“‘Jehovah’ Erased by Nazis”

THOSE words were the front-page headline of the New York Herald Tribune of November 20, 1938. The article stated: “Protestant churches in some parts of the country [Germany] were ordered to eliminate the word ‘Jehova’​—the German spelling of Jehovah, taken from ‘Yahweh,’ the Hebrew for God—​and also the Old Testament names of Jewish prophets.”

All of this was part of the Nazis’ campaign of persecution of the Jews. At the same time, it was doubtless intended to strike a blow against Jehovah’s Witnesses, who had been banned since 1933 and were also being sent to the concentration camps.

In 1933 there were 19,268 active Witnesses in Germany. Today, after all the hounding at the hands of the Nazis and, until recently, the Communists in Eastern Germany, there are 163,000 Witnesses associated with 1,938 congregations. And the name Jehovah has not been erased from the German vocabulary. Zeugen Jehovas, Jehovah’s Witnesses, are known throughout Germany.

If you would like more information about the Witnesses, please contact your local Kingdom Hall, or write to the address nearest you, using the list on page 5.

[Picture on page 32]

The branch headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Selters/​Taunus, Germany