Persecutions have raged against Jehovah’s loyal ones in many parts of the world, particularly in Germany during the diabolical Nazi regime, and, more recently, under Malawi’s cruel and heartless dictator. Through most difficult trials Christian men, women and children have remained loyal to their heavenly Father, and like the first-century Christians, they have rejoiced in doing so. They have considered it a privilege to prove their loyalty to the Sovereign Ruler of the universe.​—1 Pet. 4:12, 13; Ps. 145:10.

⁸ In more recent years the so-called “Christian” dictator of the African country of Malawi has followed in the footsteps of Hitler by bringing wave upon wave of persecution on Jehovah’s witnesses in that country. In 1972, more than 30,000 of these Christians and those studying the Bible with them were compelled to flee for their lives to neighboring Mozambique. But in August and September of 1975 a resurgence of nationalism in Mozambique resulted in their “repatriation” to Malawi. Here again, they have faced up to inhuman tortures, beatings and thefts of money, property and clothing. They have been stripped naked, and many of their womenfolk raped. In October 1975, entire congregations of adult Witnesses were rounded up and placed in Hitler-style concentration camps. And parents have been compelled to leave their children, even suckling babies, outside the camps! When the police were asked why the president of Malawi had ordered this, they replied: “You are responsible for teaching your children wrong things. So they will be kept by Malawi, and we will make them become citizens of Malawi.” Can you imagine anything more demonic? Jehovah’s witnesses in Malawi are left without country, home or children. Is Malawi rewriting the sadistic history of Nazism by persecuting those whose only “crime” is that they obey God’s Word, the Bible, in staying neutral as to “the world” and its politics?​—John 17:16.