Repression und Selbstbehauptung: Die Zeugen Jehovas unter der NS- und der SED-Diktatur.(Book Review)

Repression und Selbstbehauptung. Die Zeugen Jehovas unter der NS- und der SED-Diktatur (Repression and Self-preservation. The Jehovah's Witnesses under the NS- and SED-dictatorship). Edited by Gerhard Besier and Clemens Vollnhals. Series "Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungen," nr. 21. Berlin: Ducker & Humblot, 2003.421 pp. np. paper.

This anthology presents sixteen contributions on various aspects of the persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) under two German dictatorships. Three papers cover Nazism though the emphasis (eight articles) is on communist repression by the former East-German regime. Four contributions offer comparative perspectives on both forms of political terror that affected this religious movement. One paper examines the JW-persecution in Romania and Hungary.

Garbe, author of a pioneering study on the fate of the JW under Nazism, presents the current state of research on this harrowing period. Since the publication of his work in 1993, an impressive flow of case studies have been brought out, the lion's share of which has been written in German. The author points to the Watchtower Society's tendency to monopolize its interpretation of history as an effective barrier against inquiries by outside scientists, a fact that may have contributed to the overdue attention by the academic community. He also notes the movement's inclination of using its members' war misery to self-stylization of its identity, in the sense of contrasting the firm attitude of the adherents with the inglorious stance of the mainline churches. To what extent this legendary steadfastness flew from personal conscience or internal social control has until now hardly been examined. Garbe reiterates that JW's struggle against Nazism resulted, first and foremost, from freedom of belief and loyalty to their organization, rather than the urge to restore freedom and democracy for all. Reminiscing Bonhoeffer and other religious resistance fighters, he poignantly adds, "In a pedagogical sense, they are not entitled to an exemplary role" (p. 35, my translation).

Until now, some studies have been published that present a general analysis of the persecution of the JW in the former GDR (see for example my review in JCS, 2000, pp. 574-76). Similar to Nazism, the JW obeyed their doctrine of political neutrality and refused to submit themselves to unholy demands of secular authorities, in this ease the socialist imperative of state-building and an active stance against Western imperialism. Repression und Selbstbehauptung presents interesting ...