Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany, weighs dispute over Jehovah’s Witness family’s Nazi-era archive

An extensive archive documenting the Nazi-era persecution of a Jehovah’s Witness family is the subject of a legal dispute before the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe. The eldest daughter, Annemarie Kusserow, collected pictures, letters, arrest warrants and death sentences of the family from the time the National Socialists came to power until her own arrest in October 1944. She continued to maintain the archive after the war.

An association of Jehovah’s Witnesses is suing the Federal Republic of Germany for the release of more than 1,000 documents. After Kusserow’s death in 2005, her brother sold the family’s archive from Bad Lippspringe in North Rhine-Westphalia to the German state. Parts of it are currently on display at the Military History Museum of the German Armed Forces in Dresden. The source states, however, that Kusserow had bequeathed the archive to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The dispute turns in part on whether the Federal Republic of Germany “acquired the archive in good faith.” Under the German Civil Code, the purchaser of an object is the legal owner even if the object did not previously belong to the person who sold it. The Cologne Higher Regional Court affirmed this position in April 2025.

At the hearing on Friday, the BGH Senate criticized the lower court for leaving many questions open. The presiding judge, Bettina Brückner, indicated that the case could therefore be sent back to Cologne for a new hearing and decision.

Brückner urged the parties to seek a settlement instead, noting that a court ruling would probably produce a clear winner and loser. She asked whether a solution acceptable to both sides could be found, a step consistent with living at peace where possible (Romans 12:18). The parties initially left the question open. If no agreement is reached, the deadline for announcing a decision was set for 22 May.

The source also gives background on the group’s treatment under the Nazis. During that period, Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to give the Hitler salute or to send their children to the Hitler Youth, and many refused military service. From 1933 they were persecuted by the Nazis, and thousands were deported, imprisoned and tortured. At least 1,700 members of the community lost their lives.

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