I never realized that Hitler's persecution of the Witnesses was worse than that of the Jews

by ThomasCovenant 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • goingthruthemotions
    goingthruthemotions

    Why oh Why must the BORG lie so much. how disgusting.....they depend on the fact that most of the R and F are followers with no desire to check the facts. Shit, they must buy cars without checking the CARFAX .

    GTTM

  • prologos
    prologos

    A KZ surviving JW complained bitterly to me about the demoralizing impact of the Rutherford DOCTRINAL changes on the MORAL of those inmates. . now,

    little did they in the camps, nor we know that this was all about power.

    To oppose Tyrants, war, is a noble cause, worthy for some to lay down their lives. The were PERSONAL sacrifices.

    for only THEM do I wish the 'christian' teachings to be true, talking snake and all.

  • kaik
    kaik

    On the Czech JW website there are some articles about JWs during WWII. Some of them got arrested and killed due their own stupidity like refusing wearing identification papers during martial law in 1942. They directly violated temporary laws where such punishment carried a deathl penalty within 24 hours. They wanted to play a martyr because they were told by Brooklyn than JWs do not need to wear identification papers.

  • QuestioningEverything
    QuestioningEverything

    you never knew about the jw's plight in nazi Germany?

    You should have grown up in my house! My mother read me experiences (horror stories to a kid like me). About the jw's back then. They were published in what I think was the old yearbooks back in the 70's and 80's. She read them to me daily at breakfast. Right before I was off to school to face the flag salute issue. LOL

    Does anyone else remember those comforting stories?

  • kaik
    kaik

    QuestioningEverything, many JWs did suffer, there is no denial on it. We had couple concentration camp survival in our KH. Even secular press and WWII research will tell that JWs were persecuted for their faith and killed for it. However, it was never black and white issue as some JWs did spent time in prison, not in extermination camps and other served as servants for high-ranking Nazi officials like Reinhard Heydrich. Imagine how 15 Jehovah witnesses working as a cooks and housecleaning living in chateau outside Prague deep in occupied territory which was well stacked, fed, and void of armed conflict until 1945. They did daily chores, while the Mastermind of Holocaust was planning a Final Solution. Not suprising when WWII ended some JWs were brought in front of people's court to face revolutionary justice for a Nazi collaboration. I have yet had to see any document of anyone to be convicted, but these accusations were there.

  • prologos
    prologos

    yes kalk, jws might have been persecuted for not supporting hitler enough, and then by the victors for not opposing hitler enough.

    I am thinking of Stalin's orders not to surrender, collaborate with the enemy.. german planes were build by ukraininian ladies abducted from the East.

    The V weapons build by unwilling foreign slave labor not JWS who would have not done war work. ,-- all candidates for reprisal by Stalin after victory.

    I recall Russian prisoner of war in 1944/45 telling us not to be afraid of the Russian army ( the tawarishes spared, liked kids) but they wanred chemicals to make poison tor avoid liberation by their countrymen. Russian emigre's comitting suicide on english docks rather to board ships to be turned over to the practioneers of Katyn.

    These were heroic times, a better world now, with easier questions: how do Jws deal with the doctrinal fiasko? what truth?

  • Terry
    Terry

    1. Without Rutherford's input, Russell's writings would not reverse the meaning and intent of Romans 13: 1,2.

    2. If you really want to know who knew about the death camps and when, read this: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/pius.html

    3. In the U.S. Rutherford's polices forced JW's to become sacrificial martyrs to publicize the devoutness of his new religion.

    In my book, I Wept by the Rivers of Babylon (A Prisoner of Conscience in a Time of War) I cite several examples.

    Example

    Trouble in America

    ___________________________________________________________________________________

    The self-contradictory attitude of Jehovah’s Witnesses toward guns, violence, pacifism and such may be difficult for mainstream Christians to grasp because it is so at odds with consistent historical Christianity. The following items may serve to inform the reader with greater clarity.

    "Do the Scriptures approve of a Christian’s defending himself against an unlawful assault and using force to repel such assault? Self-defense is the right of every man to ward off an attack and to use such force as to him appears to be necessary to safeguard himself from personal injury or injury to his property.

    The same right of self-defense may be exercised by him for the protection of his near relatives or close friends, his brethren.

    Such is the law of the nations or States, but that law does not rest upon traditions, nor upon the conclusions of men alone, but finds complete support in the Word of God.” [1]

    The dissonance of the above Statement is perplexing on the face of it because War is often self-defense on a larger scale. Nations only agree to self-govern for practical protection.

    June 10, 1940, Edwin Bobb was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. He was a congregation servant for the Kennebunk, Maine congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

    Bobb issued weapons to other local Witnesses and turned the Kingdom Hall into a firing platform, anticipating trouble from rioters. Then Bobb and fellow Witnesses waited in ambush.

    Some men showed up in a car and before it was over two men were wounded, one seriously.

    (Ironically the one seriously wounded is said to have had his life saved by administration of a blood transfusion without which Bobb would have faced a charge of murder.)

    The only firearms confiscated belonged to the local Witnesses. Police confiscated 5 rifles and 2 shotguns from the Kingdom Hall.

    Bobb was later convicted of attempted homicide. Attorneys Hayden Covington and Charles Smith were counsel for Bobb. After his incarceration, Bobb worked at Bethel and on special foreign assignment for the Watchtower from 1948 until 1956.


    [1] The Watchtower, September 15, 1939, pp. 279-280

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Terry - "In the U.S. Rutherford's polices forced JW's to become sacrificial martyrs to publicize the devoutness of his new religion."

    That guy SO got what he deserved in the end (rectal cancer; pun intended)

    To quote Outlaw from another thread:

    "WBT$ President Rutherford lived like a rotten asshole... WBT$ President Rutherford died of a rotten asshole."

  • Terry
    Terry

    That is OUTLAW'S most profound slogan yet!

  • HeyThere
    HeyThere

    Part of me feels wrong for laughing at Outlaws quote...but dang that is funny!

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