The Catholic Church in Nazi Germany (Book Notes: Pope Benedict XVI)
In Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger, John L. Allen Jr. writes about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Nazi Party:
Many ordinary Catholics objected to attacks on their church, but there was simply no opposition to Nazism tout ensemble. ... In fact, there were key points at which Nazi and Catholic attitudes intersected and created a basis for mutual support. Both groups hated the Weimar Republic. The Nazis opposed Weimar because it was allegedly too Jewish and led by the “November Criminals” who sold out the country after the First World War; Catholics objected to it because it smacked of liberalism, sexual degeneracy, and an irreligious spirit.
Cardinal Faulhaber, for example, gave a speech in May 1933 in which he expressed thanks for the Volksgemeinschaft, or spirit of community, which Hitler had fostered, and rejected “liberal individualism.” Moreover, Catholics shared with Nazis an instinctive fear of the Bolsheviks.
Finally, there was a form of anti-Jewish sentiment that was openly accepted among Catholics, based in part on the theological argument that the Jews sinned by rejecting Christ and in part on the historical fact that many Jews had played leading roles in the Kulturkampf. As early as 1925, a Franciscan priest named Erhard Schuland wrote a book called “Katholizismus und Vaterland” (Catholicism and Fatherland) that called on Germans to fight “the destructive influence of the Jews in religion, morality, literature and art, and political and social life.” Schuland expressed what was very much the consensus in German Catholicism of the day...
Support for the Nazis, their social policies, and their anti-Semitism was not limited to ordinary Catholics and a few random priests:
Archbishop Konrad Gröber of Freiburg was known as the “Brown Bishop” because he was such an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis. In 1933, he became a “sponsoring member” of the SS. After the war, however, he claimed to have been such an opponent of the Nazis that they had planned to crucify him on the door for the Freiburg Cathedral.
Bishop Wilhlem Berning of Osnabrück sat with the Deutsche Christen Reichsbishop in the Prussian State Council from 1933 to 1945, a clear signal of support for the Nazi regime.
Cardinal Bertram also had some affinity for the Nazis. In 1933, for example, he refused to intervene on behalf of Jewish merchants who were the targets of Nazi boycotts, saying that they were a group “which has no very close bond with the church.”
Bishop Buchberger of Regensburg called Nazi racism directed at Jews “justified self-defense” in the face of “overly powerful Jewish capital.”
Bishop Hilfrich of Limburg said that they true Christian religion “made its way not from the Jews but in spite of them.”
Because the Catholic leadership did not consistently oppose the Nazi policies, it was relatively easy for the Nazis to co-opt the Catholic churches in their effort to round up and exterminate the Jews. A large number of Jews converted to Christianity in order to avoid persecution and the only way the Nazis found them out was because of the help of Catholic authorities:
After April 7, 1933, civil servants in Germany were required to prove that they were not Jews. Because births had been registered by the state only since 1874, the church was called upon to provide many records. The Catholic church cooperated right up to the end of the war. Likewise, after the 1935 Nüremberg laws that forbade marriage between Aryans and non-Aryans, most Catholic priests did not perform such ceremonies, even though the number of Jewish conversions to Catholicism was accelerating because of the persecution.
Yes, right up until the end of the war, Catholic clergy were actively assisting the Nazi program of racial purification. They provided detailed records of who converted and who didn't, who married and Jew and who didn't. When two people wanted to marry, Catholic priests enforced Nazi race laws against Aryans being allowed to marry non-Aryans. The Nazis' agenda of racial discrimination and purification would not have worked without the active, willing, and eager cooperation of Christian churches.
After the war, the Allies tried to rely on Catholic clergy to help them in their program of de-Nazification of the government. That was a mistake — Catholic assistance to the Nazis hadn't ended when the Nazis surrendered. Catholic bishops realized that eliminating all Nazis would leave Communists and Social Democrats in charge and they concluded that that would be worse than having the Nazis in power — so they basically lied to the Allies. Unrepentant Nazis were returned to positions of authority over the German people because Catholic clergy gave them a clean bill of political and ideological health.
Eventually the Allies grew wise to the Catholic duplicity and stopped relying on the word of priests about whether someone had been a Nazi. That is the legacy of the Catholic Church from Nazi Germany: not resistance, but cooperation; not the defense of principle but the defense of social power.
Read More Book Notes from the Book Reviews on this site.
Comments
Your a Nazi. no argument. your just some atheist catholic hater freak who things for some demented reason that all Hindus, Christian, Jews and muslims, should convert to Atheism. do you thing that those Nazi officers and soldiers that killed thousands of Jews believed in god ? Do you think they would have killed all those people if they truly believed they would burn in hell for idernity. 96 clergy who died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Your an idiot
Feel free to substantiate your accusations.
You don’t seem to like what I have written, but for some reason you don’t bother to explain what you think was wrong and why.
Given how few atheists there were in German society at the time, then even if there had been no oppression of atheist organizations and all atheists had specifically volunteered for concentration camp duty (i.e., no atheists elsewhere doing other duties), then there still wouldn’t have been enough.
And it’s millions of Jews who were killed, not thousands.
Why do you assume that Christians treated such treatment of Jews as a sin? Christians had been persecuting and killing Jews for centuries in Europe; most Nazi policies on the Jews were in fact patterned after medieval Catholic laws.
Yes, some clergy were killed in the camps, but very few were in the camps for protesting the treatment of Jews.
And why do you think I’m an idiot? It appears that I know quite a bit more about Nazi Germany and Nazi policies than you.
Most “isms” exploit people who were beaten, neglected and yelled at as children. Nazism and Catholicism feed on the same weaknesses. Some atheists do so as well.
“Your a Nazi”
His Nazi what? This sentence makes no sense. Which makes about as much sense as the rest of your blithering.
“no argument. your just some atheist catholic hater freak who things for some demented reason that all Hindus, Christian, Jews and muslims, should convert to Atheism.”
Austin’s the picture of tolerance. He’s polite even to halfwits like you. Me? Not so tolerant.
Don’t mistake being critical of something for hatred. He’s also a much better speller than you. Were you home schooled? There’s no such thing as converting to atheism. It’s not a dogma that one can join or adhere to. Atheism is capitalized ONLY when it is the first word of a sentence, like this sentence.
“do you thing that those Nazi officers and soldiers that killed thousands of Jews believed in god?”
Do you hab a code? Id dat why you thinG dees things?
Yes, they believed in your god. It was on their belt buckles: Gott mit uns. That means “god is with us (is on our side)”. They believed they were doing god’s work… kinda like Bush does.
“Do you think they would have killed all those people if they truly believed they would burn in hell for idernity.”
Does your mom know you’re getting online by yourself? Download and use a web browser called Firefox. It has a built in spell check that will help you look LESS childish.
Or are you a troll?
“96 clergy who died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.”
And? Clergy killed how many red headed women as being witches?
“Your an idiot”
His idiot what?
YOU’RE not using YOUR spell checker. ‘You’re’ is a contraction for ‘you are’. ‘Your’ is possessive.
Todd,
I was going to be a lot more polite to poor semi literate John Smith. Except for the name,I thought, just maybe, he could be using English as a second language, but on reflection, with the abysmally poor standard of education in America, I guess English could be considered such.
John Smith. (you really should capitalise your own Surname.)
The first requirement necessary to qualify for being an atheist is the ability to think for one’s self. It doesn’t really need academic qualifications. You cannot be a member of the “Atheists” there is no such entity. Yes there are groups and affiliations, by some, in like minded groups but no central or defining organisation.
So your accusation that atheists are trying to convert others is rather silly, childish in fact.
Adolf Hitler was brought up and never renounced his Catholicism, neither did Herman Goering, Hess, and many others of the hierarchy. In 1939. Germany was approximately 75/80% R C,the balance Lutheran, Jewish and other minorities.
My Father was one of the first Allied soldiers into the “Concentration Camps”.liberating the inmates.
I was also involved in that war. I can assure you. You do NOT know of what you write.
Nazi troops always had a “Chaplain” with them,as did the Allies. All blessing, and invoking one God or another, to protect us whilst they killed the others. Not unlike the hypocritical actions taking place daily in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Smith. If that be your true name. May I suggest that if you don’t wish to be seen as a fool. Keep your pen away from paper as you have dispelled all doubt.
tomedgar@halenet.com.au
If you have it in for the Nazis you should have it in for Saddam. He was a Nazi disciple. Baath Party. You can look it up.
Mein Kampf is still a best seller in the Middle East. You can look it up.
Now once the proto Nazi was taken out the US became responsible for setting up a viable government. Now that the process is well in hand an exit plan is going into effect.
Now ole Saddam was thick into the WTC bombing of ‘93 (an act of war) so the USA had some legit grievances with the guy. The fact that he didn’t get his just deserts until 10 years later doesn’t erase the facts.
Did you have something relevant and on-topic to say, Simon, or do you use every post you see as a launching pad for rants about Saddam Hussein?
Austin, on which sources are you basing your views expressed in the second to last paragraph? It would really help me with my university work if I could get a source for your viewpoints!
Your blog is excellent, I have also used various articles about atheism in school (I studied philosphy) and came across this for my uni work too!
many thanks, keep up the good work:-)
Lorna: it’s been quite a while since I wrote this, but I believe I was relying on the same book that I’m quoting. I’d have to find it again and look in order to be sure, though.
Austin,
Yes well explained—you forget to write that the nazi party was only one element against jews at that period—Michael Collins, Franco, Mussolini, Portugueses leader were all fighting the communists and jews—under the auspices of catholic church…
Remember the British and New Zealanders wanted to flatten Rome at end of war—they couldnt because of the no of catholics etc in American armed forces
some have brain others religion….
You see, Adolf Hilter, and the Nazi party for that matter, were very good at using propaganda.
You too my atheist friend, are very good at using Propaganda. Suggesting that the Catholic Church particpated and co-operated in all the ills of the Nazi regime – you should be ashamed.
I find the way you leave out information that doesn’t help you cause quite bias on your behalf. How about all the actions of the Catholic Church, for isntance the denunciation of the Euthanasia program by a Catholic Bishop in 1941 that resulted in a temporary seizure of that program?
Two things.
1) Stop trying to position the Catholic Church as something bad, evil and hateful. – You obviously are not aware of all the hope and joy it gives to people in the world – and also the charity, education and social relief it provides to jews, muslims, black and whites alike.
2) Try have some faith, with a little, you may come to know the wonders of God. ATM You’re just spreading atheist garbage and propaganda.
Now I’ll let you get back to your endless quest of blaming a God you don’t believe in. (Or do you?)
So is the Catholic Church.
Feel free to show how, if you can.
I never said that any church participated and cooperated in all the crimes of the Nazi regime. The Catholic Church, however, did participate and cooperate in some. Individual Catholics participated and cooperated in far more.
If you are going to disagree with someone, you might want to check yourself to be sure you’re actually disagreeing with a position they hold. You look incredibly foolish when you try to contradict something they have never said.
This is another error of yours: this article isn’t pursuing a “cause,” it’s simply trying to inform people about some information that they might not know about. There is no time, space, or need to include every bit of information that happened during the Nazi regime.
I will when the Catholic Church stops doing bad, evil, and hateful things. Deal?
Is there any particular reason why I should have faith in your deity?
That’s a pretty serious accusation. Can you back it up, or is it your intention to demonstrate how much better you are than me by anonymously posting unsupported accusations which you cannot or will not defend?
I have never blamed any gods for anything. Once again, it appears that when you lack any actual positions of mine to attack, you feel comfortable with making up a falsehood to attribute to me so you can attack that.
When the defenders of Catholicism have to lie about the critics of Catholicism as part of their defense, I think it’s pretty clear that not only is the defense doomed, but the criticism is all the more justified.
Joe @ #12:
So where, exactly, do you think anti-Semitism — you know, the whole “the Jews are money-grubbing Christ-killers” bullsh*t — came from? You think it was something Hitler just made up? Have you ever even attempted to study European history?
Actually, the Catholic Church is bad, evil and hateful. (not Catholics, the RCC)
If you want, I’ll go into the whole rant, but the only way you stay in it, is to be an unobjective RC apologist, otherwise, stay away.
John Smith (1) and Joe (12). Hitler was never excommunicated or even threatened with excommunication. Only one (1) of the high-ranking Catholic Nazis, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, was excommunicated; he was excommunicated for marrying a Protestant woman. Please comment.
Not all Nazis were Catholics, some were Lutheran.
Not all Catholics were Nazis. In Italy they were predominantly Fascists. Those that weren’t were in opposition, and were called Communists, presumably most of them atheists.
Maybe this is why the predominantly Christian/Fascist/Capitalist elements in American society always refers to any dissenter as being Pinkie, Communist, Godless, regardless of what their actual political or ideological persuasion may be.
The catholic church declined in France because many priests were collaborators.
I know many Catholics and other Christians, most are people of integrity and kindness whom I love dearly.
However…. Absolutism. Conform or be condemned,
Supreme authority, anti Jew, World domination, the list is endless. Now to whom am I referring? Nazism or Catholicism. Not surprising really, the ideology of the former had its roots in the latter.
Even the methods are similar. Indoctrination from the cradle, repetitive assertions of moral, physical and ideological superiority. To a less structured degree this attitude prevails in the U S A today, especially in the illiberal, evangelical, deeply patriotic,anti democratic, Bible Bashing Boondooks.
Tom Edgar (17). You are correct. I have to occasionally remind my Lutheran wife that some Nazis were members of her denomenation .
Austin is the wind beneath my wings.
AGB.
Thank you. I’m not sure how high in the Third Reich the influence of the Lutheran denomination was, but I do know it wasn’t in the highest echelons. For all that I think that Hitler himself, although a Catholic, would never really trust anybody who espoused a strong allegiance to another organisation’ leaders. He had less fear of Pius than the fear Pius ever had of him.
Impiously I imagine he thought.
“Once inside the Pearlie Gates I’ll be in charge.” Won’t make a lot of difference anyway
John Hanks 18. There was a much greater decline in Rabbis in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic third Reich for different reasons.
“I BELIEVE!!” I believe that John smith (1) and Joe (12) preached and ran!
Austin, your overview of the relationship between The Catholic Church and the National Socialists in Germany is historically accurate no matter how desperately Joe the Catholic wishes he could bully you into believing Catholic propaganda. My MA is in history & in the WWII classes I have had (including The Holocaust) we discussed how Pope Pius XII was an ardent anti-Communist which led him to work with the Nazi and Fascist regimes of the day. Surely Joe knows about the Catholic Rat Line that aided fleeing Nazi fugitives in evading capture using the authority of the Catholic Church to shield these war criminals and forge them new ID papers. Joe should start with John Cornwell’s book on the subject, “Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII” & maybe take a few history classes at a non-Catholic school to broaden his education. I wonder if Joe can answer why the Vatican has kept a 75-year lock on papal documents preventing researchers from viewing the Catholic Church’s files. John Cornwell was allowed partial access but what is the Vatican hiding?
You don’t even have to wait for WW2. There are plenty of archival photographs showing the Italian Troops being Priestly blessed prior to their departure to Abyssinia to kill the natives in the 30’s. each and every one of the Fascists a Roman Catholic.
Hey Austin,
First of all good job on the article! It really brings in a different side to a part of History that most people would have not considered.
Anyhow, I was wondering how I could contact you? Per mail would be great. I just have a few questions regarding this article as I am doing a project on something similar for school. It would be great if you wrote back asap.