Did the Churches collaborate with or resist the Nazi regime?

1. Did the Churches collaborate with or resist the Nazi regime?

2. Introduction • In most respects, the Christian and Nazi approaches to life seem poles apart. • However, both organizations shared some common outlooks, most notably for traditional cultural values, such as the importance of family life, and their hostility towards communism. • There was also, particularly in Lutheran Protestantism a tradition of respect for the state and nationalism. • Anti-Semitism, too, was not totally alien to the Christian tradition. • Hitler wanted to replace Christianity, a religion reflecting values of an inferior race, with a new, Aryan faith. • Furthermore, the churches were a potential obstacle to his reordering of the German people into committed followers of his totalitarian regime. • Hitler’s initial concern, was to gain some control of, and support from, the Church hierarchies, and then gradually to reduce their influences.

3. The Churches in Germany Churches Before 1933 Catholic -members 22 million -concentrated in west and south -powerful institutions with range of bodies, e.g. schools and charities Protestants -members over 40 million -mainly Lutheran -organized separately in 28 state- based churches -youth organizations Churches During the Third Reich The Reich Church -set up as an organization of the Protestant Churches -set up as a means of co-coordinating religion -the German Christians developed as a powerful movement German Christians -restructure Protestantism into a racially based brand of Christianity -known as the ‘SA of the Church’ -adopted Nazi style uniforms and salutes Confessional Church -1934 broke away from the Reich Church -defend the Protestant Church against state interference and false theology of German Christians • This topic is complicated because of the large number of different church groupings, and the Nazi regime’s gradual approach to replacing traditional Christianity.

4. German Faith Movement • Whereas the German Christians wanted to Nazify Christianity, the Faith Movement went further and wanted to replace Christianity with a new pagan Nazi faith. • It encouraged Germans to leave Christianity and adopt pagan rituals: for example the SS held marriages in RUNIC carved rooms.

5. Reich Church Bishop Ludwig Müller • The National Reich Church demands an immediate stop to the printing and sale of the Bible in Germany. • The National Reich Church will remove from the altars of all churches the Bible, the cross, and religious objects. • Mercy is an unGerman concept. The word mercy is one of the numerous terms of the Bible with which we have nothing to do. • On the altars there must be nothing but My Struggle.

6. The Effect of the treatment towards Churches by the Nazi Regime Policy Effect Stage 1: Control-gain as much control as possible over existing Churches a) Creation of a unified Protestant Reich Church b) Concordat agreement with Pope Failed since Confessional Church broke away Initial harmony; later criticism of State infringement of the Concordat Stage 2: Weaken-weaken hold of traditional Christianity a) Make Protestantism more Nazi via German Christians b) Undermine and reduce influence of Catholic faith Provoked reaction and increased support for Confessional Church Public hostility Stage 3: Replace-replace Christianity with a true Nazi religion Replace Christianity with German Faith Movement Only sporadic attempts to achieve this; postponed until after war

7. Reaction of the Churches to the Nazi state • The overwhelming majority of Germans were Christians and at the same time supported the regime, especially their leader, Hitler. • Many disliked particular measures the government took against the Churches, and sometimes expressed dissatisfaction that led the government to modify its approaches. • Christians often blamed anti-Church measures on radicals around Hitler; not Hitler himself. • The Churches were more concerned with protecting their own institutions and beliefs than in speaking out about the nature of the regime. • There were several critical statements from clerics, and in 1937 the Pope criticised the harassment of priests, Nazi idolatry (worship) of the state, and racism.

8. Opposition to the Nazi Regime Sophie Scholl a student at Munich university and one of the leaders of the White Rose group:

9. The White Rose Society (German, Die Weiße Rose) was a World War II-era resistance movement in Germany calling for nonviolent resistance against the Nazi regime. The group of Munich students released six leaflets from June 1942 to February 1943. A seventh leaflet, which may have been prepared, was never released because the group was captured by the Gestapo. The White Rose consisted of five students, all in their early twenties, at Munich University. Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie led the rest of the group, including Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf. They were joined by a professor, Kurt Huber, who drafted the final two leaflets. The men of White Rose were war veterans, who had fought on the French and Russian fronts. They were influenced by the German Youth Movement, of which Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were members. They had witnessed the German atrocities, both on the battlefield and during the Holocaust.

10. Humour as Resistance… • The Third Reich denied Germans free expression in most ways. • Humour, though, was a possible outlet to express feelings. • Anti-Nazi jokes were a low key expression of resistance to the regime and have been called a form of therapy. • F. Hillenbrand, a German who lived during the Third Reich, argues in his book Underground Humour in Nazi Germany, that the jokes in Nazi Germany reflected the widespread popular discontent that existed and that ‘humour…reveals most directly the mood of the time’ • Telling jokes was a dangerous affair; you needed to take precautions, for the penalty for anti-Hitler jokes could be death. • Jokes were risky and led to many people being sent to camps and executed for undermining morale.

11. Discussion Questions Do you agree with Hillenbrand’s comment on the value of jokes as a historical source that ‘humour…reveals most directly the mood of the time?’ Why or why not?_____________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Does the fact that German resistance failed to remove Hitler mean that it is historically unimportant?_______________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________