Declaration of Facts - Aftermath

Aftermath

Within days of sending the Declaration to Hitler, Balzereit left Germany and emigrated to Prague. On June 28, 30 Nazi Party storm troopers raided the Magdeburg offices for a second time, hoisting the swastika above the building, closing the factory, sealing the presses and locking the premises. The Ministry of the Interior said the action was designed to prohibit any future activities of the Watch Tower Society in Germany. In late August, authorities transported about 70 tonnes of Watch Tower literature and Bibles in 25 trucks to the city's outskirts and publicly burned them. In some areas the Witnesses defied the ban on their preaching activity, but throughout Germany many believers withdrew from the association and ceased all activity. When copies of the Watchtower and Golden Age began to arrive in Germany by mail from abroad, police ordered the confiscation of mail of known Jehovah's Witnesses.

In September 1934 a thousand German Jehovah's Witnesses joined a crowd of 3500 at an international convention in Basel, Switzerland, organized under the theme "Fear Them Not". Rutherford urged the German Jehovah's Witnesses to resume their preaching activity and the attendees responded by declaring in a resolution that they would do so on October 7, 1934, regardless of the ban. The resolution also contained a message of protest against their treatment in Germany. The resolution was given to the Swiss press and a copy sent to Hitler, along with a message that read: "Your ill-treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses shocks all people on earth and dishonors God's name. Refrain from further persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses; otherwise God will destroy you and your national party." Thousands of telegrams containing the same warning were sent to the Reich government in Berlin from Witnesses in Europe, the United States and Britain on October 8 and 9 until foreign post offices were told to stop sending them because the recipient refused to accept them.

Balzereit later returned to Germany to resume his position as branch leader, but attracted criticism from some members over his reluctance to defy bans on public preaching. In May 1935 he—along with eight other officers—was arrested; at a trial in December that year he denied he had defied official decrees, but was sentenced to 2½ years imprisonment. The following year he was expelled from the Watch Tower Society, with Rutherford explaining in a letter to German Witnesses that he was surprised "not one of those on trial at that time gave a faithful and true testimony to the name of Jehovah". Rutherford said Balzereit had said nothing to show "his complete reliance on Jehovah" and the Society therefore "will henceforth have nothing to do with him". The Society would also "put forth no effort in seeking to release them from prison even if it had the power to do anything".