Jehovah's Witnesses, Germany, Legal, Nazis, Brother Julius, Grenville Christian College, Sexual Abuse, Legal, Canada
"The archive documents the lives and suffering of the Kusserow family, who were among many from the religious group to be persecuted by the Nazis because of their faith.Jehovah's Witnesses, a pacifist religious group, are pursuing legal action against the German government to claim a family archive that documents the Nazis' persecution of the Christian denomination.
The archive comprises 31 files of documents relating to the Kusserow family, whose members were arrested, imprisoned and murdered by the Nazi regime because of their faith.
It has been held by the Museum of Military History in Dresden, which is operated by the German army, since 2009 when it was purchased from a member of the Kusserow family.
A German regional court rejected the Jehovah's Witnesses' claim last year, saying the museum had purchased the archive in good faith and should keep it. But the religious group is appealing that ruling, arguing that the family member who sold it was not the actual owner of the archive, which had been bequeathed to the Jehovah's Witnesses in the 2005 will of Annemarie Kusserow, the family member who had assembled and maintained the documents.
The museum's retention of the archive, said Wolfram Slupina, a spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany, "deprives us of a significant and invaluable part of our cultural heritage."
The archive documents the lives and suffering of the family of Franz and Hilda Kusserow, devout Jehovah's Witnesses, who were raising their 11 children in a large house in Bad Lippspringe in northern Germany when the Nazis came to power. The Jehovah's Witnesses were the first religious denomination to be banned, and the Kusserows' home was searched for religious materials by the Gestapo 18 times."
"A 77-year-old man accused of participating in the murder of a reputed leader in the Brother Julius cult died from complications of COVID-19 while he was incarcerated awaiting trial, his attorney said Thursday.
Rudy Hannon, 77, was arrested by New Britain police in July 2018 and charged with murder and murder during the commission of a felony in the death of Paul Sweetman, the second-in-command in the Brother Julius cult who went missing in Southington in 2004, according to court documents.
Julius Schacknow, known as Brother Julius, was accused of enlisting hundreds of residents from the Northeast in the 1970s and 1980s to join the cult, which discouraged education or any free thought, former followers said, according to court documents.
Schacknow died in 1996, leaving Sweetman and others to continue the cult on a smaller scale, former members said, according to court documents.
According to an arrest warrant, Hannon and Sorek Minery, another cult member, killed Sweetman in Plainville in 2004, placed his body in a freezer and then dismembered him, burying his remains at various locations in New Britain.
Hannon, however, maintained his innocence to the end, his attorney J. Patten Brown III said Thursday."
Religion News Service: Russia jails more Jehovah's Witnesses, prompting calls for 'strong measures'
More than 80 Jehovah's Witnesses are imprisoned in Russia, including some awaiting trial and some detained after being convicted."Despite a court ruling by Russian judges in October that seemed to endorse leniency for Jehovah's Witnesses arrested after their faith was labeled "extremist," a recent rash of sentences against members of the faith group has prompted concern among human rights advocates that the government is continuing its earlier crackdown against the denomination.
More than 80 Jehovah's Witnesses are now in confinement in Russia, some awaiting trial and some imprisoned after being convicted.
"USCIRF had hoped that a … 2021 decision by the Russian Supreme Court banning the prosecution of Jehovah's Witness group prayer signaled a shift in official policy towards the group, but this is clearly not the case," said U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner Khizr Khan in a statement to Religion News Service.
"The Russian government's persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses has gained renewed momentum in the last week," Khan said.
On Thursday (Jan. 20), a court in Seversk sentenced Yevgeniy Korotun, a Jehovah's Witness who had been detained since July 2020, to seven years and Andrey Kolesnichenko to four. Their convictions occurred a day after Aleksey Yershov, a 68-year-old member of the religious group, was sentenced to three years in a penal colony.
Korotun, according to the Jehovah's Witnesses, was charged on the basis of hidden recordings of him conversing about the Bible. The religious group said Kolesnichenko was recorded by someone who acted interested in the Bible and turned the recording over to authorities."
Former students of a now-shuttered Christian boarding school are coming forward with allegations of sexual abuse."More former students of a now-shuttered Christian boarding school in eastern Ontario are coming forward with allegations of sexual abuse against a son of the former headmaster, fearing he continues to be a danger to children.
The two former Grenville Christian College students told CBC's The Fifth Estate they were abused by Robert Farnsworth as children in the 1980s.
"I'm [speaking out] today because I know that someone who sexually assaults little kids … who doesn't hesitate to take away their innocence at the age of six or seven, or eight … will never stop," one former student said.
"Not until he's … locked up."
The CBC is protecting her identity because of the nature of the allegations.
Watch "School of Secrets: New revelations from inside the cult" on The Fifth Estate on Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV or stream on CBC Gem.
Robert Farnsworth hasn't responded to repeated requests for comment from CBC News.
The new allegations are in addition to those of two other former students who say they, too, were abused as children by the same man. Those allegations were revealed as part of an investigation by The Fifth Estate into Grenville Christian College in November."
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