You Mean Hitler Wasn?t A Priest?

National Review Online ^ | Dave Shiflett

[VinnyTex]

You Mean Hitler Wasn?t A Priest?
The truth is, in fact, out there.

Dave Shiflett is coauthor of Christianity on Trial .
January 21, 2001 8:40 a.m.

 

shocking story has been revealed: Adolf Hitler was not a Christian after all. Instead, he hoped to destroy Christianity. This news flash comes courtesy of a group of students at Rutgers University School of Law at Camden, who have posted papers on a website detailing Hitler's desire to eradicate Christianity. The documents are from the archives of Gen. William J. Donovan and were originally prepared for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, so we can safely assume they are authentic.

To be sure, Hitler's antagonism toward Christianity will not be news to everyone. That its central figure hails from a Jewish family did not set well with him, and its teachings of universal love ran contrary to his violent precepts. Yet one could easily get the impression, these days, that Hitler believed himself to be something of an altar boy on a mission for God.

The Rutgers project's editor, for example, seems to have been taken a bit by surprise. Julie Seltzer Mandel told the Philadelphia Enquirer that "When people think about the Holocaust, they think about the crimes against Jews, but here's a different perspective." The Nazis, she says, "wanted to eliminate the Jews altogether, but they were also looking to eliminate Christianity."

That will unsettle those who have been taught that Hitler was a Christian of some stripe ? and indeed, by some accountings, an enthusiastic Catholic. Bill Clinton, for example, said at the 1999 National Prayer Breakfast that "I do believe that even though Adolf Hitler preached a perverted form of Christianity, God did not want him to prevail." Meanwhile, at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum, a film portrayed Hitler as an overzealous son of Rome. "Enter Adolf Hitler," the narrator intoned, "Austrian born and baptized a Catholic." Hitler's mission: "In defending myself against the Jews," he is quoted as saying, "I am acting for the Lord. The difference between the Church and me is that I am finishing the job."

That film was altered after protests by, among others, conservative Jewish writers. But the same message crops up elsewhere. Soon after the September 11 attacks, a spokeswoman for the Freedom From Religion organization pronounced Hitler a Catholic. In 1999, Maureen Dowd included Hitler as yet another Christian zealot. According to Dowd, "History teaches that when religion is injected into politics ? the Crusades, Henry VIII, Salem, Father Coughlin, Hitler, Kosovo ? disaster follows."

Hitler was indeed a baptized Catholic, but his rejection of the faith was profound. "My pedagogy is strict," he once explained. "I want a powerful, masterly, cruel and fearless youth... There must be nothing weak or tender about them. The freedom and dignity of the wild beast must shine from their eyes... That is how I will root out a thousand years of human domestication."

That domestication, of course, was in large part due to the influence of Christianity. Hitler was blunter still on other occasions. "It is through the peasantry that we shall really be able to destroy Christianity," he said in 1933, "because there is in them a true religion rooted in nature and blood." His countrymen would have to choose: "One is either a Christian or a German. You can't be both."

Indeed, he understood all too well that Christianity, in the long run, was his enemy. "Pure Christianity ? the Christianity of the catacombs ? is concerned with translating the Christian doctrine into fact. It leads simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely wholehearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." Switch a few words around and you'd think you were listening to Joseph Stalin. And like Stalin, Hitler believed history was on his side: "Do you really believe the masses will ever be Christian again? Nonsense. Never again. The tale is finished... but we can hasten matters. The parsons will be made to dig their own graves."

That promise was to come true in a frightful number of cases. Polish Christians felt the full force of the persecution, as historian John Morley reminds us. "In Poland, both Jews and Christians were objects of Nazi oppression and manipulation." The clergy were a chief target: "In West Prussia, out of 690 parish priests, at least two-thirds were arrested, and the remainder escaped only by fleeing from their parishes. After a month's imprisonment, no less than 214 of these priests were executed... by the end of 1940 only twenty priests were left in their parishes ? about three percent of the number of parish priests in the pre-war era." The toll of murdered Polish priests would rise into the thousands; their Protestant counterparts (though a much smaller group) fared no better, with many members of the clergy perishing in the camps.

The Rutgers site's presentation is entitled "The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches," and it notes a deep hatred of Christianity throughout the higher echelons. "Important leaders of the National Socialist party would have liked to meet this situation [church influence] by complete extirpation of Christianity and the substitution of a purely racial religion." Their assault was massive: "Different steps in that persecution, such as the campaign for the suppression of denominational and youth organizations, the campaign against denominational schools, the defamation campaign against the clergy, started on the same day in the whole area of the Reich... and were supported by the entire regimented press, by Nazi Party meetings, by traveling party speakers."

None of which is to suggest that Christians were uniformly opposed to Hitler, or that some did not actually embrace the Reich. The lesson from Rutgers, however, is that Hitler was no altar boy, acting on behalf of the Christian faith. Indeed, his hope was to be its undertaker ? which was another of his profound miscalcul

[ThJ1800]

Neither, I went to a small town public school in East Texas, but did not learn about this in school. My father's parents are in their eighties. My grandfather served in Japan, during American occupation, and my great uncle served on the European front, where he took part in liberating a concentration camp. My grandmother(aka, Mawmaw) has read a lot about Hitler and can tell you just about anything you would ever want to know about the man. Plus, they have a lot of books about WWII, some of which I read.

[r9etb]

The point is, excommunication was a political tool and was used against people regardless of whether they were part of the church or not, and regardless of whether they were the intended victim or someone that might help them.

There is no comparison between an Elizabethan excommunication and what should/shouldn't have happened in the case of Hitler.

The position of the Catholic Church in England was very much an open issue at the time. Queen Mary was an avid Catholic, and there were Catholic kings and queens following Elizabeth. The excommunication of Elizabeth was thus a political act, but it was also something more than political.

A primary feature of the Church of England is that it is established: IOW, the King/Queen have the right and responsibility of appointing bishops. Thus the Catholic church also had a canonical interest in the matter which wasn't finally resolved for decades after Elizabeth's death.

None of that applies to Hitler.

[RobbyS]

Before you go to sleep, you might look up Catholic Action and what happened to it under Mussolini.

[irishjuggler]

I find it particularly offensive when "Catholic" politicians trumpet their pro-abortion credentials in their campaign ads on television and radio. It's bad enough to support abortion, but to use abortion to hustle for votes is really low. Gray Davis is running ads like this right now. He should be excommunicated. The problem, though, is that excommunication might end up helping him. About ten years ago, a "Catholic" politician was running for some office (state senator?) in San Diego. She spent so much time bragging about her pro-abortion views that the local bishop announced that she should be denied communion. The media picked up the story and spinned it as "nice lady being picked on by oppressive church," and, sure enough, the woman ended up winning the race in which she had entered as an underog.

[RobbyS]

You might add that people have called Pius V a "holy idiot" for issuing the excommunication, since the immediate effect was to make Catholic Englishmen subject to choose between arrest and taking an oath to support Elizabeth.

[breakem]

I remember that story, but the point is for the church to be true to its teachings. Excommunication is not intended as a tool for effecting the outcome of the election.

[ventana]

Not seeing anything there related to abortion. A link to a group called CTA--"called to action" indicates they're a pretty scary bunch.

I have a reason for wanting to know about nuns involved in abortion providing as a nun who does a lot of social justice work in these parts indicated, by a verbal slip, what I took as support for abortion.

I was chiding her on the extreme amount of pandering to the young unmarried women with babies. We constantly have giving trees at our church and they get enough stuff to have five kids. This sounds uncharitable, I know, but how about some hand me downs? I object only that it seems an undignified celebration of illegitimate birth and no stigma attaches. Stigma has an important place, or had. She said: "for those we work with who choose to have their babies," or some such statement which was ambiguous at the least. V's wife.

[KC_Conspirator]

Utter silence ensued after I gave her my tongue lashing. I figured that I was not enjoying the class anyway and that I would be a marked man after that.

[AnalogReigns]

A question to knowledgeable Romanists out there: Does the Roman Church ever excommunicate persons who are dead? Also as to only excommunicating "practicing Catholics," haven't a LOT of people been excommunicated in the past who didn't claim to be under the authority of Rome?

The fact that Hitler, baptized a Roman Catholic, (and marrying Eva von Braun in a Roman Catholic ceremony right before death? I'm not certain that is true...) wasn't ever formally excommunicated really does bother me... The latae sententiae argument notwithstanding, it seems a cop-out. I mean by definition every heretic of any kind has a self-made latae sententiae excommunication BEFORE formal public excommunication, by default...excommunication is as much for the sake of the Body as it is for the person who is thrown out. The biblical pattern of I Corinthians shows excommunication's purpose is to purge the Church and hopefully to bring the excommunicant into repentance... Latae sententiae excommunication does neither of those two things. For example, I'm sure there are many uninformed (or ill-informed) Roman Catholics, otherwise faithful, who are influenced by the pro-choice Catholic arguments... however if they knew these were no longer Catholic, they would not be so influenced. Similarly there probably are even believing otherwise faithful Catholics who, due to liberal brain washing, are "pro-choice," who, given a choice between formal, public, excommunication and promoting abortion would choose to abandon their pro abort ways... So why is the Church silent?

The Hitler issue was recently brought up by an intelligent friend recently (not a Catholic basher), and it does strike me as bizarre...

[Askel5]

I have a reason for wanting to know about nuns involved in abortion providing as a nun who does a lot of social justice work in these parts indicated, by a verbal slip, what I took as support for abortion.

That's PRECISELY what it was. These are some savvy chicks, make no mistake about it. There are certain linese they can't APPEAR to cross.

Have you ever read "Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism"? I can't recommend it highly enough. All of these groups are related, like some sticky spider's web. The book is an excellent catalogue of major players as well as an insight to their tactics and belief systems.

They are definitely pro-aborts but far more clever and insidious than the NOW types. They're working the "inside" as it were.

[Askel5]

The book is by Donna Steichen, btw.

[pgkdan]

Hitler should have been excommunicated. Any Institution that will dig up a dead mans bones and burn them 50 years later should have communicated the Evil catholic Hitler.

That's nonsense, only those who consider themselves to be "in communion" with the Church at large and the Holy See in particular can be excommunicated.

[ventana]

Sigh, Askel, we fight without/ within. I just had to take my daughter's school principle to task about an religion class Epiphany gospel activity to be celebrated by observing seven days of Kwanzaa activities. What is up with all this? I don't have enough fingers for the dike. V's wife.

[RobbyS]

No, Hitler and Eva Braun were married by a civil servant named Wagner. Despite the above, you seem unable to accept that Hitler was not even nominally a Catholic. He was in the strictest sense, an apostate, as he had rejected not only the Church but Christ.

[RobbyS]

Wouldn't it be better if he were confronted by some lay organization, such as the K of C.? A local council might buy an ad in a local paper timed to appear wheere he was and to demand to know where he stands.

[Romulus]

Does the Roman Church ever excommunicate persons who are dead?

No. Dead people are beyond the authority of the Visible Church. It would make no sense to excommunicate them.

Also as to only excommunicating "practicing Catholics," haven't a LOT of people been excommunicated in the past who didn't claim to be under the authority of Rome?

Martin Luther and Calvin were definitely one-time Catholics. The case with Elizabeth I is murky, but arguable, since she received Trinitarian baptism, probably by immersion, by the Bishop of London who was certainly validly ordained. (Not that ordination is necessary to confer Christian baptism, but it tends to stengthen the agument that Elizabeth was a Catholic at some point in her life, and almost certainly received the Sacrament.

The fact that Hitler, baptized a Roman Catholic, (and marrying Eva von Braun in a Roman Catholic ceremony right before death? I'm not certain that is true...)

I have never heard that Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun was religious, and inthe absence of good evidence, would not be inclined to believe it.

... wasn't ever formally excommunicated really does bother me... The latae sententiae argument notwithstanding, it seems a cop-out.

You are entitled to this opinion. If the Church somehow erred in not proceeding with the fruitless and extraordinarily provocative act of a public excommunication (and I doubt that not to do so was an error), it was merely a political error, at a time of terrible danger, when the fruits of such a vain gesture would have been vastly outweighed by mortal risks needlessly imposed upon millions of Catholics.

[Romulus]

Shouldn't it be Pope Fourthus IV, Pope Fifthus V, and Pope Sixtus VI?

LOL; it's a good joke, but the name Sixtus actually has little to do with the Roman habit of naming successive children after ordinal numbers (Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, for example). "Sixtus" (spelled with an "i", not "e", N.B.) is the Latinized spelling of a name that was originally rendered "Xystus", itself a slightly corrupted spelling of the Greek nickname Xystos, meaning "shaved." The fact that Xystus/Sixtus was the sixth successor of St. Peter probably contributed to the popular adoption of the Romanised spelling.

[Clemenza]

Are you like that idiot Presbyterian kid (he was a devout attendee of Coral Ridge Church, led by JD Kennedy) who for some bizarre reason attended my Catholic High School. If you believed hime, Catholics wanted to overthrow the Consititution and institute Socialism.

The fact is there has ALWAYS been a tension in the Church between those who wanted more temporal power and those who wanted a more purely spiritual role. Unfortunately, those attracted to the bureaucracy of the Church have often been of the latter.

yes, the Lateran Treaty is no big secret. What is wrong with having one's own state? Hell, I would let the Mormons have Utah if they truly wanted it.