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Authority and accountability · Claim record

The Declaration asked the German government to lift the prohibition on the Society's work and literature, to grant a hearing before judging, and to appoint a committee of impartial men to examine its publications.

Claim ID claim-authority-de33-purposeConcerns 25 June 1933Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 25 June 1933 Verified

The Declaration asked the German government to lift the prohibition on the Society's work and literature, to grant a hearing before judging, and to appoint a committee of impartial men to examine its publications. Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1934Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1934

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, “Germany”

1934 · p.143 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“We therefore appeal to the high sense of justice of the government and nation and respectfully ask that the order of prohibition against our work and our literature be set aside, and that opportunity be given us to have a fair hearing before we are judged. . . . Resolved, That copies of this Declaration be respectfully delivered to the high officials of the government and that the same be given wide publication to the people, that the name of Jehovah may be further known.”

The closing request and resolving clause of the Declaration, the last page of the resolution. The text omitted at the ellipsis asks the government to appoint “a committee of impartial men to hold conference with a committee of our organization” and to examine the Society’s literature, and adds a paragraph beginning “The peoples of Germany are a God-fearing people” and ending “but as for us, we will serve Jehovah forever.”

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read on the page image of p. 143 (leaf 139) on 19 September 2026, whose own running head reads “Year Book 143”, and confirmed word for word. “Resolved” is printed in small capitals. The ellipsis stands for the remainder of the appeal and for the paragraph that follows it, summarised in the context note.

Scan provenance. Scan of the 1934 Year Book of Jehovah’s Witnesses held by the Internet Archive as item “1934-JwYearbook”. The item was uploaded to the Internet Archive in January 2012 by a private account; its “creator” field reads “watchtower”, but the upload is not by the publisher and the Internet Archive is not the publisher. The scanned title page names the corporate publishers as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Peoples Pulpit Association and International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, New York, and carries the notice “Copyright 1933”. The volume is the Year Book for 1934: it carries the branch reports for the 1933 service year, and it is dated here by its edition year, the form in which the organisation’s own publications cite it (“1934 Yearbook, pp. 127-146”, The Watchtower, 1 August 1955, footnote h).

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-de33-yb34-appeal-and-resolved

Primary JW publication Verified

Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, “Germany”

1934 · p.131 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“This company of German people, who are peaceable and law-abiding citizens representing many others from every part of Germany, all of whom are earnestly laboring for the highest welfare of the people of this land, being now duly assembled at Berlin this 25th day of June, A D. 1933, do joyfully declare our complete devotion to Jehovah, the Almighty God, and to his kingdom under Christ Jesus, whose shed blood bought the human race.”

The opening words of the resolution, printed under the centred heading “Declaration of Facts”. The narrative immediately above it states that the president of the Society visited Germany in June 1933 to try to recover the Society's seized property, that “a Declaration of Facts was prepared”, and that on 25 June 1933 more than 7,000 of Jehovah's Witnesses assembled at Berlin and adopted it.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read on the page image of p. 131 (leaf 127) of the 1934 Year Book scan on 19 September 2026, whose own running head reads “Year Book 131”, and confirmed word for word. The printed date is set as “A D. 1933”, without a point after the A, and is given here as printed. Printed pages were fixed from the running head of each page image, not from the item’s page-number file alone; the Declaration occupies pp. 131-143, ending on p. 131 of leaf 127 and closing on p. 143 of leaf 139.

Scan provenance. Scan of the 1934 Year Book of Jehovah’s Witnesses held by the Internet Archive as item “1934-JwYearbook”. The item was uploaded to the Internet Archive in January 2012 by a private account; its “creator” field reads “watchtower”, but the upload is not by the publisher and the Internet Archive is not the publisher. The scanned title page names the corporate publishers as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Peoples Pulpit Association and International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, New York, and carries the notice “Copyright 1933”. The volume is the Year Book for 1934: it carries the branch reports for the 1933 service year, and it is dated here by its edition year, the form in which the organisation’s own publications cite it (“1934 Yearbook, pp. 127-146”, The Watchtower, 1 August 1955, footnote h).

Notes. The heading “Declaration of Facts” is set as a centred subheading; the resolution runs to about 4,000 words and carries the further subheadings “Jews” (p. 132), “Our Literature” (p. 135), “League of Nations” (p. 138) and “Great Truths” (p. 140), each confirmed on the page image.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-de33-yb34-declaration-opening

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-authority-de33-purpose/. 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.