Winstein--6

  Controversies about JWs leaders and the fatalities of followers during
    WWII
  The Declaration of Facts

  Timeline of JWs leaders in regard to human government, war, propaganda,
    and persecution

  Controversies about JWs leaders and the fatalities of followers during WWII

  The most tragic part of this page of my article is the number of JWs who died
in Nazi German prison camps.  I've got mixed reports of the numbers, so I'll
just pass along what I found.

  2,000 died, 1,000 of them by execution ("The Watchtower," Dec.15, 1950, p.
500)

  4,000 died  ("The Watchtower," Jan.1, 1964, p.13)

  635 died, 203 of them by execution ("1974 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses,"
p.212; "The Watchtower," Feb.1, 1976, p.82) 
  http://corior.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-many-jehovahs-witnesses-in.html

  In a later "Watchtower," the number was raised back to 2,000.  This was done
by quoting an outside source.  But the outside source seems to quote the 1950
"Watchtower":

  "The book Mothers in the Fatherland reported: "[Jehovah's Witnesses] were sent
to concentration camps, a thousand of them were executed, and another thousand
died between 1933 and 1945....  Catholics and Protestants heard their clergy
urge them to cooperate with Hitler.  If they resisted, they did so against or-
ders from both church and state." ("The Watchtower," Jan.1, 1989, p.21.)
  http://www.jwfiles.com/wt_honesty/society_manipulated_numbers.htm

  1989  "To Jehovah Belongs the Battle"--2,000 died.

  2001  "Courageous Integrity Keepers Triumph Over Nazi Persecution" 2,000 died,
250 by execution.
  http://www.jwfiles.com/wt_honesty/society_manipulated_numbers.htm

****

  The Declaration of Facts

  I think it's safe to say the JWs leaders don't teach things these days like a
some of JWs president Rutherford's 1932 Anti-Semitic statements found in the
first three links below.  Otherwise, the only thing I'd read about JWs in Ger-
many during WWII was that some died in prison camps, which I assumed was mainly
a Nazi reaction to the Governing Body's rule that JWs can't be a part of govern-
ment, including the military, as being too worldly to get involved in.
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/237993/rutherfords-love-letter-hitler?page=1
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/hitler-nazi.php
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/sleeping.htm
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Facts
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany

  It puts a twist on what I'd read about.

  I don't want to make too much or too little of a few bigoted anti-Jewish
statements by Rutherford (similar to other ones he made around then or approved
of by Woodworth) in his 1932 "Declaration of Facts" reprinted in the JWs 1934
Yearbook.

  I don't want to make too much and characterize all the JWs in the world of the
time by it.

  I don't want to make too little of it--I'd say it's about right to figure
Rutherford seemed intent on bonding with Adolf Hitler, and with the German JWs
that signed it, regarding Hitler's commonly known and unfortunately popular
anti-Semitism, which is, y'know, pretty bad.  It's a lot like the way JWs lead-
ers have bashed other religions, notably Christian, with a bigotty broad brush
of propaganda before and since.  But since about a generation ago, the popular
realization of the Holocaust and greater awareness in the U.S. to not be anti-
Semitic, seems to have finally led the JWs leaders to leave Jewish people to be
implied by the damnation of not being JWs without mentioning them specifically.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propaganda

  That the letter to Hitler badmouthed the way the U.S. and Great Britain ran
things as by "commercial Jews," and seeing the other anti-Semitic statements
Rutherford and Woodworth made during the period (see the timeline lower on this
page), reaffirms that interpretation for me.  There are ways Rutherford's propa-
ganda against countries of Christendom would overlap with Hitler's propaganda
about those countries, too.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler#Religion.2C_social_Darwinism.2C_and_Hitler.27s_racism

  But at the extreme of making too little of it, the recent JWs leaders' litera-
ture defense is that there's nothing to be offended about in the letter at all
unless it's misunderstood:

  "The Society said the denunciation of 'commercial Jews' in the Declaration
  'clearly did not refer to the Jewish people in general, and it is regrettable
  if it has been misunderstood and has given cause for any offense.'  It ex-
  plained that Jehovah's Witnesses rejected antisemitic views, and that the
  'high ideals' they shared with the Nazis were those of family values and re-
  ligious freedom."
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Facts#Historical_assessment

  "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?"--Chicolini (Chico Marx)
impersonating Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) in "Duck Soup," 1933--it's also a
good line for the JWs leaders' requirement that JWs agree that Jesus appeared
invisibly in 1914.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Soup_%281933_film%29

  Then again, I'm familiar with the JWs leaders revisionist history efforts,
such as in writing that earlier JWs leaders were the real God's chosen deal when
they really got prophecies wrong and such, as shown on p.1a.  The next two exam-
ples show something similar, criticizing that it was as recent as 1873 when
Pope Pius IX expressed disagreement with the racist curse of Canaan idea for
black people.  It's hypocritical since Watchtower leaders (Rutherford, I sup-
pose) showed a beleif in the curse of Canaan idea even more recently.
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/blacks.htm

  For example:

  1929  "Is there anything in the Bible that reveals the origin of the Negro?
It is generally believed that the curse which Noah pronounced upon Canaan was
the origin of the Black race.  Certain it is that when Noah said, 'Cursed be
Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren,' he pictured the
future of the Colored race.  They have been and are a race of servants..  There
is no servant in the world as good as a good Colored servant, and the joy that
he gets from rendering faithful service is one of the purest joys there is in
the world."  ("The Golden Age," July 24, 1929, p.702)

  1982 about 1873:  "Have the churches of Christendom always treated 'everyone
on the same basis'?  Consider how the Catholic and Lutheran Churches supported
Hitler's scheme to produce a 'master race.'  And for centuries the Catholic
Church taught that Negroes were a cursed race.  John F. Maxwell states in his
book Slavery and the Catholic Church that this view 'apparently survived until
1873 when Pope Pius IX attached an indulgence to a prayer for the "wretched
Ethiopians in Central Africa that almighty God may at length remove the curse of
Cham [Ham] from their hearts."'  And even to this day some church organizations
openly practice racial discrimination."

  "Regardless of how politicians and religionists view the matter, the Bible and
science indicate that all races are equal and descend from a common source.  In-
terestingly, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1970, Vol. 2, page 149, refers to
the 'scientific concept of the equality of the races' and admits the 'scientif-
ic validation' of humanity's single origin."
  "Awake!" Feb. 8, 1982 pp.14,15 "The Races—-What Is Their Origin?"

  So the JWs leaders hypocritically showed racism more recently and tossed in
anti-Catholic prejudice to boot.  (Note: most Catholics fought Hitler and most
JWs didn't even fight Rutherford.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamitic
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany
  http://governingbodyletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/question-is-there-anything-in-bible.html

  The JWs leaders taught that Christendom, notably the Catholic leaders, sup-
ported Hitler during WWII.  If that were true, I think Hitler would have won.
Regarding the Watchtower reference to those of other religions supporting a plan
for a "master race," the JWs leaders' seem to like their propaganda in an ironic
style--see the entries for Nov.12, 1930 to Oct.28, 1942 (not long after Ruther-
ford passed away) below about the JWs leaders support of eugenics and anti-Sem-
itism while the Nazi government blatantly furthered both.

  A proper generalization refers to what's mostly true--most Catholic and Pro-
testant effort was to fight against the aggressive, criminal Nazi effort, and
Rutherford had most JWs bug people in the U.S. with sound trucks and record
players that their religion and government, therefore military, was evil, adding
a JWs-centric hope that God was going to destroy them soon and the JWs 144,000
would help Jesus, Abraham, etc., rule the JWs world (see the timeline below).
Hitler and Rutherford seemed to have taken lessons from the same PR agent except
Hitler's vision of destructiveness and domination was more immediately destruc-
tive but not as 'centric and far-reaching in scope.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_anti-Semitism#Opposition_to_the_Holocaust
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Pope
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Hitler%27s_Pope

  I won't condone beating the c**p out of someone because they're meekly differ-
ent in a way we should tolerate, peacefully assimilating and hoping to persuade,
and the way Jesus and apostle Paul taught to spread the word (1 Cor.10:32-11:1).
But you don't go around in the manner Rutherford had it done, shown in the time-
line lower on this page, using trucks with loudspeakers and damnation up front,
triple damn daring someone to get PO'ed over the most upsetting concerns of the
day that many were risking their lives to fight about, using bogus prophet-play-
ing methods that endangered the followers, then pretending the persecution hap-
pened due to a commitment to sincerity by their leader.

  My main criticism of that is that Rutherford conducted that poorly, with in-
flexible "144,000" elitism and an expanded definition of worldliness, and put
the followers into conflict without scriptural necessity but for whatever per-
sonal reasons--I'd think to stir up PR for his literature sales.  Ironically, it
created some good secular court case PR about freedom of speech but was an un-
reasonable imposition on the followers' Christian freedom and was disastrous for
many of the followers he put on the front line in Nazi Germany.

  So I scrounged together various things of related context--prejudice, poli-
tics, the military, etc.--to understand "The Declaration of Facts" in and made
a timeline of it.  It added a few more twists to the story, if anything, for
me.  And it's got a few items useful in analyzing the JWs leaders for a show of
God or "not God" regarding their claim of being God's sole channel of informa-
tion on Earth.

  Thanks to the heraldmag.org and ctrussell.us web sites for a lot of the lit-
erature of Charles Taze Russell:
  http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/Contents/bsllinks/Russell.htm
  http://www.ctrussell.us/ctrussell/ctrussell.nsf

  Thanks to the strictlygenteel.co.uk web site for a lot of the literature by
Joseph F. Rutherford:
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/index2.html

  Thanks to watchtowerdocuments.org and /wtarchive.svhelden.info for copies of
"The Golden Age."
  http://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/1920-1949.html
  http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/english/the-golden-age/

  Thanks to the Catholic-forum.com web site for a big list of Watchtower publi-
cations.
  http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/jwhistory.html

  Thanks to the Freeminds web site for a lot of the prediction (and other odd)
attempts by Russell and subsequent Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses lead-
ers.  It offers a lot of JWs leaders' literature quotes from the book "Spiritual
Food at the Proper Time" by an elder of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/part1.htm

  Thanks to jwfacts.com, wtarchive.svhelden.info, and wiki.jw-archive.org, too:
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php
  http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/english/books-and-tracts/
  http://wiki.jw-archive.org/List+of+Watch+Tower+Publications+by+Year+Published

****

  Timeline of JWs leaders in regard to human government, war, propaganda, and
persecution

  1884  The first Watch Tower president, Charles Taze Russell, regarding Matt.
24:6-8, wrote: "What commoner all through the ages than wars and rumors of wars,
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes?  These, as marking the course of the age,
can never indicate its close." ("Watchtower Reprints," Sept., 1884, p.661)

  1891  Russell's 1891 passport, for which he took an oath of allegiance to the
USA, can be seen at the next link.
  http://glenster1.webs.com/RussellOath1891.jpg

  1898  On April 25, the Spanish-American War was declared: The United States
declared war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announced that a state of war had exis-
ted since April 21 (later backdating one more day to April 20).  It lasted till
August.

  1898  "Notice that there is no command in the Scriptures against military ser-
vice.  Obedience to a draft would remind us of our Lord's words, 'If any man
compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.'  The government may compel march-
ing or drilling, but cannot compel you to kill the foe.  You need not be a good
marksman." ("The Watchtower," Aug.1, 1898, reprint, p.2345)

  I'll suggest that it might have been a good idea to run that one past the sar-
geant first before he sent men into positions in the heat of battle.

  1917  Joseph F. Rutherford became the 2nd Watchtower president.

  1917  "The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of
the Scriptures. (Rev. 16:16- 20.)" ("Pastor Russell's Sermons," 1917 ed., p.676)

  In June, 1917, six months after Rutherford became Watch Tower president, Con-
gress passed the Espionage Act, laying heavy penalties on all persons who in-
terfered with mobilization of military forces.  The Sedition Act of 1918 was an
even more severe measure to suppress war criticism.  Dissenters were often ar-
rested without warrants, hauled off to jail, and held incommunicado without
bail.  Prejudicial courts sentenced war critics to extraordinarily long prison
terms: one adolescent girl was given twenty years.  There were government lis-
teners and informers everywhere.  Intelligence agencies of the departments of
War, Navy, and State employed amateur as well as professional detectives to
collect information on citizens.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918

  As mentioned on p.1a, the JWs leaders claim that Jesus picked them as his sole
religious leaders on Earth in 1919 (which Russell had been indicating about him-
self for decades).  Part of that story uses Rev.11.  The anointed Bible Students
are given as the Two Witnesses whose work, "The Finished Mystery," 1917, was
"killed" when seven of the Society officers were sentenced to federal prison,
then "resurrected"/revived eighteen months later with the release and claimed
"exoneration" of them--that they were cleared from accusation or blame.  The JWs
leaders teach that Jesus then put them in charge of the Master's household and
care of all his belongings on Earth.

  This is connected to the return of Jesus in 1914--that he's had an invisible
presence on Earth since he started ruling it from heaven in 1914, that Jesus
fulfilled a prophetic 1,260 days (time, times, and half a time) waging war with
Satan and casting the demons to Earth from 1914 to 1918, then picked Rutherford
and associates as his leaders on Earth, the Faithful and Discreet Slave class of
Matt.24:45, in 1919. 
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/exonerated.htm

****

  1917  Rutherford released "The Finished Mystery" (see p.1a).

  Thanks to Atlantis at the Jehovahs-Witness.net web site for quotes from the
controversial pages, later deleted to appease the government, from "The Finished
Mystery," 1917.
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/141019/pages-from-finished-mystery?page=1&size=20

  It tries to use the Bible to put defense, used by police and militia to mini-
mize crime in the world, on the same moral plane as offense and call both mur-
der in all cases.

  p.247:

  "Come out of the mouth of the dragon. — The three fundamental truths of his-
tory are man's Fall, Redemption and Restoration.  Stated in other language these
three truths are the mortal nature of man, the Christ of God and His Millennial
Kingdom.  Standing opposite to these Satan has placed three great untruths, hu-
man immortality, the Antichrist and a certain delusion which is best described
by the word Patriotism, but which is in really murder, the spirit of the very
Devil.  It is this last and crowning feature of Satan's work that is mentioned
first.  The other two errors are the direct cause of this one.  The wars of the
Old Testament were all intended to illustrate the battlings of the New Creature
against the weaknesses of the flesh, and are not in any sense of the word justi-
fication for the human butchery which has turned the earth into a slaughter-
house.  Nowhere in the New Testament is Patriotism (a narrow-minded hatred of
other peoples) encouraged.  Everywhere and always murder in its every form is
forbidden; and yet, under the guise of Patriotism the civil governments of earth
demand of peace-loving men the sacrifice of themselves and their loved ones and
the butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded by the laws of
heaven."

  p.249

  "'"Everything in Germany, Italy, Austria, England and Russia is held back by
the confiscation of the proceeds of industry carried on for the support of the
army and navy.  In the United States the development of our resources is checked
by this same fatal policy."  "— C. E. Jefferson, American Association for Inter-
national Conciliation. — Z.'09-179."

  p.250

  ""War is in open and utter violation of Christianity.  If war is right, then
Christianity is wrong, false, a lie.  If Christianity is right, then war is
wrong, false, a lie.  The God revealed by Jesus, and by every spiritual leader
of the race, is no God of battles."  " But I must go farther — I must speak not
only of war in general, but of this war in particular.  Most persons are quite
ready to agree, especially in the piping times of peace, that war is wrong.  But
let a war cloud no bigger than a man's hand appear on the horizon of the na-
tion's life, and they straightway begin to qualify their judgment; and if the
war cloud grows until it covers all the heavens, they finally reverse it."
"This brings about the curious situation of all war being wrong in general, and
each war being right in particular.  Germans denounce war, with the exception of
course of the present conflict with England.  Englishmen condemn war, but ex-
clude from their indictment the present fight against the central Empires.  If
you tell me that this war is fought for the integrity of international law, I
must ask you why it is directed only against Germany and not also against En-
gland, which is an equal, although far less terrible, violator of covenants be-
tween nations?"

  p,251

  "If you say it is a war of defense against wanton and intolerable aggression,
I must reply that every blow which we have endured has been primarily a blow
directed not against ourselves but against England, and that it has yet to be
proved that Germany has any intention or desire of attacking us."  "'In its ul-
timate causes, this war is the natural product of our unchristian civilization.
Its armed men are grown from the dragon's teeth of secret diplomacy, imperialis-
tic ambition, dynastic pride, greedy commercialism, economic exploitation at
home and abroad.  In the sowing of these teeth, America has had her part; and it
is therefore only proper, perhaps, that she should have her part also in the
reaping of the dreadful harvest.  In its more immediate causes, this war is the
direct result of unwarrantable, cruel, but none the less inevitable interfer-
ences with our commercial relations with one group of the belligerents.  Our
participation in the war, therefore, like the war itself, is political and eco-
nomic, not ethical, in its character.  Any honor, dignity, or beauty which there
may be in our impending action, is to be found in the impulses, pure and unde-
filed, which are actuating many patriotic hearts today, and not at all in the
real facts of the situation.  The war itself is wrong.  Its prosecution will be
a crime.  There is not a question raised, an issue involved, a cause at stake,
which is worth the life of one blue-jacket on the sea or one khaki-coat in the
trenches.' — Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Church of the Messiah, Park Ave. and 34th
St., New York City."

  pp.252,253

  "'While the Germans have on every battle flag and upon their soldiers' belts,
"God with us," the British ministers are quoting Bible texts to encourage en-
listment of their young men and to throw a halo of glory upon their soldier
dead.' (Z.'15-267.)  'The clergy are finding themselves in a tight place.  They
are expected to be faithful to their country, right or wrong.  They are expected
to preach the War as the will of God and the going to war as a meritorious mat-
ter that will have Divine reward and blessing.  They must encourage recruiting,
in obedience to the commands of their earthly king, and in violation of the com-
mands of the Heavenly King, who has directed them to be peacemakers, and to fol-
low peace with all men and do no murder, either under legal sanction or other-
wise.' (Z.'15-276.)"

****

  1918  The second Watchtower president Rutherford was jailed for "unlawfully,
feloniously and willfully causing insubordination, disloyalty and refusal of
duty in the military and naval forces of the United States of America when the
United States was at war."  Rutherford and friends tried to talk people out of
going into military service but overlooked the legal point that the JWs were
not an organized religion recognized for conscious objection because they had
no required creed.  (The JWs prophet's holy spirit isn't just a bad fortune
teller--he makes a lousy lawyer.)

  Also notice that the judge of the trial seemed patient about it, yet recent
JWs leaders' literature refers back to the trial as a case of Satan trying to
stop Rutherford, and that he was later released from "Babylonish captivity" and
"exonerated."  A summary is at the next two links:
 http://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/1919_May_14__Appeals_Court_reverses_conviction_of_WT_Directo.pdf
  http://www.randallwatters.org/armageddonmuseum/jfrtrial1.htm

****

  The information in this section is a summary by Amazing:
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/28327/j-f-rutherford-exonerated?page=1&size=20

  What actually transpired is that the convicted defendants filed a Petition
for a "Writ of Error."  (Trial Transcript, pages 1-10, parts 1-30 )  The Writ
of Error was allowed by the trial Court, Judge Howe, and granted by the Dis-
strict Court Judge Chatfield, whom the Society earlier objected to and had re-
moved from their trial, because they felt he would not be fair to them.

  What does this mean?  During the course of any trial, the defense attorney
will take exceptions and objections and note any errors in procedure and prac-
tices customary to common law.  If the defendants lose and are convicted, the
defense attorney can use these 'errors' as a basis for appeal.

  Judge Howe, who presided over the trial of Joseph Rutherford and his co-de-
fendants, was very generous to note defense objections and exceptions, and
openly stated in Court several times that he would act to preserve the rights
of the defendants, and acknowledged that they could make appeals.

  What then is a Writ of Error and how is it processed?  "WRIT OF ERROR, prac-
tice.  A writ issued out of a court of competent jurisdiction, directed to the
judge of a court of record in which final judgment has been given, and command-
ing them, in some cases, themselves to examine the record; in others to send it
to another court of appellate jurisdiction, therein named, to be examined in
order that some alleged error in the proceeding may be corrected."

  That is it!  In this case, the Writ of Error was granted, and the case re-
manded back to the United States Attorney as is customary.  The prosecuting At-
torney then decides whether he wants to re-try the case, correcting errors or
let it drop.  Such 'errors' do not mean that the defendants are suddenly 'not
guilty' or in any way 'exonerated,' but rather that if the case were tried,
less the errors, it might possibly have a different result.

  What essentially happened is that the US Attorney decided not to pursue the
case, and as a result, in accordance with the Writ of Error, the Defendants
were released, and the original charges were not refiled.  Double jeopardy does
not apply, because this goes to the matter of how the first trial made errors.
If they would have had a new trial, that trial would then be treated as the
'correct' trial, and the original trial would be treated as a mistrial.

  Were the errors significant, possibly suggesting that the Defendants did not
get a fair trial?  So far, from reading much of this 1500 page transcript, I
have found nothing that jumps out as outrageous or even unfair to the defense.
Most all the objections and exceptions taken by the defense were minor.

  While I do not have conclusive information as to why the US Attorney backed
off and did not pursue a new trial, it appears that after WWI, the nation set-
tled down, and going through this issue again may have seemed pointless to the
Government.

  There you have it.  Joseph Rutherford and company were NOT exonerated, but
simply let off of the hook because of procedural errors.

****

  "The Finished Mystery," 1918, noted on p.1a, is described at the next link as
including "strong criticism of Christendom's clergy which prompted clergy pres-
sure for government censure and eventually a wave of persecution in North Ameri-
ca and Europe."  (I'll bet the bad prophecy ideas in it didn't help things
much.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Franklin_Rutherford

  (Author?): "The adverse conditions in prison caused Rutherford's health to de-
teriorate considerably and he remained plagued with health problems throughout
his life (Sprague, 1942).  Sentenced to harsh terms of twenty years each, they
endured prison for nine months before they were released on bail while their ap-
peal was pending.  As a result until he died Rutherford prociferously condemned
the American government and its courts, and especially the Catholic Church,
which he felt influenced his imprisonment.

  "Many people responded to Rutherford's condemnation of America by unleashing
one of the worst waves of violent persecution against a religious group in
United States in the twentieth century (ACLU, 1941) world wide."
  http://www.freeminds.org/legal/custodynotes.htm

  I'll add that he mainly ranted from his mansion or behind his security men
while the common followers bore the brunt of it door to door and sent him the
money.  Comparing their methods of playing prophet, Russell could be an elitist
(see 1910, others, p.1a), but Rutherford seemed more motivated to crank up ten-
sions unnecessarily to set his group off as different, and to recklessly risk
the well-being of the followers for PR for sales.  Before you feel too sorry for
him:

  1918  Joseph Rutherford wrote that God's Kingdom will be reestablished on
Earth, millions now living will never die, and Bible notables Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and the prophets of Hebrews 11 will physically return to Earth in 1925.
("Millions Now Living Will Never Die," 1918, p.89.)  (See p.1a.)

  Rutherford had a mansion built in 1929 and moved into it himself pending the
return of Abraham, etc. (Heb.11) to claim it, which didn't happen.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Sarim

  1920  The National Socialist Party, the Nazis, became a party.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_timeline_of_Nazism

  1921  On July 28, Adolf Hitler became their party chairman.  After some inter-
nal conflicts, he became the sole fuhrer--leader.  His main goals weren't about
socialism but national expansion and anti-Semitism.  He believed Germany's ene-
mies Britain and France (and later the Soviet Union) were controlled by the
Jews.  His group used the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan race.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_race

  Hitler was raised by Catholic parents but abandoned the Catholic church and
didn't receive the sacraments.  In contrast to the scriptures by apostle Paul
about assimilating among the Jewish and Gentile people and persuading their case
peacefully (Jesus didn't teach to find people who believe differently and beat
them up), with God showing no favoritism about race (Acts 17:16; 1 Cor.10:32-11:
1), abiding by government unless it calls on them to go against God then follow
God (Acts 5:29; Rom.13:1-7), Hitler was taken by a pseudo-scientific racist
version of social Darwinism to the extent of favoring eugenics and was murder-
ously anti-Semitic and nationalistic.  When it came to a choice between Chris-
tianity and those things, he went with those things.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_aspects_of_Nazism

  Hitler only professed to be Christian at times for political reasons since he
otherwise denied that he was and had strongly anti-scriptural beliefs and prac-
tices.  Whatever slim chance there was that he may have believed he was Chris-
tian at times, the Bible believer, rightfully offended by Hitler's version, can
make a case for him being an apostate, and a critic of Christianity who wants to
paint with a broad brush to bash it (ironically with as much discernment as a
"Christian" with Hitler's blend of beliefs) may take his superficial quotes out
of context to leave the impression that he was Christian.  Without being a mind-
reader, I know apostle James would advise you can tell his faith by his works so
to see Hitler as insincere.  Whether one wants to believe in the Bible or not,
if Adolf Hitler isn't an example of an apostate, I'd hate to see what you'd need
dredged up to meet the requirement.

  Part of Hitler's PR for power involved pandering to Christian faith for sup-
port against a popularly felt threat of Stalin's intolerant atheistic persecu-
tion of religion--as long as the church didn't want much control in the matter.
Part of it was bonding with brutal anti-Semitism and nationalism.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#Views_on_religion
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Religion

  Into this mix came JWs, who hadn't helped fight to keep Germany from losing
(or winning) in WWI, were Zionists till Rutherford cancelled it and even showed
anti-Semitism, favored eugenics till 1942, and had a regimented outlook against
involvement in any non-JW religion and bashed it as Satanic.  Rutherford tried
bonding with Hitler over anti-Semitism but Hitler's bigger appeal was to Pro-
testants and Catholics that Rutherford bashed.  When Hitler came out against
Rutherford's JWs and business, Rutherford gave the followers a regimented out-
look against involvement in any government as Satanic, including Hitler's na-
tionalism (and against helping the Allies), and put the followers on the front
line as scapegoats from his mansion in San Diego.

  In 1921, the SA (aka brownshirts and stormtroopers) became the militia of the
party and began attacking other parties.

  "The Sturmabteilung (SA, German for "Storm Division", usually translated as
stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organization of the
NSDAP – the German Nazi party."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

  1922  The Hitler Youth program was established.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth

  1922 Rutherford made his first radio broadcast on Sunday, April 16, 1922--
"Millions Now Living Will Never Die"--at the Metropolitan Opera House in Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, on station WGL-AM (called Howlett station because it was
founded by Thomas F. J. Howlett), 2303 North Broad St., North Philadelphia.
The station disappeared in a couple of years.
  http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/bp/wgl.html
  http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2011/04/dj-judge-rutherford.html
  https://books.google.com/books?id=pLV1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1050&lpg=PA1050&dq=howlett+station+WGL-AM&source=bl&ots=j67Adb_60j&sig=pIctVRs6Hqk3Y8ubYDehlvw1zUo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrzJGT-YbLAhVIVT4KHa3gDkAQ6AEIKDAC#v=onepage&q=howlett%20station%20WGL-AM&f=false
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_House_%28Philadelphia%29

  See 1924 for Rutherford's WBBR.

  1922  Clayton Woodworth's Sept., 1922 passport, for which he took an oath of
allegiance to the USA, is at the next link.
  http://glenster1.webs.com/ClaytonWoodworthSept1922OathOfAllegianceResized2.jpg

  Archives of some of the issues of "The Golden Age" and "Consolation" which
Clayton edited for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania are
at the next links.  Since 1946, the publication has been called "Awake!"
  http://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/1920-1949.html
  http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/english/the-golden-age/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awake!

  1924  The first broadcast of Rutherford's WBBR occurred on Sunday evening,
Feb.24, 1924.

  From Feb.24, 1924 to March 31, 1957, the Watchtower Society used radio
station WBBR which was located in Rossville, Staten Island.  In 1931, the main
studios were moved to 124 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights.  ("The airwaves
of New York" by Bill Jaker, Frank Sulek, and Peter Kanze, pp.39,40)  The Society
sold the station on April 15, 1957.
  http://books.google.com/books?id=0qr_W5B1SAQC&lpg=PA40&ots=eLp-t6Xo30&dq=Watchtower%20%20Society%20WBBR&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q=Watchtower%20%20Society%20WBBR&f=false
  https://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/nycamhistory4.html
  http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/09/radio-pioneer-lifts-up-its-voice.html
  http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/history/jp%20history.htm

  1924  JWs were supposed to be politically neutral.  They weren't supposed to
take part in human-led government but could criticize it.  Rutherford did en-
courage a political view, if not activism, by writing a "Watchtower" tract that
denounced prohibition for "The Watchtower," Nov.1, 1924:
  http://www.watchthetower.net/booze.html

  Again, looking for a sign of God or not God for the JW leaders claim to be
God's sole channel on Earth, I'm seeing the double irony of:

  - a boozer writing about the evils of boozing, and

  - a boozing religious leader writing that the bigger evil was of political and
religious leaders coming out against booze who really weren't.

  It's not like I needed to find another way to decide if the JWs leaders were
God's sole channel, which, if they showed they were, could actually clinch their
distinctive doctrine claims such as their transfusion ban.  I just thought it
was a kind of interesting example.

  1925  On July 18, Hitler's "An Account" was published.  A second volume was
published in 1926, and together they became known as "Mein Kampf" ("My Strug-
gle").  It includes strongly anti-Semitic outlooks, such as that the Jews had a
plot to take over the world (actually, Rutherford would have made a more appro-
priate suspect for that).  He wanted to erase the Jews and Communism from the
face of the Earth.  In his racist view, the Aryans were at the top of the order
of things and the Jews and Gypsies were at the bottom.  The struggle he believed
in was between the superior Aryans and the non-Aryans who wanted equality.

  Unfortunately, the book became very popular in Germany and made Hitler
wealthy.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf
 
  1927  "Be it known once and for all that those profiteering, conscienceless,
selfish men who call themselves Jews, and who control the greater portion of the
finances of the world and the business of the world, will never be the rulers in
this new earth.  God would not risk such selfish men with such an important pos-
ition." ("The Golden Age," Feb. 23, 1927, p.343)

****

  Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

  I'll throw in the disclaimer this is ostensibly why Hitler hated the Jews.
None of us are mind readers to know what of it he actually believed and what is
a cynical politician pandering to or manipulating people.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

  And I wouldn't look for any good reasons.  A sociologist would say the Jews
were pretty well assimilated at the time so there wasn't any point to Hitler
making the trouble he made for them.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany

  (I have criticism of certain conservative Abrahamic religious stances if my
research indicates they're misinformative and needlessly harmful such as Moses
having homosexuals cut off  Lev.18,20.  Hitler didn't use these criticisms for
his reasons.  For example, he had homosexuals incarcerated and wear pink
triangles, etc.)

  In the fall of 1919, Gen. Erich Ludendorff falsely blamed the Jews for the
Gernman army losing WWI.  Actually, the German army lost the war in the field but
blaming the Jews became the popular "official" excuse in German right-wing
circles.  This view was repeated by Gen. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg on
Nov.18, 1919 and others.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth

  In "Mein Kampf," 1925-1926, Hitler, in order to get the German people to
follow his National Socialist German Workers' Party/Nazi Party, wanted to give
them an enemy outside Germany and one inside Germany.  For outside it he picked
Stalin's Russian communism and for inside it he made a scapegoat of the Jews for
the spread of "Bolshevist-Jewish" communism.  He identified the Jews and "Bolshe-
viks" as racially and ideologically inferior and threatening and "Aryans" and
National Socialists as racially superior and politically progressive.  He used
anti-Semitic clichés (that Jews are greedy, scheming, etc.)--he even accused the
Jews of being subhumans.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themes_in_Nazi_propaganda
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_Jews

  He came up with a combination of junk science about better and worse races
with Jews listed as among the worst combined with eugenics (taken to mean to
operate on people so they couldn't reproduce, or to even execute them) in a
deadly cocktail.

  He made laws causing Jews to be unable to marry here, live there, work there,
etc., till he herded them into ghettos then prison camps of horrible condi-
tions.  He had Joseph Goebbels head up the Reich Ministry of Public Enlighten-
ment and Propaganda (the main cause of our negative connotation of the word
"propaganda") which put out newspapers and movies (think "Birth of a Nation"
except with Nazis instead of KKKers and Jews instead of African-Americans).  On
Sunday, June 22, 1941, Hitler began war with Russia--Operation Barbarossa--and
during it he began the Holocaust--attempted genocide (from which we get the word
"genocide") of the Jews, mainly operated by Heinrich Himmler.  It led to the
murder of about six million European Jews.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Ministry_of_Public_Enlightenment_and_Propaganda
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler#The_Holocaust
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler

  An example of propaganda Hitler probably didn't really believe in was Positive
Christianity--a Nazi oriented anti-Semitic reading of the New Testament.  People
who knew him said behind the scenes Hitler said things indicating he didn't
really believe in Christianity.  It was an attempt to nazify the Protestant
Church in Germany but, to their credit, some preachers didn't preach it and most
Protestant Germans didn't follow it.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler
    "German Christianity and The Third Reich | Hearts Divided (WW2 Christianity
    Documentary) | Timeline"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igdIoXYVQ_k

****

  This brings up a point to keep in mind about these things.  The JW leaders
were critical of the Nazi government (notably after it became critical of them),
including Nazi persecution of the Jews.  Are the JWs leaders' statements just
meant to justify their own rules about the roles of these others in prophecy
(whoever else damned but JWs) or something else indicating a broader bigoted
outlook (common bigotry ironically meant to support the JWs religious condemna-
tions but in contradiction to scripture)?  Try to decide if the JWs leaders'
comments about Jewish people are:

  - Biblical theological points refuting the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah,

  - the JWs leaders' rules about the role of the Jews in their prophecies, or

  - non-denominational, secular bigotry.
  http://www.randytv.com/Hitler/watchtower_hitler.htm
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_propaganda

  1929  Rutherford reinterpreted Rom.13--"higher authorities" can't be earthly,
they must be God and Christ.  So JWs began calling the secular authorities "de-
monic" and such instead. ("The Watchtower," June 1 and 15, 1929) (Reversed in
1962.)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/superior-authorities.php

  "This proves that the higher powers are Christ Jesus and Jehovah and that the
supreme power is Jehovah God....  The apostle could not mean that the 'higher
powers' are the Gentile powers....  Those who have insisted that the apostle re-
ferred exclusively to the Gentile powers when he said, "The powers that be are
ordained of God,' cite in support thereof the words of Peter, to wit; 'Submit
yourselves to every ordinance of man [human creation, Greek] for the Lord's
sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them
that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of
them that do well.'"  ("The Watchtower," June 1, 1929, p.167)

  The standard idea, shared by the JWs leaders since 1962, of Rom.13:1-8, taken
with other scriptures like Mark 12:13-17, is that Christians follow the human
authorities unless they have to choose between that and God's word, in which
case they follow God and not man (Acts 5:29).  That interpretation was the JWs
leaders' view before Rutherford's reinterpretation, and has been the JWs lead-
ers' interpretation since 1962, too.  This needs to be tempered with the under-
standing that the Watch Tower leaders since Russell have always added extra
stipulations and propaganda about what God's word about it was.  Making one in-
terpretation and then the other is both an excess of playing at being "God's
sole channel" and not real steady in the way you'd expect from people who really
were.

  But the JWs leaders' stance on it from 1929 to 1962 only exaggerates the shaky
irony their stance on human government as being too worldly, basically held from
Russell's day to today, always makes me think of--allegedly, human governments
are led by Satan who's been put in charge by God to do good in the world, so JWs
shouldn't be any part of it.  And does evil Christendom teach you that?  No.
Well, they're evil Christendom.  What do they know?  Meh.
  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2013;&version=49;

  Rutherford originally had JWs continue Russell's religious beliefs about Zi-
onism (a belief that the Jews should have a homeland in Israel; in Christian
Zionism, it's also the belief that it's intended by prophesy).  In "Life,"
1929, Rutherford had written that the British conquest of Palestine in 1917,
the Balfour Declaration, etc., were fulfillments of prophecy.
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/superior-authorities.php
  http://ia601406.us.archive.org/23/items/WatchtowerLibrary/magazines/w/w1929_E.pdf
  https://archive.org/details/LifeByJudgeRutherford
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

  1929  "National Socialism...is a movement that is acting directly in the ser-
vice of man's enemy, the Devil." ("The Golden Age," Oct.15, 1929, US and German
versions)
  http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/english/the-golden-age/

  1929  On October 24-29, the Black Thursday stock market crash happened on the
New York Stock Exchange and began the Great Depression.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

  1929  Rutherford had the mansion "Beth Sarim" built at 4440 Braeburn Road in
San Diego, CA, and moved into it.  It was supposed to house the Bible notables
of Hebrews 11 (Abraham, etc.), whom Rutherford predicted would return, which
didn't happen--it just housed him till he departed.
  http://www.bibletopics.com/BIBLESTUDY/89.htm
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Sarim

  1930  On April 5, in an act of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi broke Brit-
ish law after marching to the sea and making salt.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930

  The contrast I see with Gandhi or a Martin Luther King and Rutherford is with
someone believing in something good and acting wisely, even risking their skin,
to do it, and someone sending the followers out to the front lines, door to
door, with unwise bombast and damnation, meant to establish his elitist prophet
pose, from his mansion.

  1930  On April 15, in response to gossip that JWs were assisting the Jews in
subversive political movements--the dangerous, Bolshevik, "Jewish worm"--the
German edition of "The Golden Age" stated: "We have no reason to regard this
false accusation as an insult as we are convinced that the Jew is at least as
valuable a person as a nominal Christian; but we reject the above untruth of
the church tabloid because it is aimed at deprecating our work, as if it were
being done not for the sake of the Gospel but for the Jews."  (German edition
of "The Golden Age," April 15, 1930)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany

  "Nominal Christian": "nominal" means "in name only, minimal"--as with Rus-
sell's use of the phrase, it carried a curse.  Rutherford made his harshest
curses about mainstream Christianity, which he taught was Christian in name
only--had a minimal amount in common with what Rutherford taught it should be.
The Golden Age meant that you should expect the JWs to collaborate with the Jews
as much as with mainstream Christianity (i.e. not at all)--that to accuse Ruth-
erford and the JWs of corroborating with or working for the sake of either one
instead of the Rutherford customized gospel was insulting. 

  As Hitler rose to power, there were about 20,000 JWs in Germany and maybe as
many more who were sympathizers.  The JWs grew quickly there in the social un-
rest of the place and time.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany#Pre-Nazi_era

  1930  In contrast with many Creationists of the time, the Watch Tower produced
an issue of "The Golden Age" on Nov.12 with an article by Mr. MacArthur, the
secretary of The American Eugenics Society, written at the request of the Watch-
tower.  The article favored eugenics...
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

  ...as a way to solve social problems, an idea which was given as expected to
meet "with hearty approval by many of our readers."  It said "we do not seem to
be making very marked progress" in solving social problems, but "modern science
has put into our hands (the) means of preventing much of this suffering.  The
study of human heredity reveals the possibility of...eugenics, the science
which deals with the conscious direction of human existence."

  Since "blood tells," "families cursed with a hereditary of shiftlessness, lack
of foresight, and indifference to the rights of others" could be kept from
breeding to prevent a "horde of inferior human beings."  ("Sterilization of the
Unfit" by MacArthur, the secretary of The American Eugenics Society, "The Golden
Age," Nov.12, 1930, p.116)  (Compare 1933 and 1942.)
  http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/dirty_watchtower_secrets_pt2.htm

  1931  On March 3, the Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the United States
National anthem.

  Rutherfords' literature, from 1932, reported persecution of JWs and Jews
(whose persecution was a much bigger and harsher news story) as evils of the
Nazis, but not in Germany about the Jews until Nov., 1938.

  1932  Rutherford reinterpreted Rom.11: Jehovah's Witnesses are the only "Is-
rael of God," not the Jews.  ("Vindication Book II," 1932, pp.257258)
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/dates.htm

  Normally, it's taken to mean the Gentiles are a branch that will be grafted
onto the tree, which has a remnant of Israel for the roots.  Rom.11:26: All Is-
rael will be saved.  (Non-JWs may also interpret "All Israel" to mean the ethnic
people of the land of Israel in some way or another.)

  Rutherford dropped his support of Russell's Christian Zionism (not long before
the 1932 "Declaration of Facts," in fact).  In 1932, "Life" (1929) wasn't cir-
culated, "Vindication" was.  In it, he wrote:

       Regarding Israel and the Phoenician seaport Tyre: "...doubtless from
     Tyre the Jews learned how to cheat their fellow man.  This may also pic-
     ture how some of God’s covenant people permit themselves to be choked by
     the weeds and thorns of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and
     who therefore resort to improper commercial schemes to gain such ends."
     ("Vindication," J.A. Rutherford, 1932, book 2 at pp.70,71)

       Rutherford wrote that this especially applied to the "selfish" Roths-
     child’s bankers and other Jewish financial establishments who "conspired"
     with their "political allies" in the U.S. congress. ("Vindication," J.A.
     Rutherford, 1932, book 2 at pp.170,179)
     http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/vindication2/vindication2_6.html

       "The Jews were evicted from Palestine and 'their house left unto them
     desolate' because they rejected Christ.  To this day the Jews have not
     repented of this wrongful act committed by their forefathers.  Many of
     them have been returned to the land of Palestine, but they have been
     induced to go there because of selfish reasons.  During the long period
     elapsing from the time of their expulsion to the present day the Jews
     have not borne the shame of the heathen for Jehovah's sake, nor the
     name of Christ.  During all this period of time, and particularly dur-
     ing the World War, the true followers of Christ Jesus devoted to God,
     and to his kingdom, have been bearing the shame of the heathen and have
     been hated by all nations for Christ's sake and for the sake of Jeho-
     vah's name. (Matt.24:9; Mark 13:13).

       "In contrast to this, during the World War the Jews received the recog-
     nition of the heathen nations.  In 1917 the Balfour Declaration, spon-
     sored by the heathen governments of Satan's organization, came forth,
     recognized the Jews, and bestowed upon them great favors.  In this
     seventh world power took the lead.  Now Big Business and other wings of
     Satan's organization place the Jews alongside of and in the same cate-
     gory as the Gentiles.  Heretofore even God's people have overlooked the
     fact that the affairs of God's kingdom with reference to the things of
     the earth are of far greater importance than the rehabilitation of that
     little strip of land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean sea.  The
     Jews have received more attention at their hands than they have really
     deserved.  Therefore this prophecy must have its chief fulfillment upon
     the true people of God's kingdom which are now on the earth." ("Vindica-
     tion," J.A. Rutherford, 1932, book 2 at pp.257,258)
     "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Perse-
cution," James M. Penton. 2004, p.22, p.8
     http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/vindication2/vindication2_8.html

  1933  There were 25,000 JWs in Germany, the second biggest number in a country
after the U.S..
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  Wikipedia estimates that from about 1933 to 1945 there were about 20,000 JWs
in Germany.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany

  Maybe as many more were sympathizers.  The JWs grew quickly there in the so-
cial unrest of the place and time.  Upwards of half went to Nazi prison camps.

  1933  Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany on Jan.30.  The National
Socialist movement took over in Germany.  The Nazis harassment of JWs intensi-
fied.  It became increasingly severe over the next six years.

  See the first couple of listings for 1929 for Watchtower damnation of human
government and Hitler's political party specifically, and 1932 for how recently
Rutherford stopped supporting Zionism.

  To understand just how unnecessarily dangerous Rutherford's prophet playing
act was as something to guide the followers' lives in Nazi Germany, a few things
should be remembered.

  Rutherford had put his followers in a precarious position already.  Most peo-
ple didn't consider Rutherford a prophet but an unpopular religious literature-
selling con man--the "144,000" claim was arrogant, his predictions always
failed, and he propagandized about whoever that disagreed with him.  With his
unnecessary prophet-playing customizations about the Bible and expanded rules
about worldliness, that meant most of them.  Hitler could have sent his men
against the JWs just to appeal to the majority.

  If he tried nothing more unique than a conscientious objector's approach, he
could have had a lower profile problem with fewer in concentration camps, and
tried to get some active in the Christian underground or trying to leave Ger-
many.  I know an easy way they could have done it, too--put the fathead at the
front of the door to door line.

  At this juncture, Rutherford demonstrated the art of the prophetic prankster
pirouette and pratfall.  Apparently due to the rise of Hitler's party, Ruther-
ford changed his sales PR.  His about-face on Zionism was meant to allow his
bigotry about those of non-Rutherford religion, including the Jews, to continue
anywhere in the world without Zionism causing a PR problem in Germany, except it
was obvious why he changed his position about it when it did.  His stance on hu-
man government, including German National Socialism (see 1929) and Hitler's
treatment of the Jews, being Satanic was meant to continue in non-German coun-
tries without it causing a PR problem in Germany.

  What Rutherford tried to pull off was to pander to Germany and bigotry about
Jews, silent about persecution of them, out of one side of his mouth while pan-
dering to non-Germans and bigotry about Jews, if critical of Hitler's persecu-
tion of them, with criticism of Hitler's government out of the other side of his
mouth.  The only credible consistency to see in it isn't a religious belief, or
even the best care for the followers selling his literature, but just to con-
tinue to sell his literature.  He took a reckless chance Hitler wouldn't get
wise to it--otherwise, he'd be triple-damn daring Hitler, probably already in-
clined, to show everybody he condemned it by cracking down on the followers.

  Nobody in Hitler's place would buy Rutherford's transparent duplicity and nei-
ther did Hitler.  Hitler was evil but not stupid.  Rutherford had a lot of JWs
going door to door in Germany being harassed because Hitler saw them as a minor-
ity that was a political nuisance that propagandized against the religions of
his majority and against human government, including criticism of Hitler's own
government in non-German publications.

   These things should be remembered when Rutherford fails to bond with Hitler
over anti-Semitism and loyalty to Hitler's government on June 25, 1933, with the
Declaration of Facts and a letter to Hitler.

****

  The information in this segment came from a site which is no longer at the
next link:
  http://www.sektes.info/hessereview.html

  1933  "Probably there is nothing so indicative of primitive consciousness in
the entire Nazi program as the anti-Jewish sentiment it so passionately advo-
cates." ("The Golden Age," not the German edition, Jan.4, 1933, p.209)

  And the "playing both sides of the fence" award goes to Clayton Woodworth.
Imagine the torment of his spiritual dichotomy: badmouth a different religious
group or an opposing human government as being guided by Satan.  The decision in
the the long run wasn't really hard: being of neither one, badmouth both (and
non-JWs Christianity, the U.S. government, etc.).

  1933  "The Jews in Germany and Austria are having a hard time, all the power
of the Nazis being used against them in boycotts and otherwise." ("The Golden
Age," not the German edition, July 5, 1933, p.623)

     "However, as far as we can gather, the German editions did not print
   these or similar criticism on the Nazi persecution of the Jews until after
   the Night of the Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) in November 1938.  As a re-
   sult of the first widespread boycott of Jewish business and the purge of
   the civil service, judiciary and universities in March 1933, a German edi-
   tion of The Golden Age did mention these events, but the matter-of-fact
   wording and the absence of any comment did not demonstrate much compassion
   with the victims or aversion to these enactments.

     "(See Das Goldene Zeitalter 143 (May 1, 1933).  Since the WBTS was banned
   in 1935 and operating fully underground since then, it is unclear why the
   movement’s German editors refrained from criticizing the persecution of the
   Jews until after the Kristallnacht.)
 
     "Instead, the Jewish fate was seen as inextricably linked with scriptural
   prediction.  According to Trost, the German edition of Consolation (succes-
   sor of The Golden Age), of July 15, 1938: 'The Jews clearly exemplify how
   terrible it is not to have Jehovah’s blessing.  Being cut off from God’s
   favor, also here [in Germany] they have no peace.  Sow the wind and reap
   the whirlwind!  How much longer?' (reviewer’s translation).

    "As noted by Garbe, the attempts by the German management of the WBTS to
   de-escalate the conflict with the Nazis during the first six months of
   1933 may have resulted in omitting any 'offensive' notes that originated
   from the Brooklyn headquarters.  The Magdeburg leadership had even conveyed
   its discomfort to the U.S. State Department, pointing out that the New York
   editors did not take the new ideological situation in Germany into account."
   ("Zwischen Widerstand und Martyrium," supra n. 23, p.91)

    "Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich,"
   by Detlef Garbe
   http://www.amazon.de/Zwischen-Widerstand-Martyrium-Jehovas-Dritten/dp/3486564048
   http://translate.google.com/#
   http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.amazon.de/Zwischen-Widerstand-Martyrium-Jehovas-Dritten/dp/3486564048&ei=Z0zkTYXqJcH40gGQ9ICnBw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Zwischen%2BWiderstand%2Bund%2BMartyrium%2522%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D839%26prmd%3Divns

****

  1933  On Feb.28, the Reichstag Fire Decree (Order of the Reich President for
the Protection of People and State) became law in Germany, which enabled Hitler
to have opposers of the Nazis harassed and imprisoned.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree

  1933  On March 5, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a "bank holiday",
closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the
'holiday' ended on March 13) in reaction to the Great Depression.  On March 9,
the U.S. Congress began its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

  1933  On March 15, Rutherford taught that very few JWs were worthy of eating
at the Lord's Supper with him.  Only the "remnant," the 144,000, could eat the
bread of the Lord's Supper and "show forth his death and participate in his joy,
which is common only to those who are in unity with Christ and Jehovah."  Other
JWs are "Jonadabs"--"the Great Crowd." ("The Watchtower," March 15, 1933, p.90)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehonadab
  http://jehovah.to/glos/=J.html

  Stalin had the Russian Orthosox Church put through "Continuous persecution in
the 1930s" which "resulted in its near-extinction: by 1939, active parishes
numbered in the low hundreds (down from 54,000 in 1917), many churches had been
leveled, and tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were persecuted and
killed. Over 100,000 were shot during the purges of 1937–1938."

  "Many religions popular in the ethnic regions of the Soviet Union including
the Roman Catholic Church, Uniats, Baptists, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc.
underwent ordeals similar to the Orthodox churches in other parts: thousands of
monks were persecuted, and hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples,
sacred monuments, monasteries and other religious buildings were razed."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Religion

  1933  On March 20, Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, was completed.
It opened on March 22.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp

  1933  On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler
dictator of Germany.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_%28Weimar_Republic%29
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_%28Nazi_Germany%29
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933

  1933  In March, regions of Germany began to ban Rutherford's Bible Students. 
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  Through 1934, for distributing Rutherford's literature and refusing to heil
Hitler, many German Bible Students were sent to prison, even concentration
camps, but were usually released soon afterward. ("Jehovah's Witnesses and the
Third Reich" by M. James Penton, p.169)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0

  (It took a few years for Germany to change from the name "Bible Students" or
"Earnest Bible Students" to "Jehovah's Witnesses.")
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  1933  "Nazi Germany," or "the Third Reich" (officially "the German Reich"),
refers to Germany when governed by the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party

  April 1, 1933  Jewish doctors, lawyers, police, teachers and stores were boy-
cotted.  Only six days later, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional
Civil Service was passed, banning Jews from government jobs.  Persecution of
the Jews became increasingly severe over the next six years.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_for_the_Restoration_of_the_Professional_Civil_Service
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_policy_of_Nazi_Germany

  April 4, 1933  The Watchtower Society offices in Magdeburg were seized.
("Awake!" Aug.22, 1995, pp.6,7)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg

  1933  On April 28, 1933 The seizure order was rescinded and property was re-
turned. ("Awake!" Aug.22, 1995, pp.6,7)

  1933  On May 10, the Nazis encouraged censorship by staging massive public
book burnings in Germany.

  1933  On May 26, the Nazi party in Germany introduced law to legalize eugenic
sterilization.

  1933  On June 13, the German Secret State Police (Gestapo) was established.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo

  1933  (undated)  Nazi Germany formed the Expert Committee on Questions of Pop-
ulation and Racial Policy under Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Frick
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933

  1933  On June 25, at the Convention in Berlin, Rutherford's "Declaration of
Facts" was adopted.  (See the section about it near the start of this page.)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/103558/nazi-conciliation-question?page=2&size=20

  A copy was sent to Hitler with a letter that included:

  "Dear Reich Chancellor,

  "On the 25th June 1933 at the sports hall Wilmersdorf, Berlin, a conference
was convened by some 5000 delegates of the Bible Students of Germany [J.Ws],
representing several millions of Germans.  These have for many years been
friends and supporters of this movement.  The purpose of this convention was for
these representatives to explore ways, to inform fully the Reich Chancellor and
the other esteemed officials of the German Empire, as well as to all other
states the following standpoints:

  "In certain parts of the country measures have been and are being taken
against Christian men and women, who are unified in their positive belief.  This
in essence amounts to the persecution of Christians by other Christians, in that
there have been accusations against us from the clerical front (especially from
the Catholics) and which are untrue.

  "Though we are absolutely convinced of the objectivity of government depart-
ments and individual officials, we nevertheless observe, because of the extent
of our literature and demands of the examiners of the material, the content and
significance of our organisation is generally being falsely judged, and also is
what our religious opponents in full prejudice bring against us.

  "The Brooklyn presidency of the Watch Tower Society is and always has been ex-
ceedingly friendly to Germany.  In 1918 the president of the Society and seven
members of the Board of Directors in America were sentenced to 80 years' impris-
onment for the reason that the president refused to let two magazines in Ameri-
ca, which he edited, be used in war propaganda against Germany."
  http://www.bible.ca/jw-penton-3rdreich.htm

  (?? Compare this with the account given for his trail and imprisonment at the
link for 1918 above.)

  "In the same way our Society's presidium not only refused to take part in re-
cent months, in the horror stories against Germany, but has even taken an oppos-
ing stand, which is underlined in the accompanying explanation; the clue to this
is that the elements leading this onslaught of war propaganda (horror stories)
in America, i.e., the Jews with business interests and Catholics, are also the
ones who are conducting the most rigorous persecution against this Society and
its leadership.  By this and other resolutions hereby given, the rejection of
this insidious calumny should follow automatically, i.e. that the Bible Students
were actually supported by the Jews.  The five thousand delegates at their con-
vention have with great satisfaction taken note of the ensuing statement by the
local government president at Magdeburg, namely that the relationship between
Bible Students and communists or Marxists, as maintained by our clerical oppo-
nents, is not provable (demonstrable), and is, therefore, also slanderous (li-
bellous).  A directly related press release was reported in the Magdeburg Daily
News Nr 1 04 5th May 1933.

  "Following on from this most earnest application and explanation comes a hum-
ble plea, namely to grant an opportunity for a commission (delegation) from our
number to present personally to the Reich Chancellor or Minister of the Interior
(Home Office) a responsible and true representation of our situation.  On the
other hand the Reich Chancellor himself could appoint a commission, which is not
opposed to us by religious prejudice and themselves would not be professionally
religiously biased, but would evaluate our position totally without prejudice,
corresponding to the Reich Chancellor's own just principles laid down for such
purposes. With these principles in mind we beg to quote from point 24 of the
manifesto of the German National Socialist Workers party:"

  This letter quotes paragraph 24 of the program of the National Socialistic
German Party of Workers, which makes a special point about "positive Christian-
ity" and which reads:

  "We demand the freedom for all religious persuasions within the state, in so
far as they do not endanger its position, or offend against the moral and ethi-
cal sensibilities of the Germanic race.  The party as such supports the view of
a positive Christianity, without preference to any one denomination; it combats
the spirit of Jewish materialism within and without, and is convinced that a
lasting recovery of our people can only succeed from the inside out.

  "We too are firmly convinced, that, if we are judged without religious preju-
dice, firstly according to God's word, secondly to the points set out in this
application (petition), then the national German government will have no cause
to prevent our services or missionary activity."

  Whatever else he was, Hitler wasn't stupid enough to buy it.  Despite claiming
common enemies for the sake of bonding--"commercialistic Jews" control New York
and London, etc.--the "Declaration of Facts" declared a goal of being political-
ly neutral, which in Hitler-ese would be interpreted as passive aggression.  The
stance Rutherford generally taught was that human government is Satanic (see
1929)--Rutherford wouldn't have his group attack a government but prophesied and
led belief that God would destroy it.  Persecution of JWs intensified.

  Rutherford didn't really become especially critical of the German government
of Hitler, famous for "Mein Kampf," till Hitler had action taken against the JWs
specifically.  As noted above, Rutherford's German publications weren't critical
of the cruel treatment of the Jewish people in Germany till Nov., 1938, by which
time the German JWs had retreated from the streets for years.

  I better add something else about a cultural reference Rutherford made to his
new pen pal that's probably lost on a lot of people today--he didn't mean what
you might think of, regarding outreach programs or such, by "positive Christian-
ity."  According to the Wikipedia article at the next link:

  "Adherents of Positive Christianity argued that traditional Christianity em-
phasized the passive rather than the active aspects of Christ's life, stressing
his sacrifice on the cross and other-worldly redemption.  They wanted to replace
this with a 'positive' emphasis on Christ as an active preacher,  organizer and
fighter who opposed the institutionalized Judaism of his day.  At various points
in the Nazi regime, attempts were made to replace orthodox Christianity with its
'positive' alternative.

  "However, the party was careful to stress that Positive Christianity need not
contradict the traditional theologies of established churches.  As early as 1920
the Nazis proclaimed in their manifesto that,

    "'The Party as such takes its stand on a positive Christianity but does
  not tie itself in the matter of confession to any particular denomination.
  It fights the spirit of Jewish materialism inside and outside ourselves.'"

  "The German Christians led by Ludwig Müller were the principal agents in Hit-
ler's early attempt to Nazify Christianity in Germany by uniting the Protestant
churches under Müller's leadership, but this proposal met with resistance, as it
was rejected by many Christian pastors under the leadership of Martin Niemöller.
Following this failure, Hitler backtracked on attempts to directly Nazify the
churches."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity

  1933  On June 28, there was a second occupation of the Watch Tower Magdeburg
headquarters.
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

****

  Antisemitism--the Rutherford-McFadden connection

  This clarifies what kind of antisemitism Rutherford taught.
Thanks to leolaia at jehovahswitness.net for pointing it out
and supplying some of the research material.
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/237993/rutherfords-love-letter-hitler?page=1&size=20

  Louis Thomas McFadden (1876-1936) was a Republican U.S. Representative from
Pennsylvania in Congress from 1915 to 1935.
  http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000434

  On June 10, 1932, McFadden made a 25-minute speech--a Federal Reserve conspir-
acy theory rant--before the House of Representatives.
  http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/flaherty/flaherty10.html
  http://modernhistoryproject.org/mhp?Article=McFadden1932&E=FedResBoard
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/16502353/Congressional-Record-June-10-1932-Louis-T-McFadden

  "The Crisis," released in early 1933, was a booklet containing three radio
talks that Rutherford had given in the United States. ("Watchtower," Nov.1, 1991,
pp.26-27) 

 http://ia601406.us.archive.org/23/items/WatchtowerLibrary/booklets/1933_crs_E.pdf

  "The campaign with the Crisis booklet led to a ban in Bavaria on April 13.
This was followed by bans in Saxony on April 18, in Thüringen on April 26, and in
Baden on May 15.  Other German states followed." (Watchtower "1974 Yearbook," p.
109)
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5jNoZSyIWQWQklXa2hmNWdOOGM/view

  Joseph Rutherford propagandized against mainstream clergy and Jews as notable
figures behind the corrupt "Big Business" of the world.  In his 1933 booklet "The
Crisis," he described "Big Business" using the word "octopus" in the way common-
ly used at the time as an anti-semitic canard--that Jews were trying to control
the world like an octopus covering the Earth.
  
  "The three visible component parts, which govern people are: the commercial,
  the political, and the religious, the most powerful of which is the commer-
  cial. With avaricious hands, compared to the feelers of an octopus, the great
  trade appropriated the wealth of the nation. People who have developed the
  American country are robbed and today have to beg for a piece of bread in a
  land of innumerable abundance."
  http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv329/Leolaia/mcfad2.jpg
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard#Accusations_of_plotting_to_control_the_world

  (I wonder if Rutherford partly meant to direct any African American JWs re-
sentment for social inequities away from himself, an especially indulgent Euro-
pean American businessman, and aim it toward the Jews and mainstream Christian
leaders.)

  (pp.5-28: "Can the American Government Endure?" is a printed version of a lec-
ture Rutherford gave to veterans in Washington, DC, and over the radio, on June
26, 1932, and which was preceded the day before by 300 jws giving jws brochures
and books to members of the Bonus Army.)
    http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/115448/golden-age-goodies?page=9&size=20
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

  "The Crisis"
  "Can the American Government Endure?"

  p.5

    "For more than a hundred years America has stood in the very foremost rank
  of the governments of the earth.  In natural resources America is today the
  richest country under the sun.  The United States and Britain constitute the
  two pillars of the great seventh world power, which power is described in di-
  vine prophecy as the double or twofold government.  Both nations claim to be
  Christian, and they form the chief part of the realm called 'Christendom',
  but, in fact, Satan is their invisible ruler and god.

    "The founders of the American nation desired greater freedom than they pos-
  sessed.  That they might be free and independent of cruel and oppressive
  rulers they fled from Europe and established the American republic, to which
  nation men have long pointed with pride.  When the nation was young many of
  her statesmen were patriots, because they loved their fellow man and honest-
  ly and valiantly contended for a just government.  Today there is no true
  patriotism among the rulers of the nation.  It is now impossible for the
  people to elect men to public office and to expect them to enact just laws
  and to administer the affairs of the government for the general welfare.

  p.6

    "The three visible elements of men that rule the nation are, to wit, the
  the commercial, the political, and the religious, and of those three the
  commercial is the most powerful.  Among the earlier statesmen of America
  there were some God-fearing men who foresaw the advance of a mighty and
  selfish power and gave warning that the greedy would some day destroy the
  liberties of the people.  That warning was unheeded, and the selfish commer-
  cial element, which is otherwise called 'Big Business', has stealthily and
  constantly moved forward to its goal.  With grasping arms like the tentacles
  of a mighty octopus it has laid hold upon practically all of the visible
  wealth of the Nation.  At the same time the men who by laborious efforts
  have developed the country and produced the wealth of the land have been un-
  justly treated and robbed, and today they are crying for bread, and that in
  a land of boundless plenty.  Many Americans in sorrowful tones are now ask-
  ing the question: Can the nation of America long endure while such unjust
  conditions exist?

    "Big Business has no regard for the rights of the common people.  The
  Civil War of 1863 was fomented and carried forward for the purpose of creat-
  ing a condition by which Big Business could obtain a strangle hold upon the
  nation.  To free the land from the traffic of human flesh and blood was the
  ostensible reason for that war, but the real reason was to enable a selfish
  company to control the finances and all the business interests of the nation.
  In 1917 Big Business, for ultraselfish reasons, needless-

  p.7

  ly and wantonly forced the American nation into the World War, which resulted
  in the greatly increased wealth and power of a few men and made serfs and
  paupers of many millions of people.

    "Today Big Business owns practically everything visible.  By the manipula-
  tion of the finances of the nation Big Business has acquired title to almost
  all of the real estate, while hundreds of thousands of honest toilers are
  losing their homes and their land.  A few ultrarich men fix the prices of
  the food produced by the farmers, and which food products are reaped down by
  laborers; and by reason thereof the farmers are robbed and the laborers are
  caused to starve, and that within the borders of the richest nation of the
  world.

    "Big Business owns the ships that ply the seas, and that fly through the
  air.  It owns and controls the railways and other ways and means of trans-
  portation.  Big Business has acquired the preferred securities of the public
  carrier corporations, while some of the common people hold the less desir-
  able stocks and securities.  When the railways were recently pressed for
  money to pay the interest on their preferred securities Big business caused
  the American government to advance a hundred million dollars to the banks
  upon the pretext of helping the banks to thaw out their frozen assets and
  to stimulate business immediately, but instead of so using that money Big
  Business immediately absorbed the entire hundred million and ap-

  p.8

  plied it to the payment of interest on the preferred securities which it
  held.

    "Big Business, which is composed of a very few men, owns and controls
  the telegraph lines, the radio, the electric and power lines, and it owns
  and controls the mines that produce the fuel and the building material
  which all the people are compelled to use.  It owns and controls the banks
  and most of the money in them.  It is in possession of the greater portion
  of the gold that rightfully belongs to the government.  The factories and
  the great mercantile establishments are owned and controlled by the same
  selfish interest.

    "Big Business has in its employ the most astute lawyers of the nation,
  who write the contracts always in the interest of their clients, and the
  common people must take the ragged end.  Every branch of government is con-
  taminated and improperly influenced by Big Business.  It controls the two
  major political parties of America and names and elects at will the public
  men to office who will best serve its selfish interests.  Big Business con-
  trols the army and the navy, the guns and the ammunition, and the police
  power of the nation.

    "Practically all of the business corporations of America are owned or
  controlled by Big Business.  Thre employees of these mighty corporations
  have a hook in their nose, so to speak, and they dare not call themselves
  their own.  They must obey the selfish men who are the mighty lords of fi-
  nance or else lose their jobs.  They need their salaries to feed and clothe
  themselves

  p.9

  and their families; hence they are at the mercy of Big Business and are
  therefore serfs.

    "Big Business either directly or indirectly owns or controls almost all of
  the newspapers and magazines of America, and which agencies serve as propa-
  gandists for Big Business and for their immediate political and religious
  allies.  The same selfish interests own and control the professional clergy-
  men, and these men make merchandise of the World of God in order to keep the
  people in ignorance and in subjection to the ruling powers.  Thus it is
  plainly seen that the power of the government is centralized in the hands
  of a very few.

  p.18

    "I venture the opinion that"

  (M. James Penton in "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Poli-
tics Under Persecution," p.117, adds the phrase "before the end of the year"
here.  Did Rutherford's speech include a prediction that, since it was another
failed one, was edited out of "The Crisis"?)

  "the American government will be ruled by a dictator, aided by a company of
  advisors that are selected and directed by the chiefs of Big Business.
  Such will be a military rule and one which the people will be compelled to
  submit to.

  p.21

    "Hence Satan and his entire organization must fall, and that includes the
  American government.

  p.28

    "The American government has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
  Together with all other nations, it soon shall fall.

  (Compare to McFadden's testimony during the hearings for H.R. 7986 in March
1934, which uses a lot of the same ideas nearly word for word, given below.
Thanks to leolaia at jehovahswitness.net)

  Rutherford's "Declaration of Facts," released at a convention in Berlin on June
25, 1933, made clear he led a group that distanced itself from Jewish money,
which he described in terms of contempt, and that he taught that the Jews were
the main backers of deplorable "Big Business" (economic antisemitism).

    "It is falsely charged by our enemies that we have received financial sup-
  port 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 good.  This of itself should be sufficient proof to show that we
  receive no support from Jews and that therefore the charges against us are
  maliciously false and could proceed only from Satan, our great enemy.  The
  greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American em-
  pire.  By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of
  America forms a part.  It has been the commercial Jews of the British-Ameri-
  can empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of ex-
  ploiting 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 own 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 prin-
  ciples and will give to the people peace and prosperity and the greatest de-
  sire of every honest heart.

    "A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact
  that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national gov-
  ernment are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our publi-
  cations 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 Nations 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." ("Yearbook 1934," pp.134-
  138, English Edition)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Resolving_territorial_disputes
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Failure_of_disarmament
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Global_representation
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Facts

  In the letter Rutherford included with the copy of the "Declaration of Facts"
sent to Hitler, Rutherford made clear his stance approved of Hitler's "positive
Christianity"--notably in that it "opposes the Jewish materialist spirit domes-
tically and abroad":
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity

    "We demand the freedom of all religious confessions in the state so long
  they do not endanger its existence or conflict with the ethical and moral
  beliefs of the German race.  The Party, as such, represents the viewpoint
  of positive Christianity without associating itself with a specific confes-
  sion.  It opposes the Jewish-materialist spirit domestically and abroad and
  is convinced that a lasting recuperation our people can only happen from the
  inside out...."
  http://www.docbob.org/wordpress/tag/hitler

  As leolaia at jehovahswitness.net pointed out, Rutherford wanted Hitler to know
Rutherford opposed the 1933 American Anti-Nazi boycott of German businesses in
favoring the German Nazi policy against Jewish businesses.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Nazi_boycott_of_1933
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_boycott_of_Jewish_businesses

  Rep. McFadden used the same sort of ideas as Rutherford's "The Crisis" in his
propaganda against Jews regarding government and business.  McFadden's testimony
during the hearings for H.R. 7986 in March 1934 not only used many of the same
ideas as Rutherford's "The Crisis" but did so nearly word for word to the point
of plagiarism.  (Thanks to leolaia at jehovahswitness.net)
  http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv329/Leolaia/mcfad1.jpg
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/237993/rutherfords-love-letter-hitler?page=2&size=20

  Segments of McFadden's speech:

    "I would like to say that for more than a hundred years America has stood
  in the very foremost rank of the governments of the earth.  In natural re-
  sources America is today the richest country under the sun.

    "The three visible elements of men that rule the Nation are the commercial,
  the political, and the religious, and of these three, the commercial is the
  most powerful.  Among the earlier statesmen of America, there were some God-
  fearing men who foresaw the advance of a mighty and selfish power and gave
  warning that the greedy would some day destroy the liberties of the people.
  That warning was unheeded, and the selfish commercial element, which is oth-
  erwise called 'Big Business', has stealthily and constantly moved forward to
  its goal.  With grasping arms like the tentacles of a mighty octapus it has
  laid hold upon practically all of the visible wealth of the Nation....

    "'Big Business' has no regard for the rights of the common people.  In
  1917, 'Big Business', for ultra selfish reasons, needlessly and wantonly
  forced the American Nation into the World War, which resulted in the great-
  ly increased wealth and power of a few men and made serfs and paupers of
  many millions of people.  Today, 'Big Business' owns practically everything
  visible.  By the manipulation of the finances of the Nation, 'Big Business'
  has acquired title to almost all of the real estate, while hundreds of
  thousands of honest toilers are losing their homes and their land.  A few
  ultra rich men fix the prices of the food products that are reaped by labor-
  ers; and, by reason thereof, the farmers are robbed and the laborers are be-
  ing starved; and that within the borders of the richest Nation of the world.
 
    "'Big Business' owns the ships that ply the seas, and that fly through the
  air.  It owns and controls the railways and other ways and means of transpor-
  tation....

    "'Big Business' has in its employ the most astute lawyers of the Nation,
  who write the contracts always in the interest of their clients, and the com-
  mon people must take the ragged end.  Every branch of government is contamin-
  ated and improperly influenced by 'Big Business'.  It controls the two major
  political parties of America and names and elects at will the public men to
  office who will best serve its selfish interests.  'Big Business' controls
  the Army and the Navy, the guns and the ammunition, and the police power of
  the Nation...

    "Practically all of the business corporations of America are owned or con-
  trolled by "Big Business". The employees of these mighty corporations have a
  hook in their nose, so to speak, and they dare not call themselves their own.
  They must obey the selfish men who are the mighty lords of finance or else
  lose their jobs...

    "'Big Business' either directly or indirectly owns or controls almost all
  of the newspapers and magazines of America, and which agencies serve as prop-
  agandists for 'Big Business' and their immediate political and religious al-
  lies.  The same selfish interests own and control the professional clergymen,
  and these men make merchandise of the Word of God in order to keep the people
  in ignorance and in subjection to the ruling powers.  Thus it is plainly seen
  that the power of the Government is centralized in the hands of a very
  few....

    "'Big Business' and their mouthpieces, namely, the commercialized clergy
  referred to are reprehensible before God for hindering the truth concerning
  the present conditions in America and the means which might provide a remedy
  for the people, by God's help.  There should be some action taken to further
  stop such intolerance in the use of radio (and that during this session of
  Congress) to prevent the further entrenchment of such powers.  That is the
  reason why I have introduced this bill and am asking for consideration of it
  at this time."

  (Compare to the June 26, 1932 Rutherford speech printed in the 1933 book "The
Crisis," some of which is reprinted above, which McFadden used a lot of the same
ideas from nearly word for word.  For instance, there's that "Jews contol the
world" economic antisemitic "octopus" again.  Strange they'd let the Nazis flour-
ish if they controlled the world....  Thanks to leolaia at jehovahswitness.net)

    "In 1934, he made several anti-semitic comments from the floor of the
  house and in newsletters to his constituents wherein he cited the Protocols
  of the Elders of Zion, claimed the Roosevelt administration was controlled
  by Jews, and objected to Henry Morgenthau Jr., a Jew, becoming Secretary of
  the Treasury.  Drew Pearson claimed in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" col-
  umn that, in a publication by the American fascist Silver Shirts, McFadden
  had been 'extensively' quoted 'in support of Adolf Hitler.'  In September
  the Nazi tabloid Der Stuermer praised McFadden.  He was also lauded by the
  publications of William Dudley Pelley, leader of the Silver Shirts, on sev-
  eral occasions.  On election day that year he lost to Charles E. Dietrich by
  'about 2,000 votes.'  This was the only election between 1912 and 1950 when
  the district elected a Democrat.

    "According to McFadden's Jewish Telegraphic Agency [[obituary]: ‘In Janu-
  ary 1935, he announced his candidacy for president with the backing of an
  organization called "the Independent Republican National Christian-Gentile
  Committee" on a platform to "keep the Jew out of control of the Republican
  Party!"’  Not garnering much support for his presidential bid, he tried to
  win back his congressional seat.  He lost the nomination by a wide-margin
  to Col. Albert G. Rutherford who went on to win the general election." (Wiki-
  pedia)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Legion_of_America
  http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Louis_Thomas_McFadden
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Thomas_McFadden

  McFadden submitted H. R. 7986 to Congress on Feb.14, 1934, to protect the
freedom of speech on the airwaves.

  "There should be some action taken to further stop such intolerance in the use
of radio (and that during this session of Congress) to prevent the further en-
trenchment of such powers. That is the reason why I have introduced this bill and
am asking for consideration of it at this time."
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/142454/wtbts-official-testified-us-congress-that-rutherford-inspired?page=2&size=20
  http://books.google.com/books?id=TxudLzYPpAEC&pg=PA330&lpg=PA330&dq=McFadden+H.R.+7986&source=bl&ots=5o98jAZ0oj&sig=-6eH4_wBiVdCNO5_kCf9EFxaA14&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CshhUIbmMYeV0QGP0IGgAw&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=H.R.%207986&f=false

  Rutherford, who broadcast a notably controversial and propagandistic politi-
cized religious radio program, prepared a "Petition and Protest" for JWs to dis-
tribute throughout the country to support the proposed bill.  They obtained
2,416,000 signatures.  "The Golden Age," March 28, 1934, p.397 had the following
remarks on the petition and bill H.R. 7986:

    "Free Radio Essential to People's Liberties

    "The petition circulated by Jehovah's witnesses and others, calling upon
  Congress to safeguard the right of the people to hear over the radio whatso-
  ever they wish to hear, received a wide response.  It manifested that the
  people want to have the truth told.  The clergy, to shield themselves in
  their inconsistent position before the people, not only have sought to mis-
  represent and oppose Judge Rutherford, but have also misrepresented the peti-
  tion which was signed by nearly two and a half million persons....  Petition
  or no petition, this is the issue, and it is up to Congress to take appropri-
  ate action.  Bill H.R. 7986, now before the Congress for consideration, meets
  the needs of the case exactly, and if passed, will prevent further interfer-
  ence with the free use of the radio or unjust discrimination against some and
  in favor of other broadcasters." (Thanks to leolaia at jehovahswitness.net)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/142454/wtbts-official-testified-us-congress-that-rutherford-inspired?page=2&size=20

  Rutherford had thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses petition and lobby for public
support for passage of this Congressional bill into law ("The Golden Age," March
28, 1934, p.397), and Arthur R. Goux, the Secretary of the Watchtower Bible &
Tract Society, testified in the Congressional hearings in support of the bill.

  Rutherford's views on "Big Business" and Jews were strikingly similar to those
of McFadden, so when McFadden failed in his bid for re-election, "The Golden Age"
published an article that praised him as "courageous and honest and capable" and
asserted that McFadden was used by God and his loss at the election was the work
of Satan:

    "Naturally the Devil and his ally, the Roman Catholic Church, would do
  everything possible to prevent the return to Congress of any man who would
  dare to stand for liberty and righteousness in this evil time.  We are as-
  sured that God, who gave him such great privileges of usefulness last winter
  [when McFadden submitted H. R. 7986 to Congress], is not forgetful or indif-
  ferent and the time will come when Louis T. McFadden will look back and re-
  joice that he was permitted to be absent when scenes about to be enacted
  shall occur." ("The Golden Age," Jan.16, 1935, p.237)  (Thanks to leolaia at
  jehovahswitness.com)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/230379/judge-rutherford-extremely-politically-neutral?page=1&size=20

  In the next quote from a 1935 "The Golden Age," "The Gentile Front" refers to
the Nazis:

    "The Gentile Front seems to be bad propaganda. It maintains the so-called
  'Protocols of Zion' are of Jewish origin, despite the fact that this has
  been proved false wher-ever the courts have looked into it.  Nothing could be
  more devilishly narrow-minded, more fiendish, more contemptible, than the so-
  called 'New Germany' to which The Gentile Front looks up and upon which The
  Golden Age looks down with loathing inexpressible.  The Jews are money lov-
  ers, granted; but they are not pig-headed wild beasts." ("The Golden Age,"
  Oct.9, 1935, p.25)
  http://archive.org/stream/1935TheGoldenAgeMagazine/1935_goldenAge_djvu.txt
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

  Rutherford used his politicized religious sermons to teach the economic anti-
semitism of greedy Jews and tried to bond with Hitler on the point to curry fa-
vor, but he drew the line at Hitler's accusations of them being animals to elim-
inate.  That aspect put Hitler in Rutherford's category of evil government.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism#Economic_antisemitism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

  Maybe this says it: if the issue were LGBT people in 2012, it's like Rutherford
would be a more outspoken president of Chick-fil-A, McFadden would be an anti-
LGBT people activist he supports, and Hitler would be the president of Iran (who
considers LGBT people criminals punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment,
or execution) that the Chick-fil-A president tried to find favor with over the
issue.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran

  "The Golden Age," various issues 1930-1934
  (I put
  Full text of "1934 The Golden Age magazine"
  in the Google search engine to get this result.)
  http://archive.org/details/1930-1934TheGoldenAgeMagazine

****

  "Be it known once and for all that those profiteering, conscienceless, selfish
men who call themselves Jews, and who control the greater portion of the
finances of the world, will never be the rulers in this new earth. God would not
risk such selfish men with such an important position" (Golden Age, 23 February
1927, p. 343).

  "Jesus was telling in parabolic phrase what was coming upon the Jewish nation.
A few years after His crucifixion the Jews were cast away and the Gentiles,
represented by the pauper, came into God's favor.  Thus we see that the Jewish
nation, represented by 'the rich man', ceased to exist and, as a nation, went to
hell" (GA, 15 October 1930, p. 58).

  "It is noted that Judah and the land of Israel had commercial intercourse with
Tyre, and doubtless from Tyre the Jews learned how to cheat their fellow man....
The Jews were evicted from Palestine and 'their house left unto them desolate'
because they rejected Christ Jesus, the beloved and anointed King of Jehovah.  To
this day the Jews have not repented of this wrongful act committed by their
forefathers" (Vindication, Vol. 2, 1932, pp. 70, 257-258).

  "Even to this day the Jews are the greatest merchants in the earth, and it is
selfish gain that leads them in that course and causes them to ignore Jehovah and
his Word.  The turning away of the Jews from Jehovah and the turning to the Devil
brought great violence upon themselves as well as upon others" (Watchtower, 15
December 1933, p. 373).

  "The Jews have always been opposed to Christ Jesus the King...The international
bankers are backing the League of Nations with their money.  Many of the strong
men in that financial power are called Jews but they are not Jews in fact. It is
true that they are descendents of Hebrew stock, but the word 'Jew' or 'Judean'
properly means one who serves and praises Jehovah God; which the international
bankers do not.  They have made gold their god" (GA, 23 May 1934, pp. 520-521).

  "The people now on earth and which are called Jews are a commercial people.
Among them are some of the richest and most avaricious men the word has ever
known.  Some of the chief men in Big Business are called Jews.  Many of these
people are very arrogant, self important and extremely selfish" (Favored People,
1934, p. 5).

  "Amongst her instruments that she uses are ultraselfish men called 'Jews', who
look only for personal gain, and who therefore readily yield to and join with the
Hierarchy in any unrighteous schemes" (Enemies, 1937, p. 281).

  (Thanks to Leolaia at jehovahswitness.com)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/237993/rutherfords-love-letter-hitler?page=2&size=20

****

  1933  On July 14, "The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Off-
spring" was proclaimed in Germany.  It "required physicians to register every
case of hereditary illness known to them, except in women over forty-five years
of age.  Physicians could be fined for failing to comply.  In 1934, the first
year of the Law's operation, nearly 4,000 people appealed against the decisions
of sterilization authorities, 3,559 of the appeals failed.  By the end of the
Nazi regime, over 200 'Genetic Health Courts' were created, and under their rul-
ings over 400,000 people were sterilized against their will."  (Compare 1930 and
1942.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_eugenics#Nazi_eugenics_program
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_for_the_Prevention_of_Hereditarily_Diseased_Offspring

  1933  The Reichskonkordat was signed on July 20, 1933, by Eugenio Cardinal
Pacelli and Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Paul von
Hindenburg, respectively.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat
  http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2008/11/so-what-was-this-reichskoncordat-that.html

  The evidence I'm finding indicates that the truth isn't the same as Ruther-
ford's "144,000"-centric propaganda about Catholic leaders:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Pope
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII

  1933  Rutherford taught that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914, which is when
the "last days" began. ("The Watchtower," Dec.1, 1933, p.362)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses#.22Armageddon_Immediately_Before_Us.22_.281925.E2.80.931966.29

  1933  According to Wikipedia: "In 1933 the Gleichschaltung forced Protestant
churches to merge into the Protestant Reich Church and support Nazi ideology.
Opposition was forced to go "underground" to meet, and created the Confessing
Church that September."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reich_Church

  The German Christian (Deutsche Christen) group was formed in 1932 and led by
Ludwig Müller.  "The Nazis found the group useful during their initial consoli-
dation of power, it was claimed and remembered as a fact that the Jews had
killed Christ, thus appealing to and actively encouraging anti-Semitic senti-
ment among Christians in Germany."  (Compare Clayton Woodworth's statements at
the 7th listing for 1934.)

  "The Confessing Church engaged in various forms of resistance, notably hiding
Jews from the Nazi regime."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Christians
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessing_Church
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Union_of_churches

  1933  On Oct.7, the German government returned the Magdeburg properties but
65,189 kilograms of books, bibles, and pictures worth 92,719.50 marks had been
destroyed, and the witnesses, as a banned organization, weren't allowed to use
the property to publish Watch Tower publications.

  1933  Since the Watch Tower lost control of the Magdeburg printing plant prop-
erties, Rutherford's effort to appease Hitler, and seem less dangerous a risk to
prospective German witnesses, to the degree of the "Declaration of Facts" was
over.  In the Nov.1 Watch Tower, Rutherford wrote:

  "To everything there is a season...A time to love, and a time to hate; a time
of war, and a time of peace."  "Some will say, 'If in the face of so much perse-
cution and opposition we continue to go out amongst the people and publicly tell
these truths, then I fear we may be killed.'  That is true; and probably many of
the faithful will be killed because they continue to faithfully proclaim the
truth which they have learned in the secret place of the Most High.  Jesus, of
course, foreknew these facts, and therefore in the prophecy he said further,
'And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in [gehenna].'
(Verse 28 [of Matthew 10])  The inference to be drawn from those words is that
some of the faithful will be killed.  Satan and his agents both visible and in-
visible can kill Jehovah's witnesses, and we know they are trying to do so; but
they cannot destroy the very existence of these faithful ones.  Only Jehovah's
Great Executioner can do that.  The question is put squarely up to the remnant
[Jehovah's Witnesses]: Shall we fear man or fear Jehovah God?  It is written, in
Proverbs 29:25: 'The fear of a man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust
in the Lord shall be safe.'  The fear of man will certainly bring the remnant
into a snare."

  Afterward, more than half of Rutherford's German Bible Students stopped meet-
ing and preaching--perhaps 2/5ths of the German witnesses continued to preach.
  ("The Watch Tower," Nov.1, 1933, p.323,328, German translation Dec.1, 1933)
  "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich" by M. James Penton, pp.64-68
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&pg=PA163&lpg=PA163&dq=jehovahs+witnesses+germany+1935&source=bl&ots=ElqqdPsha9&sig=TX7rPjJQ7ZubUBbk8kC3NdHrMNY&hl=en&ei=6ctoSqL8Oo3UsgOr96iWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7

  1934  On January 1, Nazi Germany passed the "Law for the Prevention of Heredi-
tarily Diseased Babies."

  1934  JWs began to employ sound trucks which played Rutherford's recorded
speeches through loudspeakers.  The records, made from 1934 to 1942, were later used on wind-up phonograph players in door to door work, too (see 1937).
  http://www.theocraticlibrary.com/
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDuCilQQ80k

  1934  On Feb.9, Rutherford sent a letter of protest to Hitler:

  "This letter is a kindly notice and warning of things that are of vital impor-
tance to your welfare.  You will find it in your interest to read it carefully.

  "In Germany for many years faithful and goood men and women have been teaching
the doctrines of God's Word, which people jointly work under organizations bear-
ing the name of EARNEST BIBLE STUDENTS and the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIE-
TY, which names merely represent the Society or corporate organization for car-
rying on their work.  These men and women are devoted to Jehovah God and serve
Him and His witnesses, telling the people what is the truth of the Bible.  They
seek to do good to all men and injury to none.

  "In the early spring of 1933 your government without just cause or excuse for-
cibly compelled these earnest Christian people, who are Jehovah's witnesses, to
cease the worship of Jehovah God in which God has commanded them to worship;
seized their Bibles, song books, Bible textbooks, and other Bible literature,
and their furniture, drove them out of their places of worship, and forbade them
to assemble together to study the Scriptures and to worship God, and to preach
the truth t others.

  "Your government also without just cause or excuse seized a great amount of
books, Bibles, paintings, paper and other material, and destroyed the same by
fire, which property belonged to the aforesaid Society.  Many of these innocent
and faithful witnesses of Jehovah God your officers have incarcerated in prison,
and illtreated them.  Your being a very busy man, probably many of these things
have not been brought to your attention, but that is not the fault of those who
have been unjustly and cruelly treated.

  "Enemies of Jehovah's witnesses have maliciously misrepresented them amd told
vicious lies against them in order to induce your government to do injury to
them.  In order that the government might be informed as to the real facts more
than seven thousand of Jehovah's witnesses assembled in Berlin, Germany, on the
25th day of June, 1933, and there issued a Declaration setting forth the facts
concerning their work in Germany, which declaration was furnished to all the
high officials of your government, and millions of copies thereof were dis-
tributed amongst the people until such distribution was forcibly stopped by of-
ficers of your government.  That Declaration, a copy of which is hereto at-
tached, called upon your government to see to it that these faithful people, who
are Jehovah's witnesses, might 'without hindrance obey Jehovah God's command-
ments and worship Him as commanded,' and tell the people of His kingdom for the
blessing of all 'the families of the earth'.

  "That request has been ignored by your government, and you have refused to
permit these witnesses of Jehovah to serve Him and worship Him as commanded by
the Most High.

  "These faithful followers of Christ Jesus and who are Jehovah's witnesses have
waited and suffered long, hoping that you would cause their unjust treatment to
cease and permit them to go on with their worship and service to Jehovh God
without interference.  But you have failed to do so.  During the past ten years
the rulers and people of Germany have received notice by the wide publication of
literature that God's kingdom is here and His King, Christ Jesus, will establish
a righteous government on earth for the blessing of the people.  They have been
warned that those who oppose God and His kingdom will be destroyed by the Lord
at Armageddon.  Such notice and warning have been ignored by your government.

  "Permit me to remind you that Jehovah God sent Hs servant Moses to Egypt to
give notice and warning to Pharaoh that he must let God's chosen people go and
worship him in the manner that He had commanded.  Such notice and warning Phar-
aoh not only ignored, but he defied Jehovah God, and the result was that Jehovah
killed all the firstborn of Egypt and then destroyed the ruling power.  (See
Exodus 12:29,30; 14:23-28)  The scriptures plainly declare that what came upon
Egypt will come in far greater degree upon all the world, and particularly upon
those who oppose Jehovah God and His kingdom.  You may successfully resist any
and all men, but you cannot successfully resist Jehovah God.

  "Pharaoh said to Moses: 'Who is the Lord [Jehovah], that I should obey His
voice?' (Exodus 5:2)  Later he learned to his sorrow who Jehovah is.  Jehovah's
witnesses have done everything within their power to show your government that
they only want to freely worship Jehovah God and serve Him as He has commanded
them, but their efforts have been ignored and their maltreatment continues by
your officials.  Once more in their behalf, as the president of the Society or
organization under which they work, and in the name of Jehovah God and His an-
nointed king, Christ Jesus, I demand that you give order to all officials and
servants of your government that Jehovah's witnesses [who are EARNEST BIBLE STU-
DENTS and the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY] in Germany be permitted to
peaceably assemble an without hinderance worship God and obey Hs commandments by
teaching to the people the Bible truths concerning God's kingdom under Christ,
for which kingdom all Christians have long prayed.

  "If by the 24th day of March, 1934, there is no response to this earnest de-
mand and nothing done by your government to grant relief of the aforesaid Jeho-
vah'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 Ger-
many's wrongful treatment of Christian people there, an 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 own good
way.  Permit me to remind you that Jehovah warns that no one shall oppress His
anointed. (Psalm 105:15)  Christ Jesus is now on His throne, and the battle of
the great day of God almighty is just ahead, and it will be the greatest tribu-
lation ever known, and there is just one way of escape: 'Be wise now, therefore,
O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from
the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him.'

                      "Respectfully submitted,
                       Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society
                       By
                       (Signed) J.F.Rutherford
                       President"

  ("Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich," M.James Renton, pp.312-315)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=%22the+golden+age%22+consolation+jews&source=web&ots=EkuibMvbb9&sig=laBIP0Wf5WuOeKK6BXh_utcyuMw#PPA313,M1

  1934  On March 25, Rutherford, having gotten no response from Hitler, gave a
speech that was broadcast across the nation from a Watchtower convention in Los
Angeles, California.  Rutherford complained about the problems of his followers
in Germany, and the witnesses at the convention adopted a statement of protest:

  "For many years Jehovah's witnesses, unitedly working under the WATCH TOWER
BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY, have engaged in bearing testimony to the name and kingdom
of Jehovah God.  During the past year the German government without cause or ex-
cuse has wrongfully seized, confiscated and destroyed the Bibles, song books,
furniture and other property of these faithful Christians, prohibited them to
meet together and worship God according to His commandments, and has cruelly
persecuted and imprisoned many of them, and like Pharaoh of old, that govern-
ment has wickedly opposed Jehovah and defamed His name.

  "Therefore, We their brethren as followers of Christ Jesus do earnestly and
vigorously protest against such unwarranted treatment of Christians by the Ger-
man ruling power, and we call upon all true Christians and fair-minded people
throughout the earth to join in this vigorous protest and demand that Jehovah's
witnesses, without let or hindrance on the part of the German government or oth-
ers, shall be permitted to go on in their worship and service of Jehovah God in
the manner which He commanded, and we register our protest be declaring against
Satan and all such oppression and by taking our stand on the side of Jehovah,
His kingdom and His people."

  Let me understand the strategy here. (Knock, knock.)  "Hello?  Yes, we're the
ones with the sound trucks saying the good Lord will destroy you and all your
loved ones soon and we'll rejoice.  There are some people in Germany trying to
shut us up and we'd like to know if you'd join us in vigorously opposing them."
"Mmmm...nope."  "Thanks, I just thought I'd ask."  That's the strategy?

  Of course, if the plan was to have a lot of witnesses get the crap beat out of
them and killed and not have anyone do much about it, the man was a wizard and
not a big, dumb, drunk fathead.

  The Golden Age, April 25, 1934, reported that witnesses lost their jobs or
welfare payments for not voting in Hitler's Nov.,1933 election or not giving the
Hitler salute, had been jailed, etc.
  ("Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich," M.James Renton, pp.164.165)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0

  1934  On June 6, the New Deal was established: U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt signed the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

  1934  The Night of the Long Knives goes on from June 30 to July 1.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives

  1934  On August 2, Adolf Hitler became Führer of Germany, becoming head of
state as well as Chancellor.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrer

  All of the German armed forces had to swear a personal oath of loyalty to the
Führer--Hitler.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht

  1934  Albert Speer was chosen to be the first architect of the Reich.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Speer

  1934  "The Journal of the A.M.A. is the vilest sheet that passes the United
States mail....  Nothing new and useful in theraputics escapes its unqualified
condemnation.  Its attacks are generally ad hominem.  Its editorial columns are
largely devoted to character assasination....  Its editor (Morris Fishbein) is
of the type of Jew that crucified Jesus Christ." ("The Golden Age," Sept.26,
1934; it was a Watch Tower tract of more secular concerns like "Awake!" has
been in recent years)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Medical_Association

  Apparently, after dispensing so much bad medical advice over the years, in-
cluding unsubstantiated accusations aimed at medical practitioners, Clayton
Woodworth of the Golden Age, or someone Clayton identified with on those terms,
was met with criticism by the Journal of the A.M.A., possibly Morris Fishbein.

  In writing "The type of Jew that crucified Jesus Christ," Clayton was making
an expression of Christian religious anti-Semitism--it's the identical view of
the German Christian group described in the last listing for 1933 (see above).
It likely refers to the idea of adding selfish concerns to the meaning of Matt.
27:25--"And all the people answered, 'His blood be on us and on our chil-
dren!'"--to count any contemporary Jews that reject Jesus as their savior as
guilty of killing Jesus.  Since about all Jewish people reject Jesus as the Mes-
siah, this has a long ugly history of being used in bashing Jewish people with a
broad brush.

  It's probably related that Rutherford knew the second biggest population of
JWs lived in Germany, where Adolf Hitler and his anti-Semitism had too much sup-
port, such as with the German Christian group.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler

  Actually, the theology is that Christ gave his life (John 10:17,18) for the
sins of the world, for salvation to any who have faith in the meaning of it
(Rom.5:6-8; 1 Cor.15:3; Eph.2:8-10), giving offense to Jewish or Gentile people
while spreading the word goes against Paul's teaching (1 Cor.10:32-11:1), both
Jewish and Christian people prefer good medical advice to bad, and the Watchtow-
er diagnosed these things about as well as they played prophet.

  1934  On Oct.7, since Hitler hadn't responded to Rutherford's letter, Ruther-
ford had the Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany send a letter to the officials of
Hitler's government.  It said:

  "TO THE OFFICIALS OF THE GOVERNMENT:

  "The word of Jehovah God, as set out in the Holy Bible, is the supreme law,
and to us is our sole guide for the reason that we have devoted ourselves to God
and are true and sincere followers of Christ Jesus.

  "During the past year, and contrary to God's law and in violation of our
rights, you have forbidden us as Jehovah's witnesses to meet together to study
God's Word and worship and serve him.  In his Word he commands us that we shall
not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25)  To us Jehovah
commands: 'Ye are my witnesses that I am God.  Go and tell the people my mes-
sage.' (Isaiah 43:10,12, Isaiah 6:9, Matthew 24:14)  There is a direct conflict
between your law and God's law, and, following the lead of the faithful apos-
tles, 'we ought to obey God rather than men,' and this we will do. (Acts 5:29)
Therefore, this is to advise you that at any cost we will obey God's command-
ments, will meet together for the study of His Word, and will worship and serve
Him as he has commanded.  If your government or officers do violence to us be-
cause we are obeying God, then our blood will be upon you and you will answer to
Almighty God."

  "We have no interest in political affairs, but are wholly devoted to God's
kingdom under Christ his king.  We will do no injury or harm to anyone.  We
would delight to dwell in peace and do good to all men as we have opportunity,
but, since your government and its officers continue in your attempt to force us
to disobey the highest law of the universe, we are compelled to now give you no-
tice that we will, by his grace, obey Jehovah God and fully trust Him to deliver
us from all oppression and oppressors."

  "Respectfully, JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AT ------."

  On the same day, Jehovah's witnesses in 49 other countries met in special as-
sembly and sent the following telegram to Hitler:

  " — — Oct. 7, 1934.

  "Hitler Government,
   Berlin, Germany.

  "Your ill-treatment of Jehovah's witnesses shocks all good people of earth and
dishonors God's name.  Refrain from further persecuting Jehovah's witnesses,
otherwise God will destroy you and your national party.

  "JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, --------."
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/booklets/beglad.html
  ("Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich," M.James Renton, pp.315, 316)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=%22the+golden+age%22+consolation+jews&source=web&ots=EkuibMvbb9&sig=laBIP0Wf5WuOeKK6BXh_utcyuMw#PPA313,M1
  (Purpose, 142)[73]
  ("Awake!" Aug.22, 1995)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/images/hitler-awake-1995-aug-22-p7.pdf

  (Actually, the Allies did that to the Nazis while Rutherford damned the Allies
and other people for not agreeing with his idea of important things, like what
year to put his invisible Jesus in, from his mansion.)

  Hub-boy....

  1934  Joseph Rutherford wrote "Favored People."  On p.5 it says:

     "The people now on earth called Jews are a commercial people.  Among
    them are some of the richest and most avaricious men the world has
    ever known.  Some of the chief men of Big Business are called Jews.
    Many of these people are very arrogant, self-important, and extremely
    selfish.  They have little or no faith in God's Word and do not be-
    lieve at all in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of man."
    http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/archive/en/publications/1934_JR_Favored_People.pdf

  Even if that were true, it would only be grounds for a bonding experience.

  Rutherford printed Watchtower articles encouraging subservience to God (which,
according to him, was only taught by one religious leader--him) unto pain of
martyrdom.  In the Nov.1 issue of "The Watchtower," printed a month later in
German, Rutherford wrote:

  "Some will say: 'If in the face of so much persecution and opposition we con-
tinue to go out amongst the people and publicly tell these truths, then I fear
we may be killed.'  That is true; and probably many of the faithful will be
killed because they continue to faithfully proclaim the truth which they have
learned in the secret place of the Most High." ("The Watchtower," Nov.1, 1934,
p.328)

  According to the Wikipedia articles at the enxt links, the Nazi party tried to
control "all aspects of cultural and social life."  "Film in Nazi Germany glori-
fied the party, Hitler, and martyrdom for Nazism."

  "The period from 1933 to around 1937 was characterized by the systematic elim-
ination of non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people, such
as trade unions and political parties.  Those critical of Hitler's agenda, es-
pecially his close ties with the industry were suppressed or intimidated.  The
regime also assailed the influence of the churches, for example by instituting
the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs under Hanns Kerrl.  Organizations that
the administration could not eliminate, such as the education system, came un-
der its direct control."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksgemeinschaft
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung

****

  Editorial interlude

  Rutherford reminds me of Faye Dunaway's character Diane Christenson in "Net-
work," 1976, at this point, for some reason.  With this and playing prophet by
banning saluting the flag (see below), sending sound trucks of JWs to damn other
religions, all human government, etc., Rutherford seems similarly bent on put-
ting his followers into situations of unnecessary conflict, even dangerous ones,
for PR.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSroQn76sOw
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_%28film%29

  At 1 Cor.10:31-11:1, Christians are to go among Jews and Gentiles without giv-
ing offense, being to the other's advantage more than their own to gain them to
Christ.

  If I were a German JW, I'd be saying, "Rutherford, leave someone at the man-
sion to let Abraham and David in if they show up.  Get your Canadian whiskey-
drinking butt over here and lead the way, Martin Luther Rutherford.  You do it
first.  I'll be waiting in Ottawa.  Send me a postcard if it works out."  If you
want to fight the Nazi movement, you're more effective if you aren't a hostage
or in a grave.  The last I heard, the Governing Body hasn't initiated a similar
strategy, with sound trucks and accusations of non-JWs leaders' religion being
Satanism, in Saudi Arabia (although "Mein Kampf" is popular in some Arabic coun-
tries in recent years and they could likewise try to correct those views into
the JWs leaders' light....), so I don't think I'm alone in thinking Rutherford
didn't have a great plan.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_unto_Caesar...
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_politics
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf#Current_availability

  (Rutherford's strategy also reminds me of Russell's Aug.1, 1898 advice about
carrying a gun for the military but not having to hit targets.)

  There's a special historic point to make here: the thing that ticked Hitler
off and got JWs sent to prison camps was Rutherford's big mouth--not the Catho-
lics, Protestants, or Jews.  The JWs hadn't been targeted for death as the Jews
were--Hitler just wanted the JWs, like everyone else, to tow the line political-
ly, or at least not get in the way.  It was a violent dictator's reaction to
Rutherford's big, dumb, false prophet, anti-Semitic, propagandizing, Hitler's
butt-kissing mouth, threatening to send unarmed followers into the streets with
anti-Hitler tracts, that got JWs killed.

  Later JWs leaders (see 1996) will try to take credit for the JWs position of
political neutrality (which Rutherford was too politically active to genuinely
qualify for) of the time having kept the followers in wise guidance (which Ruth-
erford, endangering the flock with propaganda in Nazi Germany from the safety of
his San Diego mansion, wasn't a wise pacifistic political activist about let
alone a Martin Luther King leading the way to prove his conviction--JWs leaders
never were).

****

  1935  On Jan.9, The first documented case of a JW incarcerated in Moringen
concentration camp was Anna Seifert.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringen
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  1935  On Jan.23, the Reich and Prussian Interior Ministry issued a decree that
removed Rutherford's German Bible Students from civil service employment and
private industry.  Cooperation grew between the Gestapo and the Ministries of
Labor, Interior, and Justice, so German Bible Students were increasingly unem-
ployed, arrested, and put in concentration camps.
  ("Persecution and resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi regime" by
Hans Hesse, 2001)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=mcxD0qxHMO0C&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=jehovahs+witnesses+germany+1935&source=bl&ots=0G_vYgBoFh&sig=R8cSX1B2dVikdLxgUOsSaGIZ5nw&hl=en&ei=BsZoSszFNpLSsQOz6qyWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9

****

  1935  Saluting flags and singing national anthems were banned by Rutherford.

  According to "Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose," 1959, pp.143,144,
in 1932, JWs didn't salute the flag of Germany, the USA, or Canada (it doesn't
say why other than due to allegiance to God, but I'm guessing it was due to
Rutherford's teaching of June 1 and 15, 1929, that the higher authorities of Ro-
mans 13 were God and Jesus, leading to ideas that human government was too
worldly, in an expanded idea of "worldly," and even controlled by Satan).

  See the Wikipedia article "Minersville School District v. Gobitus" for a
fuller version of the next section.  Some comments by me in the next section are
in parenthesis.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minersville_School_District_v._Gobitis

  On Monday, June 3, 1935, Rutherford, was interviewed at a Witness convention
about "the flag salute by children in school."  He told the audience that to
salute an earthly emblem, ascribing salvation to it, was unfaithfulness to God
and said that he would not do it.  It wasn't an established policy of the Jeho-
vah's Witnesses (though saluting the flag wouldn't be a matter of ascribing Bib-
lical salvation to it), but some families soon agreed.

  In Sept., 1935, a Lynn, Massachusetts Jehovah’s Witness in the third grade,
Carleton Nichols, refused to give the Pledge of Allegiance and was expelled.  It
got a lot of media coverage and soon other JWs refused to give the pledge, too.

  On Oct.6, 1935, during a radio broadcast, "Saluting a Flag," Rutherford said
that pledging allegiance to the flag would be worship of an image or representa-
tion in disobediance to Ex.20:4-6.

  (It wouldn't.  The Exodus section is meant as a ban of worship of whatever
other than God as God, idolatry, not a ban of using a symbol as part of a way to
declare your commitment to the good of a country.

  (The phrase "under God" wasn't incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance un-
til June 14, 1954, and even that didn't make the flag an object of idolatry.  An
objection to that phrase could be made in wanting separation of church and
state, but wanting Nativity scenes removed from government property, etc.,
wasn't what motivated Rutherford, either.  He was just trying to define his
exclusiveness as spokesman of a literal 144,000 by creating a rule nobody else
used or saw any sense in--that the pledge of allegiance is idolatry.)

  Schools in the USA began expelling JWs students and firing JWs teachers.
Rutherford's broadcast was later published in the 1935 booklet "Loyalty" to make
the stance the official JWs' stance.

  "Loyalty," p.11: "If a child has been taught by its parents to love and to
obey Almighty God and Christ Jesus, as directed by the Bible, and the child be-
lieves that it is a violation of God's law to salute any flag, is it right for
school boards to expel such a child from school and thus deny the child the
benefit of an education?"

  Witnesses hired teachers and set up Kingdom schools to continue their chil-
dren’s education.  Walter Gobitas, recently converted to the JWs, told his
children to not give the pledge at their Minersville, PA, school.  The school
was 90% Catholic.

  (Rutherford's well-publicized Catholics/Protestants/Jews bashing, such as
equating Catholics with Nazis, had already created animosity for the JWs there.
A couple of examples are given below.)

    1933--Rutherford's radio broadcast criticizes the Catholics as Satan's
    organization, damns them as doomed to fire and brimstone at Armageddon,
    etc., in the YouTube clip at the next link.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2dK9rumZCI
    http://www.archive.org/details/1933HolyYearByJudgeRutherford

    1934--"It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire
    that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting
    and oppressing the peoples of many nations....This fact is so manifest
    in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York....
    'the Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the
    bills." (1934 Yearbook, p.134--this quote is from Rutherford's "Declara-
    tion of Facts" for Hitler.)
    http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/44378/declaration-facts-files?page=1&size=20

    Also see the Catholic bashing in the section of this timeline below for
    Oct.9, 1935.

    Also see Rutherford's quotes about Trinitarianism on p.8 of "GTJ
    Brooklyn."  Like Russell, Rutherford taught that Jesus was created yet
    was to be worshipped.  But he was against idolatry, so...nevermind.

  The children were taunted and bullied, a local Catholic church started a boy-
cott of Gobitas' family store, he paid to enroll them in a private school, and
that school board expelled them without appeal.

  The case was argued in Philadelphia on Feb.15, 1938.  During the trial, school
superintendent Roudabush displayed contempt for the beliefs of the children,
stating that he felt they had been "indoctrinated" (sounds like a wise, objec-
tive person about that, anyway) and that the existence of even a few dissenters
would be "demoralizing," leading to widespread disregard for the flag and Ameri-
can values.  Four months later, District Judge Albert B. Maris found that the
board's requirement that the children salute the flag was an unconstitutional
violation of their free exercise of religious beliefs.

  Within two weeks, the school board unanimously agreed to appeal the decision.
Oral arguments in the appeal were made before the Third Circuit of the U.S.
Court of Appeals on Nov.9, 1938.  One year later, the three-judge court unani-
mously affirmed the district court decision.

  Despite two defeats in the lower courts, the school board took its case to the
Supreme Court, authorizing its attorney to file a petition for a writ of certio-
rari, which the Court granted on March 4, 1940.

  The Court heard oral arguments on April 25.  Rutherford, the president of the
Watch Tower Society and a lawyer, took over the defense assisted by the new head
of the religious group's Legal Department--Hayden Covington.  The ACLU and the
Committee on the Bill of Rights of the American Bar Association filed amicus
curiae briefs.

  The Court's decision was nearly unanimous--only Justice Harlan F. Stone dis-
sented.  In an 8-to-1 decision, the Court upheld the mandatory flag salute, de-
clining to make itself "the school board for the country."

  Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote the majority decision relying primarily on the
"secular regulation" rule, which weighs the secular purpose of a concededly non-
religious government regulation against the religious practice it makes illegal
or otherwise burdens the exercise of religion.  He identified the Pennsylvania
flag-salute requirement as an intrinsically secular policy enacted to encourage
patriotism among school children.

  Frankfurter wrote that the school district's interest in creating national
unity was enough to allow them to require students to salute the flag.  Accord-
ing to Frankfurter, the nation needed loyalty and the unity of all the people.
Since saluting the flag was a primary means of achieving this legitimate goal,
an issue of national importance was at stake.

  The Court held that the state's interest in "national cohesion" was "inferior
to none in the hierarchy of legal values."

  National unity is the basis of national security.  To deny the legislature the
right to select appropriate means for its attainment presents a totally differ-
ent order of problem from that of the propriety of subordinating the possible
ugliness of littered streets to the free expression opinion through handbills.

  Weighing the circumstances in this case, he argued that the social need for
conformity with the requirement was greater than the individual liberty claims
of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He emphasized that conscientious scruples have not,
in the course of the long struggle for religious toleration, relieved the indi-
vidual from obedience to a general law not aimed at the promotion or restriction
of religious beliefs.

  Frankfurter further wrote that the recitation of a pledge advanced the cause
of patriotism in the United States.  He said the country's foundation as a free
society depends upon building sentimental ties.

  The flag, the Court found, was an important symbol of national unity and could
be a part of legislative initiatives designed "to promote in the minds of chil-
dren who attend the common schools an attachment to the institutions of their
country."

  Harlan Stone, the lone dissenter from the majority's decision wrote:

  "The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human
mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them...The
very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individ-
ual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say..."

  On June 9, a mob of 2,500 burned the Kingdom Hall in Kennebunkport, Maine.  On
June 16, Litchfield, Illinois police jailed all of the town's sixty Witnesses,
ostensibly protecting them from their neighbors.  On June 18, townspeople in
Rawlins, Wyoming brutally beat five Witnesses; on the 22nd, the people of Parco,
Wyoming tarred and feathered another.

  American Legion posts harassed Witnesses nationwide.  On June 27, members of
the American Legion forced Witnesses from a trailer camp in Jackson, Mississippi
and escorted them across state lines to Louisiana, where they were "...passed
from county to county, finally winding up in the vicinity of Dallas, Texas."  A
Nebraska Witness was castrated.  Little Rock Witnesses were beaten with pipes
and screwdrivers.  West Virginia Witnesses were forced to drink castor oil and
then tied together with police department rope.  Witnesses were jailed for sedi-
tion, jailed for distributing literature, jailed for holding a parade, and
jailed for canvassing without a license.

  The American Civil Liberties Union reported to the Justice Department that
nearly 1,500 Witnesses were physically attacked in more than 300 communities na-
tionwide.  One Southern sheriff told a reporter why Witnesses were being run out
of town: "They're traitors; the Supreme Court says so. Ain't you heard?"

  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt appealed publicly for calm, while newspaper edi-
torials and the American legal community condemned the Gobitis decision as a
blow to liberty.  Several justices signaled their belief that the case had been
"wrongly decided."

  Partly because of the violent reaction to its decision, the Supreme Court re-
versed itself a few years later.  On 14 June 1943 (Flag Day), the court handed
down West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.  Justice Robert Jackson
echoed Judge Stone's dissent when he wrote, "If there is any fixed star in our
constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can pre-
scribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other mat-
ters of opinion."

  Justice Frank Murphy considered the reversal to be an important personal land-
mark.  The elevation of Harlan Fiske Stone to Chief Justice, and the appointment
of two new members to the Supreme Court were also factors in the Court's rever-
sal of policy.

  The active persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses abated somewhat, although thou-
sands were arrested during World War II for seeking religious exemption from
military service.
  (See 1935 on p.1a.)
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/divinepurpose/purposetitles.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minersville_School_District_v._Gobitis
  http://www.archive.org/details/Loyalty
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/196334/1935-loyalty-booklet-pdf-searchable?page=1&size=20
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/dates.htm
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_allegiance

  The main focus of my expose is evidence of the JWs leaders creating a phoney
exclusiveness, especially if any of the followers are hurt by it.  In this case,
Rutherford created an exclusive rule for followers to avoid something idola-
trous.  It was an exclusive rule because the something wasn't idolatous.  He had
the followers distribute and broadcast fighting words about non-JWs' faiths and
governments knowing the followers were being attacked--sometimes harshly.  (And
this isn't the Martin Luther King story--Rutherford didn't lead any marches.)

  Regarding customers who broke his rule about not saluting the flag, he insti-
tuted some serious peer presssure that might damage some relationships between
JWs friends and family, too: in the 1936 Yearbook, Rutherford wrote that bap-
tized Jehovah's Witnesses who saluted the flag were breaking their covenant with
God and were "guilty of death."  He forced a choice: put up with non-JWs harass-
ment or lose your JWs friends and family.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Franklin_Rutherford#Doctrinal_changes

  Sorry for taking so long to set up a punchline.

  See the article at the next link: Watchtower presidents Rutherford, Knorr,
Franz, and Henschel are shown in their passport photos for which they signed an
oath of allegiance to the United States.  In the case of Rutherford, it was
prior to the 1935 onward ban (3/28/22), but for Knorr (6/8/68), Henschel
(9/16/52), and Franz (?/8/88), it was after the ban took effect.
  http://masonemerson.freeyellow.com/christianwitnessescom/id312.html

  "Because Christians can be loyal both to God and to earthly governments they
can take oaths of allegiance to defend the Constitution, as is required of citi-
zens in some countries in order to get a passport."  ("The Watchtower," Sept.15,
1964, p.551)

  According to the jwfacts site, the JWs leaders ruled against such pledges and
oaths as idolatrous and worldly and out of the question--except when making an
identical oath to a country for a passport or citizenship (so the JWs could more
freely travel to sell JWs leaders' literature and for whatever reasons the JWs
leaders had to travel).
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/malawi-mexico-oath-allegiance.php

  See "Lemon Pledge" at 1993 on the timeline on p.1a and pictures of the
passports on p.1e.
  https://gtw6437.tripod.com/id12.html
  https://gtw6437.tripod.com/id60.html

****

  1935  On March 16, Adolf Hitler announced German rearmament in violation of
the Versailles Treaty.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1935

  1935  In March, Germany made it compulsory to be in the military of the German
government.

  1935  On April 1, JWs missionary activities, including encouragement not to
serve a worldly government, were outlawed by the Reichstag as overtly political
and subversive.

  1935 (date?)  Rutherford made it compulsory for JWs to refuse to serve in the
military.

  1935  On April 17, Sun Myung Moon claimed to have a revelation from Jesus
telling him to complete his mission from almost 2000 years ago.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon

  1935  On Sept.15, Nuremberg Laws were passed prohibiting marriage to Jews and
citizenship for Jews.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws

  1935  "Mistreatment of Fleshly Israel." ("The Golden Age," not the German edi-
tion, Oct.9, 1935, p.6)
  http://www.baycrest.org/documents/PurpleTrianglesWitnesses.pdf

  A copy of the Oct.9, 1935 Golden Age (not the German edition) is at the next
link.
  http://wtarchive.svhelden.info/english/the-golden-age/

  For a while, all I knew about this issue was the phrase "Mistreatment of
Fleshly Israel," so I thought it might be about propaganda against and persecu-
tion of the Jews in Nazi Germany instead of the usual JWs leaders' propaganda
about whatever non-JWs, including Jews, seen in other JWs leaders' literature of
the time.  But a standard part of the way Rutherford and Hitler made false
claims of exclusiveness about themselves and their followers was to propagandize
against certain other whole groups of people, and this issue continues Russell's
and Rutherford's propaganda against Catholics.

  P.4  There's an account of workers in Berlin on May Day being forced to parade
to Tempelhof Field to see Hitler.  "What do you think about that, you Americans?
Is that what you want in America?  Well, it is what you will get, if the Roman
Catholic Hierarchy is allowed to have its way."

  P.6  "Mistreatment of Fleshly Israel" gives realistic accounts, mainly quoting
other sources, of the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

  But I didn't see any Jws listed in the section of religious people (including
Catholics) who assisted Jews in fleeing the Holocaust in the article at the next
link.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_and_groups_assisting_Jews_during_the_Holocaust

  However, the Golden Age account of Nazi persecution of the Jews is used as a
prelude for their own article about what they consider even worse on pp.7-11:

  P.7 "The Devil's Real Target--Jehovah's witnesses."  The Watchtower claim is
that persecution of Rutherford's followers is more important to the Devil be-
cause they're the only true followers of God (see pp.17,18).  The Golden Age ac-
cused Roman Catholics of being to blame for German newspaper quotes critical of
Rutherford and his followers, including that the followers are Communists,
though the newspapers don't give Catholics as the authors and Rutherford had
clearly created enmity with Hitler's government for years by then.

  P.8 "Let the New York Times take note that the Roman Catholic hierarchy has no
reason to fear what its clerk, Hitler, will do against it.  All of its columns
and columns of stuff about proposed attacks on ther Catholics and Protestants
was intended to cover up the fact that Germany at that very time had about 2,000
of Jehovah's witnesses in prison, and was putting more of them in prison every
day.

  "Papal Control of the News

  "THE New York Times of July 20 tells of twenty-two of Jehovah's witnesses sen-
tenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from two months to three years, at Wei-
mar, Germany, because they rejected military service and the Hitler salute.
Their identity was concealed by the name 'Bible Researchers': the news about
them was crammed into one inch in the center of a column-long article filled
with pure bunk as to what Hitler was 'about' to do to Jews, Catholics, and Pro-
testants.  It was sent out by the Associated Press and was clearly prepared un-
der Roman Catholic Hierarchy control--all camouflage of the facts."

  Rutherford practically called "Nazi" and "Catholic" synonyms.  Accounts that
are more trustworthy about Hitler vs. Catholicism, such as the Nazi government
causing the imprisonment of thousands of priests, hundreds of whom died, etc.,
are at the next links.  Rutherford would have shown better care and strategy if
he had avoided risking his followers' necks unnecessarily and had them join
those of the Catholics and others who were against Hitler in other ways.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nazi_Germany
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_20th_century#Catholics_and_Protestants_under_the_Third_Reich
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholicism_in_Germany#Catholicism_and_the_Third_Reich

  P.11 has the misleading sub-heading "The Crime of Being a Christian" for a
section on Nazi persecution of Jws.  Actually, Hitler didn't have a plan to ex-
terminate the Jws like he did for the Jews but only stop the Jws if they got in
his way politically.  Rutherford requiring his followers to agree with his vari-
ation of Rom.13 was a personal effort at exclusiveness, not a scriptural neces-
sity, and the Nazis only persecuted JWs if they refused to renounce Rutherford,
not Christ.

  Ironically, the Golden Age even blamed the Catholics for getting a lot of
Rutherford's followers imprisoned, though the imprisonments, even deaths, were
mostly due to Rutherford threatening Hitler that Rutherford would send unarmed
German JWs into German streets with tracts meant to destroy Hitler's government
with criticism and Rutherford encouraging his followers to become martyrs.  And
since a bigger part of the German population was Catholic, Rutherford propagan-
dizing against them would only give Hitler more of a political motivation to
persecute Rutherford's followers.

  Page 17 and 18  Rutherford gave his organization as God's only organization
and made a literature sales pitch in "God's Organization."  "The end of the
world has now come, and within a short time Jesus Christ as the mighty Officer
of Jehovah will destroy Satan's power; but before doing so the Lord sends forth
men and women as His witnesses to tell the people of His purpose and of His pro-
vision for their blessings.  For that reason Jehovah's witnesses now come to you
with books...."

  (See Jan., 1968.  "During World War I God's people expected it to lead direct-
ly into Armageddon, but Jehovah prevented such a climax at that time.  We didn't
succumb to such an expectation during World War II." "Kingdom Ministry," Jan.,
1968, p.5)

  Seven pages under the heading "Political--Domestic and Foreign" are mainly
meant to connect Hitler and Catholicism and have subtitles like "Hitler Catholic
at Heart."  For example:

  P.18 "The job of the Jesuits is to make it seem desirable, even necessary,
that the government of mankind should be turned over to the Roman hierarchy."
"Every reader of The Golden Age will be fascinated, but more than fascinated;
for he will be instructed as to just how the Devil is working his game.  The
article takes down the screens and lets the honest reader see just how the Jesu-
its are planning world control by Fascism, and how they are succeeding."

  A Wikipedia article about Jesuits is at the next link.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Jesus

  Pages 30,31  As if Rutherford's followers didn't have enough problems, there's
a batch of medical advice from Clayton Woodworth (see "Blood transfusions aren't
the only things the Watchtower leaders have had distinctive medical ideas or
rules about" on p.11 of "GTJ Brooklyn").  Due to previous Golden Age articles
recommending that followers not get vaccinated for smallpox, p.31 has an article
commending a parent who describes the legal troubles they went though for not
vaccinating their public school-age child against smallpox.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

  (See the timeline at 2001 on p.6a--the Watchtower claims Rutherford led his
followers with integrity during WWII: "Courageous Integrity Keepers Triumph Over
Nazi Persecution.")

  1935 "How effective was Wilhelm Canaris and the German resistance?" by TIK
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpaCjgJWVJU
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance_to_Nazism
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris

  1936  From spring 1936 onward, the authorities told German Bible Students to
leave the Bible Students and have their children use the Hitler Salute and sa-
lute the German flag (and, starting on Dec.1, join Hitler Youth) or else the
authorities would try to get a court to decide that they're not fulfilling their
obligations to the state, in which case the Bible Students would lose custody
of their children, who would be sent to a reformatory.  Between 1936 and 1946 at
least 860 (Jehovah’s Witnesses sources) or 500 (Worldview Times) children were
taken from their parents.
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/
  http://books.google.com/books?id=KNIfDJPZEg8C&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=1936+Bible+Students+children&source=bl&ots=ilI1MmIA8s&sig=3O4vVyNO0fQUpB1tQLhWkfE6G9A&hl=en&ei=GSRqSoeJDZHcsgPFmYiWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_salute
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth

  1936  On June 24, State police and the Gestapo formed a special unit to fight
the Watchtower movement.  In Sept., 1937, through a number of arrests and infil-
tration, it succeeded in bringing the public spread of the movement to a stand-
still.  Thereafter, reports of Witness activity was mostly limited to prisons,
concentration camps, and some young JWs men who were executed for refusing mili-
tary service.

  (Compare 2007--date of authorship?  "Thus, the Witnesses never expressed sup-
port for the Nazi Party.  Moreover, in the exercise of religious freedom, they
did not intend to stop their public preaching.—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20.")
  http://www.watchtower.org/e/19980708/article_01.htm

  By the end of WW II, around 2000 members suffered in the camps, 635 died, and
203 were executed. ("Yearbook," 1974, p.212; "The Watchtower," July 1, 1979,
p.8)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php#yearbooks

  1937  In July, Buchenwald concentration camp was established.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concentration_camp

  1937 The Rhineland Bastard program of sterilizing children with mixed German
and African parentage began in the Rhine.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland_Bastard

  1937 (date?)  In Rutherford's tract "Uncovered," he gave his side of a debate
which didn't take place between him and Catholic leaders, so he gave his stances
uncontestedly as though decisive.
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/booklets/uncovered.html

  "It is a well-known fact that the order of Jesuits is an instrument of and a
part of the Roman Catholic organization, and that it is such organization that
now dictates to and rules Germany, Austria, Italy and other nations and is now
vigorously prosecuting a bloody war in Spain to obtain control of that country.
The abundant literature or propaganda issued by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy
concerning 'Catholic action' overwhelmingly proves that the Roman Catholic Hier-
archy is vigorously attempting to gain control of and rule all the nations of
the earth.  Such alone is conclusive proof that the Catholic church is not the
church of God, and does not act with authority from God and Christ, but that it
is the instrument of the Devil, used to blind sincere persons and turn them away
from God and Christ." (pp.40,41)

  (For similar statements by Rutherford about Catholic action, etc., and my res-
ponses, see "1940 (Date?) The following excerpts from Rutherford's booklet "CON-
SPIRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY" below.)

  On pages 42-46 of "Uncovered," Rutherford didn't just give the Protestant
stance of disagreement with the Catholic use of sacrementals but used the bigot-
ry of accusing the Catholic church of image worship, and he added his stance
about saluting the flag, which he likened it to.

   (See the articles at the next two links, various sections about the JWs lead-
ers' stances on holiday celebrations as having pagan connotations on p.1a, and
"cross" on p.6b.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_symbolism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramentals

  1937   While followers had spread speeches by using records and sound cars
since 1934, they typically left the phonograph player in their car unless in-
vited to take it into someone's home.  They began to be equipped with wind-up
phonograph players to take Rutherford's speeches door to door: "...at an assem-
bly in Columbus. Ohio, on September 15-20, 1937, the work using the portable
phonograph on the doorstep was introduced."  The follower told a household mem-
ber said he had an important Bible message then played a record. ("Jehovah's
Witnesses In The Divine Purpose," p.188)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTdXh5QWAdw
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjOcIhT2Qgo
  http://www.watchman.org/articles/jehovahs-witnesses/comparing-jehovahs-witnesses-history-with-jehovahs-witnesses-history/
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/114932/july-km-usa-get-ready-here-come-ex-bethelites?page=1&size=20

  According to Stan Milosevic at theocraticlibrary.com, the records used from
1934 to 1942 were 78 rpm and four and a half minutes long.  The discourses con-
tained on 150 records included "upwards of 90 different discourses by the then
president of the Society, J. F. Rutherford" and "over a million were put to
use."
  http://www.theocraticlibrary.com/

  In 1938 "there were 430,000 discs with lectures in sixteen languages in use on
19,600 sound machines.  In 1937 there were reported 10,368,569 listeners, and
for 1938, 13,070,426." ("The Watch Tower," July 1, 1955, pp.394,395)

  With Rutherford's combative stances making it increasingly hard to get spon-
sers, the Society voluntarily withdrew from all commercial radio broadcasting
contracts after October 31, Hallowe'en, 1937 except for convention broadcasts
which aired till 1941.  WBBR was sold in 1957--the new station, WPOW, aired
music.
  http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/history/jp%20history.htm

  The second biggest percentage of JWs at that time lived in Germany--the big-
gest percentage lived in the U.S..  Most JWs, then as now, lived in the U.S. and
what would become the Allied countries of WWII. 

  Rutherford continued to have the JWs take sound trucks (since 1934) to spread
his message.  Especially in the period leading up to and including WWII, his JWs
message included messages of other Christian groups, notably Catholics, and of
government involvement being Satanic.    See p.5 and the entries for 1940 on this
page.  Rutherford, later Knorr, caused most JWs to try to talk potential con-
verts out of fighting the Nazis.  This was, unsurprisingly, the period of the
most persecution of JWs.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_beliefs#Education
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses#Judgment_of_religion

  1937  Regarding the Roman Catholic church: "Amongst her instruments that she uses are ultraselfish men called ‘Jews’, who look only for personal gain, and
who therefore readily yield to and join with the Hierarchy in any unrighteous schemes."

  "No one on earth can tell exactly what will come to pass; but those devoted to
the Lord, and according to the divine rule of applying the well known facts to
God's prophecy now in course of fulfillment, can well reach a reasonable conclu-
sion as to what shall come to pass.  The question is, Will Great Britain and
America become Facist under the dominating control of the Roman Catholic Heir-
archy?  The Scriptures and the facts seem to support that conclusion." ("Ene-
mies," J.A. Rutherford, 1937, pp.281,291)

  1937  JWs activities stopped in the Reich with a second wave of arrests in the
fall of 1937.
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  (Compare 2007--date of authorship?  "Thus, the Witnesses never expressed sup-
port for the Nazi Party.  Moreover, in the exercise of religious freedom, they
did not intend to stop their public preaching.—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20.")
  http://www.watchtower.org/e/19980708/article_01.htm

  1937  "Why the Nazis Weren’t Socialists" the myth of "The Good Hitler Years" Between
two wars  1937 Part 2 of 2 by TimeGhost History hosted by Indy Neidell (Feb.19, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHAN-RPJTiE&t=535s
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany

  1938  "Stalin’s Paranoid Military Purges" "The Great Terror" Between two wars
1938 Part 4 of 4 by TimeGhost History hosted by Indy Neidell (March 18, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNnK0LAoyMo
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge

  1938  On February 4, Adolf Hitler created the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High
Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military,
and sacked political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philo-
sophy or policies.

  The Wehrmacht--the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht
    "World War II: The Wehrmacht - Documentary | Second World War - Allies in Pacific,
    Germany & Italy" by Janson Media
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laSkW8qVcgM&t=2281

  1938  On May 4, the JWs leaders' "Consolation" (not the German version) said:
"History never recorded a more systematic, efficient, devilish obliteration of
Jews than at present in Germany.”
  http://jehovah.to/gen/holocaust/resistance.htm

  1938  March 12--Anschluss: German troops occupied Austria; annexation was de-
clared the following day.

  1938  July 6-13--the Évian Conference was initiated by Pres. Roosevelt.  Rep-
resentatives of 31 countries met to decide what to do about Jewish refugees.
Hitler offered to let them take the refugees.  But the only country that would
accept a substantial number was the Dominican Republic, which offered to accept
up to 100,000 refugees on generous terms.  In 1940, an agreement was signed and
Rafael Trujillo donated 26,000 acres (110 km2) of his properties for settle-
ments.  The first settlers arrived in May, 1940: only about 800 settlers came to
Sosúa and most later moved to the United States.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference

  1938  On September 29, the Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and
French leaders agreed to German demands regarding the annexation of Sudetenland.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement

  1938  Here's the Rutherford record "Fascism or Freedom" made in New York on
Oct.2, 1938, with references to events that happened in Australia sometime
around Easter, 1938:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLNq0cXiB2o
  http://www.archive.org/details/FascismOrFreedomByJ.f.Rutherford

  The first thing he says on it is that Jesus was resurrected exactly 1935 years
ago, which in 1938 would have been 3 AD.  That's usually put around 33 AD.  He
mistakenly gave the time of Jesus' birth as the time of his crucifixion.  (He
seems to be giving the speech he intended for Australia around the time of Eas-
ter, 1938.)

  He then makes his case of equating the clergy of Jesus' time (the Pharisees)
with Catholic and Protestant (anything Christian and non-Rutherford) clergy of
Rutherford's time--that all were/are a Satanic hierarchy, including fascists,
who've tried to keep people from learning God's truth about Jesus (via Ruther-
ford's stances).  Rutherford characterizes himself as like Jesus in his past/
present analogy in that his stances were honest but were met with persecution.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

  Rutherford, on his recording, alleges that the Devil organized a world-wide
effort to stop his speech, lie about what it contained, and that he was told by
the newspaper official (not named) in charge at the Sydney Herald that Ruther-
ford's intended speech is entirely true but couldn't be printed because, regret-
tably, the "hierarchy's violent opposition" prevented it.

  According to the Adenaide Australia newspaper The Mail, Sat., April 23, 1938,
the Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs (Mr.H.P.Brown) banned Rutherford's
broadcast from Sydney because Brown wasn't supplied a copy of the script after a
three week period in which it could be provided and shown not to be objection-
able to the listeners.  A petition, with more than 10,000 signatures, protesting
Rutherford's broadcast was sent to the Postmaster-General.  The speech was
transmitted by telephone to the Tivoli Theatre in Adelaide but not broadcast be-
yond it.
  http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55846674

  Whatever small percentage of those Rutherford accused who impeded Rutherford's
freedom of speech to some degree, I'd at least agree with them that Rutherford's
bid for one-in-the-world exclusiveness wasn't an honest difference of belief but
was a devisive flame war instigated by a scam artist for profit.  My feeling is
that some people in Australia clicked the Spam button on their E-mail, so to
speak.

  1938  On October 16, Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United
States, condemned the Munich Agreement as a defeat and called upon America and
western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Hitler.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

  1938  (date?) "Those Jonadabs who now contemplate marriage, it would seem,
would do better if they wait a few years, until the fiery storm of Armageddon is
gone...."  (Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb
to predicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  "HITLER AND THE POPE

  "The following statement, written by a Catholic priest of Berlin and published
in The German under date of May 29, 1938, is proof of the conspiracy between the
Papacy and the Hitler totalitarian government of Germany:

  "There is now one country on earth where the so-called 'Earnest Bible Stu-
dents' [Jehovah's witnesses] are forbidden.  That is Germany!  The dissolution
of the sect which, at that time, had found a strong foothold in Germany, did not
come to pass under Brüning [chancellor of the German Reich before Hitler], al-
though the Catholic Church in Brüning's time urged to have this done.  However,
the 'Most Catholic Chancellor' Brüning answered that he had no law which author-
ized him to dissolve the sect of the 'Earnest Bible Students'.

  "When Adolph Hitler had come to power and the German episcopate repeated their
request, Hitler said: 'These so-called "Earnest Bible Students" are trouble-
makers; they disturb the harmonious life amongst the Germans; I consider them
quacks; I do not tolerate that the German Catholics be besmirched in such a man-
ner by this American "Judge" Rutherford; I dissolve the "Earnest Bible Students"
in Germany; their property I dedicate to the people's welfare; I will have all
their literature confiscated.' Bravo!

  "However, the American episcopate, even Cardinal Mundelein, is not able to
have Rutherford's, books, in which the Catholic Church is slandered, to be taken
away from the book-market in the United States.!" ("Face the Facts," 1938)
   http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/booklets/facefacts.html

  See the listing that's several listings from the end of those for 1933 for a
more balanced view of the Pope.
   
  1938  On November 9, the Kristallnacht began.  In Germany, the "night of bro-
ken glass" began as Nazi troops and sympathizers looted and burned Jewish busi-
nesses (the all night affair saw 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synago-
gues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht

  Rutherford's Watchtowers in Germany began to criticize the treatment of Jewish
people by the German government.  By this time, the JWs movement had been off
the street since Sept., 1937 (see 1936).

  The Holocaust would go on to murder just under 6 million Jews.

  "Broader definitions include between 220,000 and 500,000 Romani, and the
200,000 disabled and mentally ill who were killed, because these groups were
also targeted for eradication. A broader definition still includes political and
religious dissenters, two to three million Soviet POWs, and 5,000 to 15,000 gay
men, bringing the death toll to nine million. This rises to 11 million if the
deaths of 1.8 to 2 million ethnic Poles are included. The broadest definition
would include 6 million Soviet civilians, raising the death toll to 17 million.
R.J. Rummel estimates the total democide death toll of Nazi Germany to be 21
million."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

  A list of those who assisted Jews during the Holocaust is at the next link.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_and_groups_assisting_Jews_during_the_Holocaust

  1939  Adolf Hitler was the Jan.2, 1939 Time magazine "Man of the Year" (as
most influential during the course of the year--the choice isn't always an ad-
mirable person) for 1938.
  http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19390102,00.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year

  1939  On February 2, Hungary joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Comintern_Pact

  1939  On March 3 in Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi began to fast in protest of the
autocratic rule in India.

  1939  On March 15, German troops occupied the remaining part of Bohemia and
Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceased to exist; the hostilities began that led to WWII.
The Ruthenian region of Czechoslavakia declared independence as Carpatho-
Ukraine.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_events_preceding_World_War_II

  1939  On March 22, Germany took Memel from Lithuania.

  1939  On May 22, Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pact_of_Steel

  1939  On June 4, the SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refu-
gees, was denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned
away from Cuba.  Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later died
in Nazi concentration camps.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html

  1939  On July 4, the concentration camp Neuengamme became autonomous.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuengamme

  1939  On July 6, the last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany were closed.

  1939  "The abundance of Scriptural evidence, together with the physical facts
that have come to pass showing the fulfillment of prophecy, conclusively proves
that the time for the battle of the great day of God Almighty is very near and
that in that battle all of God's enemies shall be destroyed and the earth
cleared of wickedness, preparatory to the complete establishment of righteous-
ness."

  "At San Diego, California, there is a small piece of land, on which, in the
year 1929, there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth-Sarim.
The Hebrew words Beth Sarim mean "House of the Princes"; and the purpose of ac-
quiring that property and building the house was that there might be some tangi-
ble proof that there are those on earth today who fully believe God and Christ
Jesus and in His kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon
be resurrected by the Lord, be back on earth, and take charge of the visible af-
fairs of earth.  The title to Beth-Sarim is vested in the WATCH TOWER BIBLE &
TRACT SOCIETY in trust, to be used by the president of the Society and his as-
sistants for the present, and thereafter to be for ever at the disposal of the
aforementioned princes on the earth."
  ("Salvation," Rutherford, 1939, pp.310,311) (Compare with the 1968 claim that
the JWs leaders didn't succumb to predicting Armageddon soon during WWII)
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/salvation/salvation6.html

  1939  Rutherford used pretty brave words to send the followers out with from a
mansion in San Diego.  If anyone did attack San Diego, Beth Shan, "House of Se-
curity," built in 1939 as the companion mansion to Rutherford's mansion Beth
Sarim, had a bomb shelter or two for Rutherford to hide in:
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/bethsarim.php
  http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/index.php/doctrine-changes/beth-shan-house-of-security/
  http://www.watchthetower.net/deed.html

  1939  On Sept.1, Germany invaded Poland which began the Second World War in
Europe.  On Sept.2, Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) was annexed to Nazi Germany.
 
  1939  On September 3, France, Australia and the United Kingdom declared war on
Germany.  On September 4, Nepal declared war on Germany.  On September 5, the
United States declared its neutrality in the war.  On September 6, South Africa
declared war on Germany.  On September 10, Canada declared war on Germany.

  Phoney War (German: Sitzkrieg)--an eight-month period (Sept.3, 1939 to May 10,
  1940) at the start of World War II
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War
    "Why Did The Allies Ignore The Early Signs Of Invasion? | Secrets of War |
    Timeline" by Timeline - World History Documentaries narratewd by Charlton Heston
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYpYstSl8aI
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston
 
  1939  On September 16, a Cease Fire ended the undeclared Border War between
the Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.  On September 17, the Soviet
Union invaded Poland then occupied eastern Polish territories.

  1939  On September 27, Warsaw surrendered to Germany; Modlin surrendered a day
later; the last Polish large operational unit surrendered near Kock eight days
later.

  1939  On October 8, Germany annexed Western Poland.

  1939  On October 11, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was presented with a
letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop the
atomic bomb.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

  1939  "Within many nations of the earth Jews are cruelly persecuted.  Is there
any good reason why any person should be persecuted merely because that person
is a Jew?  There is no just cause or excuse to persecute anyone.  There is no
reason or just cause for the persecution of the Jews.... The common people
amongst the Jews believed Jesus, and received Him gladly; but their religious
leaders rejected and persecuted Jesus.  The persecutors of Jesus were leaders of
religion, that is, the Pharisees, doctors of the law, who taught the Jewish peo-
ple.  The leaders of the Israelites, called "Pharisees" and "doctors", indulged
in the practice of religion... Jehovah God had caused His prophet to foretell
that such perseuction would come upon Jesus by that class of persons (Isaiah 53:
1-12).  This fact explains the cause for the persecution of the Jews, and from
what follows it will be seen that all perseuction is induced by the Devil...

  "The Jews suffer cruel persecution at the hands of those who practice religion
of one kind or another.  For instance, Hitler has his peculiar religion, which
is clearly the product of the Devil.  Christians in Germany and elsewhere in the
earth suffer persecution at the hands of religionists because Christians serve
God and publish His name and His kingdom.  All persons who desire righteousness
refuse to indulge in the persecution of others, regardless of what others may
believe.  While it is true that the Jews are not Christians, yet because that
nation and people once bore the name of Jehovah God, even though they were cast
away as a nation, they are still the objects of the Devil's hatred and he in-
duces their persecution as a further reproach to the name of the Almighty God.
No doubt many Jews do wrong, but that is no reason or excuse for their persecu-
tion.  The present generation of Jews are in no wise responsible for what the
Pharisees and others did nineteen centuries ago.  Because of their name the Dev-
il hates them and causes their cruel persecution." ("The Watchtower," Nov.15,
1939, pp.16-18, "Jews")
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/133231/1933-letter-from-jws-hitler-nazi-party?page=3&size=20

  Rutherford meant to include his followers among those persecuted and turn the
responsibility away from how he mishandled the situation and brought harm to his
followers.  As with Russell's teaching, the "religionists" he equated with the
Pharisees of the time of Jesus' ministry on Earth were the current leaders of
Christendom (meant disparagingly) whom he blamed for persecution of JWs.

  Rutherford intends the irony that the Jews who persecuted Christ were reli-
gionists (meant disparagingly--the Pharisees were the forerunners of modern Ju-
daism) and so are the leaders of Christendom, and that it was prophesized that
the Devil who motivated those Jewish leaders to persecute Jesus would motivate
the current Christendom leaders to persecute the Jews and the JWs.  He charac-
terized his leadership as creating no greater offense than by serving God.

  Actually, the anti-Semitic persecution was born of bigotry, Rutherford spread
bigotry about whatever non-Rutherford groups in contradiction to 1 Cor.10:32-11:
1 (see other sections of this article for other JWs leaders' contradictions with
scriptures), most Christians and Jews fought against the Nazis, most JWs were in
the U.S. and if anything were taught to try to talk converts out of fighting the
Nazis, and the first thing responsible for the imprisonment and deaths of JWs
wasn't Christendom but was Rutherford's foolish bungled prophet-playing culmin-
ating with a threat to Hitler on Oct.7, 1934 (see above).

  1939  "The Jesuits no doubt joined Hitler in his Jew-baiting and were de-
lighted to find a means of eliminating Jews rather than baptizing them as was
done in the glorious days of Inquisition... The facts will show that what really
has taken place is, the abrogation of German law and its replacement by Papal
laws.  These might be indicated as below:

  "(a) The resurrection of the old Papal laws in restraint of the Jew--reinsti-
tution of the ghetto, peculiar dress and systematic robbery...

  "(f) Merciless torture of 'heretics' and 'Jews'; among the former, [Pastor
Martin] Niemoeller and Jehovah's witnesses."  ("The Watchtower," Nov.29, 1939,
pp.7,8, "A Critical Review of Mein Kampf")

  Likewise, Rutherford blamed Catholic leaders instead of himself for getting
his followers hurt and even killed.

  1939  November 30, Soviet forces attacked Finland and reached the Mannerheim
Line, starting the Winter War.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939
 
  1940  On January 4, Luftwaffe General Hermann Goering assumed control of all
war industries in Germany.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940

  1940  Rutherford: "Religion is the worship and service of the Devil and his
associate demons....  Religion is the chief means that puts fear into the minds
of the people and leads them into the Devil's snare....  Truly then, as stated,
'religion is a snare and a racket,' employed to collect money from them under
false representations." ("The Watchtower," Jan.15, 1940, p.29)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/8403/al-capone-ted-jaracz-you-pick?page=1&size=20

  "Religion is a Snare and a Racket" was one of the 1939 recordings by Ruther-
ford.  Besides JWs being sent with this message (the devil uses big business,
government, and the major religions to do his work, that the leaders of Catholi-
cism are the harlot of Revelation, etc.) in sound cars and phonograph players,
JWs were sent to carry picket signs with this message to picket churches. ("Reli-
gion," Rutherford, 1940)
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/religion/religiontitles.html

  It's pretty transparent how Rutherford meant to artificially engineer his fol-
lowers to bond into an unfortunately "us verses them" overly-'centric peer
group:

  "THE RULERS of all nations now see that disaster is near and that they are
done for unless some way of averting the calamity is found.  Filled with fear,
yet boasting of man's ability to avert disaster, with one accord they say: 'We
must have more religion, else our nation will perish.'  All nations have forgot-
ten God, and they give no heed to his Word.  All nations are against the THEO-
CRATIC GOVERNMENT.  They trust in man and in religion.  'Just any kind of reli-
gion,' they say, 'but some religion is indispensable.'  The prophecies of Al-
mighty God, the fulfillment of which now clearly appears from the physical
facts, show that the end of religion has come and with its end the complete
downfall of Satan's entire organization." ("Religion," Rutherford, p.336, 1940)
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/religion/religion12.html

  (Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to pre-
dicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  "The Theocracy" (government run by God) "is at present administered by the
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of which Judge Rutherford is the president
and general manager." ("Consolation," Sept.4, 1940, p.25)

  God (speaking of God), what a hambone.  Speaking of it being possible to has-
tily put faith in a man....

  On the plus side, Rutherford's effort to stir up fights for PR for his litera-
ture sales, with lawyers trying to get courts to understand Rutherford's follow-
ers deserved freedom of religion though Rutherford denied he led one, led to
some changes expanding freedom of speech, inadvertently doing someone other than
himself some good.
  http://supreme.justia.com/us/312/569/case.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_cases_involving_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_by_country

  On the minus side, his message of selfish leaders being insincere and phoney
to make money was ironic.  Besides the ways that's shown about his affected ex-
clusiveness elsewhere in this article, it's also shown in how his PR efforts in
this period went against Apostle Paul's teachings to spread the word without
giving offense to Greek or Jewish people, people of different cultures and reli-
gions, sacrificing selfish concerns to gain them to Christ (1 Cor.10:31-11:1).
It also shows the falsehood of recent JWs leaders' literature that characterizes
the followers of that time as doing the work of the Bible yet persecuted for no
understandable reason (as compared to doing it for a con man who saw money to be made in a sales method that put his followers in the way of harm by having them act like 'centric creeps).

  1940  On February 16, the British destroyer Cossack pursued the German
freighter Altmark into Jossingfjord in southwestern Norway, breaking interna-
tional law and provoking Norway`s entry to the war.  290 British sailors were
freed, and seven Germans killed.

  1940  On March 5, the members of the Soviet politburo: Stalin, Molotov, Lazar
Kaganovich, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and Lavrenty Beria, signed an
order, prepared by Beria, for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, in-
cluding 14,700 Polish POWs.  The action was known as the Katyn massacre.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

  1940  On March 12, the Soviet Union and Finland signed a peace treaty in Mos-
cow ending the Winter War.  Finns, along with the world at large, were shocked
by the harsh terms.

  1940  On March 18, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at Brenner Pass in
the Alps and agreed to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini

  April 9 - WWII: Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in operation Weserübung.
The British campaign in Norway simultaneously commenced.

  1940  On May 10, the Battle of France began--German forces invaded Low Coun-
tries; neutral Iceland was invaded by the United Kingdom; and, with the resig-
nation of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom.  On May 13, in his first address as Prime Minister, he told the
House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and
sweat."

  1940  The May 15, 1940, issue of Consolation said: "Hitler is such a perfect
child of the Devil that these speeches and decisions flow through him like water
through a well-built sewer."
  http://en.allexperts.com/q/Jehovah-s-Witness-1617/Jehovah-Witnesses-holcaust.htm

  1940  On May 20, German forces, under General Erwin Rommel, reached the En-
glish Channel.  The concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau opened in
Poland.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation

  1940  On June 3, Franz Rademacher proposed the Madagascar Plan.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan

  1940  (date?) Rutherford's "Consolation" said: "There were 3,500,000 Jews in
Poland when Germany began its Blitzkrieg..., and if reports which reach the Wes-
tern world are correct their destruction seems well under way."  By 1946, "The
Golden Age" and "Consolation" had identified 60 prison and concentration camps.
  http://en.allexperts.com/q/Jehovah-s-Witness-1617/Jehovah-Witnesses-holcaust.htm

  1940  On June 10, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom.  U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced Italy's actions with the "Stab in the
Back" speech from the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.  Can-
ada declared war on Italy, Norway surrendered to German forces, and the French
government fled to Tours.  On June 12, 13,000 British and French troops surren-
dered to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at St. Valery-en-Caux.

  June 10, 1940 to May 13, 1943 The North African campaign/defeat of Rommel
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KvUtmoS3CI
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_campaign

  1940  On June 14, the French government fled to Bordeaux.  Paris fell under
German occupation.  U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Naval Expan-
sion Act into law which aimed to increase the United States Navy's tonnage by 11
%.  And a group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów became the first
residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7J5lTfLcag

  1940  On June 17, Operation Ariel began.  Allied troops started to evacuate
France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.  Luftwaffe
Junkers 88 bomber sank British ship RMS Lancastria that was evacuating troops
from near Saint-Nazaire, France.  The death toll was over 2500.  Wartime censor-
ship prevented the story from going public.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ariel

  1940  On June 18, Winston Churchill spoke to the House of Commons: "...the
Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin."  General
Charles DeGaulle broadcasted from London calling on all French people to contin-
ue the fight against Nazi Germany: "France has lost a battle.  But France has
not lost the war."  On June 28, General Charles DeGaulle was officially recog-
nized by Britain as "Leader of all Free Frenchmen, wherever they may be."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle

  1940  On July 19, Adolf Hitler made a peace appeal to Britain in an address
to the Reichstag.  Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejected Hit-
ler's peace terms in a broadcast reply on July 22.  On August 20, Winston
Churchill paid tribute in the House of Commons to the Royal Air Force: "Never
in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

  1940  (Date?)  The following excerpts from Rutherford's booklet "CONSPIRACY
AGAINST DEMOCRACY"...
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/booklets/conspiracy.html

  ...further indicate what caused the conflicts and fighting his JWs sound
trucks stirred up during the WWII era in a mostly Christian U.S.A..  Besides the
irony of Rutherford's pose of cursing anything that isn't clearly supported
scripturally, his message, emphasizing the damnation aspect of his exclusivist
pose, can be summed up this way:

  Rutherford taught his followers his customized definitions to go with his
pose: that "religion" was created by Satan soon after the last apostle died and
is in direct opposition to the Bible.  The Satanic religious and government al-
lies are "Many Jews, Catholics, and so-called 'Protestants,'" notably the Catho-
lic church, which he said "acts in full harmony and conjunction with the cruel
dictators, including Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and others of like political am-
bition.  The head of that great religious organization is the adviser and close
ally of Hitler, who has threatened to overrun all the democracies of the world."

  Generalizations should refer to what's mostly true, so Rutherford's words must
have seemed ironic to most of Rutherford's targets, most of whom fought against
Hitler, coming from someone who encouraged people not to defend anyone against
him.

  Hitler made public statements of being Christian to promote his anti-Semitic
"positive Chrstianity," which failed.  Privately, he wasn't Christian.

    "Joseph Goebbels, for example, notes in a diary entry in 1939: 'The Führer
  is deeply religious, but deeply anti-Christian.  He regards Christianity as
  a symptom of decay.'  Albert Speer reports a similar statement: 'You see,
  it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion.  Why didn’t we have the
  religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the
  highest good?  The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more com-
  patible to us than Christianity.  Why did it have to be Christianity with
  its meekness and flabbiness?'

    "In the Hossbach Memorandum Hitler is recorded as saying that 'only the
  disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the symptoms of age' were res-
  ponsible for the demise of the Roman empire.  In 1941, Hitler praised an
  anti-Christian tract from 362CE, Julian's Against the Galileans, saying 'I
  really hadn't known how clearly a man like Julian had judged Christians and
  Christianity, one must read this...'  He was reported to say that religion
  should die on its own accord."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler

  But most knew Hitler was an apostate from his public actions.

  Because of Stalin "tens of thousands of priests, monks and nuns were perse-
cuted and killed.  Over 100,000 were shot during the purges of 1937–1938."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin#Religion

  Mussolini "denounced socialists who were tolerant of religion, or who had
their children baptized.  He believed that science had proven there was no God,
and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad.  He considered religion a
disease of the psyche, and accused Christianity of promoting resignation and
cowardice.  Mussolini was an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Denis
Mack Smith, 'In Nietzsche he found justification for his crusade against the
Christian virtues of humility, resignation, charity, and goodness.'  He valued
Nietzsche's concept of the superman, 'The supreme egoist who defied both God and
the masses, who despised egalitarianism and democracy, who believed in the weak-
est going to the wall and pushing them if they did not go fast enough.'

  "In 1938 Mussolini began reasserting his anti-clericalism.  He would sometimes
refer to himself as an 'outright disbeliever,' and once told his cabinet that
'Islam was perhaps a more effective religion than Christianity' and that the
'papacy was a malignant tumor in the body of Italy and must "be rooted out once
and for all," because there was no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself.'
He would publicly back down from these anti-clerical statements, but continued
making similar statements in private.

  "After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking 'more about God
and the obligations of conscience,' although 'he still had little use for the
priests and sacraments of the Church,' despite his return to the Catholic faith.
By this time he was convinced of Pope Pius XI's earlier statements that he had
been 'sent by God to redeem society.'  He also began drawing parallels between
himself and Jesus Christ.  Mussolini's widow, Rachele, stated that her husband
had remained 'basically irreligious' until the later years of his life.  Musso-
lini was given a Catholic funeral in 1957."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Religious_views

  Rutherford's taught that "Christianity" was created by God and is just led by
Rutherford.  He taught that he was the spokeman of God's Theocracy on Earth, see
the 2nd listing for 1940, who was restoring the original church, one that disap-
peared too quick to leave any evidence in related history that it existed--see
the section on Russell on p.1a.

      "That which is called 'the Christian religion' is not Christian.  It is
    a religious practice carried on under the name of Christ, but which is in
    defiance of the law of Almighty God, and which gives honor to creatures
    rather than to Almighty God, and which deceives millions of sincere per-
    sons.

      "After the days of the apostles a sincere body of men organized them-
    selves as Christians.  Thereafter subtly Satan, the chief of demons, in-
    duced men in that organization to advance and teach their views contrary
    to the Bible, and thereby they substituted religion for Christianity.
    Thereafter they taught the traditions of men.  That has been dubbed the
    'Christian organization', although entirely contrary to God's Word.

  Rutherford wrote about "Catholic Action" as a conspiracy by Catholics to rule
government.  Actually, in the 1800's, it was meant to encourage social action in
anti-clerical regimes.  In the U.S. around the time of WWII, it was actually
meant to combat communism and racial bigotry and provide charity.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Action
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_House

  "Because the Christians in Germany refused to yield to such religious ceremon-
ies" as heiling Hitler and saluting the flag "thousands of them have been incar-
cerated in prison and many of them killed."  Rutherford again tried to turn the
blame for that away from the recklessly egotistical way he led them--see the
listings for Feb.9 and Oct.7, 1934, and Jan.9, 1935.

      "The Hierarchy and their allies who attempt to compel citizens to sa-
    lute the flag are willful violators of the law, denying them freedom of
    conscience freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of wor-
    ship, which rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and for which the
    flag stands.  Such fanatical religionists are therefore the lawbreakers,
    and the righteous suffer at their hands."

  Rutherford's version of social activism was of a narrow ambition--to make a
case for the freedom of his followers to obey him as their theocratic spokeman,
which was mainly to do what he needed them to do to sell his literature--see the
section above on "The Watchtower outlooks on freedom of speech."

  If there's any honest modesty to admire in Rutherford here, it's if you can
manage to find it in that he underplays the matter in making out Christians as
being the only ones who would find his unfounded boastfulness and accusations
annoying.  It would be a decade before Ed Wood competed for his territory of
fictional entertainment.

  Eros the alien regarding people of earth: [with disgust] "Stronger.  You see?
You see?  Your stupid minds!  Stupid!  Stupid!"
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-kCC8WUKYk
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAt0p4EPCmo
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052077/quotes
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Outer_Space

  Rutherford accused those of "religion" of persecuting Rutherford and his fol-
lowers for no good reason:

      "Many Christians have been associated with religious organizations be-
    cause they did not know that religion is a snare.  When these honest and
    sincere ones learn the truth, they flee from religion and flee to God
    and Christ.  Jehovah's witnesses have no fight with any person because of
    his religious belief.

      "The proclamation of that message has greatly disturbed and angered the
    religious leaders and the dictators, and hence, as the work of Jehovah
    progresses in having this testimony concerning his name and kingdom de-
    clared, the opposers have increased in their hatred of Jehovah and in
    bitter persecution of his witnesses on the earth."

  But if you're going to send people around with sound trucks to lie about peo-
ple, damning practically everyone who listens to hell, especially as people who
tried to talk the Allies out of fighting the Nazis during WWII, you better have
more to back it up than an invisible early history and invisible substantiation
for forced points attested to by an invisible Jesus who talks through a guy who
keeps out of sight behind the security guards at his mansion, where he secretly
gets drunk.  Rutherford's sales PR incorporated an act that he was unable to
imagine that if he sent his followers door to door all over town triple damn
daring someone to belt them in the head, eventually they'd find someone to ac-
comodate them.

  This is a good example to contrast with what I mean by apostle Paul teaching
that Christians are to assimilate among the Jews and Gentiles, all kinds of peo-
ple, and hope to persuade (1 Cor.10:32-11:1).  You're not supposed to go with
'centric bombast and damnation ahead of you like Rutherford instigated from his
mansion in San Diego and getting the door to door followers to put it in other
people's faces to provoke them into conflicts and fights.  And since generaliza-
tions should refer to what's mostly true, this also basically shows what Ruther-
ford had his followers contribute during WWII instead of helping the Allies
fight off the Nazis, even in some safer pacifistic way, a point not lost on the general
public:

      "When Jehovah's witnesses make known publicly that it is the purpose
    of God, in the near future, at the battle of Armageddon, to destroy all
    opposers of his kingdom, that message greatly disturbs and angers the
    dictators and their religious allies."

      "All the evidence now strongly points to the fact that Armageddon is
    very near and that soon we may witness Satan's defeat and the complete
    vindication of Jehovah's name.  That will mean the beginning of endless
    joy, peace and life to all creation that love righteousness and hate ini-
    quity."

      "The signs of the times seem now to clearly show that God's due time to
    smite the enemy is very near."

  Rutherford wanted it known that very soon God would destroy everybody except
those who agreed with everything he said (the literal 144,000 and other JWs).

  (Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to pre-
dicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  1940  On November 5, Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Repub-
lican challenger Wendell Willkie and became the United States' first third-term
president.

  1940  On November 14, the city of Coventry in England was destroyed by 500
German Luftwaffe bombers (150,000 fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, 130
parachute mines leveled 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people were
killed).  On November 16, in response to Germany leveling Coventry two days be-
fore, the Royal Air Force begins to bomb Hamburg (by war's end, 50,000 Hamburg
residents died from Allied attacks).  On December 29, the "Second Great Fire of
London"; Luftwaffe carried out massive incendiary bombing raid starting 1500
fires. Many famous buildings, including the Guildhall and Trinity House, were
either damaged or destroyed.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe

  1941  On January 20, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swore in US. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term.  This was Charles Evans Hughes last
swearing-in of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  1941  On March 11, Lend Lease was enacted.  The USA supplied the UK (and British
Commonwealth), Free France, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other
Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945.  This included war-
ships, warplanes, and other weaponry.  The aid was generally free although some hard-
ware (such as ships) were returned after the war.  In return, the USA was given leases
on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war.  Canada operated a similar
smaller program called Mutual Aid.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

  1941   On June 22, Hitler began Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union which
failed and, at great cost of human life, reversed the fortunes of the Third Reich.
(For example, Germany didn't attain the oil of the Caucasus.)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa

  "Feeding the Meatgrinder - The Red Army - WW2 Special" by World War Two (Sept.28,
2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMQOXMfZxmw

  1941  On July 31, under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann
Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible
a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary
for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution

  1941  On August 9, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met at Argen-
tia, Newfoundland.  The Atlantic Charter was created as a result.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter

  1941  On August 18, Adolf Hitler ordered a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's
systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests.  However,
graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program were then transferred to concentration
camps, where they continued in their trade.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940

   1939 to 1945 The Battle of the Atlantic--USA notably Sept., 1941 onward
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Atlantic
    "Battle Of The Atlantic | Secrets Of War (WWII Documentary) | Timeline" by
    Timeline - World History Documentaries
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cexTcnTHdc8&t=1080

  Sept., 1941--The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is first flown in missions
  "The de Havilland Mosquito: Bandit Of The Air | Battlefield Mysteries | War Stories"
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDZlMRVwxEY
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito

  1941  Regarding Dan.11: "Today (1941) 'the king of the north' is easily iden-
tified as being represented in the so-called 'Axis powers' composed of Greater
Germany, Italy, and the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, with chief offices at Vatican
City....  The Bible and historical facts plainly identify "the king of the
south" as the world ruling-power that claims the right to rule and rules in the
name of Democracy." ("The Watchtower," Sept.15, 1941, p.278)
  http://watchtower-observer.org/history/rutherford/wwii-armageddon-soon/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Daniel
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicism_%28Christianity%29
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_eschatology

  1941  Rutherford declares that we're living in "The remaining months before
Armageddon..."  ("Consolation," Sept.15, 1941, p.288)  (Compare Jan., 1968)

  1941  From October 1941 to January 1942 the Soviet army pushed the Nazis away from
Moscow.
  'Battle of Moscow | Animated History" by The Armchair Historian (Sept.29, 2019)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yus9N3AG_WE
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow

  1941  "A great famine is certain to afflict the many nations of the earth in
the very near future.  The United States is also in line for much suffering...."
"The United States is faced with world disaster now impending and about to
fall...." ("The Watchtower," Nov.15, 1941)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php#watchtower

  1941  Rutherford's last book was called "Children," 1941.  "Cartons of Chil-
dren that had been deposited in The Arena were now opened...."

  "Receiving the gift, the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or
plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most
effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon." (The Watchtower,
9/15/41, page 288.)

  I get the picture of Rutherford writing that himself--that's the sad thing.
"Can I put in that the adults in the stands, with a mixture of sadness and joy,
strained to watch through their tears as the sun glinted off...."  "No, Joe--
shut up."

  "Armageddon is surely near, and during that time the Lord will clean off
the earth everything that offends and is disagreeable."  "We can well defer our
marriage until lasting peace comes to the earth.  Now we must add nothing to our
burdens, but be free and equipped to serve the Lord."  "Eunice, my decision is
made.  I shall shun politics, religion, and commerce, and I shall avoid the
cities."  "Our present duty is plain.  We must now be witnesses to the name of
Jehovah." ("Children" by Rutherford, Nov., 1941, p.366)
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/children.html

  (Compare the last several listings with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders
didn't succumb to predicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  He's in the bedroom, now, he's out of control.  Everyone except people who
agree with everything he says hasn't been killed yet, but Rutherford is still
pitching for the idea.  Instead of taking one more belt to the head in Germany,
the JWs should have thrown this silly little bastard to the front of the door to
door line.

  1941  On Dec.7, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack consisting of two
full regiments on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the Uni-
ted States into World War II.  On Dec.8, the U.S., China, and the Netherlands
declared war on Japan.  Japan launched invasions in Hong Kong, Malaya, Manila,
and Singapore.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor
    "FDR Knew about Pearl Harbor?! - WW2 - Reading Comments" by World War Two (July 22,
    2021)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-HkVO0UX4
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_advance-knowledge_conspiracy_theory

  "The Code Breakers That Halted The Japanese Invasion | Secrets of War | Timeline"
by Timeline - World History Documentaries
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rtPSS2syZo
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_naval_codes

  "Which Minor Country had the DEADLIEST & BRAVEST Soldiers of WW2?" by The Front
(Sept.17, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDhTPqD1IXk

  "Why The Soviet Union's Overshadowed Atrocities of WW2 Must not be Forgotten" by
The Front (Nov.19, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwFu_n9-fQ
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_crimes
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war_crimes_during_World_War_II
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_war_crimes

  "Why Japan Got off Easy in WW2 - The HORRIBLE Atrocities of the Japanese Empire" by
The Front (June 6, 2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBEmMeZOYaI
  "Japan's secret Unit 731 – where biological warfare was conceived | RT Documentary"
by RT Documentary (Dec.25, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFEgz8NNmVA
  (Undated)  "During the Second World War, Japanese soldiers carried out human
experiments on the Chinese and Koreans on different parts of the conquered
lands.  One of the most infamous troops carrying out such kind of experiments
was Unit 731."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_100
  http://www.skycitygallery.com/japan/japan.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwantung_Army
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
 
  1941  On December 10, the British battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Re-
pulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
 
  1941  On December 11, Germany declared war on the United States.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1941

  1941  On Dec.11, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.; the U.S. declared
war right back at them.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_World_War_II
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1941

  1941  "Finishing Off the Jews in Austria." ("Consolation," Dec.10,1941)

  Rutherford didn't like Hitler killing a lot of the Jews in Europe.  Then
again, look at the previous listing--he hoped God killed all of them soon.

  1941  "Nowhere in the prophecy does it appear that the 'king of the north',
that is, the 'Axis powers', shall be victorious in the present war between the
two 'kings', nor does the prophecy indicate that 'the king of the south' will
suffer defeat....  All nations composing 'the king of the south' become arbi-
trary and totalitarian....  All admit that regardless of the outcome of the
present war the nations will never return to the former method of rule." ("The
Watchtower," Dec.15, 1941, p.372)

  (Later, JWs leaders called communist Russia the King of the North, a stance
which got "prophetically, historically, and Biblically" screwed up when the
Soviet Union collapsed in Dec., 1991.) ("Pay Attention to Daniel's Prophecy!"
1999, pp.269-281,284; "The Watchtower," Nov. 1, 1993, p.19)
  http://www.watchman.org/articles/jehovahs-witnesses/pay-attention-to-daniels-prophecy/
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic

  1942  On January 1, the term "United Nations" was first officially used to de-
scribe the Allied pact. (See the listing for the fall of 1942 below.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#History

  1942  The Battle of Bataan from Jan.1 to April 9.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bataan
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March

  1942  On Jan.8, the JWs president Rutherford passed away.  Nathan H. Knorr
soon took over as the JWs president.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Homer_Knorr

  Ernie Pyle
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Pyle

  1942  All official Watchtower literature began being written anonymously,
which has remained the case to the present.  ("Apocalypse Delayed" by M. James
Penton, 1985, p.78)

  1942  On February 19, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued United
States Executive Order 9066.  About 120,000 ethnic Japanese people were held in
internment camps.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9066
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

  1942  On June 4 to 7, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month
after the Battle of the Coral Sea, there was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater
of World War II--the Battle of Midway.  The U.S. Navy under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz,
Frank J. Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial
Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo near
Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that rendered their
aircraft carriers irreparable.
  "145a - Midway, pt.1 - Clash of the Titans - June 5, 1942"
  "145c - Midway pt.2 - A New War? - WW2 - June 7, 1942"
  "Yamamoto: Midway Round Two? - World War Two - August 28, 1942" by World War Two
    (June 5 and 7, and Aug.28, 2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEWseChMGwQ
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZoEwrAMLU
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Genhh8KbGfM
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway

  1942  From Aug.23, 1942 to Feb.2, 1943 The Battle Of Stalingrad took place.
  "The True HORROR Of The Battle Of Stalingrad - The Bloodiest Battle Of WW2" by
TheUntoldPast (July 8, 2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29gOoFXxeZM
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

  1942  The Nazis use eugenics "very much like the breeding and raising of live-
stock" and "demons, not men" do that. ("Consolation," Oct.28, 1942, p.12)  Com-
pare Nov.12, 1930.
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php#awake
  http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/dirty_watchtower_secrets_pt2.htm

  1942  In the fall of 1942, Nathan Knorr made a speech which served as the
basis for the booklet "Peace--Can It Last?"  Page 21 contains the claims that
"The association of worldly nations will rise again" and "ascend out of the
abyss" "(Rev. 17:8) again after the end of the war?"  Later JWs leaders' litera-
ture has claimed Knorr made a successful prophesy in that the League of Nations,
which failed in preventing WWII, would arise again, which came true with the
formation of the United Nations.

  However, p.26 of the booklet shows Knorr also predicted that the peace to
come "will be very short-lived" and would lead to Armageddon.  Things didn't
turn out as his 1943 prophecy predicted, either (see below).  (Also compare this
with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to predicting Armageddon
soon during WWII.)  Various millenarian prophecy-believing Christians were say-
ing things similar to his idea of the return of something like the League of Na-
tions, even earlier than Knorr did.

  The idea of the United Nations appeared when Roosevelt and Churchill led twen-
ty-six nations, including the Soviet Union and China, in a "Declaration by Uni-
ted Nations" on Jan.1, 1942.

  According to the article at the first link below, "The declaration committed
the twenty-six not to cut separate peace deals with the Nazis and to subscribe
to the principles of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war world.  The Charter
provided the political basis for countering Nazi ideology; it caught the imagin-
ation of people around the world, including the young Nelson Mandela and other
anti-colonial activists."
  (See the article by Carl Olof Jonnson at the 4th link below, and see 1944,
1945, 1999, and 2001.)
  http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-UN/article_2519.jsp
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenarianism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_by_United_Nations
  http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/cojonsson.htm

  1942  On October 29, leading clergymen and political figures in the United
Kingdom held a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecu-
tion of Jews.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942

  1942  "The Scriptures give good reason to believe that it shall be shortly be-
fore Armageddon breaks.  In this expectation the house at San Diego, California,
which house has been much publicized with malicious intent by the religious ene-
my, was built, in 1930, and named 'Beth Sarim,' meaning 'House of Princes.'  It
is now held in trust for the occupancy of those princes on their return.  The
most recent facts show that the religionists of this doomed world are gnashing
their teeth because of the testimony which that 'House of Princes' hears to the
new world.  To those religionists and their allies the return of those faithful
men of old to rule with judgment over the people shall not bring any pleasure.
But to the people whom the angels sang about, 'men of good will,' it shall be an
occasion for unbounded jubilation, and they shall rally to the side of those
princely representatives of the kingdom of heaven." ("The New World," 1942)
(Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to pre-
dicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  1943  After 1942, conditions improved for Jehovah’s Witnesses in concentration
camps.  SS leaders used female JWs for domestic help and child care though many
of them had lost the custody of their children.
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel

  1943  (date?) JWs leader Knorr's "Consolation" said: "Whole nations like the
Greeks, Poles and Serbs are being exterminated systematically."

  1943  On January 15, the Japanese were driven off Guadalcanal.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_Campaign

  1943  On February 11, General Eisenhower was selected to command the allied
armies in Europe.

  General Dwight D. Eisenhower came from a JWs family.  I would think being a
General would get you disfellowshipped, though.  He kept a close relationship
with his mother anyway, who remained a JW--I say good for them.  His father
dropped out of the Bible students decades earlier over Russell's 1914-1915 sil-
liness.  Dwight became a Presbyterian in 1953.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

  1943  On February 18, the Nazis arrested the members of the White Rose move-
ment.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

  1943  On April 18, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who oversaw major engagements including the
attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, was killed by Operation Vengeance.
  "The Secret Mission for Pearl Harbor Revenge - Operation Vengeance" by Dark Docs
(April 10, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1793hRBRKRY
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vengeance

  1943  From July 5 to August 23 German and Soviet forces engaged in the Battle of Kursk,
the last major offense by the Germans against the Eastern Front of Russia.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_%28World_War_II%29
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk

  1943  "The final war will come as a most sudden and complete surprise...."
"Nevertheless, the appearing of the 'desolating abomination in the holy place'
is an unerring proof that the unknown day and hour of the beginning of the final
war is dangerously near." ("The Truth Shall Make you Free, 1943, 1953) (Compare
that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to predicting Arma-
geddon soon during WWII.)

  1943  "In fact, the prophecy does not disclose which one of these 'kings'
shall be victorious in the present war, but the opinion is here expressed that
neither one will have complete victory.  The end of the war will come about in a
manner somewhat different from what worldly prognosticators say.  What this part
of the prophecy does appear to mean is that, before the 'END', within the mean-
ing of the prophecy, all the nations, including those forming the 'king of the
south', will take on or become dictatorial governments."  ("The Watchtower,"
Aug.1, 1943, p.360)

  Mosaic law fans, grab your rocks.  OK, don't throw them, but could somebody
tell the babble of Knorrmandy to shut up?

  1944  On Feb.26, filming began for the propoganda film, "The Fuehrer Gives a
Village to the Jews" in Theresienstadt.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_%28film%29
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_films_1933%E2%80%931945
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_films

  1944  (date?) According to Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz, SS Chief
Heinrich Himmler often used the "fanatical faith" of Jehovah's Witnesses as an
example to his own SS troops.  In his view, SS men had to have the same "unshak-
able faith" in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Wit-
nesses had in Jehovah.  Only when all SS men believed as fanatically in their
own philosophy would Adolf Hitler's state be permanently secure.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler
  http://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/jehovahs-witnesses-victims-of-the-nazi-era/jehovahs-witnesses-wartime-persecution

  Hoess also described the faith and behavior of several female JWs who worked
as servants of SS officers in Auschwitz: "The strange thing was that all of them
were convinced that causing suffering to the Jews and killing them was justi-
fied, because their ancestors betrayed God." ("The Commandant of Auschwitz Tes-
tifies," Rudolf Franz Hoess, 1964)
  http://yadlachim.org/?CategoryID=203&ArticleID=577
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss

  According to Michael Kater, the SS tried to categorize the JWs as a Jewish
organization to bring the persecution of the Jews to bear on JWs.  But Himmler,
in 1944, said the JWs were "intensely anti-Jewish."  And Rudolf Hoess, in Ausch-
witz, said JWs let Jews suffer and die "because their forefathers had once be-
trayed Jehovah."  However, Bruno Bettelheim said the JWs anti-Semitism "was a
mild one and took the form that they resented that the Jews denied the Godship
of Christ."  (Kater should have used a small "g" for the JWs view of Jesus.)
("Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecu-
tion," James M. Penton. 2004, p.22.  Thanks to Google Book Search.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss
  http://books.google.com/books?id=h61sHeXTwXcC&dq=%22Jehovah%27s+Witnesses+and+the+Third+Reich:+Sectarian+Politics+Under+Persecution,%22+James+M.+Penton&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=k7lqSu6BNpSwsgP0jpyWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

  Bruno Bettelheim, a psychoanalyst and concentration camp survivor, described
the JWs as "very aloof and set apart from the social life of the camp." ("The
Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age," 1960, by Bruno Bettelheim)
  (For some reason, my tripod site requires that you Copy and Paste the next
link into an Address Bar and press Enter to get it to work.)
  http://yadlachim.org/?CategoryID=203&ArticleID=577

  According to the "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust," the JWs in the Nazi prison
camps "refused to cooperate with other illegal political groups, to try to es-
cape or to rebel against SS...in the end the SS exploited this unusual behavior
of the 'Bible Students' for their own benefit.  For example, by the orders of
Heinrich Himmler, they were allowed to gather mushrooms and fruits outside the
camps, because there was no danger of them trying to run away or to attack mem-
bers of the SS.  As a result of this policy change by SS, the conditions of 'Bi-
ble Students' in the camps improved." (The "Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,"
1990)
  (For some reason, my tripod site requires that you Copy and Paste the next
link into an Address Bar and press Enter to get it to work.)
  http://yadlachim.org/?CategoryID=203&ArticleID=577
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_the_Holocaust

  This is how they are described by a Jewish survivor of the concentration
camps: "In the camps in Poland they did not always behave according to their
teachings.  They served the cruel Nazi enemy very well with everything connected
to murdering the Jews."  ("Face to Face with Nazis–-fighters tell their story,"
published by the "Association of Invalids of War on Nazism" in cooperation with
"Yad Vashem")
  http://yadlachim.org/?CategoryID=203&ArticleID=577

  1944  The JWs leaders referred to the Allies, the United Nations: "one of the
most positive evidences that 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand' and that the end
of the world arrangement is now near.  Jesus foretold the setting up of that an-
ti-Christ organization." ("The Kingdom Is at Hand," 1944)  (See 1942, 1945,
1999, and 2001) (Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't
succumb to predicting Armageddon soon during WWII.)

  1944  On June 6, the Battle of Normandy, D-Day, began.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandy

  1944  On July 21, the Battle of Guam began.  Two American divisions fought for
a month to retake the island of Guam from the Japanese.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guam_%281944%29

  1944  "2,000,000 Slain at Treblinka." ("Consolation," June 21, 1944, p.21)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php#awake

  1944  On August 1, 1944, General Patton took command of the Third Army.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton

  1944  Sept.18 to 29 "Shermans vs Panthers: How Patton's Third Army Crushed Hitler's
Best Panzers? | Battle of Arracourt" by FactBytes (July 16, 2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfExMQbg8XQ
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arracourt

  1944  On Nov.7, Franklin D. Roosevelt won reelection over Republican challeng-
er Thomas E. Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth
term.

  1944  In Nov., Japan began releasing fire balloons that carried bombs to the
United States.  A similar operation, which ended in Sept., been conducted by En-
gland to send balloons with bombs to Germany.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Outward

  1944  On Dec.16, Germany began the Ardennes offensive, later to become known
as the Battle of the Bulge.  (GTW note: that's where my uncle Russell Glen True
died.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

  1944  On Dec.22, Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the U.S.
forces defending Bastogne, refuses to accept demands for surrender by sending a
one-word reply to the German command: "Nuts!"
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Bastogne

  1945  On Jan.16, Adolf Hitler moved into his underground bunker, the so-called
Führerbunker.  On January 17, Nazis began to evacuate from Auschwitz concentra-
tion camp.  (Undated): American troops crossed The Siegfried Line into Germany.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerbunker
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_marches_%28Holocaust%29
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Line

  1945  On Feb.4,  WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began the Yalta
Conference (ended February 11).
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference

  1945  In Feb., the Manila Massacre by the retreating Japanese army kills at
least 100,000 civilians.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_massacre

  1945  On Feb.19, about 30,000 United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima start-
ing the battle.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

  1945  "Terrible Plight of Hungarian Jews." ("Consolation," Feb.28, 1945, pp.
10,11)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php#awake

  1945  On April 12, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-
1945) died suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice President Harry S. Truman
(1945-1953) became the 33rd President.  On April 28, Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as
they attempted to flee the country.  Their bodies were then hung by their heels
in the public square of Milan.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman

  1945  On April 30, Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, committed
suicide as Red Army approached the Führerbunker in Berlin.  Karl Dönitz suc-
ceeded Hitler as President of Germany.  Joseph Goebbels succeeded Hitler as
Chancellor of Germany.  On May 1, Joseph Goebbels and his wife commit suicide
after killing their 6 children.  Karl Dönitz appoints Count Lutz Schwerin von
Krosigk as the new Chancellor of Germany.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Braun

  1945  May  "What Happened when Tired & Enraged Allied Armies Started Discovering
Concentration Camps in WW2" by The Front (March 11, 2021)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltvT3-hWBCo
  “Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down
the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”  - Dwight
D. Eisenhower (actual quote?  He possibly just said something like it.)
  https://www.truthorfiction.com/did-dwight-eisenhower-say-someday-someone-will-claim-it-never-happened-in-1945/
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps

  1945  On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_war_crimes

  1945  On June 1, 1945, the medical use of blood transfusions were banned for
Jehovah's Witnesses.  (Earlier publications taught JWs not to eat blood, but
this doctrine didn't come about till after transfusions became popular as a way
non-JWs helped each other during WW II.  (See p.11.)

  1945  On Aug.6, 1945, President Truman had a nuclear weapon dropped on Hiro-
shima, and on Aug.9 one was detonated over Nagasaki in Japan.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

  1945  On Aug.15, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

  Operation Downfall--proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese Home
Islands.  Canceled after the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall
    "Operation Downfall: The Allies Secret Plan To Invade Japan | Secrets Of War |
    Timeline" by Timeline - World History Documentaries
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZfObRnZiw0

  Amerikabomber--the Nazi Plan To Bomb NY  A 1998 film feat. Wernher von Braun, the
Horten brothers, and Eugen Sänger  Dreamtimeent (Nov.18, 2020)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQ37pQBctw
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerikabomber
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_brothers
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_S%C3%A4nger

  1945  "Propagandists think the people have short memories.  It is their intention
to erase past history, presenting themselves in the modern disguise of benefac-
tors, their incriminating record being covered up." ("Consolation," Sept.26,
1945, p.4)
  http://www.mmoutreachinc.com/jehovahs_witnesses/wt_nazi.html

  1945  According to Wikipedia, after the League of Nations failed to prevent
WWII, "it was decided in 1945 at the Yalta Conference, to create a new body to
supplant the League's role.  This body was to be the United Nations."  on Oct.4,
1945, the United Nations was founded "at the signing of the United Nations Char-
ter by 50 countries, replacing the League of Nations, founded in 1919.  The UN
was founded after the end of World War II by the victorious Allied Powers in the
hope that it would act to intervene in conflicts between nations and thereby
avoid war."  (See 1942, 1944, 1999, and 2001.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations

  1945  On Nov.20, the first of the Nuremberg Trials against 24 Nazi war crimin-
als of World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials
  http://en.April 29, 1946--International Military Tribunal for the Far East
  Convened on April 29, 1946 and adjourned on November 12, 1948
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East
      "Tokyo War Trials - Japan's Nuremberg Trial" by TheUntoldPast
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3sKqsRNBqMwikipedia.org/wiki/1945

  April 29, 1946--International Military Tribunal for the Far East
  Convened on April 29, 1946 and adjourned on November 12, 1948
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_East
      "Tokyo War Trials - Japan's Nuremberg Trial" by TheUntoldPast
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3sKqsRNBqM

  1946  A year after WW II, the late Rutherford's book "Let God Be True," used
for the next eight years to make converts, blamed the Jews for much of the Jews
own suffering:

     "Much of their suffering has been brought upon themselves by their com-
   mercial, rebellious course of action.  They will ever be a target of assault
   by Satan and his agents until Armageddon cleanses the earth of all opposers
   of Messiah-Christ.  Therefore, their only hope is to accept Jehovah's Mes-
   siah, Christ Jesus, and come under the protection of his kingdom."
   ("Let God Be True," J.A. Rutherford, 1946 edition, p.209--omitted in the re-
   vised 1952 edition)

  JWs leaders have a way with irony sometimes.  The problems of the JWs follow-
ers in Nazi Germany were largely brought on by the bogus prophet routine of
their own leader, Rutherford, a highlight being when he threatened Hitler that
he'd send the followers door to door with tracts critical of Hitler. 

   Rutherford didn't just drop Russell's Christian Zionism, he refuted Rus-
sell's prediction about 144,000 Jews in a restored Palestine and predicted that
there wouldn't be a Jewish nation (we now know as Israel):

     "The facts and prophecies prove that the natural Jews will never again
    be a chosen, regathered people.  They have as a people flagrantly rejected
    the Messiah, his truth and his kingdom.  It is a false hope that they must
    be regathered to Palestine and be converted in mass to Jesus Christ prior
    to his second coming as a sign of the early establishment of his kingdom."
  "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Third Reich: Sectarian Politics Under Persecu-
tion," James M. Penton, 2004, p.31

  I guess sympathy for persecution can be a transient thing.

  1946  "The disaster of Armageddon, greater than that which befell Sodom and
Gomorrah, is at the door." ("Let God Be True," 1946, p.194)
  http://www.letusreason.org/JW33.htm
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/letgodbetrue/godbetrue15.html

  (Compare that with the 1968 claim that the JWs leaders didn't succumb to pre-
dicting Armageddon soon during WWII.  They did it every year of WWII and were
still going strong right afterward.)

  The second edition, 1952, on p.218, adds: "Israel's applying for admission
into the United Nations and her accepting membership in that worldly body which
assumes to take the place of Messiah's rule is a flat rejection of God's kingdom
of the heavens.  The remant of spiritual Israelites, as Jehovah's witnesses,
have  proclaimed world-wide the establishment of God's kingdom in 1914.  But
again, as natural Israel did nineteen centuries ago, it has rejected its true
Messiah, Jesus Christ, and has declared it has no king but Caesar.  So again
Jesus the King will refuse to give them a special sign for their mass conversion
in Palestine to him.  Therefore let individual Jews open their eyes of under-
standing to behold the great composite sign which Jesus foretold betokening this
world's end, and let them join the great flock of 'other sheep' which now seeks
refuge under his kingdom.  That way they will be gathered into 'one flock' under
'one shephard' and be restored to divine favor and gain eternal life in the new
world.--John 10:16; Revelation 7:9-17." ("Let God Be True," 1952, p.218)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/historical-publications.php
  http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/letgodbetrue2/1952_Let_God_Be_True_2nd_Ed.pdf
  At the next link try Edit > Find on this page > Jew
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/part3.htm

  1948  The State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948, and it was admitted
as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel

****

  East Germany--the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokrat-
ische Republik, DDR)--was formed on October 7, 1949 from the Soviet Zone, was
socialist, and existed from 1949 to 1990.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev

  Between 1945 and 1961 2.5 to 3 million, about a sixth of the GDR population,
left.  After the Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, thousands made the
dangerous effort to leave.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republikflucht
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1989

  In Oct., 1949, there were between 12,000 (average) and 17,000 (peak) Jehovah’s
Witnesses in East Germany.
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/

  As during the reign of Nazi Germany, JWs leaders Knorr then Franz continued
Rutherford's version of Rom.13 and expanded stances about worldliness and gov-
ernment (the government isn't generally good and to be obeyed unless it calls on
you to sin, but is something worldly to not take part in, even Satanic), which
caused the JWs to be considered hostile by the East German government.

  1950  On Aug.31, the GDR Minister of the Interior, Dr. Steinhoff, had the JWs
removed from the list of authorized religious organizations and banned.  It was
accused of "systematic agitation against the existing democratic order and its
laws" as well as espionage.  Until the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, Watch
Tower literature reached the GDR via West Berlin.

  From 1950 to 1961, the GDR authorities arrested 3,006 JWs, of which 2,170 (in-
cluding 641 women) received prison sentences of an average of 5.7 years and fif-
teen recieved a life sentence.  Judgments declined after 1961.

  At least 250 of the JWs who were imprisoned, mostly in the 50s, had been in-
carcerated under Nazi National Socialism.

  Between 1945 and 1990, presumably (status Aug., 1998) over 5,000 JWs were im-
prisoned in penitentiaries and work camps.  Of them, at least 57 (43 men and 14
women) died in prison or from the consequences of imprisonment, abuse, sickness,
malnutrition, and old age. ("Chronology: Development and Persecution of Jeho-
vah's Witnesses" by Hans-Hermann Dirksen, Jürgen Harder, Hans Hesse, and Jo-
hannes Wrobel)
  http://www.edition-temmen.com/timetable/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism

****

  1952  The JWs leaders' published a long article which, while describing segre-
gation in the U.S. as evil, seems meant to reassure whoever of the more preju-
diced white people of the 1950's that the JWs leaders wouldn't give them any
trouble by motivating any effort against it.  In that regard, it seems like an
update to Rutherford's Declaration of Facts and related letter to Hitler, in
which Rutherford admitted some theological distinction from the mainstream views
but was meant to appease Hitler that he wouldn't cause Hitler any trouble.

  The main objection given is that white people's lives could be put at danger
entering black communities or that it would incite mob violence and risk lives
to buck the segregation laws.

  "Why do we tolerate the segregation laws and policies of certain governments
and organizations of this world? Because Jehovah has not commissioned us to con-
vert the world, which is wicked beyond recovery and hence will be destroyed.
Jehovah has commissioned us to preach the gospel.  Now what should we do?  Drop
preaching to fight racial issues?  We never have separate meetings and baptisms
when we can have them together.  But when impossible, shall we have separate
meetings and baptisms, or none at all?  Shall we serve spiritual food to all,
even if separately, or serve it to none?  Shall we provide baptism for all, even
if separately, or provide it for none?  Should we buck Caesar’s segregation
laws, when they do not force us to violate God’s laws?  God does not forbid sep-
arate assembly and baptism, and he commands assembly and baptism. (Matt. 28:19;
Heb. 10:25)  So should we disobey God to fight a racial issue?  To buck the seg-
regation laws would bring on disruption of the witness work, halting of it, mob
violence, and possible loss of life.  Only laws prohibiting gospel-preaching
will we buck at that price."

  "Some may argue segregation is prohibited by God, citing Galatians 3:28 (NW):
'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.'  That
Paul spoke in a spiritual sense and not in a literal, physical sense is obvious,
since actually there were male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek.  Be-
cause of the existence of Jew and Greek he specially accommodated himself and
his preaching to such classes. (1 Cor. 9:19-22)  His recognition of slave and
freeman we will consider in more detail, since it bears directly on segregation.
How so? Because segregation is rooted in slavery, is the outgrowth and hangover
of slavery.  Segregation, the stain left by slavery, is a lesser evil than slav-
ery.  So if the Bible does not instruct Christians to fight slavery it would not
sanction them to battle the lesser evil of segregation, at the expense of gos-
pel-preaching." ("The Watchtower," Feb.1, 1952, p.95)

  The JWs article both brings up scripture about there being no racial distinc-
tion in Christianity and rationalizes that Paul tended to differences regarding
ones who did and didn't follow Mosaic law.  Those differences were theological,
not racial, practical concerns in leading a Christian view that branched from
Judaism, though--they make no concession to people being 'centric about race.

  As Paul is quoted as saying, dealing pragmatically with slavery being the law
of the Roman Empire of the time, a slave should try to be free (if legally pos-
sible).  The democratic system of the U.S. created greater legal possibility for
challenging existing laws for ethical change for the better, and you don't do
that and try to create freedom by accepting the status quo.

  In their usual overdone stance of worldliness and what's ruled over by Satan,
the JWs leaders even charged that efforts to change segregation (like Martin Lu-
ther King's efforts soon afterward) were Satanic.  (This reminds me of people
bragging that it was a badge of honor for Nixon to put them on his enemy list.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_and_political_rights

  "Jehovah is no respecter of persons.  Neither are his people.  But the world
in which we live is.  Whites are prejudiced against colored, colored are preju-
diced against whites.  In some colored communities after nightfall a white per-
son would enter at the risk of his very life.  To justify this on the grounds
that the whites started the discrimination is not Scriptural. (Rom. 12:17)  Now,
where the danger is extreme should white persons enter these hostile communi-
ties and suffer beating and possibly death to prove they have a democratic right
to be there?  Should a white witness endanger his life to attend a meeting of
colored witnesses in such places, or stay overnight with his colored brothers
there, just to prove his democratic right to do so?"

  "Many colored persons practice color-prejudice against their own people.
Lighter-colored Negroes will shun the darker ones.  Some from the Western Hemi-
sphere look down upon the very dark ones from Africa.  In South Africa, whites
discriminate against the mixed coloreds, the mixed coloreds against the native
blacks, the native blacks against the Indian coolies, and in their native India
the Indians discriminate against the no caste or outcasts.  Who is innocent to
throw the first stone?  Can we not see that all classes of the human race are
evil, that if we start reforming we shall be lost in an impossible task, with
endless discriminations and many varieties or injustices to beat down, which
crusading social and political organizations of this world have hopelessly
fought for years? For us to become like them would be to fail with them, con-
sume our time in such reforms, lose out as Jehovah’s witnesses, and please only
the Devil."

  "So let us please God by preaching the gospel despite the undesirable condi-
tions the Devil’s world may make for us.  Let us not be sidetracked by Satan and
caught in a subtle snare camouflaged in lofty motives and ideals.  Can we not
wait upon Jehovah to avenge the wrongs we suffer now?  Really, our colored
brothers have great cause for rejoicing.  Their race is meek and teachable, and
from it comes a high percentage of the theocratic increase.  What if the worldly
wise and powerful and noble look down on them as foolish and weak and ignoble,
not on an equality with self-exalted whites?  It is to God’s ultimate honor, for
he confounds the wise of this world by choosing those the world considers fool-
ish and weak and ignoble.  Let us boast in Jehovah and in our equality in his
sight, rather than wanting to boast in equality in the world’s sight. (1 Cor. 1:
26-31, NW)  In due time the exalted ones will be humbled, and the humble ones
will be exalted. (Matt. 23:12)  All of us await this vindication from God, which
will come in his due time.  Until then, as Paul advised concerning slavery we
advise concerning its lingering trace, segregation: 'Do not let it worry you.'
(1 Cor. 7:21, NW)  When possible we will meet together, when not possible we
will meet separately; but in either event we are always united in spirit, broth-
ers equal in our own sight, in Christ’s sight, and in God’s sight." ("The Watch-
tower," Feb.1, 1952, p.95)
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/racial_attitudes.html
  http://books.google.com/books?id=1vB2FyOSTAgC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=%22Why+do+we+tolerate+the+segregation+laws+and+policies+of+certain+governments%22&source=bl&ots=hrLNCgsmqk&sig=cXXdMnaf8HkfQ3kdX9CQ1FDW6ig&hl=en&ei=4KCPTNnbIoT78Abrt3WDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Why%20do%20we%20tolerate%20the%20segregation%20laws%20and%20policies%20of%20certain%20governments%22&f=false

  I should add that, as with slavery in Mosaic law, Paul, living in the Roman
Empire in which slavery was also the law of the land, at the least taught to
temper the understanding of it with an understanding of treating others as you'd
want to be treated yourself, be kind, etc., in how he sent a slave, now con-
verted to Christianity, back to the slave owner with a note for the slave owner.
It's not clear beyond that if that slave was set free.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_antiquity

  "If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me.  But if he has
wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account; I, Paul,
am writing this with my own hand, I will repay it not to mention to you that you
owe to me even your own self as well)." (Philemon 1:17-19, NASB)

  I should also add that the JWs leaders just gave the first part of 1 Cor.7:21
and the second part is pertinent to the subject:

  "Were you called while a slave?  Do not worry about it; but if you are able
also to become free, rather do that." (1 Cor.7:21, NASB)

  Also:

  "For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord's freedman;
likewise he who was called while free, is Christ's slave. You were bought with a
price; do not become slaves of men." (1 Cor.7:22,23)

  The JWs leaders were delinguent in regard to Paul's advice to rather try to be
free which found greater possibilties in the legal situation in the U.S. of the
1950's in a country with a non-violent civil rights movement.  The problem came
from 'centric ethnic outlooks which caused harsh disparity in education between
races and less potential for black people to make what they wanted with their
lives.  There was scriptural guidance for a moral imperative to change for the
better beyond just realizing that people of different races could find salvation
from faith in God (Num.12; Luke 6:31; 10:27, others).
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281896%E2%80%931954%29
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_%281955%E2%80%931968%29

  "and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of
the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their
habitation." (Acts 17:26, NASB)

  "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you." (Luke 6:31, NASB)

  "And he answered, 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND
WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Luke 10:27, NASB)

  1 Timothy 1:8-11: slave traders are listed among law breakers.

  A defense of the JWs leaders (all white till adding one black man to the Gov-
erning Body in recent years) might point to however unfortunately common the
selfish lack of motivation to end racial inequity was.  But my focus is to look
at the JWs leaders' claim of being of an especially righteous "144,000," and you
want to see some show of eternal Godly wisdom for an elitist claim like that.
They dropped the ball pretty clearly on this one.  They acted not only unfortun-
ately common, but discouraged efforts to make things right, accusing people who
did that of being "sidetracked by Satan."

  1952  "We might wonder, then, since this congregation which God is developing
or bringing into existence is based on love, why anyone should ever want to talk
about disfellowshipping or putting people out of this congregation.  There cer-
tainly must be some reason.  Well, the reason for disfellowshipping is that some
persons get into this congregation of God that do not love Christ."  "Those who
are acquainted with the situation in the congregation should never say ‘Hello’
or ‘Goodbye’ to him.  He is not welcome in our midst, we avoid him."  "Such an
individual has no place in the clean organization or congregation of God.  He
should go back to the wicked group that he once came from and die with that
wicked group with Satan’s organization." ("The Watchtower, March 1, 1952, pp.
131,134)
  http://jehovah.net.au/disfellowship.html

  1956  "Jewish persecution throughout the centuries is such a towering tragedy
that the mind cannot fully comprehend it.  Since it was engaged in primarily by
confessed Christians, it is no wonder that many Jews feel an antipathy toward
anything claiming to be Christian.

  "The persecutions the Jews suffered bear grim testimony to the accuracy of the
Biblical warning as to what the Jews could expect if they went contrary to their
maker, Jehovah God. (Leviticus 26:14-33)  At the same time it should impress
them with the need of putting their trust, not in silver and gold, nor in men
and human agencies, but solely in Jehovah God." ("Awake!" Dec.,22, 1956, p.20)

  The JWs leaders' last statement gives with one hand while taking away with the
other.  It basically advises followers to not be bigoted about Jewish people
while it panders to the bigoted ideas of greedy Jewish people characterized as
Shylocks who are trying to take over the world, as "worldly" people bringing bad
things onto themselves for being Chist killers, etc.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism#Eastern_Europe_after_World_War_II
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitic_canard#Accusations_of_plotting_to_control_the_world
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories#Antisemitic_conspiracy_theories
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shylock
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_deicide
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism_in_the_United_States

  1960  Former Governing Body member of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
Raymond Franz released the book "Crisis of Conscience," 1983.  The "strong, un-
yielding statements" he refers to below are rules by the JWs leaders used to
handle the problems of JWs in Malawi in 1964 (described in a listing below)
which were in contradiction to their rules used to handle the problems of JWs
in Mexico.  Their rules about the JWs' political problems in Mexico were first
decided by the JWs leaders in 1960:

     "What I find amazing is that at the same time these strong, unyielding
   statements were made those making them were aware of the situation in Mex-
   ico.  When I supplied each member of the Governing Body with a copy of the
   survey of Branch Committee reports on alternative service, I included ma-
   terial sent in by the Branch Committee of Mexico.  It included this por-
   tion dealing with the 'Identity Cartilla for Military Service.

   ("Cartilla" means a certificate.)

   [The letters are printed in the book]

     "Put briefly, in Mexico men of draft age are required to undergo a speci-
   fied period of military training during a period of one year.  Upon regis-
   tration the registrant receives a certificate or 'cartilla' with places for
   noting down attendance at weekly military instruction classes.  It is ille-
   gal and punishable for any official to fill in this attendance record if
   the registrant has not actually attended.  But officials can be bribed to
   do so and many men in Mexico do this.  According to the Branch Office Com-
   mittee this is also a common practice among Jehovah’s Witnesses in Mexico.
   Why?

   [Letters from the Mexican Branch to the New York Headquarters and New York
   to Mexican Branch about the bribery practice show that the Governing Body
   in Brooklyn knew of the practice and approved of it.]

     "Four years after that counsel was given to Mexico the first eruption of
   violent attacks against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malawi took place (1964) and
   the issue of paying for a party card arose.  The position taken by the Ma-
   lawi Branch Office was that to do so would be a violation of Christian neu-
   trality, a compromise unworthy of a genuine Christian.  The world headquar-
   ters knew that this was the position taken.  The violence subsided after a
   while and then broke out again in 1967, so fiercely that thousands of Wit-
   nesses were driven into flight from their homeland.  The reports of horri-
   ble atrocities in increasing number came flooding in to the world headquar-
   ters.

     "What effect did it have on them and on their consciences as regards the
   position taken in Mexico?  In Malawi Witnesses were being beaten and tor-
   tured, women were being raped, homes and fields were being destroyed, and
   entire families were fleeing to other countries--determined to hold to the
   organization’s stand that to pay for a party card would be a morally trai-
   torous act.  At the same time, in Mexico, Witness men were bribing military
   officials to complete a certificate falsely stating that they had fulfilled
   their military service obligations, and when they went to the Branch Of-
   fice, the staff there followed the Society’s counsel and said nothing to
   indicate in any way that this practice was inconsistent with organizational
   standards or the principals of God’s Word.  Knowing this, how were those in
   the position of highest authority in the organization affected?  Consider:

   [Letters from the Mexican Branch to New York and from New York to the Mex-
   ican Branch show the Mexican JWs asked if the bribery practice should con-
   tinue and Brooklyn saw no reason to change the practice.]

     "What makes all this so utterly incredible is that the organization’s po-
   sition on membership in the military has always been identical to its posi-
   tion on membership in a 'political' organization.  In both cases any Wit-
   ness who enters such membership is automatically viewed as 'disassociated.'
   Yet the Mexico Branch Committee had made crystal clear that all these Wit-
   nesses who had obtained the completed certificate of military service (by
   means of a bribe) were now placed in the first reserve of the military.
   The Witnesses in Malawi risked life and limb, homes and lands, to adhere to
   the stance adopted by the organization for their country.  In Mexico there
   was no such risk involved, yet a policy of the utmost leniency was applied.
   There, Witness men could be members of the first reserves of the army and
   yet be Circuit or District Overseers, members of the Bethel family! The re-
   port from the Branch Committee makes this clear (as well as showing how com-
   mon the practice of bribing to get the certificate was among the Wit-
   nesses)." ("Crisis of Conscience," Raymond Franz, 1983, pp.117,119,123-126)

  Again, I call attention to the JWs leaders' claim of being of an exclusive
144,000, their efforts to make a pretension of it with unnecessarily expanded
ideas about what "worldly" means, and how this has led JWs into harmful situa-
tions that could have been handled differently.  (This same posturing has led to
the JWs leaders' rulings about the medical uses of blood which has led to other
avoidable fatalities.)

  See the listing for 1968 for more about the way the JWs leaders guided things
in Malawi.

  1962  The higher powers of Rom.13:1-8 are again called worldly governments by
the JWs leaders. ("The Watchtower," Nov.15, 1962).  (Compare June 1 and 15,
1929)

  1963  The persecution of JWs in WWII was "...a horrible Nazi persecution of
'Jehovah’s Witnesses', worse than that of the Jews." ("Babylon the Great Has
Fallen!  God’s Kingdom Rules!" 1963, pp.549-550)
  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj1wK2jmYjLAhVGOj4KHdOZAekQFggpMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fda-ip.getmyip.com%3A8080%2FPDF%2FOld%2520Publications%2F1963%2520-%2520Babylon%2520The%2520Great%2520Has%2520Fallen%2C%2520God's%2520Kingdom%2520Rules%2520-%2520text.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGrm-QePs-1B0YF-qzTMuVPNG5xPw&sig2=Z9d5AtnYQabS88w5-OxYGg

  I can see the JWs leaders trying to get away with lying about obscure things,
but that's just dumb.

  1963  "One tantalizing instance of this occurred when Pope Pius XI of Vatican
City, who was a Concordat partner of dictators Mussolini and Hitler, proclaimed
1933 to be a holy year.  When he inaugurated it on April 2, he held out hopes of
peace and prosperity as a result of observing that year as holy.  In quick suc-
cession came the startling broadcast on April 23, 1933, over 55 radio stations,
with WBBR of Staten Island, New York, as the key station.  This hour's address
by President Rutherford of the Watch Tower Society was on the subject 'Effect of
Holy Year on Peace and Prosperity.'  This expose of Holy Year was transcribed on
phonograph records, and a broadcasting of these was made on the following June
25 over 158 radio stations.  Among other things, the president's speech said:

  "...With all kindness and sincerity I remind you who listened to the 'Holy
Hour Service' held in New York on the 2d of April that the name of man was there
exalted by frequently using and applying to men such terms as 'Holy Father,'
'Your Eminence,' and 'Your Excellency'; whereas the name of Jehovah God, His
King and His kingdom were not mentioned at all.  No reference was made to God's
expressed purpose of dealing with the human race by and through His kingdom....

  "The act of declaring this a 'holy year' for the bringing in of peace and
prosperity is a presumptuous sin before Almighty God.  No man or company of men
are running Jehovah's business so as to enable them to 'change times and laws,'
and it is so stated in Daniel 7:25....

  "... Peace and prosperity cannot be brought to the earth by men, but will come
by God's kingdom under Christ. ... "
  "-The Golden Age, as of May 10, 1933, pages 483-490.

  "By the events of history since then, let all readers judge whether the Watch
Tower president spoke the truth or not.  Let them verify by authentic recorded
history whether the idolized 'sun' of this old world ceased from its scorching
heat after the 'holy year' of 1933.  Informed persons know that in that same
year Hitler became dictator of Nazi Germany, a horrible Nazi persecution of Je-
hovah's witnesses, worse than that on the Jews, began, and in that decade the
League of Nations was scuttled by the Nazi-Fascist Axis Powers and the gory
World War II was launched by these.  Finally came the exploding of atomic bombs
on the 'heathen' member of the Axis Powers.  Then the hydrogen bomb was in-
vented.  We face nuclear war!

  "Jehovah's witnesses could not be killed of by Nazism, Fascism and Catholic
Action or by World War II.  The more they kept growing in numbers and spreading
the Kingdom message and establishing new congregations, the more the 'scorched'
men kept blaspheming the 'name of God.'  To this day it is true that 'they did
not repent so as to give glory to him.' (Revelation 16:9)  Unquestionably they
feel the effects of the pouring out of the fourth plague." ("Babylon the Great
Has Fallen!--God's Kingdom Rules!" pp.549,550)
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/133165/there-any-quotes-were-wt-openly-condemns-catholic-church?page=1

  Persecution worse than suffered by over 6,000,000 Jews?  Regarding the
"144,000"-centric bashing of Pope Pius XI, see the July 20 listing for 1933.
Again, the blame for the deaths of JWs in Germany is shifted away from Ruther-
ford's phony prophet act, therefore pretentiously exclusive rules about worldli-
ness, leading him to make an over-indulgent, fatally reckless threat to Hitler
to attack him with tracts of Rutherford propaganda distributed by unarmed JWs in
German streets.

  The inflexible 1963 JWs leaders continued to propagandize the correctness of
their 144,000-'centric claim of exclusive righteousness, weak faith about what
"worldliness" means, and bashing of others.  They were about to drive the fol-
lowers into another equally inflexible government leader.

  1964  According to the articles at the next links, the JWs in Malawi refused
to salute the flag, to buy $.25 membership cards in Malawi’s Congress Party, or
buy and wear badges with the picture of the President--Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda.  Dr.
Banda ran a brutal government with a cult of personality and harsh treatment for
any dissent.  There were waves of persecution in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1975.
JWs' activities were outlawed, but JWs continued to go door to door.  Soldiers
put about 1/3rd of 12,000 to 15,000 JWs in prison camps.  Without police protec-
tion, JWs' homes were burned, many were beaten and raped, and many fled to, and
several hundred died in, an inadequate Zambia refugee camp.  (See 1960.)
  http://www.freeminds.org/history/conflicts.htm
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/malawi-mexico-oath-allegiance.php
  http://www.jwfiles.com/wt_control/malawi.htm
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PkB1R8a_uI
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Banda
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi

  I'll add that you don't get the story right unless you add that the JW leaders
through this period played prophet and still required the outlook that involve-
ment in government is too worldly (except regarding the Identity Cartilla for
Military Service in Mexico--see 1960).  As with Rutherford's way of handling
Hitler, or Popoff wearing his radio transmitter and tellin followers they were
healed and should throw their nitroglycerin tablets and insulin away, it was es-
pecially cynical to maintain the pretension inconsiderate of the fatalities pos-
sible.  Maybe the flock would otherwise have worn the dumb badges, spread the
word of scripture, and in private said what a jerk Banda was.  But my criticism
is for the leaders--another combination of cynical government leader and cynical
JWs leaders with the flock bearing the brunt of it.

  1968  "During World War I God's people expected it to lead directly into Arma-
geddon, but Jehovah prevented such a climax at that time.  We didn't succumb to
such an expectation during World War II." ("Kingdom Ministry," Jan.,1968, p.5)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

  (Compare that with the listings for the WWII years above and at the next
link.)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses#.22Armageddon_Immediately_Before_Us.22_.281925.E2.80.931966.29

  1968  The JWs leaders' own report about the tragedies in Malawi (see 1960),
partly the result of their inflexible stance on their own 144,000 status and
their rules about worldliness:

  "In one place a number of these Christians were beaten unconscious and one of
them placed on top of a pile of wood, which was then set afire, all at the in-
stigation of a member of Malawi’s parliament.  But then this politician began to
have second thoughts about the matter and so had the unconscious Christian hur-
riedly pulled off the pile.

  "In another place one night a group of these Christians was awakened by Con-
gress Party officials.  The men were beaten and slashed with sticks and pangas
[machetes] and then were forced to look on while ten of their women were raped.
Two of the women were pregnant, one of whom later had a miscarriage as a result.

  "Late in October a large number of Christian women from the Mlanje area were
assaulted and raped, and on October 25, 1967, a fifteen-year-old girl at Mkuwila
Village, because of refusing to compromise her religious convictions, was tied
to a tree and raped six times.  How sadistic these persecutors were can be seen
from the fact that they even forced a wooden plug into one Christian woman.

  "This shocking persecution has sent many of these Christians to hospitals, and
at least five of them were killed up to the end of November 1967.  Hundreds have
fled to the bush wilderness for safety while literally thousands of others have
taken refuge in the neighboring Portuguese province of Mozambique, where they
have been provided with food and shelter.

  "Why the Persecution?  Since this is the way the witnesses of Jehovah conduct
themselves, why, then, all this violent persecution of them in Malawi?  One of
the main reasons is that the Witnesses refuse to buy membership cards in Malaw-
i’s Congress Party as well as refuse to buy and wear badges with the picture of
the President of Malawi, Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda.  Other religious organizations,
Catholic, Protestant and Moslem, have all yielded to pressure in these respects,
but Jehovah’s witnesses have not.  Why?  Because of their strictly adhering to
the Word of God.

  "As Christian witnesses of Jehovah they follow the example of the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, who kept free from the politics of his day.  He said that his fol-
lowers were 'no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.' (John 17:
16)  And before the Roman political ruler of Judea, Pontius Pilate, he testi-
fied: 'My kingdom is no part of this world.  If my kingdom were part of this
world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the
Jews.  But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.' (John 18:36)  Previ-
ously, when the Jews wanted to seize him to make him king, he eluded them and
retreated alone into a mountain.—John 6:15."

  "Yes, Jesus preached and gave his allegiance to 'the kingdom of the heavens,'
'the kingdom of God.'  Following Jesus’ footsteps as sincerely dedicated Chris-
tians, Jehovah’s witnesses have no alternative but to keep separate, 'without
spot from the world.'  Since they can give their allegiance only to Jehovah God
and his kingdom, they feel obligated to refrain from participating in any action
that gives such devotion to political leaders.  So they remain neutral as to the
political affairs of Malawi, even as they do regarding the political affairs of
every other land in which they happen to live.  It is because of this Christian
neutrality that they are being persecuted in Malawi.—Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15; Jas.
1:27." ("The Watchtower," Feb.1, 1968, from an article on pp.17-19)
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/voting_-_malawi.html

  Jesus meant he was bringing a way to go to the kingdom of heaven, not a way to
fight to have the Jews control Israel.  The "world" refers to whoever doesn't
believe in God or His rules to not sin.  Beyond those things, the political neu-
trality the JWs leaders wrote about may be someone's personal opinion, but they
were playing prophet to require it from others for salvation.  Jesus didn't mean
the JWs followers should have to go through cruelty in Malawi for the cynical
elitist pretensions of the JWs leaders.

  1975  "The blame for the mass murder of Jews, however, does not rest with
Christianity.  It rests with Christendom and her churches.  The reason for the
holocaust is plain: Christendom's clergy and their flocks abandoned the teach-
ings of the Bible and of Christ Jesus in favor of supporting the political
state.  Centuries of history show that this is by no means the first time they
have done so.

  "By contrast, thousands of European Jews can testify that one religious group
in Germany underwent persecution equal to that heaped upon the Jews: Jehovah's
witnesses.  Hundreds of these died in concentration camps.  They suffered be-
cause of insisting on holding to and practicing true Christianity rather than
worship of the State." ("The Watchtower," May 15th, 1975, p.294)

  Translation from JWs leaders'-ese: the JWs leaders claim to create the only
Christianity and those of all other branches that claim to be Christian are
false, unchristian, only political, and caused the holocaust; that the JWs fol-
lowers that died in Nazi Germany died from a persecution that was equal to that
of the Jews, and it was due to being committed to the one true Christianity--
that of the JWs leaders (Rutherford's).

  Correction:

  - the JWs leaders' cynical centric claim of being of a literal "144,000" is
meant to be established by rules so exclusive that they need to use falsehoods
to make them appear to be guaranteed (pp.1a,7-10,12-42),

  - many Christians and Jews know racism is a form of centric selfishness that
causes one to bash another whole group, a selfishness indulged in despite and in
contradiction to the scriptures, and many of the statements about either group
by the JWs leaders are further examples of it,

  - involvement in government isn't unscriptural as a blanket rule any more than
that Satan is the god of this system of things is or the combination of Rom.13:
1-5 and 2 Corinthians 4:3,4 would mean Christians should thank Satan for combat-
ing sin through governments; and the JWs leaders' ban on government employment
is nothing more than part of their 144,000 elitism,

  - generalizations should refer to what's mostly true, and most Christians and
Jews did what was effective, even giving their lives, to defend against the Nazi
onslaught, and the JWs leaders made sure no JWs could do much more than go to a
dangerously extreme degree to sell JWs leaders' literature,

  - and the first responsibility for how the JWs followers were guided unwisely,
even fatally, with inflexible expanded rules about worldliness and elitism that
procluded involvement in underground Christian efforts against the Nazis, but
rather sent defenseless followers with overt damnation about all others, damna-
tion built on childish exclusive overblown ideas about scriptures and govern-
ment, into what would have to be harms way with no motive more apparent than to
garner more worldly gain for the leader that sent them, isn't Christ's but Ruth-
erford's (German JW Erich Frost ratting about the identities of German JWs ser-
vice directors, and whatever ratting that may have led to, didn't help).

  1975  "To this day the natural circumcised Jews are suffering the sad conse-
quences from the works of darkness that were done within their nation nineteen
hundred years ago.  This illustrates what can happen to a whole nation that
comes under the influence of that unseen superhuman intelligence, Satan the Dev-
il." ("The Watchtower," Nov.1, 1975, p.654)

  1978  Fred Franz became the 4th Watchtower president.

  1980  The fool's gold rule: have the pot call the kettle "the pan calling the
pot black."  The thought to keep in mind while reading the next part is that
both the Watchtower and the Roman Catholic Church take in a lot of money, but
while the RCC has a history of charity, the WT mainly recommends that JWs help
each other.

  "SHARING RICHES WITH THE POOR

  "Perhaps the dominant appeals of the pope during his American visit were to
reject materialism and to share with the poor. A few hours after lecturing the
United Nations on this matter, he told an audience of some 80,000 at New York's
Yankee Stadium: 'We must find a simple way of living. For it is not right that
the standard of living of the rich countries should seek to maintain itself by
draining off a great part of the reserves of energy and raw materials that are
meant to serve the whole of humanity.'

  "However, what effect do you suppose those words have when coming from a man
clad in royal robes, who rides around in beautiful limousines and lives in con-
siderable luxury? Bishop Mariano Gaviola, secretary-general of the 1970 Bishops
Conference of the Philippines, gave some idea as he noted: 'When the bishops
[and we can add, the pope] condemn graft and corruption in the government or
speak against the misuse of wealth, some people wonder whether it is not a case
of the pan calling the pot black.'

  "But will the Church follow this proposal? Will it practice sharing its wealth
with the poor, as the pope advised the rich nations to do? It has not been in-
clined to do this in the past; whether it yet will do so remains to be seen.

  "However, the really important question is not: Will the Church practice what
the pope preached? Rather, it is: Will it practice what the Bible teaches?
("The Watchtower," Jan.1, 1980, pp.6,7, "Will the Church Practice What the Pope
Preached?")
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/religion_-_money.html

  1981  "Sexual Conduct… concerning the marriage bed, individuals can, however,
be advised that in their intimate relations, as in all other aspects of Chris-
tian life, they need to… have a hatred for all perverted practices including
homosexuality, bestiality, oral sex and the like (Lev. 18:22,23; Ps. 97:10; Amos
5:15; Rom. 12:9; Eph. 5:3,10-12; Col. 3:5,6) Persons should be urged to act in
such a way as to leave them with a clean conscience, and the marriage bed unde-
filed. (Heb. 13:4)" ("Kingdom Ministry School Textbook," 1981, p.151)
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/oral_sex.html

  1982  "Was God really their father?  Did God accept their form of religion?
Not at all!"  Jews are "from their father the Devil, and they wish to do his
desires."  The Jewish religion "served the interest of the Devil" and the Jews
"were on the way to destruction." ("You Can Live Forever In Paradise On Earth,"
1982, pp.25,26)
  http://www.amazon.com/You-Live-Forever-Paradise-Earth/dp/B000E1VTFU
  http://watchtowerdocuments.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2012_Rutherford_Supports_Hitler_Yad_LAchim_article.pdf
  http://lebeninjerusalem.blogspot.com/2007/10/die-zeugen-jehovas-und-die-juden.html
  http://www.bing.com/translator

  1989  In a JWs leaders' "Awake!" under the heading "The Holocaust--victims or
martyrs?": "all those who suffered as a result of the Holocaust were victims,
but only a minority were truly martyrs."  The Jews, Poles, Russians and Ukrain-
ians were victims, "But the case of 'Jehovah’s Witnesses' in Europe was differ-
ent."  The tract claims that the JWs were the only true martyrs of the Holo-
caust. ("Awake!" April 8, 1989)
  http://watchtowerdocuments.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2012_Rutherford_Supports_Hitler_Yad_LAchim_article.pdf

****

  GTW editorial:

  The JWs leaders meant to distinguish the Jewish people as victims who had no
choice from the JWs who were martyrs because they had a choice--they didn't re-
nounce their faith to avoid being punished.

  A few things about the comparison could be defined more clearly.

  The Jewish people didn't have a leader for all of them (like a Rutherford)
that directed them to become martyrs.

  The Jewish people were targeted for genocide for being Jews, whereas Hitler
just wanted the JWs to not spread tracts with bad PR about him around Germany.
So, when a minority of German JWs refused to renounce Rutherford, it wasn't a
clear choice to prefer death but most likely imprisonment.  (In fact, the JWs
were among the better treated prisoners for the last several years of the war
for making good servants for Nazi officers.)

  The JWs didn't have to renounce their faith in Christianity to avoid being
punished--just their commitment to the JWs leaders, the distinctions of whom are
covered on the pages of this article.  According to Penton, most of them did
(see the last listing for 1933).  From what I can tell from the rest of this ar-
ticle, if that's all they had to renounce, their best option would have been to
renounce them before there was any threat at all, then go on to do something
publicly productive.

  The Jewish people didn't just cave in to the Final Solution as if they had no
choice.  Resistance to the Final Soluion was strong among Jewish people, and,
given the humiliating circmstances, it's surprising how much rebellion against
it was demonstrated.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_resistance_in_German-occupied_Europe

  There were also Jews (and various believers and non-believers) but no Jeho-
vah's Witnesses among the Allies who risked their lives to fight and defeat Hit-
ler's armies.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_II

  There aren't any Jehovah's Witnesses among the religious figures and others
who risked their lives to assist the Jews in escaping the Holocaust.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individuals_and_groups_assisting_Jews_during_the_Holocaust

  The racial policy, including anti-Semitism, of Nazi Germany was pseudoscience.
It also condemned so-called "Aryan" Germans who had converted to Judaism.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_policy_of_Nazi_Germany
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_antisemitism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Judaism

  (The generalization that Semitic people are all Jewish could use some clarifi-
cation.

  (Jewish people aren't all one race--someone can be any race and be Jewish.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality_in_Judaism

  (Semitic people aren't all Jewish people--someone can be Semitic and be Jew-
ish, Islamic, etc.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic

  The concern that someone's mother is Jewish is an Orthodox, Conservative, or
Reform (or that someone's father is Jewish, Karaite) Jewish religious belief
concern.  Other than that, it's scientifically, biologically, and any other
"cally" you want to throw at it, unimportant.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28human_categorization%29

  Adolf Hitler made a pseudoscientific something out of nothing as a bigot in
his villification of anyone whose mother was Jewish or who converted to Judaism.
He had a propaganda department propagandize against whoever disagreed with him
but especially Jewish people as causing the most trouble for his socialist gov-
ernment.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoreligion
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_propaganda
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Ministry_of_Public_Enlightenment_and_Propaganda

  The JWs leaders make a pseudojournalistic, pseudohistorical, and pseudotheo-
logical something out of nothing in their efforts to substantiate their claims
to be the most righteous of all mankind and the only valid human theocratic gov-
ernment leaders and villified whoever disagreed with them.  They had followers
sell their literature that propagandized about critics but especially Christians
and Jews as causing the most trouble for their theocratic organization.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudohistory

  Too many Germans fell prey to stupid outlooks of the time about Jewish people
and Hitler exploited that.  The JWs leaders expressed some of the same stupidi-
ties short of a Final Solution for it (see p.1a and elsewhere on this page) (un-
less you want to count their frequent and emphatic public broadcasts about Arma-
geddon).

  The JWs leaders describe those of Christendom that supported Hitler as typify-
ing Christendom, but generalizations should refer to what's mostly true, and far
more Christians fought against Hitler than for him.  Rutherford would have made
his followers more effective against Hitler if Rutherford used some sort of
plausible strategy instead of directly threatening Hitler that he'd send unarmed
followers of Rutherford into German streets to sell literature critical of Hit-
ler.

  My concern isn't to pick on the JWs followers but to focus on the leaders'
methods used to affect a stance of exclusiveness, particularly if any of the
followers get hurt or killed.

  The JWs who stayed true to their beliefs under threat of death in Nazi Germany
showed loyalty, but loyalty can be for something good or bad, as in the case of
Nazis who fought to the death even as Berlin was closed in on by the Allies.
JWs who let their children die in hospitals rather than disobey the JWs leaders'
rules about the medical use of blood show loyalty and sacrifice, too.  But when
the JWs leaders tell their followers an extraordinary claim regarding common old
material, especially if anyone could be hurt or killed, those JWs in Nazi Ger-
many, hospitals, or anywhere else, would be better off to be loyal to the common
sense of hearing the case of both sides' best evidence and reasoning before ren-
dering judgment.

****

  1992  Milton George Henschel became the 5th Watchtower president.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_George_Henschel

  1995  "Scientists may never resolve exactly how much of a role nature and nur-
turing play in same-sex attraction.  But one thing is clear: All humans are born
with the tendency to succumb to wrong thinking and inclinations. --Romans 3:23.
A youth who desires to please God must therefore conform to his moral standards
and shun immoral behavior, though doing so may be agonizingly difficult.  True,
some individuals may very well be prone to homosexuality...

  "Similarly, a Christian cannot excuse immoral behavior by saying he was 'born
that way.'  Child molesters invoke the same pathetic excuse when they say their
craving for children is 'innate.'  But can anyone deny that their sexual appe-
tite is perverted?  So is the desire for someone of the same sex." ("Awake!"
Feb.8, 1995)

  The Watchtower stance is that homosexuality is a sin like child molestation.
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/quotes/homosexuality.php
  http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_jeh.htm

  Some defenses of interpreting the Bible to not condemn homosexuals:
  http://www.theturning.org/folder/samesex.html
  http://www.lionking.org/~kovu/bible/section09.html
  http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc5.htm

  Such conservative Abrahamic prejudice is the prime reason LGBT people are the
victims of hate crimes in the USA and even executed in some countries.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_violence_against_LGBT_people_in_the_United_States
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_LGBT_people

  Some defenses of interpreting the Bible to not condemn homosexuals:
  http://glenster1.webs.com/basicspage3.htm
  http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc5.htm

  A few Wikipedia articles about homosexuality:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_religion
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_and_religion_topics
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_homosexuality
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophobia

  1996  "In 1929, at a time when laws of various governments were beginning to
forbid things that God commands or demand things that God's laws forbid, it was
felt that the higher powers must be Jehovah God and Jesus Christ.  This was the
understanding Jehovah's servants had during the crucial period before and dur-
ing World War II and on into the Cold War, with its balance of terror and its
military preparedness.  Looking back, it must be said that this view of things,
exalting as it did the supremacy of Jehovah and his Christ, helped God's people
to maintain an uncompromisingly neutral stand throughout this difficult period."
("The Watchtower," May 1, 1996, p.13-14)

  (Summary: the Governing Body has reversed the stance again and now JWs can
choose alternative--non-military--service as a matter of conscience.  Despite
the JWs leaders' prophet-playing rules creating an overdone view of worldliness,
WWII being one of the worst times to make a case for neutrality being wise, and
Rutherford's political activism about it, not neutrality, being strategically
ill-advised and getting the followers into scrapes, even partly responsible for
many getting JWs killed, compared to what a more normal conscientious objector's
path would have led to or genuine help it could have contributed in the anti-
Nazi Christian underground movement in Germany, the JWs leaders only credit
themselves for having shielded their flock with a wise neutrality.) ("The Watch-
tower," May 1, 1996, p.20)
  http://books.google.com/books?id=kSZL8BWc9KcC&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=%22understanding+Jehovah's+servants+had+during+the+crucial+period+before+and%22&source=bl&ots=FVdy5ZvEXy&sig=Mptrk7QGGzAXhUaeBkvNMkbESVY&hl=en&ei=4rOPTLevKMP-8AaLw6STDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22understanding%20Jehovah's%20servants%20had%20during%20the%20crucial%20period%20before%20and%22&f=false

  The usual view of Rom.13:1-8 already figures God for being a higher authority
than human rule.  With the Nazi movement being big-time, homicidal, organized
crime on the march, it's not a time when I'd most admire someone's ability to
be neutral--to interpret it to mean to not pitch in with the Allies and help
fight the Nazis in some manner but mainly just bug the already too troubled
folks in the U.S. with the JWs leaders' sound trucks damning their religions and
hopes to fight off the Nazis.

  For the purpose of this article, the wavering JWs leaders' interpretation of
the "higher authorities" of Rom.13:1-8 (Russell/government, Rutherford/God and
Jesus, currently/government), interpreted to mean JWs can then can't at all then
can be a little in government, weakens the JWs leaders' case for being the sole
channel of God. ("The Watchtower," August 1, 1898, p.2345; "The Watchtower," May
1, 1996, p.20)
  http://www.ctrussell.us/
  http://mmoutreachinc.com/jehovahs_witnesses/dicwtdocs/neutrality.html

  1998 "Thus, the Witnesses never expressed support for the Nazi Party.  More-
over, in the exercise of religious freedom, they did not intend to stop their
public preaching.—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20." ("Awake!" July 8, 1998)

  (See Nov.1, 1933--about 2/5ths of the German Jws continued door to door work
after Rutherford's threatening letter to Hitler--sent after Rutherford's letter
to appease Hitler--failed, and about 1/2 stopped meeting in homes.)

  (See June 24, 1936--German state police and the Gestapo formed a special unit
to fight the Watchtower movement.  In Sept., 1937, through a number of arrests
and infiltration, it succeeded in bringing the public spread of the movement to
a standstill.  Thereafter, reports of Witness activity was mostly limited to
prisons, concentration camps, and some young JWs men who who were executed for
refusing military service.)

  1998  "Feelings of Having Suffered Needlessly In the past, some Witnesses have
suffered for refusing to share in an activity that their conscience now might
permit.  For example, this might have been their choice years ago as to certain
types of civilian service.  A brother might now feel that he could conscien-
tiously perform such without overstepping his Christian neutrality regarding the
present system of things.  Was it unrighteous on Jehovah's part to allow him to
suffer for rejecting what he now might do without consequences?  Most who have
had that experience would not think so.  Rather, they rejoice that they had the
opportunity of demonstrating publicly and clearly that they were determined to
be firm on the issue of universal sovereignty."  ("Watchtower," Aug.15, 1998, p.
17)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/wrong-with-being-jehovahs-witness.php

  1999  The JWs leaders still call political neutrality a scriptural require-
ment, but now allow a JWs follower to vote in a political election as a matter
of personal conscience even if voting there isn't required by law.

  "First, Jesus Christ said of his followers: 'They are no part of the world,
just as I am no part of the world.' (John 17:14)  Jehovah's Witnesses take this
principle seriously.  Being 'no part of the world,' they are neutral in the pol-
itical affairs of the world.—John 18:36.

  "The November 15, 1950, issue of The Watchtower, on pages 445 and 446, said:
'Where Caesar makes it compulsory for citizens to vote...[Witnesses] can go to
the polls and enter the voting booths.  It is here that they are called upon to
mark the ballot or write in what they stand for.  The voters do what they will
with their ballots.  So here in the presence of God is where his witnesses must
act in harmony with his commandments and in accordance with their faith.  It is
not our responsibility to instruct them what to do with the ballot.'"

  "What of a country where voting is not mandated by law but feelings run high
against those who do not go to the voting booth—-perhaps they are exposed to
physical danger?  Or what if individuals, while not legally obliged to vote, are
severely penalized in some way if they do not go to the polling booth?  In these
and similar situations, a Christian has to make his own decision.  'Each one
will carry his own load.'—Galatians 6:5." ("Watchtower," Nov.1, 1999, pp.28,29)
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/voting_-_malawi.html

  So what was the reason for not allowing JWs to get a card in Malawi (1960 and
1968) which was required by law but wasn't even a matter of voting?

  1999 "Jesus commanded that we 'pay back Caesars things to Caesar', Cornelius
converted whilst a military officer and at Romans chapter 13 Paul advised that
we obey political rulers, so it is with little justification that the Watchtower
Society insists Jehovah's Witnesses refrain from voting and politics.  This has
been a cause of unnecessary persecution for many followers.  Most reprehensible
has been the plight of Witnesses in Malawi.  In the 1960's the Watchtower de-
creed that Malawian Witnesses were not to hold a political card in a one party
state.  This resulted in many thousands of deaths, rapes and displacements of
innocent Witnesses between 1963 and 1992." ("Yearbook," 1999. pp.149-223)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/wrong-with-being-jehovahs-witness.php

  1999  "'THE DISGUSTING THING IS PUT IN PLACE.'  When the end of the second
world war was in sight, another development occurred, just as God’s angel had
foretold.  "They will certainly put in place the disgusting thing that is caus-
ing desolation." (Daniel 11:31b)  Jesus had also spoken of "the disgusting
thing."  In the first century, it proved to be the Roman army that came to Je-
rusalem in 66 C.E. to put down Jewish rebellion.

  "What 'disgusting thing' has been 'put in place' in modern times?  Apparently,
it is a 'disgusting' counterfeit of God’s Kingdom.  This was the League of Na-
tions, the scarlet-colored wild beast that went into the abyss, or ceased to
exist as a world-peace organization, when World War II erupted. (Revelation 17:
8)  'The wild beast,' however, was 'to ascend out of the abyss.'  This it did
when the United Nations, with 50 member nations including the former Soviet
Union, was established on October 24, 1945.  Thus 'the disgusting thing' fore-
told by the angel—the United Nations—was put in place."  ("Pay Attention To
Daniels Prophecy," 1999, pp.267-269)  (See 1942, 1944, 1945, and 2001.)

  The JWs leaders have long taught that the UN is an example of evil worldliness
which the Catholics, Protestants, and Jewish people participated in.  However,
see the listing for 2001.

  2000  Don Alden Adams became the 6th Watchtower president in late 2000.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Alden_Adams

  2001  "In October of 2001, the Guardian newspaper in Britain broke the story
that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society had been secretly affiliated with
the United Nations as an NGO for over ten years.  Following a flood of inquiry
by Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower quickly withdrew its membership and re-
leased an official explanation stating that they became an NGO (non-government-
al organization) simply to have access to research materials at the UN head-
quarters' library.

  "However, such an explanation does not go nearly far enough in explaining the
seemingly inexplicable.  According to Paul Hoeffel, a UN official, in order to
become recognized by the United Nations as a non-governmental organization, the
applicant must demonstrate "support and respect of the principles of the Charter
of the United Nations and commitment and means to conduct effective information
programmes with its constituents and to a broader audience about UN activities."
(See 1942, 1944, 1945, and 1999.)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/united-nations-association.php
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_and_the_United_Nations
  http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness1.htm#un

  According to Paul Hoeffel, Chief of the NGO Section of the Dept. of Public In-
formation at the UN, the DPI has honored a request from the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York and terminated the Watchtower's association with it as
of Oct.9, 2001.
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/10732/united-nations-ngos-wtbs?page=21&size=20
  http://www.freeminds.org/women/ciro_aulicino_UN.htm

  2002  "Jehovah's servants have built up an outstanding record as integrity
keepers.  When put under pressure, they have proved that 'they do not love their
own souls' more than they love Jehovah. (Revelation 12:11)  Wisely, they do not
abandon Christian principles trying to save their present life. (Luke 9:24, 25)
They know that even if they lose their life now because of loyally upholding Je-
hovah's sovereignty, he will reward them by means of the resurrection." ("Wor-
ship the Only True God," 2002, p.89)
  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/wrong-with-being-jehovahs-witness.php

****

  For the recent regard of various governments for the Jehovah's Witnesses, see
the Wikipedia article at the next link.  Most cases regard the freedom of the
followers to proselytize door to door, refuse the medical use of blood for their
children, not participate in certain government activities, etc.--not the manner
in which the JWs leaders affect exclusiveness which leads to their followers'
distinctive practices, and sometimes harm or death, and which is my focus.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah's_Witnesses_and_governments

  I guess the way my focus relates to what government allows is seen more in the
fact that there isn't a U.S. board that determines if something is true or not--
one that only lets U.S. authors that are true or sincere be published and bans
con men.  If it were otherwise, how would some of the tabloids show up by the
supermarket checkout lines, how would Erich Von Daniken sell books, etc.?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabloid_journalism
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken

  The same freedom of speech that allows honesty allows lying, even the kind by
JWs leaders affecting exclusiveness that causes harm and death, and, fortunately
for my focus, allows exposes of lying.

  “It is not persecution for an informed person to expose a certain religion as
being false.” ("The Watchtower," Nov.15, 1963, p.688)
  http://www.letusreason.org/JW41.htm

****

  The JWs leaders have slandered other whole religions on the basis of whatever
bad behavior some showed, such as anti-Semitism.  Though the JWs have had a much
briefer and smaller populated history to show better with, Rutherford could have
shown he had God's guidance about Hitler's propaganda and cruelty when showing
it counted the most instead of agreeing with it to the degree he did with his
various anti-Jewish statements, the Watchtower approval of eugenics, etc., then
blundering his prophet-playing bluster at Adolf Hitler and putting the German
JWs followers into harm's way as shown in the timeline above.  He wasn't really
critical about Hitler's government specifically until Hitler had the JWs tar-
geted, then didn't use a safer strategy and try to get his followers into an-
other underground Christian movement about it because he was too elitist in the
way then went with his act.

  JWs were led to be pro-Zionist, anti-Zionist, and German JWs were led to sign
a letter that pandered to Adolf, then led to spread literature denouncing the
evils of the Nazi movement and ironically ended up in his prison camps, anyway,
with an exaggerated idea of worldliness that the JWs leaders must have gotten
from the world somewhere because it's not required by the book.  It seems kind
of erratic for a claim of JWs leaders being led by the holy spirit.  If the JWs
leaders' holy spirit doesn't tell the future very well or read minds better, at
least he (JWs leaders' version: it) could be a little more consistent.

  Recent JWs Watchtower references to the "Declaration of Facts" are at the bot-
tom of the web page at the next link.
  http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/nazi_conciliation.html

  As mentioned before, the JWs leaders' literature said that it would be a mis-
take to think the "Declaration of Facts" indicated anything anti-Semitic.  And
they want credit for having protected their flock through times of political
trouble (see 1996).

****

  Subservience unto pain of death

  The idea I take from it to bear on JWs more generally, and on them following
the JWs leaders' blood doctrine in recent years, is the extreme subservience of
the JWs to follow the word of the JWs leaders' erratic guidance, and of follow-
ing it to the point that Nazis were impressed (see the statements by Hoess in
the 1944 section above).  And that's going a ways.

  You have to be a little impressed about it yourself.  That puts the "sheep"
in "sheep," and I don't think people are supposed to put that much "sheep" in
"sheep" unless they're farmers.

  The main reason I bring up the stuff above isn't because I'm an historian
that needs you to think something about 1932-1946.  I'm looking for a JWs leader
indicating they're God's mouthpiece on Earth, so as to be able to guarantee
things, like the JWs leaders' blood doctrine, otherwise not guaranteeable.  But
I see them fumbling in a non-prophet-like way, making some ungodly gaffes, yet
JWs following the JWs leader/Governing Body even unto pain of death.  It's not
because there's anything we can do to protect people that died over half a cen-
tury ago, but I also want to see if there are any parallels between that and a
similar set-up that leads to unnecessary deaths these days.

  About 635 JWs died in the Nazi prison camp fatalities according to the 1974
JWs "Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses," p.212.  (Figures differ as shown earli-
er.)  Rutherford taught them to go door to door teaching all human government is
of Satan.  I'd say he used an overdone, Biblically unnecessary, forced "us
against the world" interpretation for which playing prophet badly cost too many
lives and wasn't the best strategy for working against the Nazis in the time and
place.

  Rutherford's Feb.9, 1934 letter to Hitler threatening that he'd send JWs door
to door with tracts criticizing Hitler if Hitler's men didn't stop harassing the
JWs comes to mind as a pivotal cause for JWs being sent to prison camps.  The
Christian concerns could have been utilized otherwise, especially since Hitler
(looking at the bad JWs leaders' prophecy track record and Golden Age medical
announcements or such) called them "quacks."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany

  Something similar could be said about the JWs leaders playing prophet with an
overdone and unnecessary view of worldliness and Satanic government, therefore
responsible for misguiding followers into the cruel persecution in Malawi (see
1964).

  WWII was over a long time ago.  But since then "thousands have died" where
non-blood medical treatment wasn't available and treatment with blood was re-
fused.  An analysis of the verses, such as on pp.12-42, indicates that it's be-
cause the Governing Body played prophet for 144,000 elitism and taught a batch
of forced points that the Bible required someone or their parents to refuse it.
  http://www.watchthetower.net/deadkidz.html
  http://www.ajwrb.org/victims/index.shtml
  http://watchtower-blood.org/victims/index.shtml

  My sociology teacher once taught that the social group with the least ability
to redress wrongful treatment, and likely to be abused, in the world are chil-
dren (see p.14).  This essay may help you decide what to think if you imagine
you were a kid with parents deciding on medical treatment for you at a hospi-
tal.  Would you rather have them pick freely from the whole range of possibil-
ities for the lowest risk treatment, the interpretation possibilities of the
Bible held in the more common regard, or have your parents fall for the JWs
leaders' forced point ban to pick the lowest risk treatment from an unnecessar-
ily restricted range of possibilities?

  And how cynical is the JWs leaders' stance of playing the prophets of the
144,000 when their teaching methods for distinctive doctrines betray the fact
that they know it's an expensive pretension to play it knowing a higher percent-
age of those kids are going to get the bad luck of the draw?