Posted by Osarsif [Staave] on April 02, 1999 at 14:04:21 {ppHCdFLRUMqN.GSxOEv6vAQOG0td3.}:
In Reply to: JWs and Nazi Germany posted by Jeffery M. Schwehm on April 02, 1999 at 11:40:11:
Hi Jeff,
: I was wondering if anyone has a copy of the 1974 year book and could post the Society's previous explanation for the offensive language contained in the Declaration.
See the article JWs and the Nazis: The Watchtower Responds to Critics by Ken Raines.
See also The Watchtower is Lying About Their History by N.H.:
I finally got my hands on the much heralded July 8, 1998 issue of Awake!
The article about the �courageous� Jehovah�s
Witnesses was quite interesting indeed. Although the article
quoted a surprisingly amount of the more embarrassing stuff, they
still left much of the context out.The Watchtower Society show their usual tactics of lies and
deceit when they in typical fashion say that their critics
have claimed that �Jehovah�s Witnesses were decorating�
the hall at Wilmersdorf with swastikas and nazi flags.None of their critics has ever made such a claim! Their
critics have claimed that there were indeed Nazi decorations at
the hall, something which is not denied by the Awake! They even
say that it wouldn�t have mattered. But by lying to an ignorant
audience by making up claims never made by their critics and then
refute them, they make it appear as the critics are less than
serious. The pictures which is claimed to be from
inside the Wilmersdorf hall proves nothing. Hitlers
�Schutsstaffel� who apparently had used the hall the
day before might have been taking down all the decorations inside
the hall during the dinner break, or whatever, and the pictures
could have been taken after that.Then the Awake! produces another lie. They state that
their �critics� have claimed that the Assembly was
started with the Witnesses singing the German national anthem. A
lie! Their critics have stated that they sang one of their own
songs to the SAME MELODY as the German national
anthem! The article does indeed confirm that their critics were
completely correct! Even this they try to cloud as much as
possible by mumbling about a melody by Joseph Haydn, as if any
Jehovah�s Witnesses know squat about that. So it is business as
usual. If your critics make correct and true claims, simply
falsify and distort them and then refute your own falsifications.
Easy eh?Another rather amusing fact is that this article clear Paul
Balzereit of the false accusations made against him in the 1974
Yearbook of Jehovah�s Witnesses. It even admits that he was
made a scapegoat since he later left Jehovah�s Witnesses. Well,
we know all about that kind of tactics. These accusations can be
seen here in this quote from the Yearbook together with
another interesting detail:
*** yb74 111 Germany (Part One) ***
Many in attendance were disappointed in the �declaration,� since in many points it failed to be as strong as the brothers had hoped. Brother M�tze from Dresden, who had worked closely with Brother Balzereit up until that time, accused him later of having weakened the original text. It was not the first time that Brother Balzereit had watered down the clear and unmistakable language of the Society�s publications so as to avoid difficulties with governmental agencies.A large number of brothers refused to adopt it just for this reason. In fact, a former pilgrim brother by the name of Kipper refused to offer it for adoption and another brother substituted. It could not be rightfully said that the declaration was unanimously adopted, even though Brother Balzereit later notified Brother Rutherford that it had been.
Of course the obvious sucking up to the Nazis appalled some brothers. As we can see the 74 Yearbook attributes this to them being dissatisfied with the Declaration not
being �strong� enough. Well, they were certainly right about that, weren�t they?So we can safely conclude with the fact that in Brooklyn everything is �business as usual.� They are still running an international con operation.