When faced with Islamic terrorism,such as the recent hostage situation in Sydney, Australia, many commentators, mostly on social media platforms, take up the banner of trying to defend the Islamists. Often, they shift the goal posts to things like “there are extremists of every religion”, ” you can’t blame Islam for this”, “most Muslims are peaceful” and other variants of the same arguments, trying to willfully deny reality and the threats that face Western society . Often, comparisons are made to organizations such as the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, the Irish Republican Army and even the LRA of Kony 2012 fame (incidentally, a friend of mine wrote something quite good on this topic, which I may post on this site if I gain permission). Another claim, which will be the focus of this piece, is that individuals like to argue that we do not blame Christians for the [alleged] atrocities that Adolf Hitler is [allegedly] responsible for even though he was a Christian. To put it politely, this claim demonstrates that those who espouse it are radically ill informed and to put it less politely, probably stupid.
Hitler laughs at the ill informed
Adolf Hitler’s religious views are a complex topic, much like religion in Germany from 1933-1945. While it is true that he was raised Roman Catholic, that does not mean you will always remain so. Hitler’s views changed throughout his life and even seemed to contradict sometimes. It’s difficult to tell. In Mein Kampf, according to Manheim’s 1998 translation, Hitler did have these things to say about religion:
“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (p. 65)
“Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise.” (p. 383)
It is important to note that Mein Kampf was written whilst Hitler and fellow party members were imprisoned after the failed Munich Putsch (8-9 November, 1923). Mein Kampf, whilst part autobiography and part political manifesto, the intention was that it should be written to be read by all sectors of German society. We can regard these things as his ‘public religious views’, which Christian motifs ran quite clearly through public speeches.
“Political parties has nothing to do with religious problems, as long as these are not alien to the nation, undermining the morals and ethics of the race; just as religion cannot be amalgamated with the scheming of political parties.” (p. 116)
This quote here clearly demonstrates that the NSDAP was, at least from the outset, not a specifically religious movement, mainly because it causes division.
The Early Days
Now, here’s where things begin to get tricky. From Dietrich Eckart’s Bolshevism: From Moses to Lenin (1924), Hitler had this to say about the Semitic nature of Christianity:
“Most of our revolutions,” he said, “whether initially with desirable goals or not, have
evolved under Jewish leadership. The revolutions of vulgar predisposition were, for the
most part, the work of Jews; and those with loftier tendencies were soon subverted into
a darker course by Jews. In the case of the struggling young Christianity, for example,
the Jews, quick as a flash, began hanging onto its coattails. Consider Paul, properly
called Schaul, who was a rabbinical student. That Schaul first chose the Romansounding
name, Saulus, and then had himself renamed Paulus gives cause for thought.
Still more, the fact that in the beginning he persecuted the fledgling Christian
community with first-rate ferocity. I don’t know: mass murderers who later become
saints—is that not too much of a marvel? Indeed, the Jew Weininger supposed that
Christ had also originally been a criminal. (56) But, my God, a Jew could say that a
hundred times, and it still need not be true on that account.
…..
“As a Jew, Paul certainly knew that of all the peoples of the world the Jews, first and
foremost, needed their souls saved. ‘Go not…to the Gentiles,…But go rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel,’ demanded Christ. (57) Paul ignored it. He went to the
Greeks and the Romans and brought them his ‘Christianity.’ A ‘Christianity’ with which
the Roman Empire became unhinged. ‘All men are equal! Brotherhood! Pacifism! No
more privileges!’ And the Jew triumphed.
……
“It certainly hits the nail on the head,” he rejoined. “It may be a long time yet before
Christianity recovers from Paul. Oh, what gullible souls we are! A Jew murders
hundreds of Christians; suddenly he notices that the rest only become even more
zealous; the well-known light dawns on him; he pretends to be converted, throws
himself into the great pose, and behold: even though he deviates in nearly all his
doctrines from the other apostles, we listen devoutly to his sermons. The simple
teachings of the Master, which the most childlike mind might comprehend, we must
have ‘explained’ to us by a Hebrew.”
“The Jew,” I replied, “certainly must be tempted to say, ‘Why are you so stupid that you
let everyone make fools of you?’ And there are many charmers and wizards who, on
account of his extraordinary cunning, or ‘spirituality’ as they call it, look upon him with
timid admiration.”
“If it depended on mere possessions,” he returned, “they would be justified. Someone
named Goldstein once boasted that the Jews administer the spiritual property of the
German people. (59) A pity that he didn’t add how they administer it.
…..
“And, you see,” he pounded on the table, “they alone are to be thanked that at least part
of our Christian heritage, as well as our other cultural legacy, has survived
administration by the Jews. Where are they? Where were they? Among high and low,
among the kings and the soldiers, among the popes and the mendicant friars, among the
learned and the illiterate, everywhere. But not among the nothing-but-rich; but not
among the nothing-but-clever; but not among the greedy and the insatiable; but not
among the Pöbelvolk. Here the Jew is at home. Whatever appears here in the way of
spiritual possessions he matter-of-factly administers; it is his own. Just as everything
was transformed into gold for King Midas, every deep and meaningful word is turned
into filth at his touch. But for the others, for the…”
“Vagabonds of the spirit,” I threw to him.
“Everything remains as of old,” he nodded. “There have been popes of Jewish blood.
(61) Also there has seldom or never been a shortage of other dignitaries of the same
descent in the Church. Was that which they stood for Catholicism? No, it was
Judaism. Let’s take just one thing: the selling of indulgences. The very essence of the
Jewish spirit. We are both Catholics, but dare we not say that? Are we really supposed
to believe that there has never been anything in the Church with which one can find
fault? Just because we are Catholics, we say it. That has nothing to do with
Catholicism. We know that Catholicism would have remained intact even if half the
hierarchy had consisted of Jews. A number of sincere men always held it high, though
often only secretly, many times even against the pope. Sometimes there were many
such men, sometimes few.
Mother Mary with the Holy Child Jesus Christ (1913) by Adolf Hitler. Back when Hitler actually was Christian
And the dialogue continues in a similar manner throughout. As we can see, Hitler was not so positive about Christianity, even in 1924. However, he kept making clear Christian allusions in public speeches, such as this, which is regularly quoted:
“We are a people of different religions, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls… We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity … in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.”
(Speech in Passau 27 October 1928 Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf; from Richard Steigmann-Gall (2003). Holy Reich: Nazi conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 60-61)
Quite simply, this is a lie. It is important to remember that these sorts of things are not quotes in a vacuum and context must be remembered. This was after Hitler had been released from prison. After failed coups. The NSDAP was taking part in the democratic process and as most people are aware, involves some lying. Even Hitler lied sometimes, democracy requires it. Besides, claiming the movement is Christian is a surefire way to gain instant votes. Lots of political parties do it,even today. Now, some might say that Hitler said even after he took power that the movement is Christian. That he did:
“The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life.”
(Speech delivered at Berlin 1 February 1933; from Adolf Hitler (1941). My New Order. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. p. 144.)
“And now Staatspräsident Bolz says that Christianity and the Catholic faith are threatened by us. And to that charge I can answer: In the first place it is Christians and not international atheists who now stand at the head of Germany. I do not merely talk of Christianity, no, I also profess that I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity. If many wish today to take threatened Christianity under their protection, where, I would ask, was Christianity for them in these fourteen years when they went arm in arm with atheism? No, never and at no time was greater internal damage done to Christianity than in these fourteen years when a party, theoretically Christian, sat with those who denied God in one and the same Government.”
(Speech delivered at Stuttgart 15 February 1933; from Norman H. Baynes, ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. 1. New York: Howard Fertig. p. 240.)
Yet privately:
“It is through the peasantry that we shall really be able to destroy Christianity,” and “One is either a Christian or a German. You can’t be both.” (Dave Shiflett, National Review January 2001 and Wheaton, Eliot Barculo The Nazi revolution, 1933–1935: prelude to calamity:with a background survey of the Weimar era, p. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968)
This is clear proof that Hitler was definitely not instituting the National Socialist program for Christian reasons. And why wouldn’t such a statement be made? The NSDAP was just beginning to consolidate their power, implementing an anti christian program right away would have been a surefire threat to their authority and would’ve caused unnecessary unrest. It would have been a disaster. As for the relationship with Catholic church itself, it was an uneasy one. From part of the early movement, a minority of Catholics in Munich were supportive. However, in 1931, German bishops excommunicated the NSDAP leadership and banned Catholics from joining. This seemed to preclude that the Catholic institution was going to cause trouble for the eventual National Socialist regime. Pope Pius XI had this to say in 1933 after the NSDAP took power:
“Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Antisemitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in antisemitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites.”
Pope Pius XI
In my opinion, nothing could be a more damning indictment for Christianity, or at least, it’s institutions. The Reichskonkordat was signed 20 July, 1933 and seemed to alleviate the unease between the State and Church. But it becomes even more complex after this, in spite of Hitler’s speeches with positive remarks about Christianity that continued throughout the years, that just further demonstrates his remarkable oratory skills. Briefly, I must stop here to make an important note to the reader. Despite Adolf Hitler becoming the Fuhrer and people’s regular mistake on blaming every action on a dictator when in fact, he did not make every decision himself and much of his inner circle were once part of the Thule Society and these individuals definitely imported some of their views into Reich policy. However, de-christianization had begun without the bizarre nature of the French Revolution or the sheer brutality of the Soviet Union, but yet it had not.
According to Hans Schmidt’s letter, Living in Hitler’s Germany (Hoskins Report, Dec. 1993)
"At the very time when America's allies, the Soviets, destroyed most of the Christian churches in Russia and Ukraine, about 2500 new churches were built in Germany. NOT ONE Christian church was closed. It was the law that school and church had priority over service in the Hitler Youth. As late as the fall of 1944, the Waffen SS barracks in Breslau supplied two buses to take youth to either the nearest Catholic or Protestant church every Sunday. To be a registered member of a Christian church did not prevent advancement in the National Socialist Party."
Yet
“I am surprised and deeply shocked that the Reich Agricultural Corporation, to which every German farmer, man and woman, must belong, should have offered this Almanac…it is a deep insult to every Christian and Catholic feeling. The Saints’ Days, the mention of every Christian Feast Day, even Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, have disappeared. January 6th (The Three Kings) is ‘The Three Asir Day.’ February 22 (The Feast of St. Peter’s Chair) is the ‘Feast of Thor’s Chair.’ Ash Wednesday is ‘Ash Woden’s Day.’ On Maundy Thursday, the feast of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, there takes place the ‘consecration of the night-light oil.’ (!) Easter, the Resurrection of Our Lord, is the ‘Feast of Ostara’ (a German Spring goddess). Ascension Day is ‘Rescue of Thor’s Hammer.’…Christmas Eve is ‘The Birthday of Baldur, god of Light, and the Visit of the Infant Yule.” (Bishop Franz Rudolf in the Official Gazette of the Diocese of Trier, February 1, 1935, cited in The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the Third Reich, p. 355.)
and
“Churches of artistic and historic value will, of course, be preserved; they will be used for the solemn festivals of the German people, but naturally only after removing all Christian symbols…second and third rate churches, however, will be demolished…” (Ibid., pp. 487-8.)
Don’t Christians just love this obviously traditional Christian symbolism? :^)
The conclusions that:
“There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it.” (Griffin, Roger Fascism’s relation to religion in Blamires, Cyprian, World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1)
and
“Had the Nazis won the war their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the German Christians, to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and the Catholic Church.”
(Mosse, George Lachmann, Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich, p. 240, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2003)
and
“It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook.” (Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970)
are all very valid conclusions, . Additionally, the Positive Christianity movement also existed, which was seen as a ‘transitional faith’ towards what was perceived as the then more radical German Faith Movement, which sought to restore Germanic Paganism as the major religion and the part about having a sort of Hitler cult included would’ve made it something akin to a Germanic version of early Imperial Rome with the Imperial Cult of the Emperor.
But if we go back to my introduction, where many fools like to claim or at least, imply, that the alleged atrocities (ie; what is known as the ‘holocaust’) Hitler supposedly was responsibly for was in some part Christian as if it was comparable to ISIS or whatever Islamic or Semitic and anti white movement plagues us today. And it’s claimed that the ‘holocaust’ began in 1942 (which is a subject that I do not wish to get into in this piece, so I will let historian David Irving do it for me here, here, here and here) and alleged atrocities took place during the war years so let’s take a look at some of Hitler’s private religious views during, and a little bit before this time as we’ve already established his pro Christianity was something that was for public consumption.
“I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”
(Adolf Hitler in 1941 to General Gerhart Engel. In John Toland (1992). Adolf Hitler. New York: Anchor Publishing, p. 507.)
yet
Late in October and early in November 1937, Hitler deemed it “absolutely necessary” to reveal to a small group his new religious convictions and his plans for a policy of aggression. He did this in two ‘secret speeches,’ one in Berlin before the propaganda leaders of the Party, … While speaking before the propaganda leaders, Hitler’s topics included the following: … After long and bitter mental battles, he finally had divorced himself from the religious convictions that still existed from his childhood. “Now I feel as fresh as a colt in the pasture.”
( Max Domarus, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen (Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations) 1932–1945, kommentiert von einem deutschen Zeitgenossen, translated in Chris Wilcox and Mary Fran Gilbert (tr.), Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, 1932–1945: The Chronicle of a Dictatorship (1992), Vol. 2, “Top Secret Steps on the Road to War—The Hossbach Minutes”, p. 959, cited to “Notes taken by the author on October 31, 1937, according to information related by the Gau Propagandaleiter Waldemar Vogt (Würzburg, later Berlin)From WikiQuote)
Hitler speaks to a mass audience in Dortmund
And now from Table Talk:
“In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together. [On a question from C. S., whether this antagonism might mean a war, the Fuehrer continued:] No, it does not mean a war. The ideal solution would be to leave the religions to devour themselves, without persecutions. But in that case we must not replace the Church by something equivalent. That would be terrifying! It goes without saying that the whole thing needs a lot of thought. Everything will occur in due time. . . . The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity. Bolshevism practises a lie of the same nature, when it claims to bring liberty to men, whereas in reality it seeks only to enslave them. In the ancient world, the relations between men and gods were founded on an instinctive respect. It was a world enlightened by the idea of tolerance. Christianity was the first creed in the world to exterminate its adversaries in the name of love. Its key-note is intolerance. Without Christianity, we should not have had Islam. The Roman Empire, under Germanic influence, would have developed in the direction of world-domination, and humanity would not have extinguished fifteen centuries of civilisation at a single stroke. Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things. The result of the collapse of the Roman Empire was a night that lasted for centuries.”
(Night of 11-12 July 1941; pp. 6-7).
” Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure.”
(Night of 10 October 1941; p. 51.)
“The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity. Christianity is a prototype of Bolshevism: the mobilisation by the Jew of the masses of slaves with the object of undermining society. Thus one understands that the healthy elements of the Roman world were proof against this doctrine. Yet Rome to-day allows itself to reproach Bolshevism with having destroyed the Christian churches! As if Christianity hadn’t behaved in the same way towards the pagan temples.”
(Night 19 October 1941; p. 61. Entry in Bormann Vermerke but not in Henry Picker’s notebook.)
We have rigorously established Hitler ended up being no Christian. Was he a Pagan like some others? No, not really. He had some not exactly favorable words for it but saved his harshest criticism for Christianity and of course, Judaism:
“It seems to me that nothing would be more foolish than to re-establish the worship of Wotan. Our old mythology had ceased to be viable when Christianity implanted itself. Nothing dies unless it is moribund. At that period the ancient world was divided between the systems of philosophy and the worship of idols. It’s not desirable that the whole of humanity should be stultified—and the only way of getting rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little. A movement like ours mustn’t let itself be drawn into metaphysical digressions. It must stick to the spirit of exact science. It’s not the Party’s function to be a counterfeit for religion. If, in the course of a thousand or two thousand years, science arrives at the necessity of renewing its points of view, that will not mean that science is a liar. Science cannot lie, for it’s always striving, according to the momentary state of knowledge, to deduce what is true. When it makes a mistake, it does so in good faith. It’s Christianity that’s the liar. It’s in perpetual conflict with itself. One may ask whether the disappearance of Christianity would entail the disappearance of belief in God. That’s not to be desired. The notion of divinity gives most men the opportunity to concretise the feeling they have of supernatural realities. Why should we destroy this wonderful power they have of incarnating the feeling for the divine that is within them? The man who lives in communion with nature necessarily finds himself in opposition to the Churches. And that’s why they’re heading for ruin—for science is bound to win. I especially wouldn’t want our movement to acquire a religious character and institute a form of worship”
(Midday 14th October 1941; p. 61.)
What we can gather here is despite his opinion against the old mythology, this did not really matter: Hitler is not the be all and end all of National Socialism. We can also conclude that Hitler was something closer to a Deist and since National Socialism and Fascism in general is a revolutionary political movement (the revolutionary part is something people often forget), it would be reasonable for him to be focused on the material and temporal: he was more concerned about Germany and the German people. Whatever the National Socialist German Worker’s Party may be in one’s opinion, whether they are good or bad, one thing they most assuredly were not, is a Christian movement, in spite of some of their claims in speeches and some Christian party members.
So people, stop making stupid, ill informed comparisons to try and deflect and move the goal posts and try and ignore the threats which actually face us today. Because otherwise ordinary people become blinded and infected by stupidity and poor knowledge. This article in convincing my leftist opponents may be like cutting a tree down with a herring. With the ordinary people of the public, this sort of discussion is like an uphill battle, but hopefully articles like these help climb that hill and cut that tree.
Sometimes, you have to resist temptation
