9. How were Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany treated by Hitler, and with what reaction by the clergy?

⁹ During Nazi rule in Germany, Hitler completely banned the preaching work of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For years, thousands of Witnesses were cruelly confined in concentration camps and prisons, where many died, while some 200 young men who refused to fight in Hitler’s army were executed. The clergy’s support of all of this is evidenced by the words of a Catholic priest, published in the newspaper The German Way of May 29, 1938. In part, he said: “There is now one country on earth where the so-called . . . Bible Students [Jehovah’s Witnesses] are forbidden. That is Germany! . . . When Adolph Hitler came to power, and the German Catholic Episcopate repeated their request, Hitler said: ‘These so-called Earnest Bible Students [Jehovah’s Witnesses] are troublemakers; . . . I consider them quacks; I do not tolerate that the German Catholics shall be besmirched in such a manner by this American Judge Rutherford; I dissolve [Jehovah’s Witnesses] in Germany.’” To this, the priest added: “Bravo!”

Catholics and Protestants heard their clergy urge them to cooperate with Hitler. If they resisted, they did so against orders from both church and state.”