As the world commemorates this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day (also known as World Holocaust Day or IHRD), Jehovah’s Witnesses has called for sober reflection of the genocide of World War 11.
In a statement made available to Sunday Sun, Jehovah’s Witnesses lamented that its members were among the first to be sent to the Death Camp by the Nazi regime.
The group noted that the regime carried out some of the most agonizing human rights abuses in human history especially the Jews. It reads in part: “During the nearly five years of operation, Auschwitz expanded to include a concentration camp, a forced-labor camp, and an extermination camp, as well as over 40 sub-camps.
“Here, the Nazi regime carried out some of the most agonizing human rights abuses against millions of Jews, as well as Poles, Slavs, Roman and Sinti, homosexuals, and people with disabilities, among others. Some 400 Jehovah’s Witnesses of various nationalities, including Polish and German, were also among those victimized at the infamous camp. Four gas chambers claimed as many as 6,000 prisoners’ lives daily.
“For many, the observance of the liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp which forms the basis for the World Holocaust Day commemoration on January 27 is a sobering reminder of the atrocities of which man is capable against his fellow man. To this end, World Holocaust Day has been commemorating victims of the holocaust and promoting and preserving the educational and historical significance of that sad aspect of world history.
“A purple-triangle patch stitched near the prisoner number on the left side of uniforms identified Jehovah’s Witnesses who were imprisoned, not for their national or ethnic identity, but for their religious beliefs.
“They were persecuted solely based on their religious convictions. The Nazis offered them freedom if they would renounce their Christian faith and support the regime. Yet, they had the courage to stick to Christian values—loyalty to God and love for others.”
In the commemoration of this year’s event, the Christian body said it had released a digital brochure titled: “Purple Triangles – “Forgotten Victims” of the Nazi Regime”, with a selection of pictures and documents from a traveling exhibition curated by the Witnesses to educate the public about their persecution during the Holocaust. The 32-page brochure, the statement added, “is available for free download on their official website, jw.org.”