Although relating to events a little more recent than the general focus of this blog, this is an account that some may find of interest. Thanks are due to “Franco” who kindly sent the scans used originally.
Franz Zürcher (1891-1978) worked at the Bible Students/Jehovah’s Witnesses Central European Office in Switzerland for nearly 55 years. He started in 1923, although his first couple of years were spent taking the Photodrama of Creation film out to Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine, along with locations in Switzerland. For many years he was the Branch Servant in Switzerland. In the 1930s he was the editor of the German edition of The Golden Age magazine. In 1943 he was sentenced to gaol (i.e. jail) for his activities.
He is known for writing a book published by the Society, which apparently was never officially translated into English. Crusade Against Christianity was first published in German in 1938, and then translated into French and Polish in 1939. It detailed the persecution of the witnesses under the Nazi regime, and some of the material appeared in the English edition of Golden Age.
Here are some covers of the three language editions.
First published in German in 1938. The publisher was
Europe-Verlag, Zurich-New York.
Translated into French and Polish (both 1939)
The French translation was also published by Europe-Verlag, Zurich-New York. However, you will note that the Polish translation added Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Berne.
Franz Zürcher remained an active witness in the Berne Bethel until the end of his life, and is one of the comparatively few witnesses to have an obituary in the Watchtower magazine. See Watchtower for August 1, 1978, page 31.
Probably only 3 other writers from the JFR era had Society endorsement:
ReplyDeleteThe book entitled The Way to Paradise was written in 1924 by Society's secretary W. E. Van Amburgh.
A brochure from 1939 entitled Liberty to Preach was written by Society lawyer Olin Moyle.
The book entitled Kreuzzug gegen das Christentum (Crusade Against Christianity) (1938; Polish edition 1939), edited by Franz Zürcher from Switzerland, from the Central European Office.
In Poland, in 2008, an independent publishing house published a Polish reprint of the book from 1939 (also PDF). Also "The Jobs of the Twentieth Century" - biographies of publishers during the Second World War in Poland.
His name was given variously in publications: Zürcher; Zuercher; Zurcher.
“Franz Zürcher, branch overseer from 1940 to 1953” (1987 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 159).