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hey everyone so this is part two of a series I'm developing on the Jehovah's Witnesses and their history with German Nazism if you missed part one that's all right I'll pull some quick highlights here the watchtower notoriously criticizes other religious groups for colluding with Hitler whilst Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned for their refusal to compromise their standards what is not admitted however is that Rutherford initially praised Hitler for his stance against the Jews and the anglo-american alliance early in 1933 the watchtower office in Berlin was closed and Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in many German states in an attempt to appease Hitler - lifting the ban Rutherford instigated a declaration of facts and sent a letter to Hitler discussing the watchtowers support of the Nazi regime dear Reichskanzler I'm sorry I can't do the German accent here the Brooklyn headquarters of the watchtower society is pro-german in an exemplary way and has been so for many years the Bible researchers of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimed respecting the relationship of humans to God there are no contradictions when it comes to the relationship between the Bible researchers of Germany to the national government of the German Reich to the contrary referring to the purely religious and unpolitical goals and efforts of the Bible researchers it can be said that these are in full agreement with the identical goals of the national government of the German Reich this is a curious situation given what was printed in the October 1st 2011 watchtower on page 14 listen to this did Hitler receive letters of protest from church officials concerning the outrages perpetrated by the National Socialists or Nazis there were some but such letters were few and far between in the Moscow archives however there was found a file containing a number of letters sent to Hitler by Jehovah's Witnesses from different parts of Germany protesting against the conduct of the Nazis and quote so that details the letter to Hitler and how Jehovah's Witnesses have presented a highly skewed and sanitized account of their dealings if you haven't watched part 1 I strongly recommend you do it'll be linked below in the description and in the end screen now we're going to get into the declaration of facts referenced in and accompanying that letter to Hitler this is a pretty explosive stuff both JW and x JW should know about let's get right into it [Music] Rutherford Anor organized a public convention in Berlin on June 25th 1933 to release a declaration of facts being pronounced at the German convention and distributed in letter format this outlined Watchtower support of the German government stance against Jews the convention hall was decked with swastikas and the program was opened with song 64 a song from the Bible student songbook that had the same melody by Haydn as a German national anthem conrad frank germany's bethel branch overseer later stated his disturbance at seeing the scene for the convention and Rutherford's declaration when we entered we found a hall be decked with swastika flags but not only that when the meeting started it was begun with a song that we had not sung for years especially not in Germany because of the melody the melody of Deutschland Deutschland Hoover ila can you imagine how we felt many could not join in the singing it was as though their throats were being throttled what kind of leaders did we have who brought us into such dangers and the dangers of faltering under these circumstances instead of helping and supporting us so that we could take a fearless stand against Nazism that was a translation of Konrad Frank's speech from Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich Penton page 25 the declaration of facts was reprinted in the yearbook 1934 it went on in part to state it is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial support for our work from the Jews nothing is farther from the truth up to this hour there never has been the slightest bit of money contributed to our work by Jews we are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus and believe upon him as the savior of the world whereas the Jews entirely reject Jesus Christ and emphatically deny that he is the savior of the world sent of God for man's this of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we received no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are maliciously false and can proceed only from Satan our great enemy the greatest and most oppressive Empire on earth is the anglo-american Empire but that is meant the British Empire of which the United States of America forms apart it has been the commercial Jews of the British American Empire that had built up and carried on big business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations this fact particularly applies to the cities of London and New York the stronghold of big business this fact is so manifest in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York which says the Jews owned it the Irish Catholics rule it and the Americans pay the bills the present government of Germany has declared emphatically against big business oppressors and in opposition to the wrongful religious influence in the political affairs of the nations such is exactly our position instead of being against the principles advocated by the government of Germany we stand squarely for such principles and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus will bring about the full realization of these principles and will give to the people peace and prosperity and the greatest desire of every honest heart no you don't need to check your hearing this is all from the declaration of facts it continues a careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our publications and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness let us remind the government and the people of Germany that it was the League of Asians compact that laid upon the shoulders of the German people the great unjust and unbearable burdens that the League of Nations compact was not brought forth by the Friends of Germany and quote this is to be found in the 1934 yearbook on pages 134 to 138 English edition so in case you misheard any of what I just read you have the letter from Rutherford and the declaration of facts both emphatically as Rutherford put it in full agreement with the Nazis ends and means now in case there was any ambiguity of what Hitler was really up to bear in mind that mine Kampf was written in 1924 while Hitler was in prison so there's no excuses here about endorsing this man his book said it all Rutherford's letter and declaration were an effort to appease Hitler but to no avail with his efforts of appeasing Hitler into lifting the watchtower ban not achieving its aims Rutherford instead started to then antagonize Hitler through his publications his ensuing letter to Hitler showcases Rutherford threatening him with punishment of God should the ban on jehovah's witnesses not be quashed and I quote you may successfully resist any and all men but you cannot successfully resist Jehovah God I demand that you give order to all officials and servants of your government that Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany be permitted to peacefully assemble and without hindrance worship God if by the 24th day of March 1934 there is no response to this earnest demand and nothing done by your government to grant the relief the aforesaid Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany then God's people in other countries will begin the publication throughout the nations of the earth of the facts concerning Germany's wrongful treatment of Christian people there and having delivered the testimony we will submit our case and leave it to Jehovah God by and through Christ Jesus to administer the punishment of the guilty ones in his good way permit me to remind you that Jehovah warns that no one shall oppress his anointed and quote JW facts calm speculates this later aggression of Rutherford towards Hitler no doubt exacerbated the strong stance Hitler took against Jehovah's Witnesses and they would have suffered less had rutherford acted more out of concern for the safety of german followers the result was central ovas witnesses suffered unspeakable atrocities and Nazi concentration camps with an estimated 1200 dying many individuals displayed tremendous courage and conviction and it is tragic that this unnecessary suffering was a result of the words and actions of their leadership judge Rutherford and quote now who knows how history would have played out if rather fir'd responded differently but I think JW facts calm is reasonable to speculate that this could have only made things worse not better the watchtower justification found in a 1995 awake makes it appear that Nazi opposition was because witnesses did not support Nazi ideologies concluding the Nazis did not intend to tolerate any refusal to support the ideology that was in 1995 awake as I said August 22nd page 7 yet as you just heard this was not the sentiment of the declaration of facts which tried to portray sharing similar ideologies with the Nazis such as when stating the present government having declared adherence to the aforementioned high ideals we are persuaded that the rulers do not desire to knowingly resist the progressive Witness work to the name of Jehovah God and his kingdom which we are now carrying forward and quote now in 1943 the Swiss Watchtower branch sent another declaration of facts requesting leniency for witnesses this dishonestly said we expressly state that our association neither command nor recommends nor in any other way suggests acting against military orders questions of that sort are dealt with neither by our congregations nor in the societies published literature we have had no time presumed and at no time shall do so to view the performance of military duty as laid down by your statutes as an offense against the principles and aspirations of the Association of Jehovah's Witnesses end quote okay now this is just my own observation here not JW facts speaking but isn't it remarkable how the witnesses not only try to flatter the Fuhrer but in the very year of writing this declaration we're actually in the middle of a very high-profile Supreme Court case establishing the right of school children to not be forced into pledging allegiance to or saluting the US flag / West Virginia State Board of Education versus Barnette so on the one hand the administration of the JW's are flattering Hitler affirming Nazi politics saying they condone military service also condemning the Brits and Americans but simultaneously fighting for children not to salute the flag absolutely fascinating isn't it anyway folks there's a lot more to this story that will blow you away even further I'd encourage you to go over there to JW facts com to get the full details all historical documents quoted are provided therein if anyone would like to verify its legitimacy hey guys I'm back please stay tuned for my third installment of this series where I show how Jehovah's Witness administrators later tried to profit off this disgraceful chapter in their past one more thing before we go I want to reiterate my comments from the previous episode the tone in this series is simply expository in no way do i direct any hostility toward those who choose to maintain their identity as a JW that's not my aim I am NOT an anti Witness activist and I doubt I ever will be but perhaps for your own personal contemplation I'll wrap up with the questions I used in closing the previous work and here they are do you feel any of what was mentioned today about JW leadership deserves a free pass simply because it was a long time ago do you think that human imperfection excuses this behavior and if so do you believe that whitewashing and historical revision is a responsible method of handling such shortcomings finally do you maintain the Jehovah's Witnesses are really all that different from the religious groups they so hatefully condemn in their literature if you're believing witness I would actually love to read your comments we may not agree on much but I do value your thoughts in perspective nevertheless yes we have our differences but thank you for at least hearing the other side of the argument that's all one can hope to accomplish through these videos have a great day guys until next time hey guys did you like this video do you know what to do and as something I mentioned today resonated with you click one of them cards on this screen I have lots of related content sure to interest you thanks as always for your views and we'll see you next time [Music]