Figure 1.--

Hitler and the NAZIs initiated an assault both on traditional Christian values, but religions institutions as well. The NAZI assault on Judism is best known. But here the focus were the Jews themselves and not the religion. One religion seen in more positive terms was Islam, in part because it was helful in the effort against Jews. It was Christianity that suffered most from the NAZIs, primarily because it posed the greatest danger to the NAZIs. Sects like the 7th Day Adventists were attacked because they opposed military conscriptiom. The mainstream church that suffered the greatest was the Catholics. Despite signing a Concordant with the Vatican in 1933, the NAZIs steadily undermined the power and influence of the Church in Germany and arrested many priests. Once World War II began, German policies toward religions varied from country to country. The Church in Poland was a symbol of Polish nationalism and relentlessly persecuted. Priests were arressted and thousand died in the concentration camps. The Church in France because of the anticlerical nature of the Revolution was less important as anational symbol and the NAZIs did not seek to totally destroy French national and cultural institutions, so it was not targetted by the NAZI occupiers.

Religious Sects

Hitler and the NAZIs initiated an assault both on traditional Christian values, but religions institutions as well.

Judiaism

The NAZI assault on Judism is best known. But here the focus were the Jews themselves and not the religion. The Nuremberg Laws defined a Jew in racial was well as religious terms. The NAZIs began with small steps that were incrementally expanded. First Jewish adults were targeted, but children also suffered. Jewish school children were assaulted at school and eventually expelled from state schools. Continued NAZI actions depriving adults of their livlihood and gradually their property turned Jews into dusplaced persons within Germany. Once World War II began, the NAZIs launched the Holocaust.

Islam

One religion seen in more positive terms was Islam, in part because it was helful in the effort against Jews.

7th Day Adventists

Sects like the 7th Day Adventists were attacked because they opposed military conscriptiom.

Protestants

Catholics

It was Christianity that suffered most from the NAZIs, primarily because it posed the greatest danger to the NAZIs. The mainstream church that suffered the greatest was the Catholics. Catholocism was a special target for the NAZIs, not only because of the the Church's moral influence, but because the Church in the 19th centuty and during the Weimar Republic had played an important role for moderation in German parlimmentary politics. Also the German Catholic Church was under the authority of the Pope and thus more difficult to dominate than the various national Protestant churches. The Churc also ran schools or played an importany role in many schools that they did not actually administer. The Catholic Church not only stood in the way of the NAZIs brutal use of terror, but it also oppossed some of the draconian racial and other eugencics programs such as sterilization and euthenasia which the NAZIs planned to adopt. Hitler soon after his seizure of power in 1933 negotiated a Concordat with the Vatican. Like the other agreements he signed, he violated the provisions of this agreement almost from the beginning and began almost immediately to attack the rights of Catholics. Catholics youth groups were exempted from the inintial actions by Von Schirach at the Hitler Youth when most German youth groups were either abolished or incorporated in the Hitler Youth. This was just temporary and a series of actions by the Hitler Youth and NAZI Government made it increasingly difficult for those young people wanting to remain in Catholic youth groups. Members of the Hitler Youth were prohibited from belonging to Church youth groups and Catholic youth groups were the most numerous and important. Membership in the Church youth groups also complicated education, especially university admissions as well as career choics. HJ membership, for example, was necesary for civil service appointments. [Gilbert, p. 15-16.] Despite signing the Concordat with the Vatican in 1933, the NAZIs steadily undermined the power and influence of the Church in Germany and arrested many priests. Once World War II began, German policies toward religions varied from country to country. The Church in Poland was a symbol of Polish nationalism and relentlessly persecuted. Priests were arressted and thousand died in the concentration camps. The Church in France because of the anticlerical nature of the Revolution was less important as anational symbol and the NAZIs did not seek to totally destroy French national and cultural institutions, so it was not targetted by the NAZI occupiers.

Germany

Religion came under attack by the NAZIs when they seized power in 1933. Christianity in Hitler's view served no purpose other than to undermine and limit what he wanted to accomplish in Germany. Himmler explained, "How different is yonder pale figure on the Cross, whose passivity and emphasized mien of suffering express only humility and self-abnegation, qualities which, we, conscious of our heroic blood, utterly deny... The corruption of our blood caused by the intrusion of this alien philosophy must be ended." [Blackburn, p. 155.] Religion was a difficult question for the NAZIs. Germany was a Christian nation. Most Germans thought of themselves as Christains, even many NAZI Party members. Hitler and his inner circle, however, were dismissive of Christianity. They wanted a new NAZI religion with national and racial connotations. The problem for the NAZIs was how to wean the German people from Christianity. Hitler had a very good sence about timing such matters, thus actions aganinst religious groups were only taken incrementally as the NAZIs eastablished their hold over Germany. In his assault on religion, Hitler used both the education system and the Hitler Youth. Educatng the children in schools was one approach. In this regards the German education system varied from state to state, but religious education was part of the curriculum in many German states. During the Third Reich many of the differences in the educational system in differnt regions of Germay were ended. The campaign against religion was also conducted in the Hitler Youth. Here often away from their parents, the campaign may have even been more effective than in the schools. There were alo many other actions taken against religion. The NAZIs in 1936 no longer allowed Christians to celebrate religious holidays on weekdays. [Koch, p. 172.]

Occupied Countries

Once World War II began, German policies toward religions varied from country to country. The Church in Poland was a symbol of Polish nationalism and relentlessly persecuted. Priests were arressted and thousand died in the concentration camps. The Church in France because of the anticlerical nature of the Revolution was less important as anational symbol and the NAZIs did not seek to totally destroy French national and cultural institutions, so it was not targetted by the NAZI occupiers.

Austria

Austria was in many ways an active participant rather than an occupied country. A reader writes, "It is necessary to say that the NAZI policies agains the Catholic church ran up against the deeply felt religious faith, thus in Bavaria and Austria the church continued to function almost normally. I have been told that the prisoners in Austria were even authorized to attend the Sunday mass. The Austrian babies had being continued to be baptised and probably in Germany too." Here we agree that the NAZIs did encounter difficulties with the religious faith in Austria and Bavaria. We do not beliece that the Church was able to function normally. This is a subject that we will persue in greater detail.

France

The Church in France because of the anticlerical nature of the Revolution was less important as anational symbol and the NAZIs did not seek to totally destroy French national and cultural institutions, so it was not targetted by the NAZI occupiers. A French reader tells us, "In the cities and villages of the occupied France, the mass of Sunday was celebrated normally. Catholic institution in France were not targetted by the NAZIs. Many jew were hiden or recieved a false baptism to escape the NAZI and French collaborationist Milice roundups. The Wehrmacht was not specialy against the Catholic religion, in part because many officers were Catholics themselves. The SS was a different matter". The acclaimed French film Au revoir les enfants is the story of one Jewish boy a French priest attempted to protect.

Poland

The Church in Poland was a symbol of Polish nationalism and relentlessly persecuted. Priests were arressted and thousand died in the concentration camps.

Sources

Blackburn, Gilmer W. Education in the Third Reich: Race and History in Nazi Textbooks. State University of New York Press: Albany 1985.

Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.

Koch, H. W. The Hitler Youth: Origins and Development 1922-1945. Stein and Day: New York, 1975.