Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses

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Throughout the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, their beliefs, doctrines and practices have engendered controversy and opposition from the local governments, communities, or religious groups. Persecution has been a recurrent experience of the Jehovah's Witnesses since its foundation. Ken Jubber writes that "Viewed globally, this persecution has been so persistent and of such an intensity that it would not be inaccurate to regard Jehovah's witnesses as the most persecuted religion of the twentieth century".^[1] Many Christian denominations consider their interpretation and doctrines to be heresy. Thus some religious leaders have accused Jehovah's Witnesses of being a cult. According to the eminent jurist Archibald Cox, in the United States, the Witnesses were "the principal victims of religious persecution... in the twentieth century... Although founded earlier, they began to attract attention and provoke repression in the 1930s, when their proselytizing and numbers rapidly increased." ^[2]

Political and religious animosity against them has at times led to mob action and government oppression, in countries such as Cuba, the United States, Canada and Nazi Germany. The religion's doctrine of political neutrality has led to the jailing of Witnesses who refused conscription (for example in Britain during World War II and afterwards during the period of compulsory national service). During the world wars, Jehovah's Witnesses were also targeted in the United States, Canada and many other countries because they refused to serve in the military or help with war efforts. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent. Activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have previously been banned in the Soviet Union and in Spain, partly due to Jehovah's Witnesses refusal to perform military service. Their religious activities are currently illegal or restricted in some countries, for example in China, Vietnam, and many Islamic states.

There has been opposition expressed by locals in some communities to the building of facilities such as Kingdom Halls or the holding of large conventions. This sort of opposition has derived from various motives, such as opposition to the religion, or civil concerns such as traffic congestion and noise.^{[citations needed]}

Contents 1 Countries 1.1 Cuba 1.2 Canada 1.3 Germany 1.4 Malawi 1.5 Singapore 1.6 Soviet Union 1.7 United States 2 References 3 External links 4 See also 5 Additional reading

[edit] Countries

[edit] Cuba

Fidel Castro's communist regime sent "social deviants" such as Jehovah's Witnesses as well as homosexuals, vagrants and other groups to forced labor concentration camps, where they would be "reeducated".^[3]

[edit] Canada

During both world wars, Jehovah's Witnesses suffered much persecution because of their evangelical fervour, abhorrence of patriotic exercises and conscientious objection to military service.

In 1984, Canada released a number of previously classified documents which revealed that in the forties, "able bodied young Jehovah's Witnesses" were sent to "camps," and "entire families who practiced the religion were imprisoned." ^[4]

Sallot and Yaffee wrote that "Recently declassified wartime documents suggest it [World War II] was also a time of officially sanctioned religious bigotry, political intolerance and the suppression of ideas. The federal government described Jehovah's Witnesses as subversive and offensive 'religious zealots'... in secret reports given to special parliamentarian committees in 1942." The report on Jehovah's Witnesses concluded that, "probably no other organization is so offensive in its methods, working as it does under the guise of Christianity. The documents prepared by the justice department were presented to a special house of commons committee by the government of William, Lyon, McKenzie King in an attempt to justify the outlawing of the organizations during the second world war." ^[5]

[edit] Germany

Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were persecuted between 1933 and 1945. They were scorned by the name Ernste Bibelforscher (Earnest Bible Students) at that time, all lost their employment. Because Jehovah's Witnesses would not give allegiance to the Nazi party, and refused to serve in the military, they were detained, put in concentration camps, or imprisoned during the Holocaust. Unlike Jews, homosexuals and Gypsies who were persecuted for racial, political and social reasons, Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted on religious ideological grounds. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option if they were to renounce their faith, submit to the state authority, and support the German military they would be free to leave prison or the camps but very few agreed. Approximately 12,000^[6] Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a purple triangle that specifically identified them as Jehovah's Witnesses. In the end, according to Jehovah's witnesses about 2,000 of their members who were incarcerated perished under the Nazi system.^[7]

The Holocaust Resource Center and Archives even puts an estimate of between 2500 and 5000. ^[8] Accordingly, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum pamphlet titled "Jehovah's Witnesses" states that "an estimated 2,500 to 5,000 Witnesses died in the camps or prisons. More than 200 men were tried by the German War Court and executed for refusing military service" [1].

[edit] Malawi

In 1967, thousands of Witnesses in Malawi were savagely beaten by police and citizens for refusing to purchase political party cards to become members of the Malawi Congress Party.^[9]

[edit] Singapore

Jehovah's Witnesses males are currently imprisoned in Singapore for refusal to participate in the compulsory National Service.^[10] At one point in time, Jehovah's Witnesses reported police razzias and other mistreatment of individuals.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Soviet Union

Jehovah's Witnesses were one of the most persecuted religious groups in the Soviet Union. This included arrests and deportations; some were put in soviet concentration camps. Most of them lived in the former Romanian territory of Moldavia in the Ukraine; those from Moldavian SSR were deported to Tomsk Oblast, while those of the other regions of Soviet Union were deported to Irkutsk Oblast.^[11]

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov proposed the deportation of the Jehovah's Witnesses to Stalin in October 1950. A resolution was voted by the Council of Minister and an order was issued by the Ministry for State Security in March 1951. The Moldavian SSR passed a decree "On the confiscation and selling of the property of individuals banished from the territory of the Moldavian SSR", which included the Jehovah's Witnesses.^[11]

In April 1951, over 9,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were deported to Siberia under the plan called "Operation North".^[12][13]

Importation of Jehovah's Witnesses' literature into the Soviet Union was strictly forbidden; Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses received their religious literature from Brooklyn illegally. Literature from Brooklyn arrived regularly, in good shape and in large quantities through unofficial and well-organized channels, not only in many cities, but also in Siberia, and even in the penal camps of Potma. This fact distressed the camp authorities.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1965, a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers cancelled the "special settlement" restriction for members of these sects. However this secret decree, signed by Anastas Mikoyan, stated that there will be no compensation for the confiscated property. While released, the Jehovah's Witnesses remained the subject of state persecution due to their ideology classified as anti-Soviet.^[14]

[edit] United States

The religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses forbade them from saluting the flag, reciting the pledge of allegiance, and joining the armed forces. Not surprisingly, due to those beliefs, they often became the victims of religious bigotry. Some states passed laws which made it illegal for them to distribute their literature and even went so far as to ban the children of Jehovah's Witnesses from attending state schools. Mob violence against Jehovah's Witnesses was not an uncommon occurrence. Nor was it uncommon for Jehovah's Witnesses to be murdered for their beliefs. Those responsible for these attacks were seldom prosecuted.^[15]

After a long and difficult litigation in state courts and lower federal courts, the Jehovah's Witnesses were able to convince the Supreme Court to issue a series of landmark First Amendment rulings that confirmed the Jehovah's Witnesses right to be excused from military service and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses for their refusal to salute the flag became known as the "Flag-Salute Cases".^[16] Jehovah's Witnesses were, in effect, testing one of the liberties for which the flag stands, namely the freedom to worship according to the dictates of one's own conscience. The United States, by making the flag salute compulsory in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), was impinging upon the individual's right to worship as one chooses- a violation of the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause in the constitution. Justice Frankfurter, speaking in behalf of the 8-to-1 majority view in the case, stated that the interests of "inculcating patriotism was of sufficient importance to justify a relatively minor infringement on religious belief."^[17] The result of the ruling was a wave of persecution. Lillian Gobitas, the mother of the schoolchildren involved in the decision said, "It was like open season on Jehovah's Witnesses."^[18]

The ACLU reported that by the end of 1940, "more than 1,500 Witnesses in the United States had been victimized in 335 separate attacks."^[19] Such attacks included beatings, being tarred and feathered, hanged, shot, maimed, and even castrated, as well as other acts violence.^[20] As reports of these attacks against Jehovah's Witnesses continued, "several justices changed their minds, and in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette(1943), the Court declared that the state could not impinge on the First Amendment by compelling the observance of rituals."^[21]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Holocaust Learning Center - Jehovah's Witnesses: Persecution
• Awake!' 'July 8,1998 - Jehovah's Witnesses' Website
• Timeline of the Bible Students / Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany
• Yadvashem - Shoah Resource Centre - Jehovah's Witnesses
• The "Bibelforscher" in the Third Reich (An Examination of the Conflict between Jehovah's Witnesses and the Nazis)

[edit] See also

• Knocking, a documentary on Jehovah's Witnesses featuring a Jewish concentration camp survivor, Joseph Kempler
• Forum 18 - Religious repression news
• Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
• US Holocaust Museum

[edit] Additional reading

• Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime Edited by Hans Hesse ISBN 3861087502
• UNBROKEN WILL: The Story of Leopold Engleitner, born 1905, Bernhard Rammerstorfer, Grammaton Press.
• Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi Regime 1933-1945, Hans Hesse (Ed.), Edition Temmen.
• FACING THE LION: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe, Simone Arnold Liebster, Grammaton Press.
• CRUCIBLE OF TERROR: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm, Max Liebster, Grammaton Press.
• The Nazi State and the New Religions : Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity, Christine E. King, Edwin Mellen Press, 1982.
• Detlev Garbe: Zwischen Widerstand und Martyrium, 1999, ISBN 3-486-56404-8
• "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecution", M. James Penton, University of Toronto Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8020-8678-0
• Hans Hesse: Am mutigsten waren immer wieder die Zeugen Jehovas, Edition Temmen, 2000, ISBN 3-86108-724-3
• Hans Hesse, Jürgen Harder: ...und wenn ich lebenslang in einem KZ bleiben müßte... Die Zeuginnen Jehovas in den Frauenkonzentrationslagern Moringen, Lichtenburg und Ravensbrück, 2001, ISBN 3-88474-935-8
• Michael H. Kater: Die Ernsten Bibelforscher im Dritten Reich; in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 17. Jg. 1969 Heft 2
• Bernhard Rammerstorfer: Nein statt Ja und Amen. Leopold Engleitner: Er ging einen anderen Weg, Linz 1999, ISBN 3-9500718-6-5
• Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, ISBN 0-689-10728-5
• Judith Tydor Baumel, Walter Laqueur:The Holocaust Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-300-08432-3
• Michael Berenbaum,The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ISBN 0-316-09134-0