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https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefreethinker/2020/10/hitler-was-exorcised-by-pope-pius-xii-new-book-reveals/

via .ORGWorld News

via .ORGWorld News

? HITLER'S EFFORTS TO WIPE OUT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN GERMANY FAILED: “Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; because, ... if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them..." —Acts 5:38, 39. During 1933, when JehovahÂ’s Witnesses in Germany refused to heil Adolf Hitler as their Führer, Hitler vowed to exterminate them. Hitler launched a campaign to annihilate JehovahÂ’s Witnesses in Germany. By 1935 they were proscribed in the entire nation. October 7, 1934, Adolf Hitler with clenched fists declared regarding JehovahÂ’s Witnesses: “This enemy of Great Germany, This brood  of International Bible Students will be exterminated in Germany!”  Widespread arrests occurred. A “special Gestapo Command” was formed to fight against the Witnesses. The Nazis did succeed in rounding up thousands of Witnesses and sending them off to concentration camps. Repeatedly they were promised release from the camps if they would only sign a declaration renouncing their beliefs. The Earthly part of Jehovah's Organization wrote a personal letter to Adolf Hitler warning him regarding the situation. J. F. Rutherford along with the entire worldwide brotherhood went into action. JehovahÂ’s Witnesses throughout the earth met and, after united prayer to Jehovah, sent a cablegram warning the Hitler government: “Your ill-treatment of JehovahÂ’s witnesses shocks all good people of earth and dishonors GodÂ’s name. Refrain from further persecuting JehovahÂ’s witnesses; otherwise God will destroy you and your national party.” The Witnesses kept right on preaching that GodÂ’s Kingdom is mankindÂ’s only hope. At the end of the war, over a thousand surviving Witnesses came out of the camps, with their faith intact and their love for one another strong. The Nazis failed to break the WitnessesÂ’ resolve to worship God alone, and they failed to eliminate GodÂ’s servants as a group. Why was Hitler, with his well-equipped army, highly trained police,  unable to carry out his threat to destroy this relatively small and unarmed group of what the world views as ordinary people? The answer lies in some wise advice given by Gamaliel, a Law teacher, to fellow members of the Jewish Sanhedrin when they were dealing with a similar case involving the apostles of Jesus Christ. He said: “Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; because, if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them; otherwise, you may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.”—Acts 5:38, 39. Sixty years later, faithful survivors of HitlerÂ’s concentration camps are still serving Jehovah ‘with their whole heart and soul and mind,Â’ whereas today Hitler and his Nazi party are wiped off the face of the earth,  nowhere to be found, living only in infamy. Jehovah's name and his Kingdom is still being proclaimed in Germany by some total of what went from only a few thousand of Jehovah's servants during Hitler's reign to today numbering far over 165,837 and still rapidly growing. The work is from Jehovah, not man, and the work of Jehovah cannot be overthrown. ?? “They will not do any harm or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters are covering the very sea.”—Isaiah 2:4; 11:9. • jv 552, 553, 659-660, 693, w05 12/15 pp. 19-24   Whom Do You Obey—God or Men?

Watchtower criticises other religious groups for colluding with Hitler, whilst Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned for their refusal to compromise their standards. What is not admitted is that Rutherford initially praised Hitler for his stance against Jews and the Anglo/American empire. One of the groups that Hitler sent to concentration camps were Jehovah's Witnesses. They were forced to endure unspeakable atrocities and many lost their lives. The individual actions of many Witnesses are commendable and the Watchtower holds up this part of their history in great esteem. What is not discussed is the hypocritical actions of Rutherford in the lead up to these events. Early in 1933, the Watchtower office in Berlin was closed and Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in many German states. This was due to the refusal of Jehovah's Witnesses to swear loyalty to the government or to serve in its armed forces. In an attempt to appease Hitler into lifting the ban, Rutherford instigated a Declaration of Facts and sent a Letter to Hitler discussing the Watchtower's support of the Nazi regime. Current Watchtower references provide a deceptive portrayal of these documents, through selective quoting. The Proclaimer's book mentions that Rutherford wrote a letter to Hitler under the context of "facing Nazi oppression", in which the Watchtower Society is made to sound as if they were firmly against the Nazi regime. It is quite surprising to find the opposite is true, which can be identified when reading the content of Rutherford's 1933 letter to Hitler and the Declaration of Facts. Letter to Hitler Russell, founder of the Watchtower, was a Zionist and sympathetic to Jews as part of modern day fulfilment of Bible prophecy. Rutherford initially continued such support, but changed by the 1930's to a bigoted, anti-Semitic stance. During the time of Rutherford, Witnesses became known as a religion of hate, due to the Watchtower's tirade of insults against other Churches and governments. The Catholic Church come under the greatest condemnation and bought this to the attention of the Nazi government, petitioning against the Watchtower Society. In 1933, the Nazi government banned the Watchtower's German operations. In an effort to overturn the ban, Rutherford sent a Letter and a Declaration to Hitler, in which he praises Hitler for his anti-Anglo/American campaign and his stance against the Jews.  A copy of the letter in German. Following is part of an English translation of the Letter to Hitler. The letter mentions Hitler's "just principles," quoting from section 24 of Das Program der NSDAP (The Nazi's Platform of the National Socialist German Workers Party). Rutherford further compromised Watchtower principles but offering that, "We want to continue to live up to the prohibition imposed upon us," that is, they would stop preaching in Germany, provided the ban was lifted that would allow them to "meet for prayer and church service". Click Letter to Hitler  for a translation of the full letter in PDF format. The Yearbook 1974 briefly refers to this letter, along with the Declaration of Facts. In light of the contents of the official letter and Declaration sent to Hitler, the Watchtower's 2011 comment mocking other Churches is nothing short of hypocritical. Declaration of Facts Rutherford and Knorr organized a public convention in Berlin on 25th June, 1933 to release a "Declaration of Facts," being pronouncing at the German convention, and distributed in letter format. This outlined Watchtower's support of the German governments stance against Jews. The convention hall was decked with swastikas and the program was opened with Song 64, a song from the Bible Student's songbook that had the some melody by Hayden as the German national anthem. Konrad Franke, Germany's Bethel branch overseer later stated his disturbance at seeing the scene for the convention and Rutherford's declaration. The Declaration of Facts was reprinted in the Yearbook 1934. It went on in part to state: Click here  for an English translation of the full Declaration of Facts in PDF format. Rutherford's Letter and Declaration were an effort to appease Hitler, but to no avail - too little, too late. With Rutherford's efforts at appeasing Hitler into lifting the Watchtower ban not achieving its aims, Rutherford instead started to antagonise Hitler through his publications. These cablegrams read: Rutherford send another letter to Hitler, this time threatening Hitler with the punishment of God if the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses was not lifted. Yet, this was not the sentiment of the Declaration of Facts, which tried to portray sharing similar ideologies with the Nazis, such as when stating; In 1943 the Swiss Watchtower Branch sent another Declaration of Facts requesting leniency for Witnesses. This dishonestly stated: The information covered above is discussed in greater detail by M. James Penton in Jehovah's Witnesses, Anti-semitism and the Third Reich; The Watch Tower Society's Attempted Compromise with Nazism. See also Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Third Reich (M. James Penton, Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2004). A seeming response to Penton's article was provided by the Awake! in 1998. I leave it up to the reader to assess whether the Watchtower correctly presents the intention of the Rutherford and his documents to Hitler. Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation Fund The Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) CV-96-4849 is a fund to compensate people suffering from the Holocaust. As stated at swissbankclaims.com/index.asp (3 Mar 2006); In a letter dated 7th December 1999, Watchtower applied for compensation, payable to a nonprofit corporation called Jehovah's Witness Holocaust-era Survivors Fund, Inc., which was incorporated 27th October 2000. An Elder's Letter, dated February 1, 2001 referred to the Jehovah's Witness Holocaust-Era Survivors Fund Inc, explaining that the fund was being set up to assist gather money for Jehovah's Witnesses that were eligible for the payment. Whilst this appears at face value to be commendable, Watchtower was also requesting money for itself. www.swissbankclaims.com (as of 28th September 2009) contains the 1999 letter from Watchtower to the fund, or Click Here for a PDF copy of the Watchtower application letter. Included is a request to receive a portion of the funds on the following basis. It is disturbing that Watchtower requested money that could have been distributed to living victims, for what would by nothing more than self promotion of their organisation. It appears that Watchtower did not receive any money from the fund. A statement of distribution as of 31 December 2015 stated: Individual Jehovah's witnesses did receive compensation, as part of the tens of thousands classified as "non-Jewish victims (Roma, Jehovah's Witness, disabled and homosexual)." Further Reading Wikipedia - Declaration of Facts

David King talked about his book The Trial of Adolf Hitler: The Beer Hall Putsch and the Rise of Nazi Germany, in which he recounts Adolf Hitler’s trial for high treason in February, 1924, which followed his involvement in an attempted coup, the “Beer Hall Putsch,” four months prior. In his book, the author reports that Hitler used the trial to promote his political ideologies and received the longest sentence of the ten defendants. He served nine months in prison, where he spent his time writing Mein Kampf.