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THE WESTERN MAIL & SOUTH WALES NEWS, Friday June 9th 1933

(Germany Under Hitler - Fifth Article)

Nazis’ Interpretation of Christianity

God on the side of the Nationalists

By GARETH JONES

Before me I have a German book called “Christianity in National-Socialism,” which attempts to proclaim and prove the following doctrines:

•  First, that “the philosophy of the Nazis is in accordance with God’s creative will, and with the teaching of Christianity”; 

•  Secondly, that the principles and the deeds of the Nazis are practical applications of the doctrines of Christ; and 

•  Finally, that the Nazis are the only true defenders of Christianity. 

How does our Nazi author show that Hitler is carrying out the will of God?  He first shows that God is on the side of the Nationalists, for He divided men into races and nations, just as He divided living beings into various animals and the world into various regions: “We would seek in vain for German oaks in India and Indian palms in Germany, for Polar bears in Africa and elephants on the North Pole.” 

Thus God created a world where each animal or human being had a. race and a home. Men, therefore, do not exist as men, but as Germans, English, French, Etc..

“God who has created men of such different types has placed in them the urge to keep and to develop their national and racial qualities.  Who fights against this is a fool, and is sinning against God and God’s will.”

The Teaching of Christ 

The Nazi writer depicts God as an enemy of internationalists: “Christ is not an internationalist.  His first lesson to men is that they shall please God by being. nationalistic and patriotic.”  Moreover, Christ is, in the eyes of the Nazi author, a militarist, for He taught that fighting must and will be carried out in this word by weapons, and that no one should yield before an enemy but should fight to the death.

Such is this Nazi’s interpretation of the Bible.  Those who cry “No more war” are, in his opinion, “Godless hypocrites”!  In the struggle for nationalism, “God, the Lord and Creator of all things will always be the victor over internationally minded fools.

“Where do we find the clearest realisation of the teaching of Christ?” asks the author.  And he replies: “Precisely in National-Socialism.”  In the first place, the Nazis are being Christian and pacifist when they demand the arming of their own people.  Hitler “is not working against Christ and His doctrines, but according to the image of Christ.” 

Everything German

Since Christianity is, in Nazi eyes, a teaching which extols nationalism, it is the most patriotic of parties which is the most Christian.  Therefore, “in Germany everything must be German!  German the polities and German the administration, German the language and German the writing, German the music, and German the songs, German the newspapers and German the literature, German the philosophy and German the actions, German the law and German the law courts, German the plays and German the cinemas, German the education and German the schools, and, above all, German must be the home and the family.” 

By making everything German the Nazis are, in their view, carrying out the will of God!  Most important of all, the Church must be thoroughly German, and Evangelical Churches (Lutherans, Calvinist and others) are to be unified into one organisation. 

Protestants’ Resistance

The Nazis have tried to capture the Evangelical Church by setting up a Nazi sect called the “German Christians,” and trying to make its head, Dr. Müller, the first Evangelical bishop.  But the vast majority of German pastors have courageously refused to be dictated to by the Nazis and have kept their belief pure.  They have elected a non-Nazi, Pastor von Bodelschwingh, as first Evangelical bishop of the Reich, with control over 40,000,000 members.

The German Protestants, in doing this, have been the first body in Germany to stand up against the dictates of Hitler, and have shown courage and determination.  They have also shown that the Nazi interpretation of religion is not accepted by the mass of pious people in Germany, and that the idea of a military, patriotic Christ has not yet conquered over the gentler, nobler idea which inspires better Christians than the Nazis, and which is summed up in the teaching, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” 

Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany.