While most are aware that Jews were persecuted and experienced the horrors and death at concentration camps of Hitler and his Nazis, not all are familiar with the fact that there were significant other groups who were also hounded and thrown at large into the camps. In visiting Dachau, the vivid mental image of Gypsy’s standing at-attention with his face straight ahead in the daily line up, is indelibly inscribed in the recesses of my mind.

Standing in that very spot, some sixty years later is something that one cannot forget, and to visit the concentration camps at least once during one’s lifetime should be a goal of everyone. This is true because history, in some respects, has repeated itself in Cambodia, with Duch (pronounced doik), one of the notorious camp commandants during the 1970s, and his trial just abated, waiting for sentencing. There have been many, other places on the earth since the 1930s and 40s where specific ethic or social groups have been targeted.

This comment recently made from the Midwest Center for Holocaust Studies this thought, “While in Auschwitz I, we were able to tour the museum that is housed in the barracks. I was reminded of the horrors that were experienced by not only Jews, but homosexuals, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses and prisoners of war. Walking through buildings that house various artifacts, recovered after liberation, I learned just how personal the events of the Holocaust are and how they impact us each differently, depending on our personal experiences. Having a five-year-old daughter, I found it extremely hard to view the suitcases, dolls, spoons, and shoes from children.” Midwest Center for Holocaust Studies, Education Educator’s Forum.

In many public schools in New Jersey, attention is given to the Holocaust by grade school teachers on a regular basis. In today’s children’s culture, that is, a culture of silly and trivial movies for children, a sobering remembrance of what violence really means can be of value to children, and help them to appreciate the sanctity and gift of life.

In the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses had been persecuted, not for who they were in terms of national origin, but because they refused to Heil Hitler, salute the national flag, or be any part of Hitler’s war machine. Witnesses could leave the camps, only needing to sign a paper to renounce their faith, but very few did so, rather, they lost their lives or suffered alongside the Jews in the camps, but at the same time, didn’t hate their persecutors, but instead to pray for them, as Jesus encouraged his followers, or witnessed to them, and their fellow non-Witness captives, concerning the hope of God’s Kingdom. Hope has the power to sustain us through the most onerous trials.

This was written by John Scott, who is also one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Check out more info at Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jehovah’s Witnesses Beliefs page. (official site).

categories: Jehovahs Witnesses,religion,the truth,holocaust,watchtower