History Of Nazi Persecution Of Jehovah's Witnesses

The holocaust; a genocide that caused the death of millions upon millions of people. No one other than full-blooded Germans was safe and even then they could’ve been killed at any moment without any explanation necessary. Many people know of one or two groups that were oppressed and tortured during the cataclysm directed by Hitler, however, an abundance of groups endured the slaughter.

One population that endured the Holocaust were Romani people who were commonly referred to by their derogatory name: Gypsies. According to the Nazi agenda, Romani people were threats to their perfect “Aryan” race (Nazi Germany 1933-1939: Early Stages of Persecution). The Nazis would identify Romani people by their physical traits and black, red, or brown triangles

One religion that the Nazi regime sought out to destroy were Jehovah’s Witnesses. In order to tag and keep track of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they were forced to wear purple triangles on their clothing (Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps). Due to Jehovah’s Witnesses denying to follow the Nazi agenda were ridiculed and faced multiple punishments (Nazi Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses). For example, in the article “Others Considered Unworthy Of Life”, author Friedman released Elizabeth Kusserow’s retelling of living in Germany as a young girl who worshipped Jehovah, “Everyday the teacher reprimanded me for not saluting the flag. The big, black swastika on the red banner flew over the schoolhouse and hung on a pole in every classroom. My stomach churned as I tried to think of how I could avoid saluting it and saying ‘Heil Hitler.’ My parents had taught me to salute only Jehovah God. To salute a flag or a person was the same as worshipping idols. I wouldn’t sing those horrible Nazi songs….The children laughed. I couldn’t understand why. All of them went to church. On the way home from school, they pushed me and threw my books to the ground. It got worse” (Soumeral and Schulz 45). The worse that Kusserow was referring to could have meant all that the Nazi regime started to put into effect, Jehovah’s Witnesses were prohibited from meeting, printing religious texts, some were sent

The Nazi’s viewed homosexuals as useless to their cause to make the perfect “Aryan” race which put them up for any form of prejudice with no one to help. One major way the Nazis would identify LGBT+ people was by the pink triangles they were forced to wear on their clothing (Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps). There are accounts of LGBT+ people being raped and killed on the streets (Blumberg). Since LGBT+ people did not come forward and since they could also be placed in another category of a useless/unworthy group it is unknown, how many people died, but it is estimated that hundreds to thousands of LGBT+ people were murdered (Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi