Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Resistance
The German anti-Semitism researcher Wolfgang Benz describes resistance against National Socialism as a common denominator for the attitude, stance and actions against the ideology of the National Socialist rulers.1See Benz 1990, p. 180-196. In a strict sense resistance had the purpose of contributing to the demise of the dictatorship. In fact, resistance means to act in rejection of National Socialism, contributing to the end of the regime. Motivation could be political, religious, ethical, socialistic or personal. This means that every conscious attempt to withstand the totalitarian regime and the willingness to take on the dangers that come with it, can be viewed as resistance.2See Yonan 1999, p. 41.
The question of what should be regarded as resistance against National Socialism, is not without controversy.3For Austria: see Luza 1985, p. 25; Botz 1983, p. 137 ff.; Neugebauer 1986, p. 61 ff. In the Federal Republic of Germany resistance was defined until the 1960s as being ‘motivated by a troubled conscience and love of the fatherland and was aimed at recovery of freedom and justice by using means such as conspiracy and subversion by civil, clerical and military elites.4Garbe 1999a, p. 515. A definition characterised by the effect an act would have on the relationship between the authorities and society followed. For example, according to Hüttenberger resistance would lead to a deed that would lead to rejection of certain actions.5See Garbe 1999a, p. 516. In Austria the definition of resistance varies. As was originally described in the law on victim support, members of the resistance are in a narrower sense, ‘persons, who took up arms for an independent, democratic Austria, conscious of their historic task […] who battled for and have made an unconditional effort in word and deed’. A broader definition is given by Karl Stadler: Given the authorities’ demand for absolute obedience, ‘every form of opposition in the Third Reich can be viewed as a deed of resistance’, even if this only involved a ‘personal attempt to remain honourable’.6See Stadler 1966, p. 12.
Gerhard Botz made a distinction between the purpose of individual resistance and consciousness on which it was based. He describes the following forms of resistance: political resistance (distribution of pamphlets, graffiti, hanging up posters, attacks, coup attempts, organised strikes, petitions, pastoral writings, passing on messages, conspiring, sabotage, partisan battle); social protest (just keeping contact, aid actions, go-slow strike actions, refusal to comply, memoranda, sermons, jokes about leaders, criticizing the regime, spontaneous strikes, stepping down from an office, emigration, demonstrative visits to church, refusing to bring the Hitler salute, spreading rumours, contact with enemies of the regime, listening in on conversations); rejective behaviour (clandestine slaughter, absenteeism, desertion, vandalism by youngsters, ‘apolitical’ crime).7See Botz 1983, p. 137 ff.
According to Detlef Garbe Jehovah’s Witnesses did not commit any acts of resistance against the National Socialistic dictatorship from an antifascist-democratic sentiment. Their steadfastness based on a religiously motivated refusal of the demands of the Nazi regime, was a matter of spiritual self-preservation. Jehovah’s Witnesses decided to oppose the National Socialist regime completely consciously. Their motivation was religious by their wish to exercise their faith without restraints, according to Garbe. It was not the intention of Jehovah’s Witnesses to change the political order by their reluctant attitude.8See Garbe 1999b, p. 18. Although the members of the Bible Students community in word and writing opposed Gleichschaltung or the process of Nazification in organised form, Garbe is of the opinion that their resistance was not a purposely political opposition. In the ideology of Jehovah’s Witnesses, their striving for a replacement of the National Socialist authorities, was the expectation of not a worldly government, but a Divine government, ruled by God and not by man.9See Garbe 1999a, p. 539.
Because the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses sees itself as outspokenly politically neutral, the question arises as to whether their non-conformist behaviour against the National Socialist regime was a matter of entirely spiritual conflict, as uninvolved ‘witnesses’. And although the motivation for the oppositional behaviour of the Bible Students was not antifascist or democratic, it in any case complied with humanitarian ideas and Christian values. In this I would like to refer to Reinhard Moos, who for every factual act looks at how it relates to the political dimension.
Acting from a religious motivation cannot be viewed separately from its political effect, according to Reinhard Moos. The rejective stance of Jehovah’s Witnesses was thus not a neutral sentiment, because this religious community consistently refused the absolute demand for obedience by the totalitarian State. The National Socialist system declared them enemies of the State – so they were treated as such and were radically counteracted.10See Moos 2000, p. 43 ff.
The refusal of Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance, to wage war on Hitler’s ideology, to honour him with the prescribed salute and recognise his authority, to make themselves useful for the war economy and thus profiting the ideological system, cannot be seen as passive, politically neutral behaviour of individual members of the religious community. I do not think that what constitutes resistance is determined by where the motivation originated or what the reason is for the continuation of anti-ideological (or in this case anti-fascist) behaviour. Resistance means not heeding political guidelines, pitting oneself against the existing system and to question the existing regime and thus not only to doubt the existing regime but to bring about change by actions against the system.
The underground work of Jehovah’s Witnesses also shows similarities to the organisation of a political resistance group. The Witnesses fixed up illegal printing presses, constantly recruited new members, and supported their repressed sisters in the faith with gathered funds.11See Milton 1999, p. 24.
The ’logic of absolute faith’12Yonan 1999, p. 36. made it possible for the Bible Students to resist without violence, so that even the vicious methods of the National Socialist authorities could not force them to do otherwise. The price they paid for this pacifistic resistance was in many cases their own life. ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses can rightfully say they have defied evil. The Biblical commission to be true followers of Christ, they have fulfilled in a literal sense.’13Yonan 1999, p. 37. That is exactly what survivors expressed when they said that they have come out of the concentration camps as winners. They were true to God and above all, to themselves and their conviction, under the most inhumane circumstances imaginable.
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