HITLER WORKING THE CHRISTIAN CROWD

Hugh Fogelman

 

 

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the 1930’s Protestants constituted 49 percent of the German Christians; Catholics about 45 percent. The Protestants followed Martin Luther’s teachings. Martin Luther who at first liked the Jews (saying they were better than Catholics), but that “like” turned to hatred, when the Jews refused to convert to Christianity. Luther then wrote literature urging that Jews must be driven out of all Christian countries (see The Jews and their Lies, by Martin Luther).

 

In the early stages of Hitler's career, he rarely failed to appear as the champion of that picture of Jesus that can be found in most textbooks. In Mein Kampf (p. 336) Hitler exalted, "the great founder of the new teaching," who "drove the enemies of every form of humanity out of the Temple of the Lord." When people retorted that as human beings and as Christians, they could not be anti-Semites, Hitler replied: "My Christian feelings show me my lord and saviour as a fighter who recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them." ("The Riddle of the Jew's Success," Theodor Fritsch,  1887)

 

In a speech on 12th April 1922, Hitler went on to say:


"In boundless love, as a Christian and a human being, I read the passage (in the New Testament) which tells us how the lord at last rose in his might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple broods of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. I realize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that he had to shed his blood upon the cross."


That the "Jewish hucksters" killed "the great Nazarene" was commonplace in Hitler's speeches and nothing impressed him so much as the violence ascribed to Jesus, the "scourge,” the "fist and the sword


A quote from Hitler in Mein Kampf; "By destroying the Jews, I am fighting Christ's battles." Mein Kampfclimbed to Turkey's Best Seller List in March 2005 ― turned out to be the best source for finding anti-Jewish statements made by Hitler. After WWII at the Nuremberg trials held in Germany, one of the Nazi henchmen emotionally declared that Luther, if alive today, should be on trial with us.

 

On the night of Martin Luther’s birthday, November 9-10, 1938:

 

     191 Synagogues throughout Germany were set on fire; 76 were completely destroyed;

     815 Jewish-owned shops were demolished;

       29 Warehouses and 171 Jewish homes were set on fire or destroyed;

       36 Jews were murdered and

30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps

 

That night has become infamously known as Kristallnacht or the “Night of the Broken Glass.”

 

Paul Althaus, a Lutheran theologian of renown in Germany, warmly greeted the rise of Hitler. He wrote that, "The Protestant churches have greeted the political turning point as a gift and miracle of God" ('Die deutsche Stunde der Kirche', p.5). Many times Althaus explained to Christians his preference for the Third Reich over the former Weimar Republic. "We Christians know," he stated, "that we are bound by God's will to the promotion of National Socialism, so that all members of the people will be ready for service and sacrifice." ('Kirche and Staat', p. 29)

 

In one respect at least, Hitler differed from the traditional church doctrine. He claimed Jesus as "our greatest Aryan leader." Was Hitler's Jesus blond, with blue eyes?  Hitler spoke of "the tragedy of the Germanic world, that... Jesus was judaized, distorted, falsified and an alien Asiatic spirit was forced upon us. That is a crime we must repair." (Kurt Georg Wilhelm Ludecke, I Knew Hitler, The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge, London: Jarrolds, 1938, p. 465-466)


All these references to Jesus date from the early part of Hitler's career. They served the purpose of gathering respectable Christian support and no doubt, many churchgoers fell for the trick. This was, after all, long before the "German Christians" themselves were paraded into the political arena (in 1933). Later, the "great Nazarene" disappeared and was replaced by either the "Word God" or non-descript "Providence", whose sole justification was to guarantee the success of Hitler's policies.

 

Hitler addressing the world at the passion plays of Oberammergau in 1942 said: "his blood be on us and our children...(Matthew 27:25), maybe I’m the one who must execute this curse.... I do no more than join what has been done for more than 1500 years already. Maybe I render Christianity the best service ever!”


In a document signed by many Christian theologians it was stated, "We as believing Christians thank God our Father that he has given to our people in its time of need the Fuhrer as a pious and faithful sovereign, and that he wants to prepare for us in the National Socialist system of government, good rule, a government with discipline and honor. Accordingly, we know that we are responsible before God to assist the work of the Fuhrer in our calling and in our station in life." (Ansbacher Ratschlag, p. 145)

Another high ranking Christian theologian, Leutheuser, believed that the Holy Spirit moves where it chooses, and stated that, "more spirit of religion has come to Germans through Hitler, than through many of the churches." (Julius Leutheuser, Die deutsche Christusgemeinde, p. 18, 19). This same Christian leader asserted that "Germany has been given a mission from God. The leader and prophet is Adolf Hitler." (Siegfried Leffer, Christus im Drittem Reich der Deutschen, p. 13-18)


The Vatican under Pope Pius XII made a Concordat of collaboration with National Socialism. Hitler's portrait was placed on all walls of Catholic churches and Sunday schools in Germany. Church bells rang at every Nazi victory, including the arrest and transportation of the last Jew from every town in Germany. The Roman Catholic Church never protested against Hitler's barbarism including the massacre of a million and a half Jewish children. (Dictionary of anti-Semitism, p. 43)

At a Church conference, Hitler affirmed that the Catholic Church has always regarded Jews as evildoers and had banished them into ghettos. He (Hitler) is only doing what the Church had been doing for fifteen hundred years (ibid, p. 79). In a speech to Polish Catholics, Hitler declared: "I as a German Catholic, ask only what is permitted to Polish Catholics. To be anti-Semitic is not to be un-Catholic. The Church used every weapon against the Jews, even the Inquisition. Christ himself was a pioneer in the fight against Judaism." (ibid, p. 146)

An interesting quotation appears in the Encyclopedia Britannica under “German Christians:”


"Protestants attempted to subordinate church policy to the political exigencies of Nazi Germany. The German Christians' Faith Movement, organized in 1932, was nationalistic and so anti-Semitic that extremists wished to repudiate the Old Testament and the Pauline Letters because of their Jewish authorship. In July 1933 the state territorial churches merged to form the German Evangelical Church, and in September the German Christian candidate, Ludwig Muller, became Reichsbishop. Muller's efforts to make the church an instrument of Nazi policy were resisted by the Confessing Church, under the leadership of Martin Niemoller. After World War II the German Christian Church party was banned.”

Christians have asked; “Where do you come up with the idea that Hitler was a Christian? Everyone knows that he was Jewish, at least part Jewish.” As usual Christians try again to put the blame on the Jews. Then they soften their approach by saying; “Hitler had no love for either Christians or Jews, but thought that the Jews were the worse of the two "evils." Wrong! There was no Jewish blood in Hitler at all. As a boy, Hitler sang in a church choir and thought one day he would become a priest.  But as an adult he said Christianity was a religion for weaklings. Hitler went to church (the Roman Catholic Church), and he even told the world that he was doing what the New Testament asked of him.

 

But, Christians say; “However, many Roman Catholic priests were put to death in the gas chambers as well.” The truth is anyone caught in open defiance of Hitler was sent to the gas chambers. The key word here is “anyone.”  Sadly, Rome was mute on the subject of the Jew because of the early alliance with Mussolini. Much as any dictator, Hitler knew how to use religion to affect his rule. He knew that most Germans were Lutheran. After all, the Lutherans and Episcopalians had a big war or two just so that Germany could be Lutheran (never mind the Catholics). So, Hitler used Martin Luther’s letters, which he knew Protestants understood, to get “rid of those damn Jews.”

 

Once presented with the facts, I have heard Christians say over and over that "he (Hitler) wasn't REALLY a Christian or he wouldn't have done those things." and I've heard "the church didn't REALLY understand Christianity or there would not have been the Crusades."

 

They *were* indeed Christians. ALL of them were Christians. They were the TRUE Christians. “A tree is known by its fruits”―Matthew 7:15-19

 

CONCLUSION

 

QUESTION:

What did those Protestants and Catholics have in common?

From where did Hitler get his quotes?

 

ANSWER:

THE COMMON DENOMINATOR―THE NEW TESTAMENT―the fictitious anti-Jewish hate book!

Jews call it “The book of lies!”

 

 

 

 


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