Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics under Persecution

by James Penton

Overview

Since the end of World War II, leaders of the Jehovah's Witness movement in both Germany and elsewhere have steadfastly argued that Witnesses were united in their opposition to Nazism and did not collude with the Third Reich. Documents have been uncovered, however, that prove otherwise. Using materials from Witness archives, the U.S. State Department, Nazi files, and other sources, M. James Penton demonstrates that while many ordinary German Witnesses were brave in their opposition to Nazism, their leaders were quite prepared to support the Hitler government.

Penton begins his study with a close reading of the "Declaration of Facts" released by the Witnesses at a Berlin convention in June 1933. Witness leaders have called the document a protest against Nazi persecution, however closer examination shows it contained bitter attacks on Great Britain and the United States - jointly referred to as "the greatest and most oppressive empire on earth" - the League of Nations, big business, and above all, Jews, who are referred to as "the representatives of Satan the Devil."

It was later, in 1933 - when the Nazis would not accept Witness blandishments- that leader J.F. Rutherford called on Witnesses to seek martyrdom by carrying on a campaign of passive resistance. Many ultimately died in prisons and concentration camps, and postwar Witness leaders have attempted to use this fact to assert that Jehovah's Witnesses stood consistently against Nazism.

Drawing on his own Witness background and years of research on Witness history, Penton separates fact from fiction during this dark period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802086785
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/14/2004
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	420
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

M. James Penton is a professor emeritus of history and religious studies at the University of Lethbridge.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Foreword	xi
	Preface	xvii
	A Note on Titles, Sources, and Terminology	xxi
	Introduction	3
1	The Watch Tower Society's Attempted Compromise with Hitler	6
2	Watch Tower Holocaust Propaganda and Responses to Charges of Compromise and Anti-Semitism	29
3	Evaluating the Arguments and the Evidence	63
4	Rutherford's New Nation - 'The Theocracy' in America	100
5	German Bible Student-Jehovah's Witnesses, 1902-1933	136
6	Jehovah's Witnesses in the Crucible of Nazi Persecution	160
7	Riding the Holocaust Bandwagon	208
	Conclusion	236
Appendix A	Background Chronology	241
Appendix B	A Watch Tower Society 1929 Anti-Nazi Statement	251
Appendix C	Documents Relating to the Watch Tower Society's Attempt to Compromise with Nazism	256
Appendix D	U.S. State Department Documents Relating to Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany in 1933	297
Appendix E	Documents Relating to the Watch Tower's Attacks on Nazism	312
Appendix F	German Watch Tower Attempts to Escape Nazi Persecution	324
Appendix G	Nazi Documents Relating to the Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses	335
Appendix H	Character Descriptions of J.F. Rutherford	363
Appendix I	An Analysis of the Numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses Imprisoned and Killed in Nazi Germany	374
	Bibliography	383
	Index	395