Friday, August 8, 2008

Invisible Witnesses in Nazi Concentration Camps

The Watchtower Society loves the god of numbers. Particularly if he can be used to inflate the number of casualties during the Nazi years in Germany. Investigating the Watchtower literature is quite revealing when it comes to documenting the many contradictions about what really happened during those years.
"A total of 6,019 had been arrested, several two, three or even more times, so that, all together, 8,917 arrests were registered. All together they had been sentenced to serve 13,924 years and two months in prison, two and a quarter times as long as the period since Adam's creation. A total of 2,000 brothers and sisters had been put into concentration camps, where they had spent 8,078 years and six months, an average of four years. A total of 635 had died in prison, 253 had been sentenced to death and 203 of these had actually been executed. What a record of integrity!" (1974 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 212)
As we can see here the Watchtower Society know exactly how many Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in Germany during the Nazi years. It was 6,019 persons. The Nazis were known for their meticulous registering and keeping records of every conceivable thing, so of course they didn't throw anybody in prison or in a concentration camp without arresting him/her first.
Another very interesting piece of information is also found in the above quoted yearbook.
We are told the TOTAL number of Witnesses that was put into concentration camps during the Nazi years. The number was 2,000! That means that the majority of those arrested were released. But when we look closer at what various Watchtowers have to say about the number of Witnesses in the camps, we yet again see this attempt to inflate the numbers and this time really out of all proportions.
"Hitler failed to break them in prisons and concentration camps where he tortured 10,000 of them, and the Communists are failing to do it in their frightful prisons and slave-labor camps." (The Watchtower, June 1, 1960, p. 327)
"Hitler, a Roman Catholic, the arm of his church in Germany, forbade Jehovah's witnesses to preach the kingdom of God, and these modern-day Christians had to say to Hitler's Gestapo police: 'Whether it is righteous in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves.' They kept preaching even though 10,000 of them were put in concentration camps and over 4,000 died there. The rest nearly starved to death. The war's end aided their survival." (The Watchtower, January 1, 1964, p. 13)
The question here is, if only 2,000 Witnesses were put into the camps, why print that there were 10,000 of them there? Where did the 8,000 additional persons come from? Did they perhaps come from the same place as the 4,000 Witnesses that is reported to have died in the camps? How can 4,000 people out of a total of 2,000 die? As we can see from the correct numbers of casualties reported by the 74 Yearbook, the real number of deaths is reported to be "a total of 635".
Many of these tragic deaths could probably have been avoided if it wasn't for the totally insane orders from the Watchtower president at the time, J. F. Rutherford, who sent them out distributing Watchtower literature knowing well that this would inflame the Nazis. Isn't the tragedy of 6,019 arrests and the death of 635 Witnesses during the Nazi era quite enough for the Watchtower Society? Why do they have to inflate these numbers all the time?
Knowing full well the real number of Witnesses arrested suffering and dying during the Nazi years the Watchtower Society never seem to be satisfied with it. The attempt to inflate these figures seems to have no end.
Take a look at a more recent example of this here:
"Why were Jehovah's Witnesses so well acquainted with the concentration camps? When World War II started in 1939, there were already 6,000 Witnesses confined in camps and prisons. German historian Detlef Garbe estimates that the Witnesses constituted at that time between 5 and 10 percent of the total camp population!
At a seminar on the Witnesses and the Holocaust, Garbe stated: "Of the 25,000 persons who admitted to being Jehovah's Witnesses at the beginning of the Third Reich, about 10,000 were imprisoned for any length of time. Of these, over 2,000 were admitted to concentration camps. This means that the Jehovah's Witnesses were, with the exception of the Jews, the worst persecuted by the SS of all the religious based groups."" (Awake!, August 22, 1995, p. 10)
As we can see here, they use the old trick of quoting a historian which have lifted many of his figures out of the inflated figures in their own literature. First they use Garbe's ignorance about the difference between a Witness and a person that attends the memorial. There was about 24,000+ people which attended the memorial in 1932/33. Any Jehovah's Witness knows that people who attend the memorial is far from "admitted to being a Jehovah's Witness". We also understand that with a total of 6,019 Witnesses arrested there couldn't possibly be 10,000 imprisoned at any given time, so this is simply untrue! Just another figure lifted out of their own distorted literature.
As we can see from the previous quotes the alleged 10,000 Witnesses was supposed to have been in prison and camps, then in camps, and then suddenly all the 10,000 were "imprisoned". And for 2,000 of those it was the camps.

12 comments:

S said...

You are counting numbers but yet you are not concerned that people were killed and persecuted over their faith and obedient to Jehovah God.

You are so pathetic.

Unknown said...

if you want to know the real story, the real one, go visit the Washington Holocaust museum.

Anonymous said...

Could you sink any lower? Was it exactly six million Jews, or did the world count incorrectly? Maybe YOU should go back and count them for us.

How many of Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested, tortured and killed?? You worry about the exact numbers quoted.....YOU are pathetic!

Jehovah's Witnesses were the ones who, FROM THE VERY BEGINING, were neutral. They would not say "Heil Hitler", they would not raise their hands in the Nazi salute, their children were singled out because the children would not join the Nazi youth groups. They stayed neutral all over the world as the world went insane! That is why Hitler hated them.

Yes, they did not let up in the preaching work. ( I could go on FOREVER as to what the churches public participation and co-operating with Hitler was, but that is not the topic here) They exposed the Hitler death camps long before the world newspapers. They issued edicts for Hitler to cease and desist, world wide the Witnesses of Jehovah cried out!

How dare you minimize what the brothers in Germany did to remain faithful to Jehovah. Jesus said his followers are no part of this world and would be hated. Shame on you, a desperate, pathetic, sad uninformed individual. How dare you disrespect the lives of those lost.

Theocratic Joker said...

You are all sorely deluded. In the beginning the Watchtower actually sided with Hitler against the Jews. The wrote glowing articles about the Nazi regime. Now they are writing articles against the Nazis because they have found a way to collect money as a result of Witnesses being in the concentration camps. How dare I? Because it's all about how they are perceived to the public and ultimately it's about the money. This is not to minimize the brothers who suffered because they believed they were serving Jehovah and not a man made organization. But all this goes to show how dishonest the organization is regards all things. Their obvious dishonesty about the numbers says volumes about their true motives. Especially, since they are aware of the exact, true numbers.

S said...

GBLetters:

"You are all sorely deluded."

Maybe so, but at least we do not have a blog that tells lies about a religion that we don't know about.

" In the beginning the Watchtower actually sided with Hitler against the Jews. "

Well, that is not the issue is it?
A person wrote earlier "How many of Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested, tortured and killed?? You worry about the exact numbers quoted." And you divert the subject by writing that they sided with Hitler against the Jews.

Well, actually no they didn't. They just stated the truth in that Jews are not Christians with us, and that we did not fight against Germany in WWI and fight for USA in WWI. But then neither did Switzerland. That is what being neutral is about


"They wrote glowing articles about the Nazi regime."

Where?

" Now they are writing articles against the Nazis because they have found a way to collect money as a result of Witnesses being in the concentration camps."

Really? Then why didn't you write about that?


" How dare I? Because it's all about how they are perceived to the public and ultimately it's about the money."

No, it is that you are not getting the money.

" This is not to minimize the brothers who suffered because they believed they were serving Jehovah and not a man made organization. "

How dare you call them brothers when you are no relation to them. And they were serving Jehovah and not the nations. They suffered not because of any organization, but because of the wild beast.


"But all this goes to show how dishonest the organization is regards all things. Their obvious dishonesty about the numbers says volumes about their true motives. Especially, since they are aware of the exact, true numbers."

They were not dishonest about anything. You are assuming that the writers are out to please you.

"The question here is, if only 2,000 Witnesses were put into the camps, why print that there were 10,000 of them there? Where did the 8,000 additional persons come from?"

Why don't you write them and ask? How would us, the non-writers know?

Did you consider that different people wrote the different things from different sources or contexts?

Anonymous said...

The real tragedy is that ANYONE would lose their life for the watchtower's "spin" on the bible.

S said...

"The real tragedy is that ANYONE would lose their life for the watchtower's "spin" on the bible."

WHATEVER????????????/

Anonymous said...

a couple of issues that youre forgetting... IBSAs werent getting jail time until 1933 in Madgeburg... these were BLONDE HAIR BLUE EYEd Germans.... not jewish or gyspy descent... The Holocaust Museum in Washington has unchallenged figures: 12000 Witnesses in Germany, about 3000 died... .also, the eye witness accounts of Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz clearly show Jehovah's Witnesses were true martyrs....... its just another example of the rewriting of History, maybe you and Mel Gibsons dad can get together

Anonymous said...

If there were so few Witnesses, why did the Nazis assign the IBSAs their own color and symbol? What about the Witnesses in Poland and Russia..... what about the 4000 who went to prison in Korea? there was a United Nations report in 1974 that stated over 6500 were slaughtered in Malawi? you can manipulate numbers all you want.. name one religion that is as international as Jehovahs Witnesses that is accomplishing so much? Mormons are the floor of the Senate and are about to go down for Tax Fraud, nearly every major American Pastor is in trouble, and by the way... lets say only 100 IBSAs were incarcerated by the Nazis, wouldnt that be an international incident?... heres a challenge: nearly 3000 Americans were killed on 9/11, prove that Less Jehovah's Witnesses were killed during the Nazi Regime... that is why institutions such as the Holocaust Musuem were set up so revisionist historians could NOT rewrite history

Anonymous said...

Keep it up governing body letters - you've obviously put the cat among the pigeons. The frantic denials from the defenders show they remain as deluded as ever as to the history of their dastardly religion. Those poor 'brothers' that gave their lives for such 'worthy' reasons were just as deluded, unfortunately. There've been people in every religion who've been persecuted and killed for their religious beliefs, yet JWs would have you think they're the only ones. The fact that you die for something doesn't make it any less of a delusion - sorry to disappoint you frantic deniers..

S said...

An idiot stated:

"Keep it up governing body letters - you've obviously put the cat among the pigeons."

And he hates us for that.

" The frantic denials from the defenders show they remain as deluded as ever as to the history of their dastardly religion."

What denials? I am just looking at my life as a JW and seeing that it does not jive with what you state. Since my life is what determines what a JWs (particularly this one) is, where can there be denial?


" Those poor 'brothers' that gave their lives for such 'worthy' reasons were just as deluded, unfortunately."

So Hitler is your hero and did no wrong?

Ever see SwingKids?

Even jazz dancers got persecuted.

Anonymous said...

Yes Ronde - that's exactly what I mean. Because I think your poor brothers were deluded, Hitler is my hero.

I guess this is what counts for rational thought in the JW ranks. I'm not really worried about JWs - their ignorance will get them extinct, frankly.