How Hitler Used Christianity To Scapegoat the Jews and Become Dictator

"Gott Mit Uns" Silver Belt Buckle of the Waffen SS

Few today know the fact that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used Christianity to scapegoat the Jews and use anti-Semitism to ascend the ladder of power. At one point, Hitler -- who often told audiences he was a Christian and a Catholic -- held an election to create a unified German "Evangelical Church", of "Positive Christianity" or German Christianity. "The Holy Reich: Nazi conception of Christianity, 1919-1945," by Richard Steigmann-Gall, Cambridge University Press, 2003, is an excellent book on a subject I thought I knew quite well.

How Hitler used Chritianity has clearly been covered up and not made clear to the general public, at least recently.



It is ignorance of this fact that allowed current right-wingers to use God to scapegoat gays and lesbians and ascend to power and the repeal of liberty -- as in "God said marriage is between a man and a woman".

Since those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, please remember to recommend.

Very interesting read. Thanks for posting.

Whether or not he thought himself a christian or held to more teutonic spiritual beliefs in private is up for debate however. As a man, he would promote anything in public, if he felt it would gain him some advantage.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich noted it but that book was a bestseller a loooong time ago.

goes back to Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. He was using this to resurrect German nationalism.

and Austria, so it wasn't a hard sell. It had more traction than, say gypsies (although they did get caught up in the net along with gays, lesbians, intellectuals, true religionists, communists, socialists, etc.).

themselves. We must.

The Barmen Declaration, 1934, was a call to resistance against the theological claims of the Nazi state. Almost immediately after Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, Protestant Christians faced pressure to "aryanize" the Church, expel Jewish Christians from the ordained ministry and adopt the Nazi "Führer Principle" as the organizing principle of church government. In general, the churches succumbed to these pressures, and some Christians embraced them willingly. The pro-Nazi "German Christian" movement became a force in the church. They glorified Adolf Hitler as a "German prophet" and preached that racial consciousness was a source of revelation alongside the Bible. But many Christians in Germany—including Lutheran and Reformed, liberal and neo-orthodox—opposed the encroachment of Nazi ideology on the Church's proclamation. At Barmen, this emerging "Confessing Church" adopted a declaration drafted by Reformed theologian Karl Barth and Lutheran theologian Hans Asmussen, which expressly repudiated the claim that other powers apart from Christ could be sources of God's revelation. Not all Christians courageously resisted the regime, but many who did—like the Protestant pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Roman Catholic priest Bernhard Lichtenberg—were arrested and executed in concentration camps.

great post!

by 1945, there was a fairly substantial historical record of his various deceits, both domestic and international.

if it disagrees with the point of view of said reader, they won't do it.
How many times have we been told that the great destroyers of the world were atheists?

So he laid the responsibility of the deaths of WW II on atheism.

and he was the founder, the planner, and the man who would lead the third reich into the future. he used religion as a tool to divide and conquer. it really has nothing to do with jesus, it has everything to do with mankind

I think not. But what of Martin Luther, Hitler's hero? Luther had preached to burn down the synagogues and Hitler said Luther was "the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews." Martin Luther wrote a book entitled The Jews and Their Lies:

did not know about Martin Luther, or rather I should say I didn't remember it. I remember my father talking about ML but I was young then and who listens to everything their father says, except for the negative things. ;)

Serously, I knew about anti-semitism in the churchs but did not think about it coming from anywhere but just them always saying that the Jews had killed Jesus. I didn't realize there was text that was written that blantantly called for their persecution. Thank you for showing us this, and doing so in such a way without mallice. I have learned a lot and been reminded of things I already knew, and even was reminded why somethings happened. If that sentence does not make sense, I'm sorry, but I know what I mean. :blush:

Anyway, thank you all for this thread and the information in it.

me. If one looks at Christianity from a historical context, the majority of Christians (except the Orthodox split in circa 1000 ) until the Reformation, were Roman Catholic.
That's right, the Reformation (the Protestant Movement (note: PROTEST in Protestant)) was bourne from discontent with the inconsistencies in the Roman teachings.

Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk and shared the anti-semetism commonly held by basically the entire Christian population during that time.

If you want emphasize the importance of Hitler's claim of Christianity, I understand that, but, if you are really interested in an accurate historical context, then, perhaps you should study the Christian church and it's development to balance the picture.

I wasn't going to log in this morning, but that misrepresentation of Luther really ticked me off. I am a Lutheran ELCA (liberal side) from an RC family, so, just understand that he was a direct reflection of the stage of Christianity during that period of time.

You are correct, at the time Luther was a Roman Catholic. Neither Catholic nor Protestant was mentioned in the post however.

It is most unfortunate that Luther wrote The Jews and Their Lies for both churches, so I understand why they would want to cover it up so badly.

My own point of view is that the Christian Church got off course when they rejected the Essene Jesus in the second and third centuries.

The Essene Jesus was very interesting. No miracles, raw food diet and lots of scholarship and clean, communal living. Google Essenes.

Texts from the Nestorians translated from the original Aramaic are the oldest Gospels but they were nevertheless not accepted in the Nicean Council of 325.

about Luther was that he was the first to translate the Bible into German thus preserving the language. Luther never claimed to be perfect - just the opposite. He considered himself "sinful and unclean" and in need of forgiveness. Though he shared the European attitude toward Jews and any other foreigner I do not think he would have fallen for Hitler because it was obvious that from the first Hitler took what he wanted from any body of literature to build his own religion.

Also I suggest that no one can know for sure what ones inner beliefs are: thus we do not know if Hitler was Catholic or atheist. What we do know is that he was Nazi.

.. seems to have insisted on everybody else worshipping him.

You wrote, "Few today know the fact that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis used Christianity to scapegoat the Jews and use anti-Semitism to ascend the ladder of power."

That's widely known - you just learn about it now?

And when Tim Russert heard Rick Warren say Hitler was an atheist and so religion cannot be held responsible in any way for the Holocaust, it was only a few weeks ago.

People have forgotten. Go ahead and ask some people around you if they know of this. Be interesting to find out in a poll really.

I did not remember this until Rick Warren said Hitler was an atheist on MTP, and then I started asking around...

Many others do not. A few years ago I was teaching a college ethics class and found out that several of my students did not know that 6 million Jews were killed for being Jews in WWII. I learned about this in 7th grade, apparently they first learned about it when I brought Holocaust survivors to a class session in 1995.

than that we won WWII. None of the ideology that brought it on.

but that doesn't mean few believe we went to the moon.

many fundamentalist-christians/radical-republicans claim Hitler was an atheist and a "Disciple of Darwinism." They Compare his encouragement of selective breeding of an Aryan master race to evolution/atheism. These people are loud and completely ignorant of the fact that passive eugenics has NOTHING to do with evolution by natural selection.

Given that the Holocaust is blamed on him, and he is seen as a monster.

In their view:

Hitler = Monster

Christian = Good Person

People want to believe they could never have been like Hitler. This illusion is so much easier to believe, if you think he believed differently than you.

on this subject- actually it was her doctoral dissertation. Its called Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (published in 1974). I read it cover to cover many years ago and its excellent.

http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Fratricide-Rosemary-Radford-Ruether/dp/0965351750

http://nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

Hitler Oath:

I swear by God,
this holy oath,
to the Führer of the German Reich and people.
Adolf Hitler...

lots more there.

The Third Reich, brought to you by the Knights of Malta.

first got their start.

to explain away Hitler's Christianity.
They say Hitler was not a true Christian. Logical fallacy.

Interesting photo gallery of Nazi era church. The symbolism is startling.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9MTI5NDEmbnI9Mw_3_3,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,594882,00.jpg


Here’s a link to the parent article.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,405922,00.html

A lot of people on DU have read this one.

But for those who haven't, get it (I think author's name was Karl Meyer or Myer)

The author moved to Germany in early 1950's and while pretending to be a non-Jew,
befriended people who the author believed to have been the typical German person alive and active during the Thrid Reich.

He choose ten of these Germans to portray in the book, and they run the gamut of personalities. Among the ten is one individual so fanatical that he helped start a fire at a Synagogue on Kristelnacht; as well as someone who helped sneak his Jewish friends and colleagues out of the country.

The fanatic details how after he became entrenched in the Nazi movement - he abandonned his own Christian religion, even leaving his little daughter's bedroom at night when she said her bedtime prayers.

His only loyalty was to Hitler.

This included removing words such as Sabaoth, Jehova, Hallelujah, and Jerusalem. And the "Ten Commandments" expanded to twelve, including "Honor Thy Fuhrer":

From Bild (7? August 2006):

Bei ihm gab es 12 Gebote
Hitler ließ die Bibel umschreiben
Von PAUL C. MARTIN

... „Deutsche mit Gott – ein deutsches Glaubensbuch“.

Darin Zwölf statt der traditionellen Zehn Gebote mit Vorschriften wie „Halte das Blut rein!“ oder „Ehre Führer und Meister!“ ...

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/aktuell/2006/08/07/hitler-bibel-umschreiben/hitler-bibel-umschreiben.html

The caption is "Long Live Germany."

when i took comparative religion in high school i realized that people everywhere saw god in their own likeness. they were talking to themselves.
i can imagine, can you?

in GD?

Is there some way to get it moved back -- I haven't even read it yet and firmly believe that it contains important information most people should be aware of. To pawn it off in the Religion and Theology forum is simply -- well, wrong. (I actually have at least one much stronger word for it, but I'll leave that one out of this.)

this should be in GD so it can make the top 10 and more read it.

No one knows about this!

#30 was last one in GD...

them, just after posting here, but haven't heard back.

I love notes like this.

Recommendations and opinions on things not yet read.

he could to sway the people and in a nation full of "christians" he would have naturally used what they wanted to hear. If he had been in present day Iraq or Iran it would have been Islam that he would have twisted. Thinking for ones self is one of the most important rights we have. When you hear hate spewed from any source: Stop, Think.

to build his army and they where all willing to do so, but hey don't let that bother you!

Or maybe they used him. Hitler died but corporations profited greatly.

And then nazi spies ended up spying for the US against the USSR immediately after WW2 - virtually no US agents were involved. Nazis -who had just lost a war- ended up playing a key role in the start of the next war.

Thanks! It is always good to learn more of history, and I didn't know much of this.

In fact, if you read the Bible, many in the Bible did the same. King David was just as vicious as Hitler, but that is not what God wanted (it's in the prophets). Most conquerors throughout time have used religion, law, or something to give meaning to their expansionist and controlling ways, whether they believed it or not.

But, this does not detract from the teachings of Jesus in any way. Bad people prove the teachings/rules, not negate them. Had Hitler followed the teaching of Jesus, would he have acted as he did? And by the teachings of Jesus, I don't mean to take out of context one or two line, but truly follow the meaning of Jesus' word. (The same could be true for many religions/philosophies. If people really followed the intention and not the literal, things would be much better)

But it makes you realize how Rush Limbaugh, the Christian Coalition and the Republican right-wingers are hurtling down the same track with their hate talk.

Even as a Christian, it bothers me immensely to see the doctrinal religion used in various ways. Really bothers me. They need to go back and *study* their scriptures, not just read and chery-pick.