Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression With the help of their Reich Bishop, Bishop Mueller, they
maneuvered the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler
Jugend under Von Schirach in December 1933. (1458-PS)
They arrested prominent Protestant leaders such as Pastor
[Page 278]
Niemoeller. By 1937, the result of all these measures was
complete administrative control by the Nazi conspirators
over the Evangelical churches.
(b) Against the Catholic Church. Just as in their program
against the Evangelical Churches, so in their attack on the
Catholic Church, the Nazi conspirators concealed their real
intentions under a cloak of apparent respect for its rights
and protection of its activities. On 20 July 1933, a
Concordat was concluded between the Holy See and the German
Reich, signed for the Reich by Von Papen (280-A-PS). It was
the Nazi Government, not the Church, which initiated the
negotiations.
"The German Government asked the Holy See to conclude a
Concordat with the Reich." (268-PS)
By Article I of the Concordat,
"The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and
public practice of the Catholic religion.
"It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church,
within the limit of those laws which are applicable to
all, to manage and regulate her own affairs
independently, and, within the framework of her own
competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on
her members." (3280-A-PS)
Other articles formulated agreements on basic principles
such as free communication between Rome and the local
ecclesiastical authorities, freedom of the Catholic press,
of Catholic education and of Catholic action in charitable,
professional, and youth organizations. In return,
the Vatican pledged loyalty by the clergy to the Reich
Government and emphasis in religious instruction on the
patriotic duties of the Christian citizen. (3280-A-PS)
In reliance upon assurances by the Nazi conspirators, the
Catholic hierarchy had already revoked their previous
prohibition against Catholics becoming members of the Nazi
Party (389 PS). The Catholic Center Party, under a
combination of Nazi pressure and assurances,
published on 29 December 1933, an announcement of its
dissolution (2403-PS). Thus the Catholics went a long way to
disarm themselves and cooperate with the Nazis.
Nevertheless, the Nazi conspirators continued to develop
their policy of slow strangulation of religion, first in
covert, and then in open, violation of their assurances and
agreements.
In the Encyclical "Mt Brenneder Sorge", on 14 March 1937, Pope
Pius XI described the program:
"It discloses intrigues which from the beginning had no
other aim than a war of extermination. In the furrows
in which we had labored to sow the seeds of true peace,
others like the enemy in Holy Scripture (Matt. xiii, 25) sowed
[Page 279]
the tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny of
secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His
Church, fed from a thousand different sources and
making use of every available means. On them and on
them alone and on their silent and vocal protectors
rests the responsibility that now on the horizon of
Germany there is to be seen not the rainbow of peace
but the threatening storm clouds of destructive
religious wars. *** Anyone who has any sense of truth
left in his mind and even a shadow of the feeling of
justice left in his heart will have to admit that, in
the difficult and eventful years which followed the
Concordat, every word and every action of Ours was
ruled by loyalty to the terms of the agreement; but
also he will have to recognize with surprise and deep
disgust that the unwritten law of the other party has
been arbitrary misinterpretation of agreements, evasion
of agreements, evacuation of the meaning of agreements,
and finally more or less open violation of agreements." (3280-PS)
The Nazis suppressed the Catholic Youth League, beginning
ten days after the concordat was signed. (See Section 8,
infra.)
On 18 January 1942, in declining to accede to a demand made
by the German Government that no further appointment of
Archbishops, Bishops, and other high administrative
dignitaries be made in the new territories of the Reich, or
of certain of them within the old Reich, without previous
consultation with the German Government (3261-PS), the
Secretary of State of Pope Pius XII pointed to measures
taken by the German Government,
"Contrary not only to the existing Concordats and to
the principles of international law ratified by the
Second Hague conference, but oftenand this is much more
graveto the very fundamental principles of divine law,
both natural and positive."
The Papal Secretary of State continued:
"Let it suffice to recall in this connection, among
other things, the changing of the Catholic State
elementary schools into undenominational schools; the
permanent or temporary closing of many minor
seminaries, of not a few major seminaries and of some
theological faculties; the suppression of almost all
the private schools and of numerous Catholic boarding
schools and colleges; the repudiation, decided
unilaterally, of financial obligations which the State,
Municipalities etc. had towards the Church; the
increasing difficulties put in the way of the activity
of the religious Orders and Congregations in the
spiritual, cultural and social field
[Page 280]
and above all the suppression of Abbeys, monasteries,
convents and religious houses in such great numbers
that one is led to infer a deliberate intention of
rendering impossible the very existence of the Orders
and Congregations in Germany.
"Similar and even graver acts must be deplored in the
annexed and occupied territories, especially in the
Polish territories and particularly in the Reichsgau
Wartheland, for which the Reich Superintendent - has
issued, under date of September 13th last, a
'Decree concerning Religious Associations and Religious
Societies' (Verordnung uber eligioese Vereinigngen und
Religion-gesellschaften) in clear opposition to the
fundamental principles of the divine constitution of
the Church." (3261-PS)
Illustrative of the numerous other cases and specific
incidents which might be adduced as the program of
suppression was carried into action within Germany proper,
are the measures adopted beginning in 1936 to eliminate the
priest Rupert Mayer of Munich. Because of his sermons, he
was confined in various prisons, arrested and rearrested,
interned in Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp,
and the Ettal Monastery, from which he was released by
Allied troops in May 1945, and later died. '(372-PS)
(c) Against other religious groups.
Members of the sect known as "Bibel Jorscher"meaning "Members
of a Biblical Society" or "Bible-Researchers"were as early
as 1937 sent as a routine matter to concentration camps by
the Gestapo, even after serving of a sentence imposed by a
court or.after the cancellation of
an arrest order (D-84). At one camp alone -- Dachau -- there were
over 150 "Bibelforscher" in protective custody in 1937.
(2928-PS)
The original plaintext version of
part
one or
part
two of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter VII
Means Used by the Nazi Conspiractors in Gaining Control of the German State
(Part 34 of 55)