more pictures...

Persecution and Resistance of
Jehovah's Witnesses During the
Nazi Regime 1933-1945

408 pages, 27 color pictures, 81 photos and documents, 
dimensions 16.5 x 23.5 cm,
hardcover
ISBN 3-86108-750-2
translated from German

price: US$ 39.95

Prof. Michael Berenbaum, PhD (Professor of Theology at the University of Judaism, Los Angeles)
Dr. Detlef Garbe (Head of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial Museum, Hamburg)
Dr. Sybil Milton (b. 1941, d. Oct. 16, 2000, 1988-1997 Senior Historian of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Prof. Henry Friedlander PhD (Professor of History in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, City University New York)
Jolene Chu (Researcher specializing in the history of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Nazi era, at the international offices of the Watch Tower Society, New York)
James N. Pellechia (Associate Editor, Watch Tower Publications, Watch Tower Society, New York)
Wolfram Slupina (Senior staff at the German headquaters of the Watch Tower Society, Selters)
Johannes Wrobel (Head of the history archive of Jehovah's Witnesses, Selters)

We must be grateful for this book, deeply grateful. In essay after essay we read of the fate of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi concentration camps. Some of the essays tell large stories. The other essays tell small stories of a few individuals - stories that illuminate the whole. Part of this work addresses the situation of the Witnesses in Germany. On this I will offer no comment. Rather, permit me in my brief preface to situate the Jehovah's Witnesses within the totality of the Nazis' victims and to speak specifically to what is distinct about their particular experience.
It was John Conway who first suggested that the Nazis victimized some people for what they did, some for what they refused to do, some for what they were, and some for the fact that they were.
To illustrate: political leaders, social democrats, trade unionists, and dissenting clergy were victimized for what they did. Had they not engaged in their activities, they might never have been detained or arrested, harassed or persecuted by the Nazis. Roma and Sinti [Gypsies] were persecuted for what they were; their very being as members of a group was sufficient for the Nazis to subject them to arrest, persecution and, eventually, annihilation. So too, the mentally retarded, physically infirm, and emotionally distraught Germans were murdered because they were an embarrassment to the myth of Aryan Supremacy. "Life not worthy of living," they were called. Economic calculations directly influenced and were used to justify their destruction; so too, were scientific justifications. The so-called "euthanasia" program was enthusiastically endorsed by many scientists in Germany and even elsewhere.
Jews were victimized not because of what they did, nor because of what they were. They were targeted for destruction because of what their grandparents were. Thus, those who had converted from Judaism a generation before, Christian children of Christian parents, pastors, priests and nuns among them, were defined, segregated, isolated and murdered because they had "Jewish blood" within their veins, the inheritance of their Jewish grandparents.
Alone of all the groups targeted by the Nazis, the Jehovah's Witnesses were victimized because of what they refused to do. They would not enlist in the army, undertake air raid drills, stop meeting or proselytizing. They would not utter the words "Heil Hitler." Their dissent was irksome, disciplined and systematic. Even in concentration camps, if they signed the following document they could be released:

1 I acknowledge that the International Jehovah's Witness Association is disseminating erroneous teachings and using religion as a disguise merely to pursue subversive goals against the interests of the State.

2 I have therefore completely left that organization and have also spiritually freed myself from the teachings of that sect.

3 I herewith pledge that I will never again participate in the International Jehovah's Witness Association. I will immediately denounce any individual who solicits me with the heresy of the Witnesses or who in any manner reveals his affiliation with the Witnesses. Should Jehovah's Witnesses publications be sent to me, I will immediately deliver them to the nearest police department.

4 In the future, I will obey the laws of the State, and particularly in the event of war, I will defend the Fatherland with weapon in hand and totally become part of the national community.

5 I have been informed that should I violate today's declaration, I will again be arrested.

One marvels at how few signed such documents.

Survivors of the Holocaust, and even scholars of the Holocaust and ordinary Jews often use the term martyrdom to speak of Jewish victimization. In truth, the Jews were not martyrs during the Holocaust, at least not in its accepted sense, because martyrdom as understood by Jewish tradition entails an element of choice and Jews had no choice. To be more precise, in Lawrence Langer's terms, Jews faced "choiceless choices." Aside from physically escaping areas under German control or sequestering themselves where they could not be found by the Germans and their many allies, collaborators and informers, Jews were victimized. Conversion could not save them, renunciation of their faith or identity could not save them.
Jews had no choice. Jehovah's Witnesses did. As such, they are martyrs in the traditional sense of the term - those prepared to suffer and even to die for the choice of their faith. Their clear and convincing choice always deepens our understanding of Jewish choicelessness.
Jehovah's Witnesses were isolated and harangued from 1933 onward. Suspicion and harassment turned into bitter persecution as the Witnesses refused to surrender. Twenty thousand among 65 million Germans, the Witnesses entered the spiritual battle against the Nazis as soldiers of Jehovah in the war between good and evil. They taught that Jehovah's forces will defeat Satan. The Nazis could not tolerate such "false gods." Persecution began immediately in 1933 and continued until 1945. After 1937, Witnesses were sent to concentration camps. Outside the camps, Witnesses were forced to give up their children, jobs, pensions, and all civil rights.
Throughout their struggle, Witnesses continued to meet, to preach, and to distribute literature. Some five thousand Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they alone were "voluntary prisoners," so termed because the moment they recanted their views, they could be freed. Some lost their lives in the camps, but few renounced their faith.
Because they understood why they were suffering, they maintained themselves spiritually to a degree unusual among prisoners. Viktor Frankl once wrote, "whoever knows ›why‹ can endure almost any ›how‹." In many of the articles in this book, we can see an empirical test of Frankl's personal observation. Scholars have pointed out that the survival ratio of Jehovah's Witnesses was higher in the concentration camp than political prisoners and homosexuals. Their sense of community was greater as was their sense of purpose. Because Jehovah's Witnesses rejected "this world," they did not feel quite as defeated as the political prisoners nor as deprived as the homosexuals incarcerated in the camps.
Certainly, their survival ratio was higher than Jews, most of whom were gassed upon arrival and all of whom stood under a death sentence after 1942 from the moment they entered the camps. There may be other ways of accounting for the higher survival ratio of Jehovah's Witnesses. Their own religious beliefs precluded armed resistance. Committed pacifists, they could even serve as barbers to the SS and work in their homes outside of the camps. The SS did not fear that they would escape. I observe such behavior with great respect for the Witnesses' religious integrity even where I cannot commend such pacifism, especially under such circumstances. My sense of morality would require different behavior. My religion would command more militant action toward such evil. My faith is a "this worldly" faith. The details of this book and its many essays on specific camps and individuals prisoners will give the reader ample opportunity to reflect of Frankl's observation and to test the keenness of his insight.
After years of neglect, Jehovah's Witnesses have begun to document their own history. While for some, this may challenge the integrity of the history that is written, Jehovah's Witnesses are to be commended for confronting this painful past and bringing its material documentation to light. Jews, too, began by documenting their history within the community and its publications. It was only years later that more mainstream publishers began to develop an interest in the Holocaust. I have worked with Jehovah's Witnesses filmmakers and interviewers, I have attended public meetings, written introductions to books, and participated in panels. Never have I have found my freedom of inquiry or expression constrained even by the most subtle of pressures. I presume that is also true of all my non-Witness colleagues. So the appearance of this work under the auspices of its victim group should challenge neither its veracity nor its importance. We need more works on each of the victim groups if we are to understand the full dimensions of Nazi persecution.
My interest in Jehovah's Witnesses was sparked by my distinguished former colleague Sybil Milton who died last week. Both she and her husband Henry Friedlander have contributed to this volume. Her life was a blessing; so too, her memory.

Michael Berenbaum
Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the Holocaust
Richard Stockton College
October 2000