The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-45

The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-45
Author: John S. Conway
Publisher: London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Total Pages: 524
Release: 1968
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

First published in 1968, and subsequently translated into German, French, and Spanish, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-1945 has become a landmark text on the history of the German churches during the Nazi era. Based on a careful examination of documents dealing with church affairs from the Nazi archives that survived the collapse of the Third Reich, J.S. Conway gives the reader a detailed account of the methods by which Hitler and his followers sought to deal with the Christian churches in the 1930s and the 1940s. - Back cover.

Complicity in the Holocaust

Complicity in the Holocaust
Author: Robert P. Ericksen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2012-02-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 110701591X

In one of the darker aspects of Nazi Germany, churches and universities - generally respected institutions - grew to accept and support Nazi ideology. Complicity in the Holocaust describes how the state's intellectual and spiritual leaders enthusiastically partnered with Hitler's regime, becoming active participants in the persecution of Jews, effectively giving Germans permission to participate in the Nazi regime. Ericksen also examines Germany's deeply flawed yet successful postwar policy of denazification in these institutions.

And the Witnesses Were Silent

And the Witnesses Were Silent
Author: Wolfgang Gerlach
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780803221659

An endlessly perplexing question of the twentieth century is how ?decent? people came to allow, and sometimes even participate in, the Final Solution. Fear obviously had its place, as did apathy. But how does one explain the silence of those people who were committed, active, and often fearless opponents of the Nazi regime on other grounds?those who spoke out against Nazi activities in many areas yet whose response to genocide ranged from tepid disquiet to avoidance? One such group was the Confessing Church, Protestants who often risked their own safety to aid Christian victims of Nazi oppression but whose response to pogroms against Jews was ambivalent.

So It Was True: American Protestant Press and the Nazi Persecution of the Jews

So It Was True: American Protestant Press and the Nazi Persecution of the Jews
Author: Robert W. Ross
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 395
Release: 1998-06-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1579101224

How much did American Protestants know about the Nazi persecution of European Jews before and during Word War II? Very little, many of them claimed in the postwar years. Robert W. Ross challenges that answer in this analysis of the ways in which Protestant journals ranging from The Christian CenturyÓ to The Arkansas BaptistÓ reported and editorialized on the subject from 1933 through 1945.

When Compassion was a Crime

When Compassion was a Crime
Author: Heinz David Leuner
Publisher: Berg Publishers
Total Pages: 172
Release: 1966
Genre: History
ISBN:

Argues that not all of Germany was enthusiastic about the Nazi regime, including its policies against the Jews, and that it is wrong to make improper generalizations on the Germans as a guilty nation. Brings numerous examples of Germans who helped Jews in 1933-45 and rescued them when the mass murders began. If even expressing compassion to Jews or protesting against Nazi politics in 1933-38 could be punished, so rescue of Jews during the war could inflict capital punishment on the rescuer. Dwells specifically on the attitudes and activities of the Churches vis-à-vis the Nazi persecution of Jews. The Catholic and various Protestant Churches, as institutions, failed to do their most to help Jews or Jewish converts to Christianity. But some clergymen of various denominations, from rank-and-file to higher up in the hierarchy, rescued Jews and Jewish converts and some paid for it with their lives. Although Catholics did more for victims of Nazi racial persecution than Protestants, as a whole the failure of the Catholic Church to withstand the Nazi policies presents a more grievous picture given its international character and greater independence of the Nazi state.

The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany

The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany
Author: Guenter Lewy
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2009-09-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786751614

”The subject matter of this book is controversial,” Guenter Lewy states plainly in his preface. To show the German Catholic Church’s congeniality with some of the goals of National Socialism and its gradual entrapment in Nazi policies and programs, Lewy describes the episcopate’s support of Hitler’s expansionist policies and its failures to speak out on the persecution of the Jews. To this tragic history Lewy brings new focus and research, illuminating one of the darkest corners of our century with scholarship and intellectual honesty in a riveting, and often painful, narrative.

Betrayal

Betrayal
Author: Robert P. Ericksen
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781451417449

Important and insightful essays provide a penetrating assessment of Christian responses in the Nazi era.