GREAT FALLS, MT — "It was an atrocity. It was a terrible thing, especially because it was based on religious intolerance," Gunnar Peterson said of the Holocaust.
Gunnar and his wife Lindsey are Jehovah's Witnesses living in Great Falls.
"Unlike some of the other ones that were persecuted, Jehovah's Witnesses were strictly persecuted because of their religious devotion," Gunnar explained.
He said Jehovah's Witnesses don't look to Holocaust Remembrance Day specifically to reflect on the persecution, but what happened is remembered.
"We just kind of meditate on what their faith allowed them to endure," he said.
Lindsey hopes the example the Jehovah's Witnesses set when they were persecuted sticks with people when they learn what happened.
"The example that they set for each one of us and how strong their conviction was; the degree that they would go to to stand up for their beliefs," she said.
"We had 35,000 Jehovah's Witnesses that were living in Nazi occupied territories," said Aaron Purvis, a spokesperson for Jehovah's Witnesses.
He noted that more than 4,000 members of the faith were persecuted by the Nazis.
"One thousand six hundred actually lost their lives and over 500 lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps," said Purvis. "They knew this was something that could come. As early as 1929, Jehovah's Witnesses were publicizing across the globe what was going to happen if this military might came to power and certainly in 1933 when Hitler did come to power they continued to publicize all of these atrocities that were happening."
Once in concentration camps, Jehovah's Witnesses could sign a card agreeing to fight for Germany and they could go free.
They were the only people given the option but few signed.
"For me, personally, personal reflection is that nobody else can make me denounce my faith. The only one who can do it is myself. So when we think about these atrocities, things that happen, these ones that were faithful build my faith knowing that I can keep my integrity," Gunnar said.
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