The Final Solution
Next: A Parallel Society
“Euphemisms, mild or indirect words or expressions substituted for ones considered to be too harsh or blunt, can hide dangerous or illegal behavior.” – Holocaust Encyclopedia – “FINAL SOLUTION” : OVERVIEW [1]
Although the Watch Tower Society usually uses phrases such as “complete solution” ( 296 search results ) or “only solution” ( 876 search results) or “real solution” ( 1,010 search results ), it most openly summed up its main ideology using the phrase “final solution.”
“Today, millions of people have to live in areas where it is a constant struggle to keep physically, morally, and spiritually clean. The final solution to this problem will come when God ‘makes all things new.’ When that promise is fulfilled, filth and uncleanliness of all sorts will disappear forever.” [2]
The ‘filth and uncleanliness that will disappear forever’ in the final solution is primarily referring to people.
Jehovah’s Witnesses use the word “Armageddon” as the name of their envisioned “final solution.” The Watch Tower Society advocates the genocide of every living human who is not a Jehovah’s Witness, stating that this event will be “A Historic Celebration,” [3] and a time for feasting for the survivors (see quote at bottom of page).
On the subject of incitement to genocide, The Holocaust Encyclopedia states: “Moreover, public incitement to genocide can be prosecuted even if genocide is never perpetrated. Lawyers therefore classify the incitement to genocide as an “inchoate crime”: a proof of result is not necessary for the crime to have been committed, only that it had the potential to spur genocidal violence. It is the intent of the speaker that matters, not the effectiveness of the speech in causing criminal action. This distinction helps to make the law preventative, rather than reactive.” [4]
“During the Holocaust, Nazis referred to Jews as rats. Hutus involved in the Rwanda genocide called Tutsis cockroaches. Slave owners throughout history considered slaves subhuman animals. In Less Than Human, David Livingstone Smith argues that it’s important to define and describe dehumanization, because it’s what opens the door for cruelty and genocide.”
In order to ‘open the door for cruelty,’ the Watch Tower Society does engage in the dehumanizing of non-Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Whether viewed as incitement to genocide, or viewed as incitement to hate, the Watch Tower Society engages in dehumanization of non-Jehovah’s Witnesses, and especially against former members. Just as Hutus called Tutsis cockroaches, the Watch Tower Society compares non-Jehovah’s Witnesses as being pests infesting a house, and thus should be exterminated or eliminated.
“Many wonder, however, why a God who is the very embodiment of love would inflict death and destruction on much of humankind. The situation might be compared to that of a pest-infested house. Would you not agree that a conscientious homeowner should safeguard the health and well-being of his family by exterminating the pests?… What, then, is to be done with those who threaten the peace and security of their fellow humans? God must eliminate such “pests”—the incorrigibly wicked—for the sake of the righteous ones.” The Watchtower magazine, December 1, 2005, page 6
“The ones slaughtered at Armageddon are shown as being left as food for the carrion-eating birds of the heavens. They will not be buried with military honors nor have graves with markers to memorialize them for mourners and idolizers. Those destroyed in this war will not be mourned, for the reason that they have shown themselves undeserving of mercy. By their removal the earth is cleansed.
A practical literal benefit will come because of allowing the birds to clean the bones of these enemies of God—a health benefit. Many have been the epidemics that have been caused by the wholesale destruction and devastation of past wars. The air will not be polluted by the smell nor the water contaminated by these dead corpses. Those who survive, being unable to bury such great numbers, will not be in danger of decimation by disease epidemic. Jesus, when on earth, told his disciples: “Wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” This victory will be a feast, not only for the literal birds, but also, in a sense, for those who survive, for they will feast because of the end of wickedness.” The Watchtower magazine, July 1, 1967, page 408
The successfulness of the Watch Tower Society’s ability to dehumanize can be seen in the following two video clips. Both clips are from Special Assembly Days of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and both involve 10-year-old Jehovah’s Witness children. One is being applauded for his anticipated destruction of his classmates for using bad words. The other is being applauded for ending her relationship with her sister because her sister is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness.
2019 Jehovah’s Witness assembly in New York
2017 Jehovah’s Witness assembly in Tennessee
Next: A Parallel Society
- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/final-solution-overview?series=48576 ↑
- The Watchtower magazine, December 1, 2008, page 12 ↑
- The Watchtower magazine, January 15, 1981, page 16 ↑
- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/incitement-to-genocide-in-international-law ↑