Posts by slimboyfat

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

The Awake! magazine said that the names of concentration camps such as Dachau were unknown before the end of World War 2. This is false.

Historian Laurence Rees states that they were very well known worldwide and quotes a number of sources to make the point. But he is not even trying to prove the point, he is merely stating the fact. Because outside of the 1995 Awake! the idea that names such as Dachau were "unknown" is itself pretty "unknown".

The extent to which the outside world knew about the Holocaust from 1942 onwards is a separate issue which does not relate to widespread knowledge about concentration camps. JWs were inmates of concentration camps from 1933 onwards and spoke about their experiences there, as did many others, as worldwide media reported.

JWs were not sent to extermination camps (unless they were also Jews) when the Holocaust began, so they could hardly report about it.

I suggest you read more about the subject to appreciate the distinction between concentration camps and extermination camps, and between JW experience in concentration camps and Jews during the Holocaust.

14

Always ask an Elder before sharing posts!

by Tahoe in

jw
friends

.

lol.

slimboyfat

In the about section:

About
Watchtower Governing Body Member since 1999
One of seven members that run the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania in Brooklyn, New York.

This is incorrect the GB no longer hold positions in the Watchtower Society, nor is "Watchtower Governing Body Member" terminology they use.

14

Always ask an Elder before sharing posts!

by Tahoe in

jw
friends

.

lol.

slimboyfat

The fb page claims he along with the rest of the GB "run the Watchtower Society". No GB member would ever claim that, they've been denying liability for the Watchtower for close to two decades now.

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

Rees said newspapers "around the world" carried stories about the camps, not just one. He also cites books that published details of the camps to the outside world.

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

Claiming that Dachau and the other concentration camps were "unknown" to most people before 1945 is pretty unambiguous. And false.

19

I am giving everyone on the board...

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

a new commadment to the posting guidelines.

we must love one another.. if i read the posting guidelines and saw the lurking presence of that new commadment " we must love one another" i would feel very uneasy about registering.

it sounds more like a threat than an expression of love.

slimboyfat

Matt 10:34 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

Love is evil.

https://youtu.be/hg7qdowoemo

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

I would like to go. I have never been.

Yes it's odd that the Awake! would say Dachau and Auschwitz were "unknown" to the world. They were very well know. Rees's comment here was particularly clear concerning Dachau in particular.

And there was an international campaign to get the Allies to bomb Auschwitz for example. Odd behaviour if no one even knew the name.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008041

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

Laurence Rees makes the point that early concentration camps like Dachau (built in 1933) and Sachsenhausen (1936) should not be confused with the later extermination camps such as Treblinka, whose sole function was murder. JWs had little experience of the later death camps, the experiences they related were in relation to the concentration camps. Rees states that Dachau and other concentration camps were well known worldwide and the atrocities were publicised from the start.

The Holocaust: A New History (2017), Laurence Rees p.74.
But while Beimler was justified in calling Dachau a 'murder' camp, given that a small number of prisoners were killed there during this period, these concentration camps should not be confused with later extermination camps - like Treblinka - whose only function was to kill. Appalling as the regime was at Dachau before the war, the majority of those who were sent to the camp at this time survived the experience.

11

Which Religions Forbid Outside Research?

by AnonVet in

my definition of a cult is just this:if you are not allowed to research outside of your religion's published sources, you are in a cult.what other religions (cults) are there that absolutely forbid outside research on threat of punishment / shunning?

slimboyfat

It's not quite true of Mormons. It may be that ordinary Mormons are told to avoid critical literature. At the same time they have a small army of academic Mormons who do little else but read and refute literature critical of the church; activity sanctioned by the church, and much of it in collaboration with Brigham Young University. JWs have nothing comparable to this.

19

Watchtower alternative fact - JWs were among the first to expose concentration camps

by slimboyfat in

i am currently reading the new history of the holocaust by british historian laurence rees and it reminded me of a comment in the awake!

magazine i read years ago and trusted as factual.

i quote both passages without comment.

slimboyfat

I am currently reading the new history of the Holocaust by British historian Laurence Rees and it reminded me of a comment in the Awake! magazine I read years ago and trusted as factual. I quote both passages without comment.

Awake! 8/22 1995.
Although Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen were names unknown to most people until after World War II, they were well known to readers of The Golden Age and Consolation. The reports of Jehovah’s Witnesses, smuggled out of the camps at great risk and publicized in Watch Tower literature, exposed the murderous intent of the Third Reich.

The Holocaust: A New History (2017), Laurence Rees, pp. 73 and 74.
The Nazis did not hide the concentration camps. Their existence was well known and newspapers around the world carried stories about them. On 1 January 1934, for instance, the Manchester Guardian accurately described the reality of life in the so-called bunker in Dachau... The consequence of works like Im Moerderlager Dachau, and Juda verrecke. Ein Rabbiner im Konzentrationslager, together with articles in the Manchester Guardian and other newspapers, was that the brutal nature of the Nazi regime was known to the world from the beginning.