Why PurpleTriangles?

hungry4life

Recently I had the opportunity to go to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. One thing stuck in my mind, the Purple Triangles. I have not been in a kh for over 3 years. But somehow it disturbs me to think that the witnesses were singled out as the only religious group (besides the Jews) to be persecuted, to the extent that they even had a specific color of triangle just for them. Why? I know their must be a reasonable explanation (besides the standard JW answer "for being God's true people" ) can anybody out their help me with this question? Are my facts correct? History is not my strongest subject. Thanks

dungbeetle

* http://www.holocaust-trc.org/Jehovah.htm

this doesn't totally answer your question, but there is a book written by a gentleman by the name of William J Schnell, called "thirty years a watchtower slave" it was the first 'apostate' book I ever read, and one of the first ever written. The book is very sad, but very enlightening.

In it, Schnell's family are Americans that move to Germany just before...you guessed it..Hitler's rise to power. If I can summarize...Jehovah's Witnesses during Rutherford's time began a hate campaign against the major religions. Rutherford has seen how much money people were willing to give to say the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church and I believe the Mormon Church as well. He determined that he wanted some of it for his organization.

So began the campaign. In fact Rutherford became known worldwide as a foe against organized religion, even having Bible Students marching around the U.S. and England with placards saying..'Religion is a snare and a racket'. and other such things. Coupled with the Bible Students unwavering determination not to do ALTERNATIVE SERVICE plus organized marching campaigns early Sunday mornings when people were normally asleep, American citizens who up untill then left Bible Students/Jehovah's Witnesses alone began slowly to become riled. The Bible Students of course claimed it was 'opposition from Satan against God's preaching work', but in reality it was the WAY they were carrying the message,the particularly obnoxious way it was worded, and also the fact that the Bible Students wanted to sell books at the doors, collect money, and not pay taxes on it, that was causing the problems. If they had worded their message differently, been kinder and more respectful to their intended audience, (as Jesus had done, as Russell had done) things may have turned out differently. But the Bible Students did things the way Rutherford told them to, to their great sorrow.

The negative publicity and the lawsuits garnered Rutherford everything he wanted, and he liked it so much, he instituted the same in Germany. There he had the Bible Students also march with placards, calling the religious organizations,leaders, and the people in them names, saying (since 1919) only Bible Students would be saved. The Bible Students even taught that Germany would win the War and then the end would come, bringing destruction to 'Babylon the great!!

Needless to say, this hardly endeared them to the members of those religions. As Hitler rose to power and began his campaign of terror against his enemies real or perceived, he turned his attention against these people who predicted his defeat. Somehow the major religions escaped the brunt of his wrath, but the Witnesses, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews and physically and mentally handicapped got the rest of his insane rage against the world backed by his military might. Interestingly enough, this scene was played out again and again across Germany: Hitler's goons would target a Witness family, arrest some or all of the members, vacate the premises, and seize the property.

If the Witnesses had not gone the Rutherford route, loud obnoxious, rude to people regarding their views toward Christendom and its members,that they were all going to die die die if they didn't become Witnesses because only Witnesses had the truth (and remember the 'end' already hadn't come in 1879, 1914, 1915, 1919, and 1925) perhaps they would not have found themselves all alone when Hitler came for them, as he was bound to do. That and the Witnesses refusal to do Altrnative service again. The other religions were happy to get these religious nuts with their unfulfilled doomsday prophecies out of their hair, and they were happy besides that Hitler had found someone to go after besides themselves. I am not trying to excuse the religious groups for their conduct...just present one viewpoint on events over there.

Again, if the Witnesses had gone the Russell route instead of the Rutherford route, how different things might have turned out for them. Certainly the enmity the Witnesses had created between themselves, and the churches and governments and citizens of their home countries, with their 'die die die' message, their 'only JW's will survive' message, and their history of unfulfilled prophecies did not work in their favor during the war. It still doesn't.

* http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/lautmann.html
another viewpoint on the Jehovah's Witnesses and Hitler. It isn't light bedtime reading, but I found it interesting, thoughtful and insightful.

Hope this helps, or at least gets you started.

dungbeetle...cleaning up the crap.

MacHislopp

Hello Dungbeetle,

thanks for the nice and informative post.

You've described the Rutherford's era, in a very concise way.

Thanks for the links, I'll look at them.

Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp

Gopher

Dungbeetle,

I visited the Holocaust museum three summers ago with my family, and it was really hard to take!

I had always wondered what brought such wrath upon the JW's during the Nazi regime. We had been sold the idea that it was the Witnesses' "fearlessness" in exposing the false hopes held out by the major religions and governments. But this post helps us to see that it was really the irritating and hateful METHOD that the JW's were trained by their Governing Body (under Joseph Rutherford) to employ, that brought all this needless suffering and persecution.

Thanks, this was very thought provoking.

GopherWhy shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Tina

Hi Hungry,
From my personal reading many many more nuns,priests and other clergy were victims of the Holocaust(Shoah) than JW's.
I'm not saying this to minimize the atroocity perpetrated against any group,but there numbers were not large compared to all the others.
I'll have to dig up some old books,but more often than not,they weren't marked for immediate extermination as the others.And oftentimes had preferential jobs in the camp heirarchy.
If I'm wrong I'll stand corrected here,but that's what my reading over the years has shown me. Interesting post! Thanks.Tina

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

WildHorses

I would like to add soemthing to what Tina wrote. I read a lot on the Holocaust and another group who were treated badly and even worse than the JWs, were the Homosexuals. Try doing a web search on the Holocaust. There are many sites out there.

Lilacs

Tina

Hi again Hungry
Kent has documentation that shows only 635 JW's actually lost their lives. He has great info -see the Watchtower Oberserver for Jw history regarding that era.
Hi Lilacs! Good suggestion! luv to all,Tina

Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."

Pathofthorns

I think that although those German Witnesses were mistaken in their viewpoints, I do admire that they died for something they believed in. I give anyone credit for holding fast to their ideals in the face of such horrible treatment and death.

I find the information on Kent's site regarding the 1933 Declairation and convention and how innitially Rutherford tried to befriend Hitler interesting. The late '90s Awake article printed by the Society justifying their anti-semetic statements made in that declairation is very disturbing as well.

The Society milking these deaths for all they are worth in the last several decades is really sad. These people who gave their lives testify to the strength of the human spirit to remain steadfast in the face of death despite a corrupt organization that sold them out.

Path

bboyneko

Would you admire me if I died in a horrible concentration camp for refusing to say that the great squirrel god did not exsist and that when I died I would go to a heaven inhabbited by sports illustrated swimsuit models? Would you admire me if I died there even though the only thing I had to do to get out was sign a peice of paper?

I don't know if it is admirable as much as stupid.

-Dan

SixofNine

I see where you are coming from, oh Squirrel Nut Poster, but with all due respect to the Squirrel God, our God Jehovah was workin' it in some way or another since we wuz jist tee-niney sourkrauts.

Why PurpleTriangles?

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