This site is helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_Germany
It gives the "reasons behind the Nazi's persecution of the Jehovah Witnesses" leading up to WWII.
The July 8, 1998 Awake article referred to in the #19 reference is herewith for your information [pertinent info only included due to length of article]:
"History recognizes that only a few groups courageously stood up and spoke out against Nazi terror. Among them were Jehovah’s Witnesses, described as “a tiny island of unflagging [moral] resistance existing in the bosom of a terrorized nation.” Their courageous stand is well documented by respected historians.
A few critics, however, including some former associates of Jehovah’s Witnesses, charge that the Witnesses attempted to compromise with the Hitler regime in its early days. They claim that representatives of the Watch Tower Society tried unsuccessfully to curry favor with the new government and that, at least for a time, they endorsed the racist ideology of the Nazis, which eventually led to the murder of six million Jews.
These serious allegations are absolutely false. The following is a frank examination of the events in question, based on available documentation and historical context.
Looking Back
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been active in Germany for more than 100 years. By 1933, there were about 25,000 Witnesses worshiping Jehovah God and distributing Bible literature throughout Germany.
Despite the freedoms granted by the German constitution of that time, Jehovah’s Witnesses were frequently the target of defamation campaigns, launched primarily by religious opponents. As early as 1921, the Witnesses, then called Ernste Bibelforscher (Earnest Bible Students), were accused of being linked with the Jews in subversive political movements. The Bible Students were branded as the dangerous Bolshevik “Jewish worm,” though no proof of the charges was ever produced. Swiss theologian Karl Barth later wrote: “The accusation that Jehovah’s Witnesses are linked with the Communists can only be due to an involuntary or even intentional misunderstanding.”
A church magazine in Germany charged that the Witnesses and the Jews were coconspirators in revolutionary movements. In response, the April 15, 1930, German edition of The Golden Age (forerunner of Awake!) stated: “We have no reason to regard this false accusation as an insult—as we are convinced that the Jew is at least as valuable a person as a nominal Christian; but we reject the above untruth of the church tabloid because it is aimed at deprecating our work, as if it were being done not for the sake of the Gospel but for the Jews.”
Thus, professor of history John Weiss wrote: “The Witnesses were free of German racial nationalism and had not brooded for centuries over the failure of the Jews to convert. The Witnesses still held to the original, if patronizing, Christian belief of the need to persuade all potential converts to Christ.”
What Happened When Hitler Came to Power?
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Germany’s new chancellor. In the beginning, the Hitler government worked to conceal its violent and extremist nature. Hence, the Witnesses, along with millions of other Germans in early 1933, viewed the National Socialist Party as the legitimate ruling authority of the time. The Witnesses hoped that the National Socialist (Nazi) government would realize that this peaceable, law-abiding Christian group posed no subversive threat to the State. This was no offer to compromise Bible principles. As has been the case in other lands, the Witnesses wanted to inform the government of the true nonpolitical nature of their religion.
It quickly became apparent that Jehovah’s Witnesses were to be among the first targets of brutal Nazi suppression. The Witnesses were again branded as accomplices in an alleged Bolshevik-Jewish conspiracy. A campaign of persecution began.
Why would such a small religious community attract the fury of the new regime? Historian Brian Dunn identifies three fundamental reasons: (1) the international scope of the Witnesses, (2) their opposition to racism, and (3) their position of neutrality toward the State. Because of their Scriptural views, the German Witnesses refused to give the Hitler salute, to support the National Socialist Party, or later on to participate in military activities.—Exodus 20:4, 5; Isaiah 2:4; John 17:16.
As a result, the Witnesses endured threats, interrogations, house searches, and other harassment by the police and SA (Hitler’s Sturmabteilung, storm troopers, or Brownshirts). On April 24, 1933, officials seized and shut down the Watch Tower office in Magdeburg, Germany. After a thorough search yielded no incriminating evidence, and under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the police returned the property. By May 1933, though, the Witnesses were banned in several German states.
Witnesses Take Courageous Action
During this early period, Hitler carefully cultivated his public image as a champion of Christianity. He proclaimed his commitment to religious freedom, promising to treat Christian denominations “with objective justice.” In order to enhance his image, the new chancellor made appearances in churches. This was a time when many people in countries that later would be at war with Germany were expressing admiration for Hitler’s achievements.
Concerned about the rising tensions in Germany, Joseph F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, together with the Germany branch office manager, Paul Balzereit, decided to mount a campaign to inform Chancellor Hitler, government officials, and the public that Jehovah’s Witnesses posed no threat to the German people and the State. Rutherford evidently believed that Hitler was unaware of the attacks against Jehovah’s Witnesses or that he had been misinformed by religious elements regarding the Witnesses.
[In June 1933 delegates at a JW convention in Berlin] adopted a resolution entitled “Declaration of Facts.” This document protested the restrictions that had been put on the work of the Witnesses. It made a clear statement of their position and denied charges of seditious links with political causes of any sort. It stated:
“We are wrongfully charged before the ruling powers of this government . . . We do respectfully ask the rulers of the nation and the people to give a fair and impartial consideration to the statement of facts here made.”
“We have no fight with any persons or religious teachers, but we must call attention to the fact that it is generally those who claim to represent God and Christ Jesus who are in fact our persecutors and who misrepresent us before the governments.”
Convention of Courage or Compromise?
Some now hold that the 1933 Berlin convention and the “Declaration of Facts” were attempts on the part of prominent Witnesses to show support for the Nazi government and its hatred of the Jews. But their assertions are not true. They are based on misinformation and on misinterpretation of the facts.
[One charge was that swastika flags were seen on their rented convention buildings]
Had there been swastika flags decorating the hall’s exterior, corridors, or even its interior, the Witnesses would have left them alone. Even today, when Jehovah’s Witnesses rent public facilities for meetings and conventions, they do not remove national symbols.
Critics further state that the Witnesses opened the convention with the German national anthem. Actually, the convention began with “Zion’s Glorious Hope,” Song 64 in the Witnesses’ religious songbook.
The singing of a song about Zion could hardly be construed as an effort to placate the Nazis. Under pressure from anti-Semitic Nazis, other churches removed Hebrew terms such as “Judah,” “Jehovah,” and “Zion” from their hymnals and liturgies. Jehovah’s Witnesses did not. The convention organizers, then, certainly did not expect to win favor with the government by singing a song extolling Zion.
Some have claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses shared the hostility toward the Jews that was commonly taught in the German churches at the time. This is absolutely untrue. By their literature and conduct during the Nazi era, the Witnesses rejected anti-Semitic views and condemned the Nazi mistreatment of the Jews. Certainly, their kindness toward Jews who shared their lot in the concentration camps provides a resounding rebuttal to this false accusation.
The “Declaration” defined the Witnesses’ work as religious in character, stating: “Our organization is not political in any sense. We only insist on teaching the Word of Jehovah God to the people.”
The “Declaration” added: “A careful examination of our books and literature will disclose the fact that the very high ideals held and promulgated by the present national government are set forth in and endorsed and strongly emphasized in our publications, and show that Jehovah God will see to it that these high ideals in due time will be attained by all persons who love righteousness.”
Thus, the Witnesses never expressed support for the Nazi Party. Moreover, in the exercise of religious freedom, they did not intend to stop their public preaching.—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20.
It is now known that a ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany had been issued on Saturday, June 24, 1933, just the day before the Berlin convention. Following the convention, the Witnesses distributed 2.1 million copies of the “Declaration.” Some Witnesses were arrested immediately and sent to labor camps. Thus, the Nazi government fully revealed its oppressive, violent nature and soon launched an all-out attack on this small group of Christians. [end quote]