[Picture on page 15]

Unlike the churches, Jehovah’s Witnesses spoke out against Nazism

Back in 1939, the year World War II began, Consolation quoted T. Bruppacher, a Protestant minister, as saying: “While men who call themselves Christians have failed in the decisive tests, these unknown witnesses of Jehovah, as Christian martyrs, are maintaining unshakable opposition against coercion of conscience and heathen idolatry. The future historian must some day acknowledge that not the great churches, but these slandered and scoffed-​at people, were the ones who stood up first against the rage of the Nazi demon . . . They refuse the worship of Hitler and the Swastika.”

Similarly, Martin Niemoeller, a Protestant church leader who himself had been in a Nazi concentration camp, later confessed: ‘It may be truthfully recalled that Christian churches, throughout the ages, have always consented to bless war, troops, and arms and that they prayed in a very unchristian way for the annihilation of their enemy.’ He admitted: “All this is our fault and our fathers’ fault, but obviously not God’s fault.”

Niemoeller then added: “And to think that we Christians of today are ashamed of the so-​called sect of the serious scholars of the Bible [Jehovah’s Witnesses], who by the hundreds and thousands have gone into concentration camps and died because they refused to serve in war and declined to fire on human beings.”

Susannah Heschel, a professor of Judaic studies, uncovered church documents proving that the Lutheran clergy were willing, yes anxious, to support Hitler. She said they begged for the privilege of displaying the swastika in their churches. The overwhelming majority of clergymen were not coerced collaborators, her research showed, but were enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and his Aryan ideals.

As a lecturer, Heschel is frequently asked by church members, “What could we have done?”

“You could have been like Jehovah’s Witnesses,” she replies.

There was, however, one voice that consistently spoke out. Though the news media, by and large, overlooked the churches as major players in the Nazi drama, Jehovah’s Witnesses felt compelled to expose the treachery and hypocrisy of the clergy, with details of their behind-​the-​scenes collusion. In the pages of the forerunner of this magazine as well as other publications throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s, they printed strong indictments of religious organizations that became Nazism’s handmaidens.

Identifying Christ’s True Followers

Jehovah’s Witnesses are totally different from the religions of the world. Being no part of the world, they take no part in the wars of the nations. In obedience to God’s instructions, ‘they have beaten their swords into plowshares.’ (Isaiah 2:4) Yes, in obedience to Christ’s instructions, they love one another. (John 13:35) This means they never go to war and intentionally hurt one another.

When it comes to identifying the true worshipers of God, the Bible is very plain in saying: “The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact: Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should have love for one another; not like Cain, who originated with the wicked one and slaughtered his brother.”​—1 John 3:10-12.

Yes, history reveals that Jehovah’s Witnesses have always shown love for their fellowman, even in the face of intense pressure. When Hitler waged war throughout Europe, the Witnesses stood firm in the face of the Nazis’ brutal attempts to make them join in the orgy of killing. Professor Christine King well summed up the matter: “Jehovah’s Witnesses did speak out. They spoke out from the beginning. They spoke out with one voice. And they spoke out with a tremendous courage, which has a message for all of us.”