cohen avshalom wrote:yes-but there are alote of case that priest that danger here own life and save life-so they were been some priest that had :"Priests giving the Hitler salute "-so what???
DAR
Glad you brought that up Cohen. That's a common myth put forward by revisionist Christians so it's good to take a moment and debunk it.
I have debated this one many times. He is a post I put together years ago:
***
DAR
Hitler was supported by the VAST majority of the Christians in Germany. Consider:
Dr. Franklin Littell of Baylor University speaking at US Holocaust
Memorial Museum, on 12/8/93 had this to say:
"[The truth is that] six million Jews were targeted and
systematically murdered in the heart of Christendom, by baptized
Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox who were
never rebuked, let alone excommunicated." (source: Awake!
8/22/95, pg. 12)
Friedrich Heer, Roman Catholic professor of history at Vienna
University:
"In the cold facts of German history, the Cross and the swastika
came ever closer together, until the swastika proclaimed the
message of victory from the towers of German cathedrals, swastika
flags appeared round altars and Catholic and Protestant
theologians, pastors, churchmen and statesmen welcomed the
alliance with Hitler." (Ibid. pg., 13)
Again Professor Heer:
"Of about thirty-two Million German Catholics--fifteen and a
half million of whom were men--only seven [individuals] openly
refused military service. Six of these were Austrians."
The article then continues, "More recent evidence indicates that a
few other Catholics, as well as some Protestants, stood up against
the Nazi State because of religious convictions. Some even paid
with their lives, while at the same time their spiritual leaders were
selling out the Third Reich."
Paul Johnson's "History of Christianity" says: "Of 17,000
Evangelical pastors, there were never more than fifty serving long
term [for not supporting the Nazi regime] at any one time." (Ibid.)
"'It may be truthfully recalled that Christian churches, throughout
the ages, have always consented to bless war, troops, and arms and
that they prayed in a very unchristian for the annihilation of their
enemy.'" --Martin Neimoeller, a Protestant church leader who did
go to a Nazi concentration camp.
"Susannah Heschel, a professor of Judaic studies, uncovered
church documents proving that the Lutheran clergy were willing,
yes anxious, to support Hitler. She said they begged for the
privilege of displaying the swastika in their churches. The
overwhelming majority of clergymen were not coerced
collaborators, her research showed, but were enthusiastic
supporters of Hitler and his Aryan ideals." (Ibid. pg. 14)
Just one more: "In 1933 the Roman Catholic Church concluded a
concordat with the Nazis. Roman Catholic cardinal Faulhaber
wrote to Hitler: "This handshake with the Papacy. . . is a feat of
immeasurable blessing. ...May God preserve the Reich Chancellor
[Hitler]." (Ibid. pg. 14)
***
DAR
The behavior of the Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox can be contrasted with that of the Jehovah's Witnesses. At the local level they did stand up against Hitler (while the leadership was trying to cut a deal behind doors). Over 5,000 of them we're killed in the camps for their resistance.
Hitler hated the JW's and specifically focused on them (they even had their own emblem, a purple star I think) because he couldn't control them as he did his Christian brethren. Rightly or wrongly, Christianity overwhelmingly went along with, blessed and supported Hitler. Germany was a very Christian country at that time (now it is about 1/2 atheist). If the Christians had stood up against the Nazis like the JW's did, Hitler wouldn't have gotten off the ground.
Why didn't they? Because of centuries of strong, ingrained, Christian anti-semitism. Especially in Germany where Lutheranism is strong. Luther hated the Jew's with a passion.
D.
--------------------------------
More:
The Catholic Bishops conference in 1933 "expressed joy that
through the new state Christianity had been promoted, morality
improved, and the struggle against Bolshevism and godlessness
conducted with energy and success." In the same year, 1933 "The
Catholic Students Union hails the National Socialist revolution
as the greatest spiritual breakthrough of our time."
In 1934, responding to an enquiry from the Ministry for Church
affairs, the Catholic Seamen's Mission listed the books and
papers they provided to seamen. The list included Hitler's own
anti- Semitic Mein Kampf, and the newspaper Volkischer
Beobachter.
In 1936, the Bishops of Hannover, Wurtemburg and Bavaria
signed a statement that said in part "We, together with the Reich
Church Committee, stand behind the Fuhrer in the life-struggle
of the German people against Bolshevism. In this struggle, the
Church mobilizes the forces of Christian belief against
unbelief."
In 1939, The Bishop of Hannover, Marahans, was one of the
signers of a statement that explained the need for the foundation
of an institute to "dejudaize" the Church. "The foundation of this
institute is based on the conviction that Jewish influence in all
areas of German life, including therefore that of the Church and
religion, must be brought to light and eliminated." At the
outbreak of war, the Protestant bishops signed a statement which
read in part "So at this hour too we join with our nation in
intercession for the Fuhrer and the Reich...."
In November 1941, the Vicar General of the Diocese of
Rottenburg wrote "The fact that so many believing soldiers are
among the lists of the fallen justifies the conclusion that it is
above all those soldiers with true Christian belief who have
helped to win the great victories."
---
"Bible-based anti-Jewish bigotry bolstered the
Third Reich. Julian Streicher, chief Nazi ideologist of anti-
Semitism and founder of "Der Sturmer," the most notoriously
vile anti-Semitic publication, recommended "the extermination
of the people whose father is the Devil." In case you don't
recognize it, Streicher is recalling Jesus' "love-filled" bigotry
from the "divinely inspired" Bible (John 8:44). At his Nuremberg
trial, Streicher said he had never said anything about the Jews
that Martin Luther hadn't said four hundred years earlier; they
were just doing their god's work in the rise of Nazism."
DAR
I will limit myself to four quotes from Martin Luther's anti-Jewish rant:
Martin Luther quotes from his "On the Jews and Their Lies":
Luther's Introduction:
I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews
or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and
accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that
is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I
might be found among those who opposed such poisonous
activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their
guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian
could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and
wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the
world, and wherever God's word is absent he has an easy task,
not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help
us. Amen.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)
He did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers"
[Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and
race of Israel, and they declared, "He has a demon' [Matt 11:18].
Our Lord also calls them a "brood of vipers"; furthermore in
John 8 [:39,44] he states: "If you were Abraham's children ye
would do what Abraham did.... You are of your father the devil.
It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's
but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)
Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that
wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den
of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and
defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and
veheming his eyes on them.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)
Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat
no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not
stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury.
Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by
theft and robbery, as arch-thieves and robbers, in the most
impenitent security.
-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)
I have dozens more....