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Showing results for tags 'failure to wipe out jehovah’s witnesses in germany'.
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? 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?