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Letter to Hitler

One of the groups that Hitler sent to concentration camps were Jehovah's Witnesses. They were forced to endure unspeakable atrocities and many lost their lives. The individual actions of many Witnesses are commendable and the Watchtower holds up this part of their history in great esteem. What is not discussed is the hypocritical actions of Rutherford in the lead up to these events.

In 1933, Rutherford sent a letter to Hitler and then subsequently printed the 1933 Declaration of Facts. Current Watchtower references provide a deceptive portrayal of these documents, through selective quoting. The Proclaimer's book mentions that Rutherford wrote a letter to Hitler under the context of "facing Nazi oppression", in which the Watchtower Society is made to sound as if they were firmly against the Nazi regime.

"Therefore, on June 25, 1933, a declaration regarding their ministry and its objectives was adopted by Jehovah's Witnesses at an assembly in Berlin. Copies were sent to all the high government officials, and millions more were distributed to the public. Nevertheless, in July 1933 the courts refused to grant a hearing for relief. Early the following year, a personal letter regarding the situation was written by J. F. Rutherford to Adolf Hitler and delivered to him by special messenger. Then the entire worldwide brotherhood went into action.

On Sunday morning, October 7, 1934, at nine o'clock, every group of Witnesses in Germany assembled. They prayed for Jehovah's guidance and blessing. Then each group sent a letter to German government officials declaring their firm determination to keep on serving Jehovah." - Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimer's Of God's Kingdom p.693

It is quite shocking to find the opposite is true. This can be seen when reading the content of Rutherford's 1933 letter to Hitler and the subsequent Declaration of Facts that later appeared in the 1934 Yearbook.

Rutherford was anti-Semitic and the contents of Rutherford's letter praise Hitler for his anti-Anglo/American campaign and his stance against the Jews.

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge a copy of the letter in German.

Following is an English translation of the 1933 Letter to Hitler.

"Dear Reichskanzler,

The Brooklyn headquarter of the Watchtower Society is pro German in an exemplary way and has been so for many years. For that reason, in 1918, the president of the Society and seven members of the board of directors were sentenced to 80 years in prison, because the president refused to use two of the magazines published in America under his direction for war propaganda against Germany. These two magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Bible Student" were the only magazines in America which refused to engage in anti-German propaganda and for that reason were prohibited and suppressed in America during the war.

In the very same manner, in course of the recent months the board of directors of our Society not only refused to engage in propaganda against Germany, but has even taken a position against it. The enclosed declaration underlines this fact and emphasizes that the people leading in such propaganda (Jewish businessmen and Catholics) also are the most rigorous persecutors of the work of our Society and its board of directors. This and other statements of the declaration are meant to repudiate the slanderous accusation, that Bible Researchers are supported by the Jews.

The conference of five thousand delegates also noted - as is expressed in the declaration - that the Bible Researchers of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimed respecting the relationship of humans to God, namely: honesty of the created being towards its creator.

The conference came to the conclusion that there are no contradictions when it comes to the relationship between the Bible Researchers of Germany to the national government of the German Reich. To the contrary, referring to the purely religious and unpolitical goals and efforts of the Bible Researchers, it can be said that these are in full agreement with the identical goals of the national government of the German Reich.

We are looking forward to your kind approval, which we hope to receive soon, and want to assure our highest respect to you, honorable Mr. Reichskanzler.

Yours faithfully,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Magdeburg"

The Watchtower 2011 Oct 1 p.14 mocks other Churches by asking:

"Did Hitler receive letters of protest from church officials concerning the outrages perpetrated by the National Socialists, or Nazis? There were some, but such letters were few and far between. In the Moscow archives, however, Eberle found a file containing a number of letters sent to Hitler by Jehovah's Witnesses from different parts of Germany, protesting against the conduct of the Nazis."

In light of the official Watchtower letter sent to Hitler, this comment is nothing short of hypocritical.

Rutherford went on to release the "Declaration of Facts". This showed the Watchtower's support of the German governments stance against Jews. Click here for an English translation of the Declaration of Facts in text format.

The declaration of facts was reprinted in the Yearbook 1934 pp.134-138. It went on to state in part:

"It is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial support for our work from the Jews. Nothing is farther from the truth. Up to this hour there never has been the slightest bit of money contributed to our work by Jews. We are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe upon Him as the Savior of the world, whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus Christ and emphatically deny that he is the Savior of the world sent of God for man's good. This of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we receive no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are maliciously false and could proceed only from Satan, our great enemy. The greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold of Big Business. This fact is so manifest in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York which says: The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.

The present government of Germany has declared emphatically against Big Business oppressors and in opposition to the wrongful religious influence in the political affairs of the nations. Such is exactly our position.

Instead of being against the principles advocated by the government of Germany, we stand squarely for such principles, and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus will bring about the full realization of these principles and will give to the people peace and prosperity and the greatest desire of every honest heart.

A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our publications and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness.

Let us remind the government and the people of Germany, that it was the League of Nations compact that laid upon the shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens. That the League of Nations compact was not brought forth by the friends of Germany."

The Awake! 1995 August 22, page 7 makes it appear that Nazi opposition was because Witnesses did not support Nazi ideologies.

"The Nazis did not intend to tolerate any refusal to support their ideology."

Yet, this was not the sentiment of the Declaration of Facts, which tried to portray sharing similar ideologies with the Nazis.

"The present government having declared adherence to the aforementioned high ideals, we are persuaded that the rulers do not desire to knowingly resist the progressive witness work to the name of Jehovah God and his kingdom which we are now carrying forward."

In 1943 the Swiss Watchtower Branch sent another Declaration of Facts requesting leniency for Witnesses. This dishonestly stated:

"We expressly state, that our association neither commands nor recommends, nor in any other way suggests, acting against military orders. Questions of that sort are dealt with neither by our congregations nor in the Society's published literature... We have at no time presumed and at no time shall do so, to view the performance of military duty, as laid down by your statutes, as an offence against the principles and aspirations of the association of Jehovah's Witnesses."

It may be difficult to understand why Hitler banned the Witnesses after such praise, so it is necessary to recognise the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the letter. During the time of Rutherford, Witnesses were known as a religion of hate, due to the ongoing tirade of insults in Watchtower publications against other Churches and governments. The Catholic Church come under the greatest condemnation and bought this to the attention of the Nazi government, petitioning against the Watchtower Society. Rutherford's letter and declaration were an effort to appease Hitler, but to no avail. The result was that Jehovah's Witness suffered unspeakable atrocities in Nazi concentration camps. Many individuals displayed tremendous courage and conviction. It is sad that this suffering was unnecessary and a result of the words and actions of Rutherford.

The Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) CV-96-4849 is a fund to compensate people suffering from the Holocaust. As stated at swissbankclaims.com/index.asp (3 Mar 2006)

"This is the official information website for the Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation against Swiss Banks and other Swiss Entities. You may have important rights under a proposed $1.25 billion (U.S.) Settlement of a class action lawsuit against private Swiss Banks and other Swiss Entities for their alleged conduct related to World War II and the Holocaust."

In 1999, the Watchtower Society applied for compensation payable to itself. As of September 28th, 2009 www.swissbankclaims.com contains the letter from the Watchtower Society, or Click Here for a PDF copy of the Watchtower application letter. Included is a request to receive a portion of the funds on the following basis;

"Some Witnesses died prematurely and left no heirs to make a claim to the Swiss Bank Settlement Fund. However, the legacy of spiritual resistance that they left behind is of great value in the education of future generations about the importance of standing up for the dignity and value of human life. Representing these individuals, the Watch Tower would be pleased devote any allocated moneys solely to the interests of Holocaust education and the remembrance of the prisoners who bore the purple triangle, according as the court might stipulate."

Links

For more detailed information by Professor James Penton go to bible.ca/jw-penton-3rdreich.htm.

   Paul Grundy  2005 - 2011