools, deprived of income and suffering beatings and imprisonment, despite early attempts to demonstrate shared goals with the National Socialist regime. Historians are divided over whether the Nazis intended to exterminate them, but several authors have claimed the Witnesses' outspoken condemnation of the Nazis contributed to their level of suffering.
Contents
[hide]Pre-Nazi era[edit]
Jehovah's Witnesses were an outgrowth of the International Bible Students, who began missionary work in Europe in the 1890s. A German branch office of the Watch Tower Society opened in Elberfeld in 1902. By 1933 almost 20,000 Witnesses were counted as active door-to-door preachers and their annual Memorial service was attracting almost 25,000 people.[4] In Dresden there were more Bible Students than in New York, where the Watch Tower Society was headquartered.[5]
Members of the movement, who were known as Ernste Bibelforscher, or Earnest Bible Students, had attracted opposition since the end of World War I, with accusations that they were Bolsheviks, communists and covertly Jewish. From 1920 the German Evangelical Church called for a ban on Watch Tower Society publications, which were engaging in increasing amounts of antichurch polemic and through the remainder of the 1920s opposition mounted from a combination of church and Völkisch movement agitation and pamphlet campaigns.[5] Nazis began to harass Bible Students, with SA members also disrupting meetings.[4]
From 1922, German Bible Students were arrested on charges of illegal peddling as they publicly distributed Watch Tower Society literature. Between 1927 and 1930, almost 5,000 charges were pressed against members of the movement, and although most ended in acquittals[6][7] some "severe sentences" were also handed down.[8]
From 1930 calls for state intervention against the Bible Students increased and on March 28, 1931 Reich president Paul von Hindenburg issued the Decree for the Resistance of Political Acts of Violence, which provided for action to be taken in cases in which religious organizations, institutions or customs were "abused or maliciously disparaged". Bavaria became the first German state where the decree was used against the Bible Students, with a police order issued on November 18 to prohibit and confiscate all Bible Student publications throughout the state.[9] A second decree in 1932 widened the ban in other German states. By the end of 1932 more than 2,300 charges against Bible Students were pending.[8]
Legislative developments[edit]
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, and from that point persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses intensified. Witnesses, being politically neutral, 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 Nazi salute, join the German Labor Front, participate in Nazi welfare collections, perform air raid duties or participate in Nazi rallies and parades.[3] Nazi Party SA stormtroopers raided the homes of Witnesses who failed to vote in a November 1933 plebiscite over German withdrawal from the League of Nationsand marched them to the polling booths. Some were beaten or forced to walk holding placards declaring their "betrayal" of the fatherland; in one town a billboard was displayed in the marketplace listing Bible Student "traitors" who had not voted, and mobs also gathered outside Witnesses' homes to throw stones or chant. Similar action was taken at subsequent elections in the one-party state.[10]
Nazi authorities denounced Jehovah's Witnesses for their ties to the United States and derided the apparent revolutionary millennialism of their preaching that a battle of Armageddon would precede the rule of Christ on earth. They linked Jehovah's Witnesses to "international Jewry" by pointing to Witness reliance on certain Old Testament texts. The Nazis had grievances with many of the smaller Protestant groups on these issues, but only Jehovah's Witnesses and the Christadelphian Church refused to bear arms or swear loyalty to the state.[3]
Activities of the Bible Students Association were banned in the states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (April 10, 1933) and Bavaria (April 13). When Witnesses responded with a nationwide house-to-house booklet distribution campaign, many were arrested and within a week bans were extended to the states of Saxony and Hessen. Publications were also confiscated in some states. On April 24 police seized the Bible Student headquarters at Magdeburg, withdrawing five days later after US diplomatic efforts. From mid-May other states issued decrees outlawing the Bible Students and by the middle of June they were banned in almost every state. In one state's decree, the rationale for the ban was said to be that Bible Students were "imposing" on householders Watch Tower Society journals "which contain malicious attacks on the major Christian churches and their institutions".[11][12]
Prussia, Germany's biggest state, imposed a ban on June 24, explaining that the Bible Students were attracting and harboring subversive former members of Communist and Marxist parties. Its decree added that the Bible Students:
.jpg)
On June 25, 1933 about 7,000 Witnesses assembled at the Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen in Berlin where a 3,800-word "Declaration of Facts" was issued. The document, written by Watch Tower Society president J.F. Rutherford, asserted the group's political neutrality, appealed for the right to publicly preach and claimed it was the victim of a misinformation campaign by other churches.[13] Some 2.1 million copies of the declaration, reproduced as a four-page pamphlet, were distributed publicly throughout Germany, with a copy also sent to Hitler accompanied by a seven-page cover letter assuring the Chancellor that the IBSA "was not in opposition to the national government of the German Reich", but that, to the contrary, "the entirely religious, nonpolitical objectives and efforts of the Bible Students" were "completely in agreement with the corresponding goals of the national government".[14] German historian Detlef Garbe described the declaration as part of the group's efforts to adapt at a time of increasing persecution, while Canadian historian Professor James Penton, a former Jehovah's Witness and critic of the denomination, claimed the declaration was a compromising document that proves "that Watch Tower leaders were attempting to pander to the Nazis"[15] — an allegation the Watch Tower Society rejected in a 1998 magazine article.[16]
The distribution of the declaration prompted a new wave of persecution against German Witnesses.[17] On June 28, thirty stormtroopers occupied the branch office for a second time, closing the factory, sealing the printing presses and hoisting the swastika over the building. In late August, authorities used 25 trucks to transport about 70 tonnes of Watch Tower literature and Bibles to the city's outskirts and publicly burned them. Preaching activities and meetings in private homes continued, though the threat of Gestapo raids caused many believers to withdraw association and activity in some places ceased. When authorities discovered banned literature was being smuggled into Germany from abroad, Bavarian police ordered the confiscation of mail of all known Bible Students and expressed irritation that their activity was increasing rather than ceasing.[18]
By early 1934 Rutherford had concluded that an improvement in conditions within Germany was unlikely. On February 9, 1934 the Watch Tower Society president sent a strongly worded letter to Hitler, asking the chancellor to allow the Witnesses to assemble and worship without hindrance, warning that if he failed to do so by March 24, the organization would publicise their "unjust treatment" throughout the world. He threatened that Jehovah God would also punish Hitler and destroy him at Armageddon. The society's German branch president Paul Balzereit directed members that they should continue to distribute The Watchtower, but that meetings be kept to about three to five people in size and public preaching be discontinued. But in September 1934, at an international convention of 3,500 Witnesses in Basel, Switzerland, under the theme "Fear Them Not", Rutherford reversed the instruction. He urged the 1,000 German Witnesses present to resume completely their preaching activity, starting with a collective witnessing effort on October 7. The convention also passed a resolution of protest, a copy of which was sent to Hitler with the warning: "Refrain from further persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses; otherwise God will destroy you and your national party."[19]
On October 8 an international campaign was launched to flood the Reich chancellory with telegrams and letters of protest. Five hundred protest telegrams were sent to the Reich chancellory that day and during the next two days large numbers arrived from around the world, most of them from the United States, Britain, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Foreign post offices were told to stop transmitting the telegrams because the recipient refused to accept them and on October 10 the Berlin main telegraph office arranged with several overseas telegraph offices to destroy all telegrams that had not yet been transmitted. More than 1,000 letters—almost all of them with the same wording and signed "Jehovah's Witnesses"—were also received at the presidential office and in November those letters were transferred to the Secret State Police "for further investigation".[20]
In late 1934 all state bans against the Witnesses were replaced with a prohibition at the Reich level. State governments were instructed in July 1935 to confiscate all Watch Tower Society publications, including Bibles and in December nine Watch Tower leaders were sentenced to up to 2½ years' jail for defying bans. Yet throughout 1933 and 1934 some courts continued to acquit Witnesses after legal and constitutional challenges.[21]
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.”[22]
Children of Jehovah's Witnesses also suffered under the Nazi regime. In classrooms, teachers ridiculed children who refused to give the Heil Hitlersalute 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".[3]
Jehovah's Witnesses could, however, escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. From 1935 Gestapo officers offered members a document to sign indicating renunciation of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military. By signing the document, individuals vowed to refrain from any association with members of the IBSA for the purposes of studying the Bible, The Watchtower or other Bible Student publications, refrain from participating in any Bible Student activities and also report to authorities any observations that members were continuing the organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses.[2] Garbe says a "relatively high number" of people signed the statement before the war, but "extremely low numbers" of Bible Student prisoners did so in concentration camps in later years.[23]
Punishment[edit]
From 1933 Witnesses working in post offices, railway stations or other civil service jobs began to be dismissed for refusing to give the compulsory Hitler salute. From August 1934 they could also lose their jobs for refusing to take an official oath swearing loyalty and obedience to Hitler. Teachers were required to sign a statement confirming they were not members of the International Bible Students Association and were fired if they refused. Jehovah's Witnesses were dismissed in the private sector as well, often at the insistence of the German Labor Front (DAF) or Nazi Party members. In 1936 the Nazi press urged that Bible Students be removed from all German companies, while self-employed members of the group were denied professional or business licences to carry out their work on the basis that their refusal to join Nazi organizations marked them as "politically unreliable".[24]
The state confiscated motor vehicles and bicycles used by Witnesses for their business, withdrew driver's licences, withdrew pensions and evicted Witnesses from their homes. Schoolchildren were required to sing the Horst Wessel song and Deutschlandlied at a flag salute roll call, give the Hitler salute and take part in ceremonies honoring Hitler; those who refused were beaten by teachers and sometimes by classmates, while many were also expelled. From March 1936 authorities began removing Witness children from their parents, forcing some of them to undergo "corrective training".[25]
From early 1935, Gestapo officers began widening their use of "protective detention", usually when judges failed to convict Witnesses on charges of defying the Bible Student ban. Bible Students deemed to "present an imminent danger to the National Socialist state because of their activities" were from that point not handed to courts for punishment but sent directly to concentration camps for incarceration for several months, but even those who completed their prison terms were routinely arrested by the Gestapo upon release and taken into protective custody.[26]
More brutal methods of punishment began to be applied from 1936, including horsewhipping, prolonged daily beatings, the torture of family members and the threat of shooting. Some Witnesses were placed in mental institutions and subjected to psychiatric treatment; sterilization was ordered for some deemed to be "stubborn" in their refusal to denounce their faith.
Following an assembly in Lucerne, Switzerland in early September 1936 up to 3,000 copies of a resolution of protest were sent to government, public and clerical leaders, stepping up the Watch Tower Society's anti-Catholic polemic. Several German Witnesses who attended the convention were arrested by waiting police as they returned to their homes and between August and September the Gestapo arrested more than 1,000 members. The society responded with a pamphlet campaign on December 12, dropping up to 200,000 copies of the Lucerne resolution in mailboxes and also leaving them at phone booths, park benches and parked cars. Those arrested in subsequent police raids were sentenced to up to two years in prison. The number of arrests increased; in Dresden alone as many as 1500 Witnesses had been arrested by mid-1937. Another letterbox campaign was carried out in June 1937, a year in which the Watch Tower Society announced German Witnesses had distributed more than 450,000 books and booklets in 12 months.[27][28]
Compulsory military service for all men aged between 18 and 45 was introduced by Hitler in March 1935. No exemptions were provided for religious or conscientious reasons and Witnesses who refused to serve or take the oath of allegiance to Hitler were sent to prison or concentration camp, generally for terms of one or two years. At the outbreak of war in August 1939, more serious punishments were applied. A decree was enacted that greatly increased penal regulations during periods of war and states of emergency and included in the decree was an offense of "demoralization of the armed forces"; any refusal to perform military service or public inducement to this effect would be punishable by death. Between August 1939 and September 1940, 152 Bible Students appeared before the highest military court of the Wehrmacht charged with demoralization of the armed forces and 112 were executed, usually by beheading. Garbe estimates about 250 German and Austrian Jehovah's Witnesses were executed during World War II as a result of military court decisions. In November 1939 another regulation was issued providing for the jailing of anyone who supported or belonged to an "anti-military association" or displayed an "anti-military attitude", which allowed authorities to impose prison sentences on the charge of IBSA membership. Death penalties were applied frequently after 1943.[29]
Concentration camps[edit]
From 1935 the authorities began sending hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses to concentration camps, where they were imprisoned with Communists, Socialists, other political prisoners and union members. In May 1938 they accounted for 12 percent of all prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar; by May 1939 they represented 40 percent of all prisoners at SchlossLichentenburg, the central concentration camp for women, though as the total number of prisoners increased rapidly, the proportion of Witnesses generally fell to about 3 percent. About 2,000 Witnesses were eventually sent to Nazi concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles; as many as 1,200 died in custody, including 250 who were executed.[30][31] Garbe claims members of the group were special objects of hatred by the SS, receiving beatings, whippings and public humiliation and given the dirtiest and most laborious work details for refusing to salute, stand at attention or sing Nazi songs. They were subjected to high-pressure jets of ice-cold water from fire hydrants and subjected to arbitrary acts of torture including pushing a fully laden wheelbarrow with their necks while crawling on hands and knees. Others were forced to stand still for an entire day in the heat or cold or were confined in groups in small closets in an attempt to suffocate them.[30] From March to December 1938 Jehovah's Witnesses in Buchenwald were not allowed to send or receive letters or to purchase food. Many approached starvation and were forced to eat leaves from trees and bushes. Many were forced to engage in a "drill" that included rolling, creeping, hopping and running for 75 minutes while camp guards kicked and beat them, while others, forced to work in stone quarries, were refused medical attention when sick.[32] Despite persecution, Jehovah's Witnesses continued to hold secret religious gatherings inside the camps.
Conditions for Witnesses improved in 1942, when they were increasingly given work details that required little supervision, such as farming, gardening, transportation and unloading goods, while others worked in civilian clothing in a health resort, as housekeepers for Nazi officials or were given construction and craft tasks at military buildings.[33]
Causes of persecution and Nazi motives[edit]
Jehovah's Witnesses were one of a range of religious denominations against whom authorities took action from 1933, declaring that they "contributed to the ideological fragmentation of the German people", preventing the forming of a united German community.[34] Historians including Canadian Michael H. Kater, Christine Elizabeth King from England and Austrian Wolfgang Neugebauer have suggested the extraordinary animosity between National Socialism and Bible Student teachings was rooted in the similarity in structure of both ideologies, which were based on authoritarianism and totalitarianism and which each believed had a monopoly on the "truth".[35][36] Kater wrote:
Garbe accepts that both ideologies claimed to represent the "epitome of truth", demanded the person as a whole, tolerated no questioning of ideology and also held a common belief in salvation utopias for certain parts of humankind and the vision of a Thousand-Year Reign. He adds that, pitted against a considerably more powerful organization, the group's efforts were doomed to fail.[38]
German writer Falk Pingel argued that the source of controversy between the Bible Students and National Socialists was their determination to continue their religious activities despite restrictions[39] and Garbe, noting that the increasing repression by authorities simply provoked the group's determination to go underground and maintain their activity, concludes that "the extraordinary severity with which Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted resulted from a conflict that gradually escalated in an interaction of action and reaction ... the authorities responsible for the persecution always responded with increasing severity to the continuous stubbornness of the IBSA members".[38] He said the National Socialists were baffled by an opponent that, convinced it was being directed by God's channel, did not back down under intensified persecution, as expected. He wrote:
Penton noted that in August 1933 then branch overseer Martin Harbeck directed members that they should cease distributing literature and holding meetings without police permission. (At the beginning of 1934 the branch chief he had temporarily replaced, Paul Balzereit, issued a similar instruction.) He said the organization's later decision to abandon caution and direct members to intensify their preaching efforts was a "reckless" behavior that caused Witnesses and their families more suffering than was necessary. Hitler, Penton argued, had become highly popular with the German populace by 1936, yet Witnesses persisted in distributing a Rutherford booklet that described the chancellor as "of unsound mind, cruel, malicious and ruthless". He said the international campaign to swamp Hitler with telegrams of protest in October 1934 infuriated the chancellor and was a major factor in bringing greater governmental persecution on them. Citing Dietrich Hellmund's description of their "incredible public militancy", he wrote: "Jehovah's Witnesses were the most stridently outspoken conscientious objectors in the country, and the Nazis had no intention of putting up with them ... No movement can constantly heap insults on all other religions, the business community and national governments in the way that the Bible Student-Jehovah's Witnesses did from 1918 onward without provoking a reaction."[40][41][42]
Scholars are divided over the ultimate intention of the Nazi regime towards Jehovah's Witnesses. Garbe believes the Gestapo considered members of the denomination to be "incorrigible" elements who had to be ruthlessly eliminated.[43] The 1934 telegram protest had prompted an "hysterical" Hitler to vow that "this brood will be exterminated in Germany"[44] and he repeated the threat in August 1942.[45] Watch Tower Society writer Wolfram Slupina claims the Nazis "attempted to consign the Witnesses to oblivion by systematically exterminating them". But Penton has argued there is abundant evidence that the Nazis had no intention to eradicate Witnesses. Since they were viewed as ordinary German citizens, the Nazis hoped to break their resistance and compel them to renounce their faith and declare loyalty to the Third Reich.[46] Quoting Jehovah's Witness Jolene Chu, Penton wrote:
According to Penton, further evidence that the Nazis did not consider Witnesses inherently candidates for destruction in the same way as Jews, Romanis, and homosexuals, is that almost no Jehovah's Witnesses were gassed, and they were often employed domestically by the SS and in other jobs with significantly better conditions, improving their chances of survival.[47]
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses
Throughout Jehovah's Witnesses' history, their beliefs, doctrines, and practices have engendered controversy and opposition from local governments, communities, and religious groups.
Many Christian denominations consider the interpretations and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses to be heretical. Some religious leaders have accused Jehovah's Witnesses of being a cult. According to law professor Archibald Cox, in the United States, Jehovah's Witnesses were "the principal victims of religious persecution … they began to attract attention and provoke repression in the 1930s, when their proselytizing and numbers rapidly increased."[1]
Political and religious animosity against Jehovah's Witnesses has at times led to mob action and government oppression in various countries, including Cuba, the United States, Canada, Singapore, and Nazi Germany. The denomination's doctrine of political neutrality has led to imprisonment of members who refused conscription (for example in Britain during World War II and afterwards during the period of compulsory national service).
During the World Wars, Jehovah's Witnesses were targeted in the United States, Canada, and many other countries for their refusal to serve in the military or help with war efforts. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps[2] along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent. Activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have previously been banned in the Soviet Union and in Spain, partly due to their refusal to perform military service. Their religious activities are currently banned or restricted in some countries, for example in Singapore, China, Vietnam, Russia and many Islamic states.
United States[edit]
During the 1930s and 1940s, some US states passed laws that made it illegal for Jehovah's Witnesses to distribute their literature, and children of Jehovah's Witnesses in some states were banned from attending state schools.
The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses for their refusal to salute the flag became known as the "Flag-Salute Cases".[118] Their refusal to salute the flag became considered as a test of the liberties for which the flag stands, namely the freedom to worship according to the dictates of one's own conscience. The Supreme Court found that the United States, by making the flag salute compulsory in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), was impinging upon the individual's right to worship as one chooses — a violation of the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause in the constitution. Justice Frankfurter, speaking in behalf of the 8-to-1 majority view against the Witnesses, stated that the interests of "inculcating patriotism was of sufficient importance to justify a relatively minor infringement on religious belief."[119] The result of the ruling was a wave of persecution. Lillian Gobitas, the mother of the schoolchildren involved in the decision said, "It was like open season on Jehovah's Witnesses."[120]
The American Civil Liberties Union reported that by the end of 1940, "more than 1,500 Witnesses in the United States had been victimized in 335 separate attacks".[121] Such attacks included beatings, being tarred and feathered, hanged, shot, maimed, and even castrated, as well as other acts of violence.[122] As reports of these attacks against Jehovah's Witnesses continued, "several justices changed their minds, and in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Court declared that the state could not impinge on the First Amendment by compelling the observance of rituals."[119]
In 1943, after a drawn-out litigation process by Watch Tower Society lawyers in state courts and lower federal courts, the Supreme Court ruled that public school officials could not force Jehovah's Witnesses and other students to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.[123] In 1946 and 1953 Supreme Court decisions were handed down establishing their right to be exempted from military service.[124][125][126][127]
Declaration of Facts
The Declaration of Facts was a widely distributed public statement issued by Jehovah's Witnesses during the period of persecution of the group in Nazi Germany. The document asserted the denomination's political neutrality, appealed for the right to publicly preach, and claimed the Witnesses were the victims of a misinformation campaign by other churches. It was prepared by Watch Tower Society president Joseph F. Rutherford and released at a convention in Berlin on June 25, 1933. More than 2.1 million copies of the statement were distributed throughout Germany, with copies also mailed to senior government officials including German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.[1] Its distribution prompted a new wave of persecution against German Witnesses.[2]
Contents
[hide]Background[edit]
From 1922, German Bible Students (Ernste Bibelforscher) were arrested on charges of illegal peddling as they publicly distributed Watch Tower Society literature. Between 1927 and 1930, almost 5000 charges were laid against members of the group, and although most ended in acquittals[3][4] some "severe sentences" were also handed down.[2] In November 1931 Bavarian authorities used new emergency ordinances relating to political disturbances to confiscate and ban Watch Tower Society literature. By the end of 1932 more than 2300 charges against Bible Students were pending.[2]
Restrictions tightened with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Germany's new Chancellor on January 30, 1933. On February 4 he issued a decree permitting the police to confiscate literature "endangering public order and security" and also restrict freedoms of assembly. By mid-1933 the work of the group–by then known as Jehovah's witnesses–had been banned in most German states,[2] with members accused of being Communists and associating with the Jews in subversive political movements. Members' homes were frequently searched by police for incriminating literature and on April 24 the International Bible Students Association (IBSA) headquarters in Magdeburg was briefly occupied by police.
Authorities objected to the influence of religious minorities such as Jehovah's Witnesses because they "contributed to the ideological fragmentation of the German people", but they also viewed the group as a threat to the mainstream Christian denominations. A Ministry of the Interior decree stated:
In June Watch Tower Society president Joseph Rutherford and Nathan Knorr traveled to Berlin to attempt to negotiate the possibilities of continuing preaching activity in Germany. While there, they organized a public convention to be held in Berlin on June 25, 1933 to release a Declaration of Facts, which had been written by Rutherford.[6] They hoped the document would convince Hitler, government officials and the public that Jehovah's Witnesses posed no threat to the German people and the state.[7] The Declaration would assert the group's political neutrality and protest against the "meddling" of the Hitler government into the Witnesses' preaching work. It was to be translated into German by branch overseer Paul Balzereit and presented to the conventioners for adoption.[2]
Both Rutherford and Knorr left Germany before the convention, held at the Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen, began. Though organizers expected an attendance of 5000, a crowd of 7000 arrived. The exterior of the hall was decked with swastikas, possibly placed by members of Nazi SS units who had celebrated nearby the previous day.[7] To the surprise of those attending, the convention opened with a song, Zion's Glorious Hope, which was by then rarely sung at Witness meetings. Set to music composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797, it had been in the Bible Students' songbook since 1905, but avoided since 1922, when the same music was used with new lyrics for the German national anthem.[7][8] During the convention, the 3800-word Declaration of Facts was presented to the crowd and accepted by many in attendance. A "large number" of those attending, however, refused to adopt it and left the convention disappointed, viewing it as weaker than they expected.[2] A 1974 Watch Tower Society publication claimed Balzereit had weakened the German translation of the Declaration, softening criticism of the Nazis,[2] but in 1998 the society repudiated that statement.[7]
Some 2.5 million copies of The Declaration, reproduced as a four-page pamphlet, were distributed publicly and a day after the convention, the declaration was sent to Hitler with a seven-page cover letter written by Balzereit in which he assured the Chancellor that the IBSA "was not in opposition to the national government of the German Reich". The letter added that, to the contrary, "the entirely religious, nonpolitical objectives and efforts of the Bible Students" were "completely in agreement with the corresponding goals of the national government". Historian Detlef Garbe concluded that by using subtle wording, Balzereit intended that the letter, while representing the Bible Students' teachings, could also be misinterpreted by the group's opponents.[9]
Contents of the Declaration[edit]
The Declaration was divided into four broad sections: an introduction that broached the issues of opposition and oppression, sections addressing Watch Tower Society literature—which by 1933 was prohibited—and the League of Nations, and a concluding section called "Great Truths". Some statements within the Declaration written to highlight commonality with German national ideals subsequently attracted criticism that its authors had attempted to compromise with Hitler's regime and curry favor with the new government.
Introduction[edit]
The opening nine paragraphs stated that the members of the organization were peaceable and law-abiding, and were God's "witnesses to the truth". It further stated that they had been wrongly charged, and wished to present a true and faithful witness to officials about their role in God's purposes, appealing for a fair and impartial hearing. It said the Bible revealed that Satan the Devil was an enemy of God and that, as in Jesus' day, he used religious teachers and priests to distort the truth and foment opposition to his true representatives.
The statement said they had been falsely and maliciously accused of receiving financial support from the Jews, insisting: "There has never been the slightest bit of money contributed to our work by the Jews." It added:
Our Literature[edit]
The Declaration cited the accusation that Watch Tower Society literature constituted a danger to Germany's peace and safety, and suggested the publications had been misunderstood by officials because of the bluntness of much of the language, which had been originally written in the United States for an American readership. It said people in Britain and the United States had suffered, and continued to suffer, from "the misrule of Big Business and conscienceless politicians" supported by "political religionists", and the Society's literature had therefore employed plain language to convey that message. It drew parallels with similar oppression from which it said the German people suffered:
The Declaration asserted that Jehovah's Witnesses had no political ambitions or involvement, and did nothing to hinder the beliefs of others. It said members of the group had devoted their lives to helping people to properly understand the Bible as "the only possible way for the complete relief and blessing for mankind," which would in turn bring benefits to "the education, culture and upbuilding of the people." It stated that the Society and its literature therefore posed no menace to the nation's peace and safety because it supported the government's "high ideals".
The Literature section of the Declaration concluded by noting that the Watch Tower Society had for years made persistent efforts to do good for people, often with the help of financial assistance of American members.
League of Nations[edit]
The Declaration said Watch Tower Society statements about the League of Nations had been identified as a further cause for prohibition of preaching and literature distribution. It said, "Let us remind the government and the people of Germany that it was the League of Nations compact that laid upon the shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens." It added that Watch Tower Society publications had been critical of the League—which had been hailed by churches as part of God's purpose—because the Society considered the League to be oppressive and unfair, and unable to bring about the relief promised by the Bible. The Declaration further stated that Jehovah's Witnesses had not attempted to exert political influence, and that their criticisms could not be construed as a menace to the government or a danger to national peace and safety. The statement said the "political clergy, priests and Jesuits" had persecuted Witnesses in North America and Britain, and it warned that the same forces were similarly misrepresenting them to German authorities.
Great Truths[edit]
The Declaration summarized the eschatalogical beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, and said that Germans had suffered misery since 1914, becoming the victims of international injustice. It compared the goals of the organization with "the nationalists" who "have declared themselves against all such unrighteousness and announced that 'Our relationship to God is high and holy'" and said German Witnesses "fully endorse these righteous principles."
The statement praised the German government's adherence to those "high ideals" and expressed confidence that it would not deliberately resist the Witnesses' preaching work. It stated, "We therefore appeal to the high sense of justice of the government and nation and respectfully ask that the order of prohibition against our work and our literature be set aside, and the opportunity be given us to have a fair hearing before we are judged." In conclusion, it requested that the government establish an independent committee to meet delegates of the group to examine its literature and allow the Witnesses to work without hindrance.
Aftermath[edit]
Within days of sending the Declaration to Hitler, Balzereit left Germany and emigrated to Prague.[10] On June 28, 30 Nazi Party storm troopers raided the Magdeburg offices for a second time, hoisting the swastika above the building, closing the factory, sealing the presses and locking the premises. The Ministry of the Interior said the action was designed to prohibit any future activities of the Watch Tower Society in Germany. In late August, authorities transported about 70 tonnes of Watch Tower literature and Bibles in 25 trucks to the city's outskirts and publicly burned them. In some areas the Witnesses defied the ban on their preaching activity, but throughout Germany many believers withdrew from the association and ceased all activity. When copies of the Watchtowerand Golden Age began to arrive in Germany by mail from abroad, police ordered the confiscation of mail of known Jehovah's Witnesses.[11]
In September 1934 a thousand German Jehovah's Witnesses joined a crowd of 3500 at an international convention in Basel, Switzerland, organized under the theme "Fear Them Not". Rutherford urged the German Jehovah's Witnesses to resume their preaching activity and the attendees responded by declaring in a resolution that they would do so on October 7, 1934, regardless of the ban. The resolution also contained a message of protest against their treatment in Germany. The resolution was given to the Swiss press and a copy sent to Hitler, along with a message that read: "Your ill-treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses shocks all people on earth and dishonors God's name. Refrain from further persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses; otherwise God will destroy you and your national party." Thousands of telegrams containing the same warning were sent to the Reich government in Berlin from Witnesses in Europe, the United States and Britain on October 8 and 9 until foreign post offices were told to stop sending them because the recipient refused to accept them.[12]
Balzereit later returned to Germany to resume his position as branch leader, but attracted criticism from some members over his reluctance to defy bans on public preaching. In May 1935 he—along with eight other officers—was arrested; at a trial in December that year he denied he had defied official decrees, but was sentenced to 2½ years imprisonment. The following year he was expelled from the Watch Tower Society, with Rutherford explaining in a letter to German Witnesses that he was surprised "not one of those on trial at that time gave a faithful and true testimony to the name of Jehovah". Rutherford said Balzereit had said nothing to show "his complete reliance on Jehovah" and the Society therefore "will henceforth have nothing to do with him". The Society would also "put forth no effort in seeking to release them from prison even if it had the power to do anything".[13]
Historical assessment[edit]
German historian Detlef Garbe viewed the Declaration as part of the group's efforts to adapt at a time of increasing persecution. He said the use of the Zion's Glorious Hope hymn at the opening of the Berlin convention was an effort to make a good impression with the world and not a coincidence that the song shared the same melody as the German national anthem. He said the wording of the document presented the denomination as an organization with a positive attitude towards the German state and with common interests with the new rulers. Garbe said that in repudiating accusations that the Witnesses had received financial support from the Jews, the group "clearly distanced itself from another group under persecution". He noted the use of "anti-Jewish slogans" in the document, which was written less than three months after the boycott of Jewish stores in Germany,[14] but said the Witnesses were not guilty of antisemitism.[15] Yet Garbe said the Declaration's description of the Anglo-American empire as "the most oppressive empire on earth" did undermine the group's claims to political neutrality.[14]
Garbe said later publications of the Watch Tower Society had misrepresented the Declaration as a "resolution of protest" and had also falsely claimed that Balzereit had "watered down" the society's publications in his translation of Rutherford's original document. He said the criticism of Balzereit in the Witnesses' 1974 Yearbook was an attempt to place responsibility on the German branch leader for the society's attempts to adapt.[14]
Canadian historian Professor James Penton, a former Jehovah's Witness and critic of the group, claimed the Declaration was a compromising document that proves "that Watch Tower leaders were attempting to pander to the Nazis, for the Declaration of Facts and the letter to Hitler were in many ways saying exactly what the Nazis themselves were saying". Penton said the Declaration's "antisemitic" statements about Jews mirrored statements made in Hitler's Mein Kampf and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' 1927 essay Wir fordern[16] as well as those published by Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher as the Jewish boycott began.[17][18]
Penton said Balzereit's letter to Hitler accompanying the Declaration was "even more obsequious to the Fuhrer and to Nazi values than the Declaration of Facts":
In a five-page article in its Awake! magazine in 1998, the Watch Tower Society rejected accusations that it had attempted to curry favor with the Hitler regime or endorsed the Nazi's racist ideology. It said the Witnesses had not decorated the convention venue with swastikas or sung the German national anthem. It said:[7]
The Society said the denunciation of "commercial Jews" in the Declaration "clearly did not refer to the Jewish people in general, and it is regrettable if it has been misunderstood and has given cause for any offense." It explained that Jehovah's Witnesses rejected antisemitic views, and that the "high ideals" they shared with the Nazis were those of family values and religious freedom.[7]
Religious scientist Gabriele Yonan, who described the Declaration of Facts as a "petition", an "appeal" and a "sermon",[19] said its text, in the context of the history of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi regime, had nothing to do with antisemitic statements and currying favor with Hitler, adding, "These accusations made by today's church circles are deliberate manipulations and historical misrepresentations."[20] Yonan said the Declaration did not address Hitler as "Fuhrer" and did not conclude with the words "Heil Hitler", as was the case at the time in most official church documents addressed to state authorities.[21] She said the absence of influence by the antisemitic terminology of the period was evident from the Declaration's free use of Old Testament quotations that include the term "Zion".[21]
No comments:
Post a Comment