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The Florida Holocaust Museum: History, Heritage and Hope Permanent Exhibition

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses, banned in Germany in 1933, suffered severe persecution for their Christian belief in nonviolence, the sanctity of life, and their apolitical stance.  Of 35,000 Witnesses (before 1931 known as Bible Students, or Bibelforscher) in Germany and occupied lands, at least 13,400 were victimized by the Nazi regime - fired from jobs and expelled from school, their property confiscated and businesses boycotted.  More than 11,300 Witnesses were sent to Nazi prisons and camps, where 2,500 to 5,000 died.
The Witnesses became a particular target of Nazi brutality because they refused to perform military service, to participate in patriotic rituals, including the mandatory "Heil Hitler" salute, and to join the Nazi party and Hitler Youth groups.  Though a small community, the Witnesses' public nonconformity challenged the total obedience demanded by the Nazi regime.  The Nazis took nearly 500 children away from their Witness parents and put them in "reformatories" and Nazi foster homes.
In concentration camps, Witnesses were forced to wear the purple triangle.  Most were "racially acceptable" Germans who held "undesirable" religious views.  The Nazis offered them freedom if they would sign a document renouncing their faith and pledge to bear arms for the Fatherland and to turn in fellow Witnesses.  At the outbreak of World War II, Jehovah's Witness males refused to join the German army.  Nazi courts sentenced and executed 270 Witness conscientious objectors, the largest number of victims from any one group to be killed for opposition to war and genocide.

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This page references:

  1. Jehovah’s Witnesses prisoner
  2. Jehovah's Witness Declaration - German
  3. Jehovah's Witness Declaration - English
  4. Ottilie Weber (prisoner no. 18962)