This article is a review of the study 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 & Clemens Vollnhals and published in 2003 by Duncker & Humblot, Berlin.

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 Rumania 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. Similar to Nazism, the JW obeyed their doctrine of political neutrality and refused to submit themselves to unholy demands of secular authorities, in this case the socialist imperative of state-building and an active stance against Western imperialism. Repression und Selbstbehauptung presents interesting vignettes of this repression, such as the role of the press in defaming and criminalizing this religious community, the various strategies of the East German Intelligence Service to dismantle the movement, the conditions of imprisonment, the consequences of persecution in daily life, and the role of female Witnesses. Since both JW and Communists had suffered from Nazism, the GDR-regime was forced to create an acceptable social climate to persecute the former. Dirksen sketches how the regime, prior to the general ban in 1950, succeeded to manipulate the media in vilifying the JW. Hirch examines the various methods of the Stasi to suppress the activities of the believers: from the infamous show-trials of the early 50s that were meant to expose the JW as American agents and saboteurs, to spreading internal discord by successfully infiltrating the layers of leadership. The creation by the Stasi of a group of former disgruntled JW and the sponsored publication of a highly critical work on the Watchtower Society even convinced outside experts that the movement was subject to genuine organized dissent. Sociologist Schmidt presents the drawback of the JW’s undauntedness by describing the social isolation of many youthful members. They were devoid of sharing their fate with peers, even with fellow-believers of their age group since the cellular structure of the Watchtower Society, established for security reasons, resulted in drastic limitations of mutual contact.

Some contributions in this volume examine similarities and differences between the Nazi and Communist modes of persecution. It is clear that the former was considerably more intense than the latter, while the East German regime focused on capturing the movement’s local and regional leadership rather than the community as a whole. However, the crucial common feature is the incompatibility of competing ideologies of salvation among totalitarian systems. Within the visions of both the Nazi 1000-year empire and the Communist Workers’ Paradise, the JW’s prophesized Kingdom of God was an anathematized constellation that had to be crushed. Though this anthology presents a requiring insight into various aspects of this ideological conflict, the language restricts attention from a wider audience. Since we are dealing with an important historical period of a world-wide movement, German scholars who study this topic would do good to breach the boundaries of this form of scientific parochialism.