Religion in Nazi Germany

Religion in Nazi Germany

By the end of this lesson…

Describe the treatment of Catholics and Protestants. (D3-C3)Describe changing treatment of Jews. (D3-C3)

Explain why Jews were treated in such a way. (C2-B2)Explain why Hitler had ‘beef’ with the church. (C2-B2)

NAZISM CHRISTIANITY

Glorified strength and violence

Teaches love and forgiveness

Despised the weak

Helps the weak

Believed in racial superiority

Respect for all people

Saw Hitler as a god-like figure

Belief in one God

Believed Christianity was a product of Judaism.

Christianity is most common religion in Germany.2/3 Protestant1/3 Catholic

Initially Hitler tries to control churches, not ban them.

The head of the Catholic church is the Pope who is

based in Rome. This meant that Catholics were not

completely loyal to Hitler.

Catholic schools and Youth organisations

existed which did not reinforce the Nazi

message.

Hitler didn’t like the Catholic church

because…

1933

Hitler and Pope sign ‘Concordat’. Church to stay out of politics and Hitler to leave the Church alone. Within months Hitler abolished

Catholic schools, monasteries and youth groups.Priests harassed.

1937 Pope Pius XI attacks Nazi abuses of human rights.Hitler responds by sending 400 priests to Dachau.

Protestant ChurchMartin Niemoller set up the ‘Emergency Pastors League’ in December 1933 in opposition to the Nazis.In 1934 they set up the ‘Confessional Church’.

Niemoller was arrested in 1937 and sent to a concentration camp.

The Confessional Church was soon banned.

The National Reich Church

This unified all 28 Protestant Church groups under Nazi pressure in 1933.

Ludwig Muller became Reich Bishop and Nazified the church.

Bible and cross removed from alter, replaced with a copy of Mein Kampf and a sword.

‘The Sswastika on our chests and the cross in our hearts’.

Who did I regard as ‘subhuman’ and why?

Hitler spent much time in Vienna which has a long tradition of ‘anti

semitism’. When he was at his lowest he grew to resent what he saw as the wealth of the Jews. Hitler saw

Jews as an evil force who were involved in a conspiracy to destroy

civilisation. In the 1920s he used the Jews as a scapegoat for all of Germany’s ills, blaming them for failure in WWI,

hyperinflation and the Great Depression.

Hitler also viewed those he saw as being ethnically Slavic as being

subhumans. These people tended to live in eastern Europe and did not fit with Hitler’s desire for an ethnically

pure Aryan master race.

Hitler believed that German’s future depended on an

ethnically pure master race. He intended to achieve this through

selective breeding and destroying the Jews.

1934, SA organised a ‘boycott of

Jewish shops and businesses.

1934, Jewish books burnt. Jews could no longer work in government

jobs.

15th September 1935, Nuremberg Laws passed. Only

those with ‘German blood’ could be citizens. Jews lose

citizenship and right to vote. Sexual relations and marriage forbidden between Jews and

Aryans.

1936, Jews banned from professions such as teaching

nursing and dentistry.

HOWEVER, lull in anti-semtism during

Olympics.

1938, Jews have to register their

possessions, carry identity cards, and Jewish doctors are

forbidden from treating Aryans.

1938, Jewish men have to add ‘Israel’ to first name, Jewish

women the name ‘Sarah’. Jews have red J stamped in passports.

Anti-Semtism in schools

• Young people encoruaged to hate Jews through teaching in schools and school textbooks portraying jews as evil money lenders responsible for Germany’s problems.• In October 1936 Jewish teachers forbidden to give private tuition. 1938 Jewish children expelled from German schools.

• Herschel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jew living in Paris, shot and killed a member of the German Embassy staff there in retaliation for the poor treatment his father and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany.

• The shooting in Paris provided an opportunity to incite Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance against the Jews.“

• On November 9, mob violence broke out as the regular German police stood by and crowds of spectators watched. Nazi storm troopers along with members of the SS and Hitler Youth beat and murdered Jews, broke into and wrecked Jewish homes, and brutalized Jewish women and children.

• All over Germany, Austria and other Nazi controlled areas, Jewish shops and department stores had their windows smashed and contents destroyed. Synagogues were especially targeted for vandalism, including desecration of sacred Torah scrolls. Hundreds of synagogues were systematically burned while local fire departments stood by or simply prevented the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings.

• About 25,000 Jewish men were rounded up and later sent to concentration camps where they were often brutalized by SS guards and in some cases randomly chosen to be beaten to death.

Night of broken glass, 9th November 1938