Religious Persecution​—Why?

DO YOU believe that people should be persecuted because of their religion? Probably not​—at least not as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others. Yet, religious persecution has a long history and still exists. For example, many of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe and other parts of the world were frequently robbed of their rights and cruelly mistreated throughout the 20th century.

During that time, Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered brutal, systematic, and prolonged persecution under both of the major totalitarian regimes in Europe. What does their experience teach us about religious persecution? And what can we learn from the way they reacted to suffering?

“No Part of the World”

Jehovah’s Witnesses strive to be law-abiding, peaceful, and morally upright people. They do not oppose governments or seek confrontations with them, nor do they provoke persecution because they want to be martyrs. These Christians are politically neutral. This is in harmony with Jesus’ words: “[My followers] are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world.” (John 17:16) Most governments acknowledge the Witnesses’ neutral stand. But totalitarian rulers have little respect for the Biblical requirement that Christians should be no part of the world.

 The reason for this was explained during a conference at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in November 2000. The conference had the theme “Repression and Self-Assertion: Jehovah’s Witnesses Under the National Socialist and Communist Dictatorships.” Dr. Clemens Vollnhals of the Hannah-Arendt-Institute for Research Into Totalitarianism observed: “Totalitarian regimes do not restrict their activities to politics. They demand the entire person.”

True Christians cannot surrender their “entire person” to a human government, since they have vowed absolute allegiance to Jehovah God alone. Witnesses living under totalitarian dictatorships have found that the demands of the State and the requirements of their faith are sometimes at odds. What have they done in the face of such conflicts? Historically, Jehovah’s Witnesses have applied in their lives the principle expressed by the disciples of Jesus Christ: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”​—Acts 5:29.

Thousands of Witnesses kept loyal to their faith and stayed neutral in political affairs, despite even the cruelest persecution. How could they endure? From where did they get the strength to do so? Let them answer for themselves. And let us see what everyone, Witnesses and non-Witnesses, can learn from their experiences.

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Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany suffered brutal and prolonged persecution under both of the 20th-century totalitarian regimes

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“Totalitarian regimes do not restrict their activities to politics. They demand the entire person.”​—Dr. Clemens Vollnhals

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The Kusserow family were deprived of their freedom because they would not compromise their faith

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Johannes Harms was executed in a Nazi prison for his beliefs