Still remembering my conversation with the clergyman who was incredulous that Hitler should have been protective of Christianity, I now continue with the "Hitler Speeches" series, Part II, pertaining to religion and, more specific, Christianity. Ever more today, there is systematic talk in the deepest corners of the Right that Adolf Hitler was an atheist, perhaps even an occultist, that he mercilessly persecuted both churches and their servants and flock, and that National Socialism itself was a cult, perhaps even a satanic cult.
In truth the Hitler movement did take on the Churches and unified them under one umbrella, thus giving them protection - but this was done to neutralize the destructive power of badly politicized churches in the hands and under the direction of Marxist interest - just as is true today.
I give you now a sample of what was said, written, and done in Germany to cut out the moral corrosion that had spread in the churches whose priests and ministers were tools in the hands of alien interests intent on destroying the State:
* For the first number of the "Völkischer Beobachter" published after the raising of the veto on the paper (dated 26 February 1925) Hitler wrote an article headed "A New Beginning". In it he said:
"Religious reformations cannot be made by political children, and in the case of these gentlemen it is very rarely that anything else than that is in question.
"I have perfectly clear views on the possibility of beginning such a struggle, but I am doubtful whether the gentlemen who take part in such a struggle are equally clear what the probable end will be.
"It will at any rate be my supreme task to see to it that in the newly awakened NSDAP the adherents of both confessions can live peacefully together side by side in order that they may take a stand in the common fight against the power which is the mortal foe of any true Christianity. (...)
"Today the fight against the Centrum {Ed. the clerical, largely Catholic Party in German politics at the time) must not be waged because it professes to be 'Christian' or even 'Catholic' but solely because a party which allies itself with atheistic Marxism for the oppression of its own people is neither Christian nor Catholic."
* In Hitler's first (radio) message to the German people after coming into power (1 February 1933) he said:
"The National Government will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built up. They regard Christianity as the foundation of our national morality and the family as the basis of national life."
* In a speech delivered at Stuttgart on 15 February 1933 Hitler professed that the desire of the National Socialist Government was
". . . to fill our whole culture once more with a Christian spirit, and that not only in politics. We want to burn out the harmful features in our theatre and our literature."
* In his speech to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 Hitler said:
"The advantages of a personal and political nature that might arise from compromising with atheistic organizations would not outweigh the consequences which would become apparent in the destruction of general moral basic values. The National Government regard the two Christian Confessions as the weightiest factors for the maintenance of our nationality. They will respect the agreements concluded between them and the Federal States. Their rights are not to be infringed.
"It will be the Government's care to maintain honest co-operation between Church and State; the struggle against materialistic views and for a real national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation as in that of the welfare of our Christian faith."
* On 13 October 1933 Hess, as deputy of Hitler, issued the following decree:
"No National Socialist may suffer any detriment on the ground that he does not profess any particular faith or confession or on the ground that he does not make any religious profession at all. Each man's faith is his own affair, for which he answers to his own conscience alone. Compulsion may not be brought to bear in matters of conscience."
* In a speech in the Sportpalast in Berlin on 24 October 1933 Hitler said:
"Without pledging ourselves to any particular confession, we have restored to faith its pre-requisites because we were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out. And above all we have dragged the priests out of the depths of the political party struggle and have brought them back again into the Church. It is our determination that they shall never return to a sphere which is not made for them, which dishonors them, and which of necessity brings them into opposition to millions of people who in their hearts wish to hold to the faith but who desire the priests serving God and not a political party."
* In his speech at Koblenz (on 26 August 1934) to the Germans of the Saar Hitler said:
"I know that here and there the objection has been raised: Yes, but you have deserted Christianity. No, it is not that we have deserted Christianity; it is those who came before us who deserted Christianity. We have only carried through a clear division between politics, which have to do with terrestrial things, and religion, which must concern itself with the celestial sphere. There has been no interference with the doctrine of the Confessions or with their religious freedom, nor will there be any such interference. On the contrary the State protects religion, though always on the one condition that religion will not be used as a cover for political ends.
"There may have been a time when even parties founded on the ecclesiastical basis were a necessity. At that time Liberalism was opposed to the Church, while Marxism was anti-religious. But that time is past. National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary, it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.
"The Church's) interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of to-day, in our fight against the Bolshevist culture, against an atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for the consciousness of a community in our national life, for the conquest of hatred and disunion between the classes, for the conquest of civil war and unrest, of strife and discord. These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles."
* In a speech at Regensburg on 6 June 1937 Hitler spoke of the social achievement of National Socialism:
"The Movement does not ask, What are you? Why are you? Have you money? What have you learned? Whence have you come? Have you a fortune? Have you a business? Are you an employer or a workman? Or are you perhaps a Catholic or else a Protestant or of some other creed? It puts but one question: Are you German and do you wish to be German? And that is to say, are you decent, and do you wish to be decent? Will you work as an honorable man in the midst of your people? Above all will you, if necessary, place the interests of your people before your own interests? If your answer is 'Yes', then we welcome you. But I will never allow anyone to divide this people once more into religious camps, each fighting the other. In this field we have experiences enough in German history; we do not need to collect any others."
* In his speech on May Day 1933 Hitler said:
"We want honestly to earn the resurrection of our people through our industry, our perseverance, our will. We ask not of the Almighty 'Lord, make us free!' - we want to be active, to work, to agree together as brothers, to strive in rivalry with one another to bring about the hour when we can come before Him and when we may ask of Him: 'Lord, Thou seest that we have transformed ourselves, the German people is no longer the people of shame, of war with itself, of faintheartedness and little faith: no, Lord, the German people has become strong again in spirit, strong in will, strong in endurance, strong to bear all sacrifices.'
"'Lord, we will not let Thee go: bless now our fight for our freedom, the fight we wage for our German people and Fatherland.'"
Monday: The Movement and its Opposition
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Thought for the Day:
"We shall drive the Christians into war by exploiting their national vanity and stupidity. They will then massacre each other, thus giving room for our own people."
(Rabbi Reichorn in Le Contemporain, July 1, 1880)