International Holocaust Remembrance Day is annually celebrated on January 27. Alongside Jews, thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses were held and executed in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. They were “the only group in the Third Reich to be persecuted on the basis of their religious beliefs alone,” professor Robert Gerwarth stated for jw.org, IPN reports.
Enemies of the State
According to historian Christine King, the Nazi regime branded Witnesses “Enemies of the State” because of “their very public refusal to accept even the smallest elements of [Nazism], which didn’t fit their faith and their beliefs.” Based on their understanding of Christ’s teachings, Jehovah’s Witnesses, also then known as Bible Students, took a politically neutral stance and refused to give the “Heil Hitler” salute, take part in racist and violent acts, or join the German army. Moreover, “in their literature they publicly identified the evils of the regime, including what was happening to the Jews,” stated King.
Witnesses were among the first sent to concentration camps, where they bore a unique uniform symbol—the purple triangle. Unlike other victim groups, however, the Witnesses were presented with a choice that could have saved them from Nazi terror. The Nazis sought to break Witnesses’ religious convictions by offering them freedom in exchange for a pledge of obedience. The standard Erklärung (issued beginning in 1938) required the signee to renounce his or her faith, denounce other Witnesses to the police, fully submit to the Nazi government, and defend the “Fatherland” with weapon in hand. Prison and camp officials often used torture and privation to induce Witnesses to sign. The overwhelming majority did not waiver in their convictions. Extremely low numbers of Witnesses recanted their faith. The declared intention of the Nazi rulers was to completely eliminate the Bible Students from German history, according to historian Detlef Garbe.
Home and Belonging
This year’s theme of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is “Home and Belonging”. The UN explained that the theme highlights the humanity of the Holocaust victims and survivors, who had their home and sense of belonging ripped from them by the perpetrators of the Holocaust. About 4,200 Witnesses went to Nazi concentration camps. An estimated 1,600 Witnesses died, 370 by execution. At least 39 of them were minors. Hundreds of their children were taken to Nazi homes or reformatories. The Community of Witnesses survived the Holocaust and continues to prosper in decades after the fall of the Nazi regime.
Geneviève de Gaulle, a niece of General Charles de Gaulle and member of the French Resistance, said of female Witness prisoners in Ravensbrück concentration camp: “What I admired a lot in them was that they could have left at any time just by signing a renunciation of their faith. . . . Ultimately, these women, who appeared to be so weak and worn out, were stronger than the SS, who had power and all the means at their disposal. They had their strength, and it was their willpower that no one could beat.”
Holocaust museums and memorials around the world display artifacts and plaques commemorating the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Remembering the Witnesses’ experiences is important because they are still being systematically attacked—imprisoned, beaten, and tortured—for peacefully practicing their faith in some countries, Russia being the foremost persecutor.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
The anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp coincides with International Holocaust Remembrance Day that is observed on January 27. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum said that aside from brief mentions, the literature on the history of Auschwitz Concentration Camp does not take account of the Jehovah’s Witnesses…. These prisoners deserve closer attention because of the way they managed to hold on to their moral principles under camp conditions.”
Rudolf Hoess, SS Commandant of Auschwitz, wrote in his autobiography about the execution of certain ones of Jehovah’s Witnesses for refusal to violate their Christian neutrality. He said: “Thus do I imagine that the first Christian martyrs must have appeared as they waited in the circus for the wild beasts to tear them in pieces. Their faces completely transformed, their eyes raised to heaven, and their hands clasped and lifted in prayer, they went to their death. All who saw them die were deeply moved, and even the execution squad itself was affected.”
Prisoners
Ex-prisoner Andrzej Szalbot was arrested and taken to the Cieszyn Gestapo office for refusing to join the German army in 1943. He was promised immediate freedom if he signed a document renouncing membership in the organization and declaring its teachings erroneous. Andrzej refused to sign. He was tortured and repeatedly beaten. Andrzej related: “I lost consciousness a few times. I was not able to walk out of there on my own.” After six weeks of interrogation, at the age of 19, Andrzej was sent to Auschwitz.
In 1943 the Gestapo arrested Helena Cienciała and sent her to Auschwitz. Two months later her father, Paweł, arrived in Auschwitz and in two more months, so did her mother Ewa (who died in the camp). The reason for arresting the whole family was simply because they were Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jehovah’s Witnesses among first prisoners in Auschwitz as early as the first months when the camp was in operation. At least 387 Jehovah’s Witnesses sent to Auschwitz during its five years of operation. At least 152 (close to 40% of the Witnesses) died in the camp.
