Hi guys: thanks for all the help so far! I have done some Internet research and there is conflicting information but here is an interesting article:
The Confessing Church
Pastor Martin Niemoller ( left) was imprisoned in concentration camps during the war. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (right), a renown theologian, was hanged in the Flossenburg Concentration Camp on 9 April 1945. There has been a great deal of debate over church (Catholic & Protestant) responses to National Socialism. For the most part, the ethical prognosis for the Christian communities in Germany is poor. Nazism infiltrated the Protestant churches under the banner of the German Christian (Deutsche Christen) movement. The "German Christians" sprang up in Protestant parishes across Germany. The organization advocated the creation of an "Aryan Paragraph" in church synods that would prevent non-aryans (Jewish converts) from participating, ministering or teaching within the churches. However, there were some church officials who opposed the movement.
Pastor Martin Niemoller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others formed the "Pastors Emergency League". The organization would later become known as the Confessing Church. The League sought and end to Nazi manipulation of the churches. Initially, the Confessing Church was concerned with the the policy of exclusion that the Aryan Paragraph advocated. The Confessing Church's leaders believed the exclusion of Jews from the church community was in direct violation of Christian teaching. As evangelical Christians they believed in the concept of spreading the Gospel, a concept the Aryan Paragraph contradicted. Some historians have been critical of the Confessing Church's motivations in opposing Nazism. Many view their evangelicalism as symptomatic of the mentality that helped engineer the rise of Nazism. Such views are short sighted. True, as evangelical Christians they may have sought to convert non Christians, but their opposition to the Nazis was not restricted to issues of conversion.
Members of the Confessing Church helped approximately 2000 Jews escape to freedom. They also assisted political dissidents and fellow Christians persecuted by the regime. Bonhoeffer even liasoned with members of the military resistance, some of whom were involved in the July 20th bombing of the Wolf's Lair. He helped draft memoranda on a future democratic government in the event that the regime was toppled. Bonhoeffer also compiled evidence of SS crimes, and coordinated contacts with foreigners abroad to gain support for a number of resistance groups. Bonhoeffer's actions indicate a level of concern that superseded particular theological assertions. Members of the Confessing Church actively protested against the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic policies.
| Suggested Link For a more detailed understanding of the Confessing Church and Dietrich Bohnhoeffer's life please view Victoria Barnett's essay on Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
Catholic Resistance
Father Bernhard Litchenberg
died on the way to Dachau
On 20 July 1933 the Catholic Church and Germany signed a Papal Concordat. The agreement was to guarantee the safety of the Catholic Church's institutions in Germany. In return for Nazi guarantees of security, the Catholic Church promised not to intervene in Germany's domestic policies. Despite this fact, a significant amount of the Church's leadership did protest the Nazi regime's programs. Clerics like Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber, Bishop Konrad Graf von Preysing, and Bishop Clemens Graf von Galen protested Nazi policies of abortion, sterilization, and euthanasia. Unfortunately, some of these protesters were much less vocal with regard to the crimes committed against Jews. Some Catholics, like Father Litchenberg, refused to be silent. Father Litchenberg publicly spoke out against Nazi policies. He frequently ended each Mass with prayers for the Jews. Litchenberg was eventually arrested, and served 2 years of penal servitude. He was arrested a second time, but died on his way to Dachau.
Unfortunately, as an institution, the Catholic Church's efforts at assisting victims of the regime (including their own clerics) is minimal at best. Like their Protestant counterparts the Catholic Church had for the most part been silent. This should however, not subtract from the remembrance of those priests, nuns, monks, and lay people who sacrificed their lives to resist oppression.
Other Areas of Religious Protest
Thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses lost their lives in the camps for refusal to submit to the regime. Many other religious sects, such as the Mormons, non-denominational Christians, and others took an active stance against the regime. Likewise, many within the Jewish community protested Nazi policies despite their being its primary targets.