Persecuted Jews During Nazi Terror

“Jehovah’s Witnesses […] showed unusual heights of human dignity and moral behavior” Bruno Bettelheim, Jewish Holocaust survivor, Psychoanalyst Jehovah’s Witnesses distributed protest leaflets, rejected the Hitler salute, and refused to serve in the military during the National Socialist era in Germany and Europe. They were fully aware of the fact that their resistance would result in themselves being persecuted by the Nazi regime. Despite this, they defied the prevailing anti-Semitism and provided help for their threatened Jewish neighbors. After years of research, the author Christoph Wilker has compiled moving accounts of many such individuals. These stories, accompanied by numerous historical documents and illustrations, do not only reveal an unjustly forgotten facet of civil resistance, they also close a gap in the historiography of the National Socialist era. “Christoph Wilker’s book not only brings to light unknown facets of the resistance against the Nazi regime, it also documents the religious community’s solidarity and humanity from living by the principle of love of neighbor while being discriminated against, persecuted, and, in addition after 1945, disregarded as victims of National Socialism.” Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Benz, Historian, Prejudice Researcher