Rutherford's love letter to Hitler

by irondork 56 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Band on the Run

  Your statement can be viewed as antiSemitic. Jews determine what constitutes their religion. They have the legitimacy to do so. You do not.

  If you made statements about Christianity, you would realize how wrong you are.

  The problems with Christians is that we hijacked the Old Testament to use it for very different reasons than it was written.

  There are messianic references to be true but a Jewish analysis of Psalms, such as Psalm 23, reveals a very different state of affairs than most Christians are taught. Christians find express and implied references to Jesus of Nazareth in almost every verse of the OT. Heck, the church hijacked Revelation from its early church usage.

  It is not for you to define Judaism. I am Christian and I cannot define Christianity.

  How do you know the Talmud is wrong and only the Torah or OT matters? You are not God or master of the universe.

  The Talmud interprets the OT.
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  DATA-DOG

  Who translated this letter? Do we know it is accurate? Where is the original? Just curious, seems like a really big deal. I can't believe it is NOT in some museum somewhere. If someone translated it again would it match what was posted? This should be put under the windshield wipers of cars at every KH.
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  Band on the Run

  I can not believe that they do not have a copy of the letter. This is hardly the first thread detailing the letter. I am glad that people post it frequently b/c it shows such evil and hypocrisy. Rutherford contributed to an outlook that caused millions of deaths. As I said, I was conssitently told since I was a small child how evil the WWII Pope was and how holy JWs were.

  I know from past threads that at the very least several former Witnesses have done graduate academic work in this area. It was news to me but I don't specialize in JWs and the Holocaust.

  I assume the relatively new HOlocaust Museum in Dc has a copy and that the Jersualem museum also has one. Besides copies of the letter, there must be dissertions or theses available on this topic, if not regularly published books.

  No one has ever challlenged the wording in this forum. Certainly, no one has posted a refutation of the text from the WT. I wonder if this letter was not in Nazi archives. I will try to telephone the museum tomorrow to see what I can learn.

  Various people post. I believe portions of the letter are available in WT publications.

  This is also surmise. Running down facts is time consuming. The letter is consistent with attitudes described by people who knew Rutherford. If I find a credible copy, how are my bona fides established? In other words, what level of proof do you want?

  Since so many thousands of Witnesses participated in the protest in Germany, would publication in a reputable German newspaper during the time frame of events be proof enough?

  We are not auction house authenticators here. Well, maybe someone is.
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  NoStonecutters

  Band, if you have a problem with what I said, then you have a problem with what leading rabbis say: that the Talmud is the most authoratative book in Judaism, not the Torah. But that is beside the point. Jesus cannot be called a Jew by today's definition of the term, which has exclusively Talmudic applications. And I didn't say the Talmud was wrong. But the Talmud contradicts the Torah. They are not harmonious. I guess you didn't bother to learn that there is a great divide within Judaism as to Torah-centric Jews and Rabbnical-centric Jews. Torah Jews have been oppressed for many years by Talmudic (Orhtodox and Kabbalist) authorities.
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  Leolaia

  Re Garbe:

  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 religion's claims to political neutrality. [14]

  The document takes a position on the boycott issue; it is critical of Catholics and Jews in America who "insult" the government of Germany by mounting a counter-boycott against Germany. I can't understand how the references to "commercial Jews" in that document at that particular historical moment can be anti-Jewish but not antisemitic, especially considering how the German Declaration made an explicit reference to the counter-boycott. Similarly the Hitler letter expressed agreement with the principles ("just principles") in the Nazi Platform that included fighting the Jewish commercialist spirit at home and abroad. The statement about the boycott seems to me to express a solidarity with this principle ("the announced principle").

  Anyway I haven't read Garbe (or at least not recently) so I cannot comment on what he says specifically.

  It's interesting that the historian no.2, James Penton is the only one who scathingly accuses the JWs of being anti-semitic and he was an ex-jehovah's witness. So, like many of us on this discussion board, hardly unbiased.

  Regardless of whether he is biased or not (and it is fair to say that he is), the Society did make statements at the time that were antisemitic (in terms of economic antisemitism, punitive supercessionism, blaming Jews for their own persecution, etc.).

  "Be it known once and for all that those profiteering, conscienceless, selfish men who call themselves Jews, and who control the greater portion of the finances of the world, will never be the rulers in this new earth. God would not risk such selfish men with such an important position" (Golden Age, 23 February 1927, p. 343). "Jesus was telling in parabolic phrase what was coming upon the Jewish nation. A few years after His crucifixion the Jews were cast away and the Gentiles, represented by the pauper, came into God's favor. Thus we see that the Jewish nation, represented by 'the rich man', ceased to exist and, as a nation, went to hell" (GA, 15 October 1930, p. 58). "It is noted that Judah and the land of Israel had commercial intercourse with Tyre, and doubtless from Tyre the Jews learned how to cheat their fellow man....The Jews were evicted from Palestine and 'their house left unto them desolate' because they rejected Christ Jesus, the beloved and anointed King of Jehovah. To this day the Jews have not repented of this wrongful act committed by their forefathers" (Vindication, Vol. 2, 1932, pp. 70, 257-258). "Even to this day the Jews are the greatest merchants in the earth, and it is selfish gain that leads them in that course and causes them to ignore Jehovah and his Word. The turning away of the Jews from Jehovah and the turning to the Devil brought great violence upon themselves as well as upon others" (Watchtower, 15 December 1933, p. 373). "The Jews have always been opposed to Christ Jesus the King...The international bankers are backing the League of Nations with their money. Many of the strong men in that financial power are called Jews but they are not Jews in fact. It is true that they are descendents of Hebrew stock, but the word 'Jew' or 'Judean' properly means one who serves and praises Jehovah God; which the international bankers do not. They have made gold their god" (GA, 23 May 1934, pp. 520-521). "The people now on earth and which are called Jews are a commercial people. Among them are some of the richest and most avaricious men the word has ever known. Some of the chief men in Big Business are called Jews. Many of these people are very arrogant, self important and extremely selfish" (Favored People, 1934, p. 5). "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, 1937, p. 281).

  At the same time, they were also critical of antisemitic violence and antisemitic propaganda, including the Protocols of Zion, which they denounced as forgeries (Golden Age, 4 January 1933 pp. 209-210; 11 September 1935, p. 775-776, 9 October 1935, p. 6). So it wasn't a one-sided thing. I think Rutherford played into popular antisemitic sentiment when backpedalling from earlier Russellite Zionism and later when responding to accusations that JWs were Zionists and propped up by Jews, while also condemning antisemitism (particularly overt hatred, discrimination, persecution, and racial antisemitism). And those condemnations were forceful. But that does not negate the fact that other statements were prejudiced.
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  kepler

  One of the places I found the Declaration was in the JW 1934 Yearbook. I found it on line.

  The Yearbook back then gave detailed breakdowns of activities country by country, when it could spare ink from ranting about Armageddon, Satan, his organization, popes, Jesuits, etc. On page 127 there begins a report about activity in Germany. And on page 131, after some introduction, appears the text to the Declaration of Facts, continuing to page 143. After entry of the Declaration of Facts with all its condemnation of the US government and identifying its ruling oligarchies, the 1934 Yearbook notes:

  "Since then negotiations have been in progress between the Society’s representative, the Department of

  State at Washington, and the German Government in Berlin. The result is that early in October this year

  the German Government entered an order for the release of all of the Society’s property and turned it

  back into possession of our representatives; but the order forbidding the activities of the Society is still

  in force, and this is a violation of the treaty between the two governments regarding religious liberty, and

  negotiations are still in progress to get these restrictions removed.

  "Many of the brethren throughout Germany have been arrested and thrown into concentration camps, and they have been in great difficulties We are certain, however, that the Lord has permitted this for a purpose, and Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany are not discouraged. They well know that they are engaged in the work of Jehovah and whatsoever is his will will come to pass. Whether the work is done in Germany or not we are not able to say. We will wait on the Lord, watch for his leadings, and act accordingly.

  "The zeal and earnestness of Jehovah’s witnesses throughout Germany during the time that they were permitted to engage actively in the work has shown a marked increase, and the results show that they did a splendid service. This report for Germany embraces about six months of the year.

  "The reports received at the Magdeburg office up to the time that the work was suspended, the mail seized and all work stopped, show the distribution of books and booklets m Germany as follows: bound books, 490,333, and booklets, 4,661,583. Over the same period of time this was a decided increase over last year. During that brief period of witnessing testimonies were given to the number of 10,735,571, as against 13, 788,796 for the whole year 1932. …"
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  glenster

  "The Golden Age," various issues 1930-1934
  http://archive.org/details/1930-1934TheGoldenAgeMagazine

  "The Golden Age," 1935
  The Gentile Front seems to be bad propaganda. It maintains the so-called
  "Protocols of Zion" are of Jewish origin, despite the fact that this has been
  proved false wher-ever the courts have looked into it. Nothing could be more
  devilishly narrow-minded, more fiendish, more contemptible, than the so-called
  "New Germany" to which The Gentile Front looks up and upon which The Golden Age
  looks down with loathing inexpressible. The Jews are money lovers, granted; but
  they are not pig-headed wild beasts.
  http://archive.org/stream/1935TheGoldenAgeMagazine/1935_goldenAge_djvu.txt
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

  Maybe this says it: it's like Rutherford is the president of Chick-fil-A and
  Hitler is the president of Iran.
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  Black Sheep

  The 1934 Yearbook is online

  http://www.aggelia.be/yb1934.pdf

  The declaration starts at page 131
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  Jaime l de Aragon

  Jehovah's Witnesses despised the Jews in the concentration camps
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  Leolaia

  Thanks for pointing that out glenster, I hadn't seen that reference before.

  "The Jews are money-lovers, granted; but they are not pig-headed wild beasts".

  From the 9 October 1935 issue of the Golden Age (p. 25). That perfectly sums up the mixed attitude the Society expressed towards Jews at the time.