{"id":2851,"date":"2017-04-09T07:29:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T07:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2017\/04\/09\/museum-statement-on-jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:30","slug":"museum-statement-on-jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/museum-statement-on-jehovahs-witnesses-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum Statement on Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is deeply concerned over\u00c2\u00a0recent reports<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0of harassment of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia and the Russian Justice Ministry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announced intent to ban the religion due to its members engaging in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremist activities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Holocaust teaches us the dangers of state-sponsored targeting of any group,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153While what is occurring in Russia is not at all comparable to Nazi Germany, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to remember the Nazi Party perceived\u00c2\u00a0Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0as a threat to the state and subjected them to intense persecution.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nazis targeted\u00c2\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0because their religious beliefs prevented them from adhering to the requirements of the Nazi state. Witnesses do not swear allegiance to any state or serve in the military. These religious convictions as well as their international connections\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe headquarters are in the U.S. and some Witnesses travel abroad for their service\u00e2\u20ac\u201cmade them a perceived threat to Nazism. Of the 25,000 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 30,000 active Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Nazi Germany, about half were convicted and sentenced during the Nazi period. Of those convicted or sentenced, between 2,000 and 2,500 were sent to concentration camps, as were a total of about 700 to 800 non-German Witnesses. An estimated 1,000 German Witnesses and 400 non-German Witnesses died in the camps.<\/p>\n

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors. For more information, visit ushmm.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is deeply concerned over\u00c2\u00a0recent reports\u00c2\u00a0of harassment of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia and the Russian Justice Ministry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announced intent to ban the religion due to its members engaging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5662,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/5662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}