Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich Paperback – March 28, 2008

German scholar Detlef Garbe, now director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, produced the first comprehensive historical account of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by the Nazi regime. Garbe went to great lengths to produce as accurate account as possible. (There are 210 pages of footnotes and a 40 page bibliography.) He researched a wide range of resources: Nazi government archives, newspaper archives, private documents, unpublished reports, concentration camp memorial archives, Watch Tower Society publications (in English and German), personal interviews of participants, memoirs of non-Witnesses prisoners that were imprisoned with Jehovah's Witnesses, accounts written by former Witnesses, ect. All to get as many verified facts as possible. This resulted in what is now considered the standard scholarly account about the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under National Socialism.It must be said that this book is not an easy read. It's not a novel. It's a scholar writing a book for other scholars. There are many footnotes and abbreviations. Garbe always uses the correct terminology to refer to people, places, and ideas But still this book is a fascinating read. You just can't help but wonder why the Nazis spent so much time and effort to try get this small minority (about 25,000 out of 65,000,000 Germans in 1933) to conform to Nazi standards. Yet the Nazis were never able to completely shatter the core of this group. As Garbe says in the preface, page xvii:"This book reports about religious people who refused to conform to the Third Reich but whose faith in God and trust in his biblical promises gave them the strength to preserve their respect for life, even during those difficult times."This book is a translation based on the 1999 4th German edition of Detlef Garbe's Zwischen Widerstand und Martyrium: Die Zeugen Jehovas im "Dritten Reich".

This is the most exhaustive study done on one of the few churches to resist the Nazis and the Darwinisic eugenic programs it supported. A review of the history of the eugenics movement finds that a major source of support was from churches and ministers, the very ones who should have opposed it on the grounds that it is contrary both to scientific fact and foundational Christian teaching. In view of the harm that the eugenics doctrine caused in Germany, the United States and many other countries, it is obvious to most all persons today that it was wrong to support it. The extent and reasons for church support of eugenics will now be discussed in some detail. Nowhere did the churches cave in to eugenics more fully than in Nazi Germany. As one scholar explained, using undisguised Nazi racism terms, the German Church confessed its “allegiance to the principles of blood and race” and strongly held that only those who possessed the rights of German citizenship, meaning the superior race, the Aryans.

A lot has been written of the Holocaust, but not much said about the Jehovah's Witnesses. This book theorally explain what the Jehovah Witnesses went through those terrible times, but builds up your faith to see how they endure this trail and overcame them with the help of Jehovah God.

Interesting read. Having been an ardent student of history, and the Bible, it is much like what my Omi stated happened duringher incarceration in Sachsenhausen/ Stutthoff. She also had much insight into what happened to the different groups, includingJehovah's Witnesses. As I have been reading about the history related, my Omi only told us 'the half of it.'How horrendous. Proverbs states that man has dominated man to his injury. Evil men will do whatever they can imagine for wealthand power, as long as they do not have to work for it.

It is amazing what these people went through with the demonic Nazi's. They held to their convictions and faith on the True God, Jehovah. These people worldwide, show us the way we are to treat each other, and for this they are shunned, accused, wrongly, and lied about. Take the time to find out what these people are about, and why their faith is so strong, that even death will not allow them to stray from it.

In the book Between Resistance and Martyrdom the courage and faith of Jehovah's Witnesses is examined. Not just a personal narrative it shows through documented evidence and through personal testimonies that Jehovah's Witnesses were the only religion in Germany that actively opposed Hitler's Third Reich. Interestingly, Jehovah's Witnesses were the only religion that had its on identifying classification, the Purple Triangle. All other Christian religious prisoners who were interned in the camps for active resistance were given a Red Triangle, which identified them as political prisoners. The book also exposes the clergy as the force behind the persecution of these resistors. The treatment of the Witnesses as a danger to the government is shown to be without logical support. It shows that their persecution was from those who had hatred for a group who exposed the churches for their wholehearted support for Hitler and his National Socialists organization. The book is not something you would read for light hearted enjoyment but more for those who are studying the Third Reich and those who were standing up in opposition to its evil. It is the first unbiased examination of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the stand they took in the face of extreme peril and suffering.

A careful and thorough detailed document. After reading this report I found the clue to the question: Is it possible to resist to evil? Purple Triangle prisoners unveil the secret to stick to goodness in face of the folly of war and fanatic patriotism. There are but a few of them still alive and we can learn from their words. Detlef Garbe's monumental masterpiece opens a large window to meet these persons.

Gives a very neutral position on Jehovah's Witnesses and a clear detail of the hideous atrocities played out during the time of Nazi Germany

Glad to own a copy.

It would seem perhaps a little self indulgent to select one small group from the many who were subject to persecution by the National Socialists under Hitler's regime.When viewed beside the many millions of Jewish victims a figure of 11,300 people being sent to camps may appear trivial. However it is when we take a more detailed look at each of the groups who suffered such appalling treatment at the hands of the Nazi's that it becomes clearer just how different their histories during that period were.Garbe published a dissertation in 1989 and it was from that this was originally published in 1993. This is a later revised edition.Garbe has published many articles and books and he is rightly respected for his efforts to remain neutral in his research and wish to put facts before the reader. A far cry from a handful of writers who have tried to show an anti-semitic slant to the JW's reply to their harassment by the state.Here he lays out a very comprehensive history of Jehovah's witnesses in Germany. Starting with their earliest formation through to the pre-war years of the early 30's. It's interesting to see that the National Socialists placed the Witnesses under ban as far back as 1933. Refusing to salute, take part in political rallies, to vote or join the GLF. When Hitler's interior minister Frick informed him of protests to the mis-treatment of the Witnesses Hitler's reply gave clear indication of what was to come " This brood will be exterminated in Germany."So a systematic campaign was carried out to send them to camps and to `euthanise' as many as possible. Around a third found themselves in camps before the war was over.The facts are laid out by Garbe without opinion or sentimentality. Many eyewitness accounts are recalled including no few survivors from the camps. The history retold is minute in detail and it doesn't take long to realise that Hitler and the JW's were a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. They were no part of his plans so they would either have to capitulate or die. They had no intention of compromising and so found themselves among the millions condemned to be disposed of.Whereas however, the majority of those persecuted were condemned by birth to be among those Hitler despised, Jehovah's Witnesses need only have signed their names to a declaration document whose 1st line read ` I have come to know that the International Bible Students proclaim erroneous teachings and under the cloak of religion follow hostile purposes against the state.' An admission to then leaving the religion entirely would see a person free.There are several pages of B&W photographs of families and documents that may not be of great quality but which help lend weight to the text.As for the text, well it has to be said that this is not a book to be read lightly, nor quickly. It is pretty hefty and the subject matter is serious and at times distressing. I was at times reminded of Gourevitch's account of the Rwandan decimation `We wish to inform you that tomorrow we shall be killed with our families.'These sort of books present history as we would really prefer not to remember it. The depths to which humans are prepared to descend in order to elevate themselves at the cost of others know few boundaries.For historians and students alike this has much to recommend itself and is pretty much the one publication quoted and referred to whenever the subject arises.The extraordinary personal accounts of ordinary people pushed to their limits and of those who carried out the atrocities echo those accounts shown in the outstanding 10 hour documentary `Shoah'. Although neutral even Garbe says of the stand taken by the Witnesses ` no other religious movement resisted the pressure to conform to National Socialism with comparable unanimity and steadfastness.'This is certainly not a cheap investment to make but the cost really is worthwhile and it's worth pointing out that the publishers, University of Wisconsin Press, are non-profit making. The support by the excellent United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is to be appreciated and their website is one of the finest historical sites available and highly recommended.The translation by Dagmar Grimm is one of many she has completed including several others on the subject of the wartime history of Jehovah's Witnesses. The prose may be to the point and factual but is never dry and always readable.Another excellent dissertation is Johannes Wrobel's `Jehovah's Witnesses in national socialist concentration camps 1933-1945' published in `Religion, state & society' Vol.34 No.2 June 2006.`Between resistance & martyrdom' is a remarkable history of a small group among the many millions singled out for persecution by Hitlers national socialists during WWII. Note taking is very much suggested as it is a huge and detailed account. Unbiased and open minded in it's approach it remains the reference work on it's subject.

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