Jehovah's Witnesses

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Striped prison jacket with an inverted purple triangle badge worn

by Matthaeus Pibal, a Jehovah's Witness, during his imprisonment

at the Dachau concentration camp.

Courtesy of USHMM

Unlike the Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted solely for their religious beliefs. Even Jehovah's Witnesses who were "pure" "Aryan" Germans, were victims of the Holocaust. As scholar Christine King explains they offered a "rival ideology"- obedience to God and Jesus Christ over obedience to the Fuhrer, and "rival center of loyalty"- Jehovah, the God of the Bible. They were the only group given the choice to get out of the camps at any time, if they would only sign a declaration renouncing their faith. All but a few chose to remain in the camps rather than recant. For this, they were referred to as "voluntary prisoners." The following is a translation of the declaration:

DECLARATION RENOUNCING BELIEFS

Concentration camp ....................................................................

Department II

DECLARATION

I, the ...........................................................................................

Born on .......................................................................................

In ................................................................................................

herewith make the following declaration:

1. I have come to know that the International Bible Students Association is proclaiming erroneous teachings and under the cloak of religion follows hostile purposes against the State.

    

2. I therefore left the organization entirely and made myself absolutely free from the teachings of this sect.

    

3. I herewith give assurance that I will never again take any part in the activity of the International Bible Students Association. Any persons approaching me with the teaching of the Bible Students, or who in any manner reveal their connections with them, I will denounce immediately. All literature from the Bible Students that should be sent to my address I will at once deliver to the nearest police station.

    

4. I will in the future esteem the laws of the State, especially in the event of war will I, with weapon in hand, defend the fatherland, and join in every way the community of the people.
5. I have been informed that I will at once be taken again into protective custody if I should act against the declaration given today.

..............................................................Dated.............................

.....................................................................................Signature

Reprinted and translated in Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., 1993); p. 661.

Why did the Nazi's target the Witnesses? The Witnesses would not obey the authority of the state when it commanded them to support the Nazi war effort. They refused to "Heil Hitler", vote in elections, join the German Labor Front; their young men refused to serve in the military, and their schoolchildren would not salute the Nazi flag. Their refusal to give their ultimate allegiance to the Nazi State enraged Hitler, who determined they should be banned, and by 1935 authorized a campaign for them to be persecuted and sent to concentration camps. Still, the Witnesses held regular Bible Study meetings. After the Nazis came to power, their meetings were banned. Still, they were held and conducted in private homes. Their literature was also banned because the Nazis considered it anti-state. It had to be produced secretly, mostly underground.   

The Kusserow family was one such family.

Franz and Hilda Kusserow had eleven children, and all were active in preaching and distributing literature in their area. They also held Bible studies in their home. For three years after the Hitler's Nazi Party rose to power, the SS were frequent at their home, searching for Bible literature. Eventually the entire family was arrested and placed in concentration camps. Four out of six of their sons died or were killed, but the majority of the family survived. "Franz Kusserow (b. 1/25/1882) was released from Kassel prison in 1945 after spending 7 years and 4 months in prison. His wife Hilda (b. 7/9/1888) survived a death march from Ravensbrueck after spending 4 years and 6 months in prison. Annemarie (b. 1/26/1913) was released from a Berlin prison in 1945 after spending nine months in prison. Wilhelm (b. 9/4/1914) was condemned to death and shot in Muenster on April 27, 1940. Siegfried (b. 9/9/1916) died in an accident before the war. Karl-Heinz (b. 12/7/1917) spent five years in Dachua. Waltraud (b. 10/5/1919) spent two and a half years in prison, and Hildegard (b. 12/24/1920) was released from Ravensbrueck after over four years incarceration. Wolfgang (b. March 1, 1922) was condemned to death and beheaded on March 28, 1942. Magdalena (b. 1/23/1924) was incarcerated for 4 years and 3 months and survived a death march from Ravensbrueck. The three youngest children Elizabeth (b. 4/16/1925), Hans Werner (b. 8/2/1928) and Paul Gerhard (b. 6/25/1931) were taken from school and kept in Nazi custody for just over six years" (USHMM, courtesy of Waltraud and Annemarie Kusserow).

Approximately 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses suffered the indignities, tortures, and horrible conditions of the concentration camps, and between 2,500 and 5,000 perished. They were rounded up from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and other Nazi-occupied countries. While in the camps, they formed a close-knit group, supporting each other through the sharing of food, care for their sick and weak fellow inmates, and a continuing of meeting together for worship.

Ironically, according to Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoss, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler encouraged his SS troops to follow the Jehovah's Witnesses' example by displaying the same "fanatical" and "unshakable" faith in Hitler and Nazi idealism as the Jehovah's Witnesses had in the their God, Jehovah. Because of their untypical trustworthiness, camp officers often used the Witnesses to perform domestic services for them (USHMM).  

Watch Jehovah's Witnesses who survived the Holocaust give their testimonies at the USHMM Homepage. At the very top of the page, there is a search engine. Scroll down on the search menu and select "Testimonies (Video)." Then, type "Jehovah's Witnesses" in the search.

Suggested Reading:

Facing The Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe 

Return to Minorities Persecution home page or continue on and read about Gypsies