Jehovah's Witnesses
History of the Roma in Sweden and Europe
Jehovah's Witnesses were among the first to suffer Nazi persecution. About 10,000 of them where directly punished or put in prisons and camps. Some 2,000 died, 360 by execution.
Since these facts are not wellknown, the "Living History" project is providing an opportunity to acquaint the public also with these "forgotten" victims of the Holocaust era.
In line with the basic idea of the "Living History" project, the Witnesses in Sweden share their history with the public by means of video documentaries and a traveling exhibition.
The video Jehovah's Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault is dubbed into Swedish. The Purple Triangles video is subtitled. Both are offered free of charge to schools and educational centers. In Sweden, the Witnesses show these films on request in schools and educational centers and give lectures about this part of Holocaust history.
The traveling exhibition, entitled "The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust," including the award winning video film Jehovah's Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault, reaches a large audience.
Activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in line with the "Living History" project
Jehovah's Witnesses have produced four sets of a traveling exhibition entitled, "The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust." Made up by 30 panels displaying hundreds of photographs of victims and survivors, as well as other items, it documents the cruel treatment of Witnesses and others in prisons and camps. Included in the exhibit are a model of a Jehovah's Witness prison uniform with the purple triangle mark and a replica of a guillotine used for decapitation of several Jehovah's Witnesses at the Brandenburg prison. The video documentary Jehovah's Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault is shown in connection with all the exhibitions.
The exhibition was premiered at a preview screening and a Press Conference held in the facilities of the Nordic Museum in Stockholm in January 1998. Since then, it has been shown in more than 130 places all over Sweden -- mainly in libraries and educational centers. By January 2000, more than 164,000 guests have seen the exhibition. It is booked until summer 2000.
About 500 trained volunteer workers, equipped with manuals explaining the items on display, serve as exhibition guides and assistants. To provide a historical summary of the experience of Jehovah's Witnesses, 214,000 copies of the August 22, 1995, issue of Awake! dealing with the Holocaust and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camps have been reprinted.
In order to let the public know about the exhibition, more than three million four-color invitation flyers and thousands of posters have been printed and distributed. Media representatives have attended and covered the subject. Interviews have been conducted with survivors, including some Jehovah's Witnesses now living in Sweden.
Headmasters and teachers in a great number of schools and educational centers have been contacted, and thus many school classes, students, and teachers have visited the exhibition.
On request, Jehovah's Witnesses give lectures in schools and universities based on their history in the context of the Holocaust. Discussions focus on ethics, morals, altruism, tolerance, and what can be learned from the horrors of the Nazi era in order to avoid future acts of genocide. Study guides and material for teachers and lecturers have been produced, and a number of such lessons have been presented in classes in many schools.
The aim of the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, in line with the "Living History" project, is to present objective historical facts about the experience of the Witnesses as a group, not to inform about their religious beliefs.