Those Who Did Not Compromise

However, there was one group in Germany that courageously championed Christian principles. That group was Jehovah’s Witnesses. Unlike the clergy and their followers, the Witnesses refused to compromise with Hitler and the Nazis. They refused to violate God’s commandments. They would not break their Christian neutrality in political affairs. (See Isaiah 2:2-4; John 17:16; James 4:4.) They did not attribute Heil, or salvation, to Hitler, as did the overwhelming majority of the clergy and their flocks.

Instead, Jehovah’s Witnesses joined with the apostle Peter in saying of Jesus Christ: “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.” (Acts 4:12; see also Psalm 118:8, 9; 146:3.) None of them bloodied their hands in military action for Hitler, since they refused to serve in his armed forces.​—John 13:35; 1 John 3:10-12.

Because of their uncompromising stand against Hitler and Nazism, Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted and sent by the thousands to the concentration camps. Their strong faith and integrity in the face of inhuman brutality is commented on by Anna Pawełczyńska, Polish sociologist and survivor of the infamous Auschwitz death camp. Writing in her book Values and Violence in Auschwitz, she stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses were “a solid ideological force and they won their battle against Nazism.” She called them an “island of unflagging resistance existing in the bosom of a terrorized nation.” She added: “In that same undismayed spirit they functioned in the camp at Auschwitz. They managed to win the respect of their fellow-prisoners . . . , of prisoner-functionaries, and even of the SS officers. Everyone knew that no Jehovah’s Witness would perform a command contrary to his religious belief and convictions.” She concluded: “Jehovah’s Witnesses waged passive resistance for their belief, which opposed all war and violence.”

No, Jehovah’s Witnesses did not compromise with Hitler and his Third Reich. They did not put their trust and hope in Nazism or in any other political system of this world. They rejected man-rule for something better. Thus, unlike the clergy and their followers, they did not become the spiritual victims of Nazism.

[Pictures on page 11]

Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses (including Johannes Harms, shown above) were sent to concentration camps for not compromising with Nazism, and many died, as evidenced by this death certificate

Chief Attorney of the Reich’s Military Court

Johannes Harms . . . was on 11/7/1940 tried by the Military Court of the Reich for demoralization of the Armed Forces and sentenced to death . . . The sentence was executed on 1/8/1941.

Seal of the Military Court of the Reich