JEK@NIHCU (James Kiefer) (01/16/90)
Bill Sklar writes: > The Nazi's considered themselves to be Christian, however, and > at least claimed to be working not in Satan's name but in > Christ's. The Nazi Party invented its own ceremonies to replace Christian ceremonies, such as a Solemn Conferring of the Name instead of Holy Baptism, puberty rites instead of Confirmation, a hilltop marriage service with swords and torches instead of a church wedding, a feast of the winter solstice instead of Christmas, and so forth, and put a great deal of pressure on Party members especially to use these ceremonies rather than the Christian ones. Party speakers spoke of the old, pre-Christian religion, the worship of Wotan and Thor, etc., as the authentic expression of the German spirit, and said that it was a tragedy that it had been replaced by an alien creed, above all one that involved the worship of a Jew. Since they were not ready for a head-on collision with Christianity, in which they told every German plainly and in so many words that he must be either an enemy of Hitler or an enemy of Christ, they combined this with other language in which they spoke of themselves as the defenders of real Christianity, properly understood. (Perhaps the reader will be able to think of other examples of the same tactic.) One successful device was the practice of referring to those who accepted the Nazi religion (never quite clearly defined, in that, for example, it always evaded the question of whether Wotan was supposed to be a real deity or merely a literary symbol for the spirit of the German people), as "believers," and referring to those who persisted in rejecting it in the name of orthodox Christianity as "unbelievers." Once they were able to persuade the press, and Christians themselves, to accept and use this terminology, they had Christians at a considerable psychological disadvantage. References? The interested reader might begin with IT'S YOUR SOULS WE WANT, by Stuart W Herman, Jr, pastor for much of the 1930's of the American Church in Berlin. The book was published in 1943 by Harper and Brothers. If your library does not have it, you might look at the review in the New York Times Book Review for March 14, 1943, page 5. Another reference is THE TWISTED CROSS, by Joseph J Carr, 1985, Huntington House. The author is a little on the sensational side, but has an extensive bibliography. Another reference is the book HITLER SPEAKS (British title, THE VOICE OF DESTRUCTION), written in 1940 by Hermann Rauschning, the gauleiter in charge of Danzig. He defected to the Allied side a few months after being placed in power there, and wrote this book. Unlike the previous two works, which are devoted entirely to the Nazi program to eliminate Christianity and replace it with a Germanic religion, this book is an overall critique of Naziism, with its religious program as only one aspect thereof. One more work of interest is EDUCATION FOR DEATH, which I read some years ago, but do not have a reference for at hand -- hence, I can supply neither author, publisher, or date. It was written in the late thirties (or just possibly the early forties) by a man who had been headmaster of an American School in Berlin before the war. He obtained official permission to visit Nazi educational institutions, and this book reports his findings. Yours, James Kiefer
COLELA@SNYPLAVA (l. anne cole) (01/17/90)
I have 'EDUCATION FOR DEATH'. I'll dig it out and post a full reference. Quite chilling.