Jehovah's Witnesses among the first sent to the Extermination Camp

 AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU - NAZI GERMANY


 Jehovah's Witnesses among the first sent to the Extermination Camp


In Memory of Auschwitz

January 24, 2024.


On January 27, 2024, the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz 


The commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau recalls the atrocities committed against specific groups that were targeted by the Nazis. In its almost five years of operation, Auschwitz Four gas chambers killed up to 6,000 people a day. On Saturday, January 27, 1945, the Soviet Union's Red Army released about 7,000 prisoners from the death complex.


Among the victims of the notorious camp were about 400 Jehovah's Witnesses of various nationalities, including Poles and Germans. A purple triangle of cloth, sewn next to the prisoner's number on the left side of the uniform, identified witnesses who had been imprisoned, not because of their national or ethnic identity, but because of their religious beliefs. 


"As early as 1933, the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses was targeted by the Nazi government and the witnesses were banned throughout Germany because their moral principles of peace and respect for others were not in line with the Nazi ideology of racism, hatred and extreme nationalism," said Luca Ferraris, a local spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses. "The way the witnesses kept their faith in confronting the daily cruelties of Auschwitz will make anyone with strong convictions find their story compelling."


"It took too long for the Nazi persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses to be made public and honored, despite the testimonies of camp survivors and the serious record," said sociologist Luigi Berzano. "What impressed the witnesses was and still is a unique, totally religious testimony."


Evidence at the Auschwitz-Birkenau National Museum indicates that Jehovah's Witnesses were among the first prisoners sent to the camp. Of the hundreds of witnesses imprisoned at Auschwitz 


The museum's website says: "Apart from brief mentions, the literature on the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp does not take into account the Jehovah's Witnesses (referred to in the camp records as [Bible Students]) who were imprisoned for their religious beliefs. "These prisoners deserve more attention for the way they managed not to renounce their moral principles despite the conditions inside the camp," he said.


This year, as conferences and exhibitions around the world mark the 79th anniversary of Auschwitz.


The 32-page booklet is available for free at jw.org , and contains images and documents taken from a traveling exhibition, visited in total by 600,000 people and edited a few years ago by Witnesses to inform the public about the persecution suffered during the Holocaust. The 50 three-dimensional panels have been exhibited in various concentration and concentration camp memorial museums and educational institutions throughout Europe.


In addition, the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum in Israel, the world's first museum dedicated to the Holocaust, is currently hosting an interactive exhibition highlighting the courageous stand of Witnesses in the face of Nazi persecution. 


The exhibition is called "W Dontdothat" (We don't do this), an expression inspired by the nickname given to J Is presented in Arabic, English and Hebrew and will be open until September 2024.


To view the brochure, free and available for download at jw.org > Digital Library > Books and Brochures > Guide to the exhibition "Jehovah's Witnesses, Stand firm".


http://www.irpinia24.it/wp/blog/2024/01/24/avellino-i-testimoni-di-geova-tra-i-primi-mandati-nel-campo-di-sterminio/?fbclid=IwAR2jHaYxCJqBXT6_nGCZdH4hn4CRHjHpxyFV4DAlET4r8IgUI90rIErkp0I

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