Account of Jehovah's Witness Women Prisoners in Auschwitz (very creepy)

by objectivetruth 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OrphanCrow

  "...it was pure racial hatred"

  Actually, it wasn't pure racial hatred. The hatred was politically motivated.

  The hatred was directed towards the Bolsheviks - a political organization that was founded and controlled by the Jews.

  Hitler had an intense hatred towards the communist organization that had taken control of Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He feared that the political situation in Germany at the time was threatened by the same Bolsheviks that had established themelves across Germany's borders. Jews were synoymous with Bolsheviks.

  He opposed communism - his default position was fascism.
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  prologos

  OC you are way more knowledgable than I on this matter. The Nazi's hate for the jewish people had a religious flavour, it was the clergy that had to supply the exonerating ancestral Baptism certificate after all, but took on an racist genetic character when even jews that had totally assimilated were rounded up. Just as a large number of JWs TODAY are unaware of the origin and ramifications of the new-light. procedure changes, the innocents in the 1930 jw worldwould have to fall back on basic "Christian- lutheran" teachings to steer through the mine-fields for survival.

  In the smelly, end-of the world climate of Auschwitz, that would have been a relief , both real and figurative, for the masters and the servants.
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  OrphanCrow

  I think the quote that the op made from Hess' book concerning the Jehovah's Witness women needs context. There is much about the happenings within the Society, their shifts in doctrine and power struggles that need to be understood to be able to better understand the position that the women took.

  Firstly, one of the things that is badly misrepresented by the Society is that they were 'one religion' during WW2 when they were not. There were two distinct divisions within Germany of their religion of the time. When you read of accounts of 'the Jehovah's witnesses' and accounts of Bible Students, we have learned to lump them both together and use the terms interchangedly, quite simply because the Watchtower Society does - they claim 'ownership' of the Bible Student statistics during the Second World War when they are not entitled to them. The Bible Students weren't part of the Watchtower Society at the outbreak of WW2. And, the differing accounts that have been recorded historically reflect the internal politics of the Watchtower Society and how they were struggling for power within a political maelstorm. WW2 actually served to 'divide the flock' for them - right inside of Nazi Germany.

  To back up a bit, the tumultous years following Charles Russell's death in 1916 saw many things happen within the power base of the Society, and with those changes came doctrinal changes that aligned them with political ideology as well. The Society was notorious for sticking their nose into world politics.

  This began with Russell's very public stand in support of a Zionist State of Israel - he even published a Yiddish newsletter at one time in addition to many travels abroad to promote his notion of a Zionist State. Russell's involvement in the promotion of Zionist Israel had much support within the Society after his death and the shift in the doctrine concerning that position was consistent with who stayed with the Society and who stayed with the Bible Students. This is critical to understand when contemplating the history of the Watchtower involvement in WW2.

  Those who backed Rutherford and his ruthless struggle for the power to control the coffers of the Watchtower Society were those who also held his political views - the same views as the people who financed Rutherford's Beth Sarim project in California.

  Those who didn't - the ones who still held to the views of Russell and who he was connected to politcally, like Hudgings, for example, were the Bible Students.

  The Watchtower religion within Germany (and elsewhere) was fractured - those who followed Rutherford's new theology/politics and those who didn't. Two very distinct groups.

  To back up again for a bit - back to WW1, there is something that the Society has swept uder the rug. And that is the matter of what happened in Germany with the Bible Students.

  The Bible Students in Germany, during WW1, joined the ranks of the German Army. They fought, and died, as soldiers on the front lines for Germany. Charles Russell, in the Watchtower magazine, gave his support for those Bible Students and even encouraged the women Bible Students to keep the men on the front line well fed with encouraging letters and, of course, Watchtower material.

  Now. Hitler. He also served at the front for Germany in WW1. Hitler was first and foremost and always a soldier. It was one of his reasons for his contempt of the intellectual class - he saw them as pansies and parasites of society because they didn't fight during the war. Hitler was patriotic to the extreme and was contemptuous of anyone who he saw as impeding Germany or contributing to Germany's defeat in WW1. And, one thing that really annoyed him was the evangelists that had served at the front lines in that first war. He saw the evangelist material as demoralizing the troops and that those men had harmed Germany's position rather than helped. And that is why he had such extreme hatred for the Bible Students, along with the Seventh Day Adventists and Baptists.

  But, those Bible Students who still supported Hudgings and that faction were no longer Rutherford's political allies and that was what Rutherford and Knorr tried so hard to correct.

  And you do see a difference during WW2 in how the 'JWs' were treated - some accounts are horrific and yet, on the other hand, many accounts reveal the 'better' treatment of JW concientious objectors. Wewelsburg Castle priviledges, along with positions of trust within Himmler's financial arm of the SS, and other placements of service to the SS, reveal another side to what really happened during WW2 concerning the Jehovah's Witnesses.

  The Watchtower Society, in their attempts at revisionist history, have shamelessly exploited their falsehoods concerning what was really happening in Germany.
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  blondie

  The WTS had a different approach about the Jews during Russell's and Rutherford's early years.

  The WTS felt that they Jews would be reinstated as a nation on earth.

  James Penton said:

  During the first half of their history, the Bible Student-Jehovah's Witnesses were

  notable for their sympathy to the Jews. Even more than most late nineteenth- and

  twentieth-century American Protestant premillennialists, the Watch Tower's first

  president, Charles T. Russell, was a thoroughgoing supporter of Zionist causes. He

  refused to attempt the conversion of the Jews, believed in the Jewish resettlement

  of Palestine, and in 1910, led a New York Jewish audience in singing the Zionist

  anthem, Hatikva. [1] For more than a decade after Russell's death in 1916, Judge

  Rutherford followed in his footsteps.

  In 1925 he produced a small book entitled Restoration, based on a series of radio

  broadcasts he had given, and in 1926 he published a similar volume called Comfort

  for the Jews. In both, he proclaimed himself a friend of the Jewish people and

  asserted that Jewish migration to the ancient Holy Land was a fulfillment of

  biblical prophecy. Identical Publisher's Forewords to Restoration and Comfort for

  the Jews stated:

  THE rebuilding of Palestine is claiming the attention of Jews throughout the

  earth. Some of the Gentile world powers are outwardly favoring the

  movement but manifestly for selfish reasons.

  JUDGE RUTHERFORD, known throughout the world as a friend of the

  Hebrew people, is vigorously supporting the claim of the Jews to the Holy

  Land. He is opposed to proselytizing the Jews, holding that such is not only

  wrong but contrary to the Scriptures. His lectures to large audiences, which

  have been broadcast throughout the world, on "JEWS RETURNING TO

  PALESTINE", have created an intense interest. There is a good demand for

  them in printed form. He has simplified these lectures and now presents

  them in book form. This volume will be of profound interest to Jews and

  Gentiles alike. It is the first unbiased presentation of the subject from the

  Scriptural viewpoint published.

  The Publishers send forth this volume confident that it will do much good.

  In 1930 Rutherford produced a larger volume on the same theme called Life.But

  suddenly he repudiated his beliefs respecting the Jews. Life was withdrawn from

  circulation,[2] and in 1932 Rutherford proclaimed that "fleshly Israel" had no

  specific role to play in salvation history.

  http://www.jwfacts.com/pdf/nazi-penton-declaration-of-facts.pdf
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  designs

  Blondie
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  Apognophos

  Welcome to the board, OrphanCrow! Very interesting post. I hadn't considered that the Society was claiming the Bible Students as their own during WWII. Were there Students in the camps alongside JWs?
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  rebel8

  Wow, thanks for posting that.

  I would think it is logical that the hardest working, trustworthy, ones who wouldn't preach to children happened to be assigned to work in the homes of officers. As another poster pointed out, this seems to just speak to the individual personalities and not the general group.

  And then he goes and makes the generalization about "all of" them having the same attitude about Jews--which we know exactly mirrors what wts put in its publications about Jews.

  Don't know what to make of this--the source, the statements, etc. Wow though.

  OP, may we have the title of the book?

  OrphanCrow, omg--interesting stuff.
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  breakfast of champions

  Very interesting stuff, ORPHANCROW..
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  zeb

  Strongly recommend the book, "While six million died".
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  LisaRose

  Wow, very interesting Orphan Crow. I was aware of some of it, but certainly not all. It's always amazing to me how much JW history has been sanitized, most JWs have no idea of the true history of the organization they belong to. I certainly did not after thirty years of being a part of it. They bash the Catholics for their deeds throughout history, while hiding their own unsavory actions and beliefs.

  The Watchtower is like an onion, so many layers of stupidity.

  I think it was around 1983 that they published some of the stories about the concentration camps and the Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany. I remember because my daughter became obsessed with being put in a concentration camp after hearing the stories in the yearbook. She was eight, it was very hard to convince her it was not likely to happen to her.