Leolaia
Re qte Awake!: see last paragraph
1933 Letter from JW's to Hitler and Nazi Party
by kwr 60 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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glenster
I've seen many of the anti-Semitic things in JWs publications. For balance, does anyone know a link to about 5 or 6 things they published in late '39 to '43 or so about the persecution of the Jews in Germany? (I remember they were kind of matter-of-fact, like the news made for a better way to criticize human government than badmouth the Jewish religion for the JWs leaders' prophecy pretensions.)
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Leolaia
The publications were avowedly anti-fascist during the war (and the run-up to the war) and condemned Hitler and his persecution of the Jews in the strongest of terms, usually via anti-Catholic rhetoric, at the same time expressing sympathy to the Jews. The positive statements about the German government were made only in 1931 and only in documents directed toward the German government and the German populace. From 1932 onward, Rutherford took a very hardline stand against Germany and against fascism, convinced as he was that Nazism was a plot hatched by the Vatican. In some articles, he departed from earlier statements that criticized the Jews collectively for the actions of the Pharisees centuries earlier and blamed the Devil for the Jews' persecution:
*** g39 11/15 pp. 16-18 Jews ***
Within many nations of the earth Jews are cruelly persecuted. Is there any good reason why any person should be persecuted merely because that person is a Jew? There is no just cause or excuse to persecute anyone. There is no reason or just cause for the persecution of the Jews.... The common people amongst the Jews believed Jesus, and received Him gladly; but their religious leaders rejected and persecuted Jesus. The persecutors of Jesus were leaders of religion, that is, the Pharisees, doctors of the law, who taught the Jewish people. The leaders of the Israelites, called "Pharisees" and "doctors", indulged in the practice of religion... Jehovah God had caused His prophet to foretell that such perseuction would come upon Jesus by that class of persons (Isaiah 53:1-12). This fact explains the cause for the persecution of the Jews, and from what follows it will be seen that all perseuction is induced by the Devil... The Devil knowing that his time is short until the final battle of Armageddon, he has ever since attempted to turn all men against God and Crist in order to bring about the destruction of the people. He therefore increases the persecution upon all persons connected with the name of Jehovah. While it is true that the Jews as a nation have been cast away, yet the Devil, by causing their persecution, expects to induce the people to believe that God cannot hold to himself those with whom he made a covenant...
The Jews suffer cruel persecution at the hands of those who practice religion of one kind or another. For instance, Hitler has his peculiar religion, which is clearly the product of the Devil. Christians in Germany and elsewhere in the earth suffer persecution at the hands of religionists because Christians serve God and publish His name and His kingdom. All persons who desire righteousness refuse to indulge in the persecution of others, regardless of what others may believe. While it is true that the Jews are not Christians, yet because that nation and people once bore the name of Jehovah God, even though they were cast away as a nation, they are still the objects of the Devil's hatred and he induces their persecution as a further reproach to the name of the Almighty God. No doubt many Jews do wrong, but that is no reason or excuse for their persecution. The present generation of Jews are in no wise responsible for what the Pharisees and others did nineteen centuries ago. Because of their name the Devil hates them and causes their cruel persecution.
Note that the Jews are mainly collateral damage to the Devil's primary target, Jehovah's people. In contrast to the statements made in Vindication (1932) and elsewhere, modern-day Jews do not share collective guilt for the actions committed by the Pharisees long ago. But the very next issue of Consolation made a more negative statement about the Jews that reflects Rutherford's earlier views more closely, that sees the political fortunes of the Jews in Palestine as reflecting the collective Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah:
*** g39 11/29 p. 12 Palestine ***
Judge Rutherford, in his study of the prophecies, has stated that never again will the Jews gain possession of Palestine. And it is beginning to look like in actual fact. Jew religionists continue to reject the Messiah. They can hardly look for Jehovah's favor as long as they continue in that course.
However this does not necessarily contradict the view in the earlier issue, as it only implies that Jehovah offers no protection to the Jews that the Devil mercilessly persecutes. The same issue criticized the Catholics for joining in with Hitler to eliminate the Jews:
*** g39 11/29 p. 7-8 A Critical Review of Mein Kampf ***
The Jesuits no doubt joined Hitler in his Jew-baiting and were delighted to find a means of eliminating Jews rather than baptizing them as was done in the glorious days of Inquisition... The facts will show that what really has taken place is, the abrogation of German law and its replacement by Papal laws. These might be indicated as below:
(a) The resurrection of the old Papal laws in restraint of the Jew -- reinstitution of the ghetto, peculiar dress and systematic robbery...
(f) Merciless torture of "heretics" and "Jews"; among the former, [Pastor Martin] Niemoeller and Jehovah's witnesses.
Niemoeller of course is the putative author of the "When they came for me, no one was left to speak out" poem.
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GermanXJW
You find the Watchtower's official response here:
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slimboyfat
Leolaia,
The author categorizes Penton as "ex-member testimony" rather than as an "academic writer", setting aside Penton's academic credentials as a religious historian and leaving the impression that Penton gave only personal testimony rather than a researched thesis. The author's characterization of academic writers as "neutral" in opposition to both Penton and the Society also constructs Penton's criticism as based on his ex-member status rather than his research.
When I wrote a dissertation on this subject I had trouble in how to categorize Penton and his new book. He was published by an academic press, his writing conforms to academic stylistic conventions, and he is a professor emeritus after all. On the other hand there are clearly reasons why Penton's book does not sit so easily on the shelf alongside the work of historians studying JWs during the Third Reich.
1. Rather than seriously engaging respected historians such as Detlef Garbe and Christine King as fellow academics he seeks to stigmatize them as "Watchtower apologists". This is no more striking than in his sexist comments intended to demean King's contribution to the Stand Firm video as those of a giddy "schoolgirl". This is not the level of argumentation one hopes to find in a balanced academic study of ay sort.
2. Penton includes a protracted discussion of why he feels ex-member testimony should not be dismissed, taking on Bryan Wilson and others who have claimed that such needs to be viewed with extreme caution. So in some sense it may be argued that Penton almost invites the characterisation of presenting "ex-member testimony" and also includes his explanation as to why that is no bad thing in fact. So maybe Chryssides is taking Penton himself as his point of departure on this.
3. By seeking to align himself with the polemicist Norman Finkelstein who speaks out against the 'Holocaust Industry' Penton also sets himself up more as a controversialist in some ways engaging in his own form of sectarian politics rather than as purely a historian documenting sectarian politics during the Third Reich as he claims on the cover.
4. Whereas academic authors will spell out their methodology very clearly: conscious, frank and explicit about shortcomings and the skills they bring to a particular discussion, polemicists often puff up credentials and obscure deficiencies. What I find alarming about Penton's book is that despite the many German documents in the appendices, he displays little evidence of fluency in German. Does Penton read German at all? Despite the primary sources in the appendices, the enormous secondary literature on JWs during the Third Reich in German is very conspicuous by its almost complete absence in the bibliography apart from a couple of obligatory texts - and even those he very rarely cites. I find this troubling on two levels: 1) if Penton was largely/entirely reliant on help from some German friends in making use of the German primary sources why was he not explicit and frank about his methods and language abilities? 2) more fundamentally you could ask what business does a historian who is not fluent in German have undertaking such a study to start with?
5. Although Penton was published by an academic press he makes it clear that the scope of his book was substantially edited before publication. He presents this as largely a matter of space, but it is not too hard to read between the lines and his expressed wish that he could have dealt more with "historiography" (my goodness the book is pure historiography as it stands!) to see that there may have been some concern among those called to review the book about its polemical tenor.
6. There is also the matter of misdirection in the development of the book which is not characteristic of an academic approach. The book purports to be a history of JWs during the Third Reich. Actually only 60 pages present a narrative for JWs in Germany during that period, and even those pages are less concerned with JWs in Germany than they are with Penton stating his own personal judgments on J F Rutherford. The book starts with a foreword contributed by Larc in which he states that it is fallacious to try to psychoanalyse the dead, and then proceeds to do just that, finding Rutherford somewhat wanting. But that turns out to be no aberration: as the book thus begins, so it develops. Although it claims to be a history of JWs during the Third Reich, it is clealy more focussed on promoting an apostate agenda as far as reconstruction of Rutherford's character in particular is concerned.
Slim
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glenster
Thanks for the Rutherford quotes!
Rutherford meant to include his followers among those persecuted and turn the
responsibility away from how he mishandled the situation and brought harm to his
followers. As with Russell's teaching, the "religionists" he equated with the
Pharisees of the time of Jesus' ministry on Earth were the leaders of Christen-
dom (meant disparagingly).Rutherford may not have been in favor of facism for human government but
played false prophet with his cooked up "144,000" elitism. One irony is that
while he propagandized against Christendom, generalizations should refer to
what's mostly true, and most JWs were in the US where, there and elsewhere, more
Christians fought to defend against the Nazis. He had followers bash outsiders
with sound trucks (over-ruling 1 Cor.10:32-11:1), such as with a hope that all
who weren't in agreement with his specialties would soon be killed by God.His listeners didn't miss the point that this was his arrogant contribution--
a condemnation of them when they were already too troubled fighting the Nazis.
One way his "144,000" elitism was meant to be established with expanded rules
about what "worldliness" means, and it was an especially expensive cynical scam
considering these indulgences put followers in harm's way unnecessarily, espe-
cially in Germany, from the safety of his mansion.One exception to Rutherford's sympathy for Jewish persecution (or victims of
bashing generally):1937 Regarding the Roman Catholic church: "Amongst her instruments that she
uses are ultraselfish men called ‘Jews’, who look only for personal gain, and
who therefore readily yield to and join with the Hierarchy in any unrighteous
schemes." ("Enemies," J.A. Rutherford, 1937, p.281)The consistency I see is in bashing outsiders in a centric way.
After the Night of Broken Glass, Nov.,1938, German Watchtowers or Consolations began report-
ing atrocities against Jews in Germany. Does anyone have any other quotes from those? -
glenster
All I've found so far are otherwise are references--see about 1/2 down on this page ("Witness literature contains...."):
http://www.baycrest.org/If_Not_Now/Volume_2_Spring_2001/7135_7337.aspThe story on the Pope through the period looks a little more complex than
Rutherford's "144,000"-centric propaganda indicated:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Pope
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII -
badboy
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alcyone
One important statement from this letter is usually not brought to attention and I consider that statement to be extremely shocking.
In some parts of the country measures are being taken against an association of earnest Christian men and women which has positive Christianity as its foundation.
Maybe we do not see anything special in these words now, but Hitler and co. definitely did. JW's stated they are founded on the positive Christianity. The term "positive Christianity" was used by Nazis to describe some NS flavor of Christianity without the old testament and "Jewish influences".
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity
It was mentioned also here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/239256/rutherfords-love-letter-hitler-remix