History of Persecution in Germany
Immediately after the National Socialists came into power and Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich by Hindenburg in 1933, the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany began. The reason for the persecution was to be found in the beliefs of the Witnesses, who would comply with measures and regulations of the state provided they did not clash with religious teachings. For instance, their adherence to the commandment that one must obey God more than man would inevitably lead to an authority conflict, because the authority of the National Socialist’s leaders went against Bible principles. Because they believe that glory belongs to God, Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to make the Nazi salute or take the oath.1‘Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12; KJ21). It was unacceptable to them to ascribe salvation to man.2The relevant scripture reads: ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in a son of man in whom there is no help’ (Psalm 146[:3]; KJ21). See also Aigner 2000, p. 10 f. To honour the Nazi flag and hang the flag out of their houses would be a denunciation of their faith.
Every Jehovah’s Witness received the commission to spread their teachings and thus bear witness to the ‘truth’, thereby causing an additional conflict with the National Socialistic government.
The absolute prohibition on killing according to the fifth commandment, made it essential to refuse military service and all activities connected to armament or war economy.3See Zipfel 1965, p. 179 f. and Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 22.
The persecution began on 28 February 1933 with the Verordnung zum Schutz von Volk und Staat.4Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State (Reichstag Fire Decree) (February 28, 1933). The government suspended the constitutional rights of the Constitution of Weimar thus providing conditions for house searches and confiscation of the Witnesses’ printed matter. By the end of June 1933, a ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Prussia followed, for the following reasons:
‘The International Association of Bible Students and associated organisations have in word and writing, under the cover of so-called scientific Bible research, made an unmistakable smear campaign against State and Church. Because they stigmatise both as organs of Satan, they undermine the pillars of civil society. In their numerous writings (according to the publications: Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 18 onwards, War or Peace, Prosperity Sure, Banner for the People, Crimes and Disasters, Heaven and Purgatory, The Crisis and other writings) they mock the institutions of State and Church by consciously and maliciously twisting Bible teachings.
‘Their battle methods are characterised by fanatically influencing their members. By no mean amount of funds, they gain a strong offensive by using their Cultural-Bolshevik defragmentation methods.
‘Their influence on a large section of the population rests in part on peculiar ceremonies that turn followers into fanatics and directly disrupts the spiritual balance in the circles concerned.
‘The association mentioned is clearly in opposition to the current State and its cultural and moral structures. That is why the ‘International Bible Students’, according to their own battle goals of course, see the Christian National State as an especially formidable opponent, against which they must fight radically. […] The threat of this Society’s schemes to the current State is enhanced because they have a striking number of former members of communist and Marxist parties and organisations in their midst. They had hoped to find a hiding place in this seemingly pure religious society, that would make their camouflaged political battle against the current government system possible. The Association of Bible Students and their societies are therefore favouring Communism and are on the brink of becoming a gathering place of the most diverse elements with hostile intent towards the State. […] For protection of the people and the State against communist favouritism and to bolster the public order and safety, they will be disbanded.’5From: Zürcher 1938, pp. 75-77, Dokument des Ref. 11 1316a/23/6/33; cited after Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 26 f.
With this ban the Prussian Ministry of the Interior made it clear that the government would stop the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which they held on par with the activities of communists. As early as 1933 a few Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested and searches of the homes of members of the religious community increased.
The American representation protested against the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses exercising their religion in Germany and referred to a decision of the Reich from 1930 which confirmed that the International Association of Bible Students was a philanthropical and non-political organisation. They gave the assurance that the religious community was associated with neither Jews nor communists and was solely based on Bible teachings. This resulted in the restoration of the impounded possessions of the Watchtower Society Magdeburg (Prussia). However, the preaching activities and the meetings of the Bible Students remained prohibited.6See Zipfel 1965, p. 181; Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 24; Yonan 1999, p. 23 f.
In 1934 Rutherford wrote a letter to Hitler in which he protested against the unjustified persecution and discrimination of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Rutherford urged Hitler to stop the persecution and to accept the scriptural basis of the religious community.
This letter went unanswered, and the result was that the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses intensified. Thereupon the organisation started its first international campaign. Groups from Europe, America and Canada made known their indignation about the bad treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses by sending thousands of telegrams to Hitler urging him to stop persecuting their brothers and sisters or else God would destroy the national party.7See Yonan 1999, p. 28 f. Meetings in Lucerne (1936) and in Basel (1937) were held, in which resolutions were sent to Hitler and to the Pope. In June 1937 an open letter was distributed in Germany in which they protested against the torture and abuse by judicial authorities and the hostile attitude of the Nazi party towards Christianity. Swiss documentation includes acts of protest by the Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses, termed a ‘Crusade against Christianity’. This corroborates the application of resources, as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses’ opposition to a totalitarian regime of the Nazi dictatorship.8See Yonan 1999, p. 29.
According to Zipfel, the resolution of Lucerne in 1936 was a direct declaration of war on Hitler, an attack on the State. Arrests followed swiftly and harsher punishments were imposed on the Witnesses. Upon interrogation, the persecuted Bible Students were presented a so-called renouncement declaration, which they had to sign. It read as follows:
‘I,……………………………………………………
born on ……………………………………….
in……………………………………………………
herewith make the following declaration:
‘I have come to know that the International Bible Students Association is proclaiming erroneous teachings and under the cloak of religion follows hostile purposes against the State.
‘I therefore left the organisation entirely and made myself absolutely free from the teachings of this sect.
‘I herewith give assurance that I will never again take any part in the activity of the International Bible Students Association. Any persons approaching me with the teaching of the Bible Students, or who in any manner reveal their connections with them, I will denounce immediately. All literature from the Bible Students that should be sent to my address I will at once deliver to the nearest police station.
‘I will in the future esteem the laws of the State, especially in the event of war will I, with weapon in hand, defend the fatherland, and join in every way the community of the people.
‘I have been informed that I will at once be taken again into protective custody if I should act against the declaration given today.
…………………………………………………..,
Dated………………………..
…………………………………………………
Signature’9Translation of the declaration of renouncement for Jehovah’s Witnesses, cited after Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 53.
Neither abuse nor contempt could persuade the imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses to sign the document. Only a few caved in under pressure and (formally) renounced their faith by signing the written statement presented. The Bible Students saw in their being persecuted not a judgement from God, but the end battle of ‘Harmagedon’ for the establishment of the thousand-year reign of God’s kingdom. To them it was the battle of the righteous against the antichrist, who was also proclaiming a thousand-year reign. For Jehovah’s Witnesses, this was an imitation of the Devil and a test which had to be resisted. To faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses, signing the declaration that would free them, would be a denial of their faith.10The war especially was seen as ‘Harmagedon’, in which mankind is troubled by Hitler’s fight, the ‘king of the North’, against the Allies, the ‘king of the South’, and by which the world’s time of the end is heralded. See Zipfel 1965, p. 179; Yonan 1999, p. 34.
The Bible Students, type-cast as ‘religious fanatics’, were not only imprisoned but also locked up in sanatoria and psychiatric institutions. As early as 1938 Zürcher mentions a Bible Student who died in a sanatorium and whose body was covered in syringe marks.11See Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 62. This indicates that the authorities of the Nationalistic Social regime had tried to ‘bring Bible Students to their senses’ by means of pseudo-medical practices. The measures they used usually resulted in death.
The Nazi government took targeted action to destroy the economic existence of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Post Office and railroad employees were discharged almost without exception, as were labourers and other civil servants. Even though their superiors and colleagues knew them to be very conscientious, honest and industrious employees, the National Socialist authorities were rigorously against Bible Students in service of the government. The reason usually was that they refused to bring the ‘Hitler salute’. Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums12Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. usually formed the legal base for dismissal.13See Garbe 1999a, p. 165 f.; Füllberg-Stolberg et al. 1994, p. 322.
The National Socialist authority increasingly extended its influence on all groups in society and focussed its attention on the education and care for the youth. ‘The state wanted the upcoming generation body and soul.’14Fraenkel 1974, p. 86. The National Socialist powers watched over the execution of their highest command, ‘the exclusive love for the Fuhrer, loyalty to the state’15Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 64. and they did their best to achieve this. Many Bible Students were relieved of their parental rights and their children were taken away and placed in special reprogramming camps or Nazi institutions.
Some Bible Students were denied the right to take care of their children, because according to Nazi ideology the mental welfare of the children was in great danger because of their parents’ beliefs. It was impossible for children and teenagers to evade nationalistic propaganda, which was everywhere. At school, in Hitler’s youth organisations or in youth camps – they were constantly confronted with the ‘Hitler salute’ or singing the national anthem.16See Graffard/Tristan 1998, pp. 64 and 69; Füllberg-Stolberg et al. 1994, p. 323. Jehovah’s Witness Hermine Schmidt, survivor of the Stutthof concentration camp, relates the following in her biography:
‘I liked school […] but now, at this time [1935, addition by the author] everything was different. You had to learn to make yourself small and invisible in a way, to put up with the contempt, the ridicule and bullying, and to bear injustice, great or small. This was an […] assault on your self-consciousness, […] a great challenge for a child who would in normal circumstances seek recognition. It wasn’t just about the Hitler salute. It was the festivals, the gifts, the pressure to join the Young Girls’ League. So many things were involved that I usually went to school with a real sense of dread.’17Schmidt 2001, p. 82 f.
Hermine Schmidt relates in her memoirs of herself as a ten-year-old girl plagued by tummy aches because she feared the marches, the singing and the Hitler salute in school, which were forbidden by her religious conviction.
Pupils refusing to bring the Hitler salute disrupted the order in school, according to the Nazis. The school management would request the court to expel these pupils from school and give them a temporary re-education, a ‘vorläufige Fürsorgeerziehung gemäß §67 des Reichsgesetzes für Jugendwohlfahrt’.18Provisional welfare education in accordance with §67 of the Reich Act for Youth Welfare. That was to ensure an adequate upbringing.19See Graffard/Tristan 1998, p. 69.
Particularly contradictory in the National Socialist ideology, is that many who were incarcerated in concentration camps were put to work in childcare in SS officer’s families. On the one hand the Bible Students were accused of having a harmful influence, even threatening the mental well-being of their children. On the other hand, the National Socialist machinery exploited the inmates – putting them in charge of their own children. In the women’s concentration camp of St. Lambrecht, a Dutch Witness, Toos Berkers, was entrusted with the care of SS officer Stadler’s children, who lived in the town of St. Lambrecht. Berkers’s arrest and deportation separated her from her own children, who were sent to a monastery, to be brought up there, far from the influence of the Bible Students.20PA, interview Berkers, Toos, 16-10-2002.
The enforcement of ‘Schutzhaft’,21Protective custody. later also called ‘Nachhaft’ led to many Bible Students being robbed of their freedom long after the court-ordered punishment. If an immediate transfer to a concentration camp was not possible, an incarcerated Jehovah’s Witness would be locked up in a police jail.22See Zipfel 1965, p. 189. The living conditions there were degrading as well.
Jehovah’s Witnesses were, along with ‘political opponents’, among the first victims of the Nazi regime to be incarcerated in concentration camps. The original purpose of this ‘protective custody’ was to make someone inactive as a ‘political opposer’ combined with his re-education, but as the war dragged on their exploitation as ‘work-slaves’ became more important.23Moreover, the mass destruction in the concentration camps irreparably counteracted economic growth; one of the many paradoxes of the National Socialist concept. See Zipfel 1965, p. 192.
Because they were known as reliable workers, the camp authorities had little interest in releasing the Bible Students. They would only be released by signing a statement in which they denounced their faith. Despite the bullying, the mistreatment and the executions in the concentration camps, only very few Bible Students made use of this possibility.24See Zipfel 1965, p. 193 f.
In the summer of 1944 Heinrich Himmler ‘discovered’ Jehovah’s Witnesses for his National Socialist conquest policies. In a letter to the head of the Gestapo, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler wrote:
‘A couple of experiences and insights of recent date have led me to concoct a plan that I would like to bring to your attention. It involves the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the issue with the Cossacks and with that, the matter of Vlasov. My considerations further address the full query: How are we to govern and pacify Russia after we have conquered it – which in the coming years most certainly will happen – and we have conquered vast stretches of its territory? […] We must do even more to bring the people in the hinterland into a peaceful and disarmed situation with us. The thought of letting them have their own form of National Socialism is madness. But the people must have a religion or world view of some sort. To support the Orthodox Church and let it revive is foolish, because they oppose the organisation of national unity again and again. To allow the Catholic Church in, would be equally foolish. It is unnecessary to discuss this viewpoint. […] All forms of religion and the sects that cooperate in pacification should be supported. For all Turkish peoples the Buddhist faith comes to mind and for all other peoples the teachings of the Bible Students. It is known that the latter have characteristics that are unbelievably positive for us: aside from their refusing to do military service and of having anything to do with war, all “destructive activities” – as they see it – they fiercely oppose the Jews and the Catholic Church and the Pope. Besides that, they are incredibly sober, they don’t drink, they don’t smoke; they are good, honest workers. They keep their word. They aren’t out for wealth and status, because that would endanger their everlasting life. It’s obvious that these are ideal characteristics, and sincere, staunch, idealistic Bible Students […] have enviable qualities. […] Therefore, the opportunity arises of giving all the reliable Bible Students in the concentration camps positions of trust in which a monetary or otherwise material responsibility is involved; to make use of them for this purpose and treat them exceptionally well. With that we give ourselves the basis for the deployment of Bible Students in Russia in the near future and with that to have messengers through whom we can pacify the Russians by letting them spread the teachings of the Bible Students.’25Duplicate of an unsigned copy of a secret, handwritten diary — Nr. 39/51/44g, dem Archivstempel “Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer SS — Schriftgutverwaltung — Akt.Nr. Geh./ 20” und dem handschriftlichen Vermerk “überarbeitete Fassung”. (‘Personal staff of the Reichsführer-SS — Archive administration — Act.Nr. Geh./20’ and the handwritten note ‘revised edition’) (cited after Zipfel 1965, p. 200 f).
This letter, that creates a place for the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the ‘Thousand Year Reich’, forms an image of Himmler’s barbaric and absurd delusions of power.
There is no indication that Jehovah’s Witnesses received any better treatment in the last months in the concentration camps before the caving in of the Nationalist State, aside from the fact that they were given more agricultural duties. From reports of survivors, it seems that some female Bible Students were deployed in the household of the SS as caretakers and maids, because the beliefs of the Bible Students allowed for no thoughts of escape.
In the inhumane circumstances in prisons and concentration camps Bible Students kept their moral integrity because they stayed faithful to God and drew strength from their faith. A later chapter will discuss whether the persecuted Bible Students were able to keep their psychological integrity as well.
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