True Christians living in Nazi Germany

[Regardless]

Here is a subject that fascinates me. It concerns one of the most defining and horrific periods of human history – which occurred in the lifetime of many still alive today.

So much of Nazi ideology was at odds with Christs teachings of compassion, love, kindness and peace. There were many religions that considered themselves Christian in Germany.

I would be very interested in peoples opinions.
The question: How should true Christians have acted during the terrible years Nazi Germany was in power?

 

[Publisher]

In his book…“Quakers and Nazis” Hans Schmidt outlines the efforts of the Society of Friends to not only assist the Jews and others condemned by the Nazis…but to help the Nazis themselves…

Berlin Yearly Meeting was small…but active…several Friends were arrested and died in the camps…or were executed…but because Friends in Berlin and Germany were “non-programmed”…those Nazi visitors to Meeting to find out if Quakers were subversive…never heard an evil word against them…Quaker activism assisted in feeding children of displace and starving families…the Yearly Meeting didn’t ask their political affiliation.

 

[Alix1912]

It’s easy for us to look back and judge people and their decisions decades later. It’s a whole different story to actually live through something like the Nazi Regime.

While many, many, many Christians of all denominations did fight back, and did resist openly, many,many, many of them also lost their lives doing so. Martyrdom is for the faith is admirable and those who died should be remembered for their faith and bravery.

However, many also resisted in secret, and we may never know their stories and names.

There were also many who stayed quiet in attempt to protect their families and loved ones. As a mother I’m not sure I would have been out there screaming “Hitler is Evil” knowing that it could get my family killed. I certainly would have taught them about Christ and tried to resist in what quiet ways I could without threatening the lives of my family. Does that make me a “bad” or “cowardly” Christian in your eyes?

It is hard for us to even imagine what living in Germany at the time was like. Hitler and the Nazi’s worked very hard to create a culture of fear. Kids were taught to turn in their own parents, people couldn’t trust their nieghbors, people disappeared in the night. To try and make a generalization that “true” Christians should have done such and such is not only impossible, but wrong. Without knowing each person and families individual circumstances it is arrogance to say what they should or should not have done.

As I said it is easy to judge years later, when we can sit nameless behind our computers, when many of us live in countries where speech is protected, and say that someone decades ago in a horrific situation should or should not have done.

 

[Radical]

Hello, Regardless

I too find this an interesting topic…how could it have happened?

To try and make a generalization that “true” Christians should have done such and such is not only impossible, but wrong.

I agreed with everything you said except for this one sentence…I suspect that you might have meant that we can’t make a generalization and from that declare exactly what each Christian should have done in each instance. If so, then I agree. I think we can make a generalization along the lines that Christians should have distinguished themselves by looking after the interests of the persecuted. That action would have taken many different forms and I expect it was rarely the case that there would have been only one way to do that thing. I expect that I would have failed in distinguishing myself all that much…I know a Mennonite fellow that was given the choice of a) “volunteering” to serve in the German artillery on the eastern front; or b) being shot on the spot. He volunteered…I can’t say that I would have done differently.

 

[meltzerboy]

It’s easy for us to look back and judge people and their decisions decades later. It’s a whole different story to actually live through something like the Nazi Regime.

While many, many, many Christians of all denominations did fight back, and did resist openly, many,many, many of them also lost their lives doing so. Martyrdom is for the faith is admirable and those who died should be remembered for their faith and bravery.

However, many also resisted in secret, and we may never know their stories and names.

There were also many who stayed quiet in attempt to protect their families and loved ones. As a mother I’m not sure I would have been out there screaming “Hitler is Evil” knowing that it could get my family killed. I certainly would have taught them about Christ and tried to resist in what quiet ways I could without threatening the lives of my family. Does that make me a “bad” or “cowardly” Christian in your eyes?

It is hard for us to even imagine what living in Germany at the time was like. Hitler and the Nazi’s worked very hard to create a culture of fear. Kids were taught to turn in their own parents, people couldn’t trust their nieghbors, people disappeared in the night. To try and make a generalization that “true” Christians should have done such and such is not only impossible, but wrong. Without knowing each person and families individual circumstances it is arrogance to say what they should or should not have done.

As I said it is easy to judge years later, when we can sit nameless behind our computers, when many of us live in countries where speech is protected, and say that someone decades ago in a horrific situation should or should not have done.

I agree with you completely. It is not for us to pass judgment on Christians who did not help Jews escape deportation to extermination camps (as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, and other groups). How can any of us know how we would have behaved in similar circumstances living under the Nazi regime? If the tables were turned, would many Jews have helped Christians from being captured by the Nazis? And how many of us have raised our voices in more recent times regarding modern-day holocausts in Cambodia and Darfur, or the terrible plight of African Americans and Native Americans, for example? As it turned out, many heroic Christians did help, including members of the Church, while others did not; and there were, as well, those who were Nazi sympathizers. At the same time, one must remember there was an economic depression in Germany during that period and the Jews became a vulnerable scapegoat. Hitler’s charismatic leadership coupled with a massive propaganda machine were able to capitalize on anti-Semitic prejudices in Germany that predated the Nazi regime. Despite this, however, for us to condemn the whole or most of the German people who lived during that terrible era is, I believe, in itself an injustice.

 

[GaryTaylor]

What a disaster all that was.

And today we have fools running around trying to deny it even happened. Misguided souls, there are youth who don’t believe we landed on the Moon

In the very beginning of Nazi Germany Hitler tried to align himself with Rome. It took a minute to see what an evil this was. No different than any other evil in History. It doesn’t wave a sign and advertise its coming. Ignatius of Lyons during the Dark Ages, same thing. It takes a minute to see Truth.

But Pope Pius during this period did a pretty impressive job helping out the Jews. They were hiding Jews at the Vatican.

Here’s a link.

catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0004.html

 

[dusty_david]

Read the story of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village. I stumbled on it while looking up WWII history.

During the horrors of The Holocaust a small French mountain village Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was the safest place in Europe for Jews. Not one Jew was taken by the Nazis. A story of a ‘conspiracy of goodness’: an entire town which at great risk sheltered 5,000 Jews. Committed to deception of the enemy and preservation of life. In occupied France collaborators delivered 83,000 Jews, including 10,000 children, to the Nazi death camps - only 3,000 ever returned. But the residents of the area of Le Chambon, quietly took in and saved as many Jews as their entire population, who came to them for shelter and refuge.

Ordinary people, often poverty-stricken themselves, protected the Jews at the peril of their own lives. They took the Jews into their homes, fed and protected them, right under the noses of the Gestapo. Defying the Nazi régime and the French government that was collaborating with the Nazis, the villagers of the area of Le Chambon provided a safe haven throughout the war for the Jews. Every home hid strangers, not for days, but for years. So deep was their humanity that no resident of Le Chambon ever turned away, denounced, or betrayed a single Jewish refugee.

auschwitz.dk/Trocme.htm

 

[T_More]

A shining example that springs to mine from that era is that of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who gave his life at Auschwitz so that another may live.

John 15:13 (New International Version, ©2011)

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Due to Pius XII and the Church’s efforts, some 840,000 Jews were saved from certain death. And yet some claim he should’ve been more vocal in crying down the Nazi’s. One has to wonder why Israel Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, converted to the Church and took on Pius XII birth name, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, as his baptism name if the Church somehow failed the Jewish people by not slamming their fists down when giving public addresses ala Adolf Hitler. Could things have been handled better? Perhaps. But in this particular instance, some seem to want to blame the Church more than the Nazi’s themselves for the horrific loss of life in Europe during the holocaust.

 

[GaryTaylor]

My brother its called ignorance. The USA is 75% Christian. So who stopped Nazi Germany?

Everyone has a perfect record as Monday Morning Quarterback. Try doing that in the actual game.

 

[valentino]

when you say true christians I am assuming of course you mean Catholics.Far too many Catholics were weaked faith Catholics.Catholics in name only.When Hitler spoke widely about how if hated Jews and should be removed even killed a red flag should have went up and they should have said thereis no way we should support this man.But Hitler’s smart some would say(like satan if fact)and he promised a lot of good things.the true christians bought the lie and supported Hitler.And from then on the people were in Hitler"s control and could do little unless they were willing to give up their lives.

 

[meltzerboy]

Read the story of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village. I stumbled on it while looking up WWII history.

During the horrors of The Holocaust a small French mountain village Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was the safest place in Europe for Jews. Not one Jew was taken by the Nazis. A story of a ‘conspiracy of goodness’: an entire town which at great risk sheltered 5,000 Jews. Committed to deception of the enemy and preservation of life. In occupied France collaborators delivered 83,000 Jews, including 10,000 children, to the Nazi death camps - only 3,000 ever returned. But the residents of the area of Le Chambon, quietly took in and saved as many Jews as their entire population, who came to them for shelter and refuge.

Ordinary people, often poverty-stricken themselves, protected the Jews at the peril of their own lives. They took the Jews into their homes, fed and protected them, right under the noses of the Gestapo. Defying the Nazi régime and the French government that was collaborating with the Nazis, the villagers of the area of Le Chambon provided a safe haven throughout the war for the Jews. Every home hid strangers, not for days, but for years. So deep was their humanity that no resident of Le Chambon ever turned away, denounced, or betrayed a single Jewish refugee.

auschwitz.dk/Trocme.htm

It sounds somewhat similar to the heroic efforts of the Danish people in hiding and protecting their own Jewish citizens and Jews from other countries.

 

[crazzeto]

Saint Maximilian Kolbe

He received a vision of the blessed virigin in which he she presented him two crowns, one white one red. The white crown symbolized that his purity would be preserved, the red crown meant martyerdom. She asked him if he would accept any crown.

He said he would accept both.

Many years later, he started a publishing company durring WWII which constantly attacked the Nazi regime. Naturally, he was arrested and sent to the contrensation camps. While he was there, there was an attempt to break out of the prison. The nazi’s reacted in the typical way for them, they selected a number of prisoners to execute as punishment for the crime.

One of these prisoners was a husband and father, he begged for his life so he could hopefully be reunited with his family. It was now that Koble would receive his red crown, he volenteered to take the place of the Jewish family man. He informed the guards that he was a Catholic Priest and that he would like to take that mans place.

The nazi’s obliged, and they put him in a metal box along with the other selected prisoners to be baked to death (yes, literally). While in the box, Koble lead the others in siging sacred songs, and he kept high spirits. At the end of several days, he was the only one left alive. The nazi’s removed him from his box, to inject him with poison and finish the deed. St. Koble raised his arm to receive the poison, and was then received into the arms of the Lord.

 

[Alix1912]

when you say true christians I am assuming of course you mean Catholics.Far too many Catholics were weaked faith Catholics.Catholics in name only.When Hitler spoke widely about how if hated Jews and should be removed even killed a red flag should have went up and they should have said thereis no way we should support this man.But Hitler’s smart some would say(like satan if fact)and he promised a lot of good things.the true christians bought the lie and supported Hitler.And from then on the people were in Hitler"s control and could do little unless they were willing to give up their lives.

Wow…Hate to break it to you but there were Christian Martyrs who were not Catholics, but were true Christians none the less. Many of the Christians who fought back against Hitler were Lutheran. Also you are way over simplifying Hitler’s rise to power. The Agenda against Jews and others did not come out full force until AFTER he had consolidated enough power that there was little that could be done internally to stop him.

 

[LDNCatholic]

My brother its called ignorance. The USA is 75% Christian. So who stopped Nazi Germany?

Russia and Britain (which also made extensive use of the mostly non Christian Indian army among armies from it’s other colonies).

Cheers for the assistance though, much appreciated

 

[Regardless]

It’s easy for us to look back and judge people and their decisions decades later. It’s a whole different story to actually live through something like the Nazi Regime.

Wow. There are others interested in this subject! (I’m the thread starter by the way)
Some excellent replies and thoughts!

I see several Jewish comments too. Alas, your people had no choice! Condemned by race – even those who had converted from Judaism or who counted themselves German first were not spared! (It still seems unbelievable what happened– like a bad dream.)

I think, although there are exceptional people who will stand up for the right (even with a pistol to their head or in a concentration camp) they are few. Perhaps 10%, less?
Most of us are just ordinary people. I would love to claim I would stand up for my conscience in the face of death – but I’ve never faced anything like the power of the Nazi government. I don’t know how I would perform.

I am reminded of the apostles of Jesus. When Jesus was arrested, they fled and scattered. (Matt 26:56) Some (like Peter) followed at a distance – but when confronted he denied everything. (Matt. 26:72)
= They were not hero’s in a Hollywood movie. They were ordinary men.

Yet consider: – only a few weeks later –these same frightened men were motivated to stand up in front of thousands and declare they had seen Jesus resurrected!
Then when the religious authorities (who had instigated their masters execution) pulled them aside and ordered them to stop preaching their reply was: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Check it out!
What had changed?
Jesus had since told them he would be with them in their spreading the truth. (Matt 28:19,20) And that the Holy Spirit would come upon them (Acts 1:8) Surely this was the difference.

So in our “Christians vs Nazi Germany” discussion, I conclude: (Except for some exceptionally strong people,)
“Only with God’s support could people find the courage and strength to resist, or refuse to conform to such a powerful and terrible regime.”

What do you think? Am I getting warm?

 

[valentino]

alix1912 I agree with everything except this:Hitler preached his anti-semitism ever since he started the party in 1923.In jail after the putsch he wrote Mein Kamph and made a point of it.

 

[meltzerboy]

Wow. There are others interested in this subject! (I’m the thread starter by the way)
Some excellent replies and thoughts!

I see several Jewish comments too. Alas, your people had no choice! Condemned by race – even those who had converted from Judaism or who counted themselves German first were not spared! (It still seems unbelievable what happened– like a bad dream.)

I think, although there are exceptional people who will stand up for the right (even with a pistol to their head or in a concentration camp) they are few. Perhaps 10%, less?
Most of us are just ordinary people. I would love to claim I would stand up for my conscience in the face of death – but I’ve never faced anything like the power of the Nazi government. I don’t know how I would perform.

I am reminded of the apostles of Jesus. When Jesus was arrested, they fled and scattered. (Matt 26:56) Some (like Peter) followed at a distance – but when confronted he denied everything. (Matt. 26:72)
= They were not hero’s in a Hollywood movie. They were ordinary men.

Yet consider: – only a few weeks later –these same frightened men were motivated to stand up in front of thousands and declare they had seen Jesus resurrected!
Then when the religious authorities (who had instigated their masters execution) pulled them aside and ordered them to stop preaching their reply was: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Check it out!
What had changed?
Jesus had since told them he would be with them in their spreading the truth. (Matt 28:19,20) And that the Holy Spirit would come upon them (Acts 1:8) Surely this was the difference.

So in our “Christians vs Nazi Germany” discussion, I conclude: (Except for some exceptionally strong people,)
“Only with God’s support could people find the courage and strength to resist, or refuse to conform to such a powerful and terrible regime.”

What do you think? Am I getting warm?

I think you’re basically correct. It really takes a special kind of person with a special kind of faith and sense of morality to risk one’s own life and that of one’s family to harbor and protect strangers. As I previously mentioned, don’t forget that, in addition to the Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses were also rounded up and put in camps by the Nazis. Well before the so-called “Final Solution,” which involved the systematic extermination of the Jews, the first group to be imprisoned were homosexuals. Later came others, such as gypsies and the disabled, as well as Poles, who were treated somewhat better in labor camps, rather than death camps. In Poland at the time, there was also antisemitism, in large part because many Poles blamed the Jews for Germany’s assault on their country. (This topic is highly controversial, however.) The Nazi propaganda machine compared Jews, gypsies, and gays by saying that all three groups were extremely harmful to Christian children. Jews were said to use the blood of Christian children to celebrate Passover, while gypsies, it was claimed, were kidnappers of children, and gays were reported to be child molesters. Unfortunately, some German people believed the lies they were fed by the Nazis.

 

[Alix1912]

alix1912 I agree with everything except this:Hitler preached his anti-semitism ever since he started the party in 1923.In jail after the putsch he wrote Mein Kamph and made a point of it.

I never said it wasn’t there, I just said it did not come out full force as an actual policy of erradication or “The Final Solution” until after he had power. Also anti semitism was not that un common on Europe in Hitler’s day…just not to the extent that he carried it after becoming dictator. People did not realize that his policies were going to lead to mass murder until well after the time to easily stop him was past.

 

[dusty_david]

Why hasn’t this catholic polish woman, Irena Sendler, been nominated to be a saint?

aish.com/ho/p/48961471.html
www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/sendler.asp
canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3230

Irena Sendler is credited with having saved the lives of some 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War. As a Polish Catholic social worker in the early 1940s, Irena Sendler created and led a conspiracy of women who moved in and out of Warsaw’s Jewish Ghetto disguised as nurses employed by Warsaw’s Health Department. Though they worked under the guise of merely attempting to prevent and contain the spread of Typhus and Spotted Fever, Sendler and her brave cohorts emerged each time with the children of consenting Jewish parents. The children were sometimes sedated and hidden inside boxes, suitcases and coffins as a means of rescuing them from their imminent deportation to death camps. They were given new identities and placed with Polish families and in convents. Sendler kept a hidden record of their birth names and where they were placed with the hope that they would some day be reunited with their own families.

In 1943, the Nazis discovered Sendler’s daring and dangerous ruse and arrested her.
Irena Sendler was taken to a notorious Pawiak Prison, which few people left alive. She spent there three long months. Beaten and tortured repeatedly, with both her arms and legs broken, she revealed nothing. “I kept silent. I preferred to die than to reveal our activity,” she was quoted as saying. On the day of her scheduled execution she was rescued by “Zegota,” the underground network with which she worked to save the Jewish children.

As a result of Sendler’s efforts, approximately 2,500 children were smuggled to safety. Not a single child she rescued was ever betrayed or discovered by the Nazis.

In 2005 Irena Sendler reflected: “We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true – I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.”

The Vatican, November 13, 2003 – from POPE JOHN PAUL II – TO IRENA SENDLEROWA:

“Honorable and dear Madam. I have learned you were awarded the Jan Karski prize for Valor and Courage. Please accept my hearty congratulations and respect for your extraordinarily brave activities in the years of occupation, when –disregarding your own security – you were saving many children from extermination, and rendering humanitarian assistance to human beings who needed spiritual and material aid. Having been yourself afflicted with physical tortures and spiritual sufferings you did not break down, but still unsparingly served others, co-creating homes for children and adults. For those deeds of goodness for others, let the Lord God in his goodness reward you with special graces and blessing. Remaining with respect and gratitude I give the Apostolic Benediction to you.” Signed: Pope John Paul II

canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3230

One year before her death, Irena Sendler wrote in a letter to the Polish Senate: “Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my experience on this earth, and not a title to glory.”

This sentence might be the best epitaph for Mrs. Sendler, Mother of the Children of the Holocaust, an Angel in the Ghetto as many people used to call her.

 

[JaredM]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg

He may not have lived in Nazi Germany but Hungary was under a Nazi puppet government. Raoul Wallenberg, saved saving tens of thousands of lives from being deported to death camps. His humanitarian work eventually lead to his end, when he was kidnapped by the NKVD in 1945 because they though he was an American spy. When they found out he wasn’t they couldn’t risk him telling the world about the horrible things they did to him so they killed him.