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Autorité et obligation de rendre des comptes · Claim record

Le consul général des États-Unis à Berlin a rapporté à Washington, le 12 juillet 1933, qu’il avait lu certaines des brochures de la Société et “can see that objection could reasonably be raised to them by the German Government”, et que, bien que la Société fût “acting as a religious society, the pamphlets contain comment of not a purely religious character”. Il avait dit à Rutherford que le consulat général ne pouvait user de ses bons offices “only to protect the physical property of the organization excluding pamphlets, booklets and brochures which the police had condemned as being anti-revolutionary and communistic in tendency”. Le 9 septembre 1933, le secrétaire d’État a chargé l’ambassadeur de protester auprès du ministère allemand des Affaires étrangères contre la saisie des biens de la Société et l’interdiction de ses activités “by administrative action without judicial process” et de demander la restitution des biens, tout en l’autorisant à reléguer au second plan, par opportunité, la question de la reprise des activités de la Société.

Claim ID claim-authority-de33-us-diplomatic-recordConcerns 12 juillet 1933Constat indépendant
Constat indépendant · 12 juillet 1933 Vérifié

Le consul général des États-Unis à Berlin a rapporté à Washington, le 12 juillet 1933, qu’il avait lu certaines des brochures de la Société et “can see that objection could reasonably be raised to them by the German Government”, et que, bien que la Société fût “acting as a religious society, the pamphlets contain comment of not a purely religious character”. Il avait dit à Rutherford que le consulat général ne pouvait user de ses bons offices “only to protect the physical property of the organization excluding pamphlets, booklets and brochures which the police had condemned as being anti-revolutionary and communistic in tendency”. Le 9 septembre 1933, le secrétaire d’État a chargé l’ambassadeur de protester auprès du ministère allemand des Affaires étrangères contre la saisie des biens de la Société et l’interdiction de ses activités “by administrative action without judicial process” et de demander la restitution des biens, tout en l’autorisant à reléguer au second plan, par opportunité, la question de la reprise des activités de la Société. Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, 12 juillet 1933Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, 12 juillet 1933Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, 9 septembre 1933

Position de l’organisation ou explication ultérieure : Les récits de l’organisation elle-même rapportent que le département d’État américain est intervenu en sa faveur et que les biens de Magdebourg ont été restitués en octobre 1933, tandis que l’interdiction de ses activités demeurait.

Afficher les preuves (3 sources)
Document public officiel Vérifié

Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, “The Consul General at Berlin (Messersmith) to the Acting Secretary of State, No. 1428”

12 juillet 1933 · pp.409-410 · George S. Messersmith · United States Department of State

“I have gone into the activities of the Society and of its agents, and have read some of the pamphlets which have been distributed by the Society widely in Germany, and I can see that objection could reasonably be raised to them by the German Government. Although acting as a religious society, the pamphlets contain comment of not a purely religious character.”

Messersmith's own assessment, sent to Washington three weeks after the Berlin convention. A separate telegram of the same month states that the Embassy and Consulate General “have considered it impossible to object to ban on activities”.

Source officielle

Note de provenance et de vérification

Note sur la fiabilité. Opened on the US Department of State Office of the Historian site on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the companion telegram is document 287 in the same volume.

Date de consultation. 19 septembre 2026 · Identifiant de la source. src-de33-frus-consulate-view

Document public officiel Vérifié

Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, “The Consul General at Berlin (Messersmith) to the Acting Secretary of State, No. 1428”

12 juillet 1933 · p.408 · George S. Messersmith · United States Department of State

“The work of the Society has been at an utter standstill in all the states of Germany except Prussia; but on June 24 a decree was issued by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and signed by Dr. Grauert, the Under Secretary of State in that Ministry. . . . In the decree of June 24 forbidding the activities of the Society throughout Germany, it was also provided that the property be confiscated.”

A despatch from the American Consul General in Berlin reporting on the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. It records that Rutherford had been in Europe for a number of months, came to Germany “a number of weeks ago” and had a long interview at the Consulate General with Consul Geist, and that it was pointed out to him that the Consulate General “would be unable to make any representations to the German Government regarding the ban that had been put upon their activities and that it could use its good offices only to protect the physical property of the organization excluding pamphlets, booklets and brochures which the police had condemned as being anti-revolutionary and communistic in tendency”.

Source officielle

Note de provenance et de vérification

Note sur la fiabilité. Opened on the United States Department of State Office of the Historian site on 19 September 2026 and read in full. Both sentences quoted stand on p. 408 of the printed edition, whose page breaks are marked in the text; the despatch as a whole runs pp. 407-410. The ellipsis stands for three sentences about the copy of the decree enclosed with the despatch, about the legal complexities it raised, and about the powers conferred by the Reich President’s decree of 28 February 1933.

Notes. This confirms from a contemporaneous, non-Witness record that the Prussian ban was decreed on 24 June 1933, the day before the Berlin convention.

Date de consultation. 19 septembre 2026 · Identifiant de la source. src-de33-frus-messersmith-1428

Document public officiel Vérifié

Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933, Volume II, “The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd), No. 111”

9 septembre 1933 · pp.412-413 · Cordell Hull · United States Department of State

“It is unfortunate that purely administrative action entailing such drastic consequences without other than ex parte proceedings should be taken and maintained in Germany, and that apparently the obligation to administer justice by orderly processes of law has been disregarded. . . . You should request that prompt steps be taken to restore the property to the possession and control of the Society. You are authorized in your discretion to subordinate as a matter of expediency the question of the resumption of the Society’s activities, keeping in mind, however, that the principle upon which a complaint rests regarding this ban on the activities is the same as in the case of the confiscation or destruction of property, namely, the absence of a proper judicial hearing as provided for under Article 12 of the Treaty of 1923.”

A telegraphed instruction from the Secretary of State to the American Ambassador in Berlin, sent two days after the telegram about the burning of the Society’s books. It sets out that the Society was organised under the laws of Pennsylvania, that its property at Magdeburg was taken and its activities suppressed on or about 24 April 1933 “without explanation”, and that “the German authorities have not instituted proceedings in which they are required to specify and prove charges and in which representatives of the Society would be given opportunity to answer and defend”. The material omitted at the ellipsis is the sentence citing Article 12 of the Treaty of 1923 and the sentence instructing the Ambassador to communicate with the German Foreign Office.

Source officielle

Note de provenance et de vérification

Note sur la fiabilité. Opened on the United States Department of State Office of the Historian site on 19 September 2026 and read in full. The telegram begins on p. 412 and the passages quoted stand on p. 413, the page break marked in the text falling inside the words “on or about April 24, 1933”.

Corroboré par. src-de33-frus-burning-telegram

Notes. This is the United States protesting the absence of any judicial process, not endorsing the Society’s case on the merits: the same volume carries the Consul General’s opinion that objection to the pamphlets “could reasonably be raised” by the German government.

Date de consultation. 19 septembre 2026 · Identifiant de la source. src-de33-frus-hull-instruction

Page de l’affirmation Corriger ou mettre à jour

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/fr/evidence/claim-authority-de33-us-diplomatic-record/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.