https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.6356
After 1945, Jehovah’s Witnesses were a relatively small religious denomination in Poland. The church had less than 100,000 members, and its operations were supervised by the Governing Body in Łódź. By 1946, the communist authorities ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses was a potential source of social unrest. The church had been long regarded as a suspicious organization on account of its missionary activity, neutral attitude towards the State authorities, absence of involvement in State structures, refusal to comply with the Communist doctrine which the Jehovah’s Witnesses regarded as a violation of God’s law, as well as the fact that the organization had its headquarters in the USA. By 1948, the authorities began to perceive Jehovah’s Witnesses as a threat to the Communist system and an espionage outfit for Western countries. Following the example of Czechoslovakia, the decision to outlaw the
church was made at the turn of 1949 and 1950. The first political repressions were initiated in March 1950. Many members of the congregation were arrested in June and the following months of 1950 as part of “Operation J”. Around three thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses were imprisoned between June and December 1950. More than three hundred congregation members were put on trial. The others were promised a swift release if they agreed to renounce their faith. The operation took the lives of at least a dozen people. Jehovah’s Witnesses were officially banned on 2 July 1950. This article describes the preparations for the abolition of the church and the criteria for arresting its members. The consequences of repressive measures, including trials, compulsory labor for religious prisoners, pressure to renounce faith and religion, termination of employment and forced resettlement, require a separate study and are not discussed in the paper due to space constraints.
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