Jehovah's Witnesses in Poland - in the 20th century Cover Image

Świadkowie Jehowy na ziemiach polskich – w XX wieku
Jehovah's Witnesses in Poland - in the 20th century

Author(s): Jan Miłosz
Subject(s): Politics and religion, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Other Christian Denominations
Published by: Akademia im. Jakuba z Paradyża
Keywords: Minority denomination; Jehovah's WItnesses; Secend Republic; Polish people republic; concentration camps; outlawing; National Committee; district; circuit;

Summary/Abstract: Jehovah’s Witnesses have been present in Poland for over a hundred years. This period was full of various events affecting both their entire community and its individual members. Beginnings in the interwar period - partly as a legal association, but also as a group facing misunderstanding and attempts to make it illegal. The period of the Nazi occupation - tragic for the entire community and for individual believers who in concentration camps, wearing a purple triangle armband, were victims of this system. Poland of 1945-1989 is a stage that can be divided into several fragments - the legal beginning in 1945-1950, the years of banalization and Stalinist persecution - 1950-1956; illegal activity in the years 1956-1979 and the beginning of the road to legal existence in the 1980s. The last stage is the activity in free Poland - it is the period of legal activity from 1989 to the present day. All these stages in the history of Jehovah’s witnesses influence their perception in today’s reality of the Third Republic.

  • Issue Year: 24/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 231-269
  • Page Count: 39
  • Language: Polish