Nazi Germany Mid-term Essay

HI337 – Nazi Germany Semester 1 – Mid-Term Assignment Roisin Healy

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Submission Date: October 2009

Conor Ralph

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Wednesday, 14th

2. To what extent did the Nazi takeover in 1933 change the everyday experiences of Jews and Christians living in Germany up to the outbreak of war in 1939? A study of the social upheaval that post-Weimar Germany experienced under the fledgling guidance of the Nazi party highlights the differing experiences of German Christians and Jews. While the infamous treatment of the Jews under Nazi racial policy is widely documented, the Christian faith had a relationship of mixed fortunes with the Third Reich administration. The Catholic Church was seen as a threat by the Nazis, mainly due to the powerful scope of influence that emanated from the institution. Furthermore, the establishment was viewed as owing its allegiance to a foreign Pope. The government took a very measured approach in manipulating the Catholic Church, fearing a backlash if they openly denounced such a traditional and deep-rooted group. Jewish Germans, on the other hand, were more conspicuously condemned and singled out as the main enemy of the Reich’s Volksgemeinschaft policy. German Protestants were also kept at bay by the Nazis, never publicly condemned, but suppressed all the same. Dr. Ronnie S. Landau comments on the Protestant Church at the time saying that there is an “overwhelming impression […] of silence, fear and subservience to the dictates of the Nazi authorities”. 1This essay will attempt to crystallize such ‘dictates’ laid down by the Third Reich against organised religions and the effects that they had upon regular German citizens of such faiths.

In dealing with the lives of German Christians during the period 1933-1939, one must first look at the broader scale of the relationship between doctrine and state. The Nazis promoted their own theory of “Positive Christianity”, drawing the title from a Landau, Ronnie S., The Nazi Holocaust: Its History and Meaning, p.219 1

nineteenth century faith. This new faith was an attempt to unify all facets of Christian belief into one, tightly bound package – basically a tool to elevate the Nazis above religious customs and traditions. Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall, Associate Professor of History at Kent State University, declares that “the Nazis wanted to appear to be above the confessions” and that “the leaders they did esteem were recognizably Protestant”.2 This view seems to sit accordingly with the events that unfolded and affected the lives of ordinary German Christians – Protestantism wasn’t the main Christian threat, Catholicism had to be dealt with.

Following the Reichskonkordat in July 1933, the Nazis began a slow process of ebbing away the influence of the Catholic Church. Many of the changes made impacted upon the lives of common citizens. As early as the summer of 1933, the government began confiscating the property of Catholic lay organizations and on 20th July, newspapers were forbidden to brand themselves as ‘Catholic’, with the regime forcing the new title of ‘German’.3 Within Bavaria, the area of Germany with the highest number of Catholics, the Nazis focused on the school system, pressuring parents into moving their children from denominated religious schools into interdenominational learning institutions.4 Steps such as this alienate children from a specific religious upbringing, indoctrinating the youth to follow the Nazis throughout their day-to-day lives. Irmgard Hunt comments in her memoir, “even the smallest child knew that Adolf Hitler’s birthday was April 20th”, going on to reveal that this day of celebration saw Nazi flags adorn “the main street, the town hall, the post office, and the schools”.5 The poignant visual impact of the regime was 2 3 4 5

http://www.theturning.org/folder/nazis.html Evans, Richard J., The Third Reich in Power, p.235 Grunberger, Richard, A Social History of the Third Reich, p.442 Hunt, Imgard, On Hitler’s Mountain: My Nazi Childhood, p.52

inescapable, and allowed the government to permeate the lives of its subjects to an extent that allowed it to compete with, and even overshadow, the Church. The Hitler Youth organization also weighed heavily in influencing Aryan children to pin their allegiance to the Nazi Party, calling upon them to look to Hitler rather than religion within their daily lives. A Hitler Youth rhyme (c.1934) included passages such as: “We are the jolly Hitler Youth, we don’t need any Christian truth, for Adolf Hitler, our leader, always is our interceder” and “I’m not a Christian, nor a Catholic, I go with the SA through thin and thick”.6 Notable here is the specific mention of ‘Catholic’ even though ‘Christian’ is mentioned just before it. The aim of the Nazis is quite clear here, the Catholic Church once again comes under attack in the direct context of a device of Third Reich propaganda. Another Christian group who suffered persecution at the hands of the regime were the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Its followers were given the chance to escape punishment by renouncing the religious beliefs – an order that the majority of them were not willing to obey.7 They refused to join the German military, urged others not to fight and declined the “Heil Hitler” salute of worship leading to the group being labelled traitors by the Nazis.8 Elisabeth Kusserow, a young Jehovah’s Witness living in Paderborn wrote a chilling account of the harassment suffered by her family in the 1930s: “We were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Our parents, Franz and Hilda Kusserow, had taught their children to hide the books and pamphlets of the International Society of Bible Students if anyone spotted the men from the Gestapo coming toward the house”.9 Excerpts like this illustrate the terror of the plight suffered by those of Christian faith. Elisabeth’s account goes on to depict the Gestapo arresting her Evans, p. 250 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jehovah’s Witnesses 8 Friedman, Ina R., The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of NonJews Persecuted by the Nazis, pp.47-48 9 Ibid, p.49 6 7

father and mother for their refusal to sign a vow of denunciation of their religion.10 Failure to conform resulted in harsh punishment for Jehovah’s Witnesses but ultimately gained them the respect of those who felt they had no choice but to surrender their will. With the Jewish population being the refined target of the regime’s wrath, other citizens were encouraged to ostracize Jews from society, or face similar treatment themselves. A 1938 diary entry by an Aryan woman married to a Protestant of Jewish descent outlines the difficulties that both were faced with as a result of their situation: “We see others living in peace […] they do not have to fear the newspaper, decrees or party conventions […] every day brings hundreds of pinpricks, humiliations, anxieties”.11 This exemplifies the overall futility of the notion that followers of Christianity escaped persecution from the Nazis. The anti-Semitism that acted as the linchpin in the governments ideologies saw the requirement for pure Germans to possess an ‘Aryan Certificate’ to prove their worth in society. Therefore, those with Jewish ties of the leanest nature were still singled out and punished. This antiSemitism found its way into the normal lives of Germans and saw that no religion was safe, for example, a Protestant woman, considered a Jew because she had three Jewish grandparents, could not find a place to live with Christians or Jews. Training to be a nurse, she couldn’t live at the Jewish Hospital in Hanover, and was thrown out of a residence by Aryans for being considered ‘nonAryan’.12 When it comes to religious matters, the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany eclipses the party’s dealings with any other area of society. The concentrated decimation of the Jewish race led to the everyday experiences of hardship and humiliation for its members. Ibid, pp.50-51 Kaplan, Marion A., Between dignity and despair: Jewish life in Nazi Germany, p.149 12 Kaplan, p.113 10 11

April 1st, 1933 saw the boycott of Jewish business by the Reich, the first official large-scale anti-Jewish measures enabled by the administration.13 Further to this the ‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’ was passed, bringing to an end Jewish employment in government.14 The Manchester Guardian reported: “In Breslau, where the Storm Troop leader and reprieved murderer, Heines, is in control as chief of the police, an order has been issued that all Jews shall be deprived of their passports so that the passports can be made invalid for foreign travel.”15 Edwin Landau recounts his experience as he saw “the Storm Troopers marching through the streets with their banners: “The Jews are our misfortune” […] I couldn’t believe my eyes […] we young Jews had once stood in the trenches for these people”.16 Some Jews attempted to ignore, and in some cases resist, the actions of the Nazis but limitations placed upon them turned this into a complex, thorny matter. The sudden and radical change in Jewish treatment startled many Germans. How did these people deal with the actions of the state from 1933 onwards? Max Warburg, a Jewish man who was a member of the general council of the Reichsbank, spoke of his decision to carry on with his business in normal fashion, considering the anti-Semite actions of the Reich as less of a threat than it turned out to be.17 Many stories like this exist, with a multitude of differing reactions and attitudes towards the social upheaval in daily Jewish life. Some found the humorous side of the desolate situation, forming jokes based upon the demands of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935: “Will you please send me my afterbirth, with reference to 18th Limberg, Margarethe, Germans no more: accounts of Jewish everyday life, 1933-1938, p.7 14 Ibid, p.27 15 Abzug, Robert H., America views the Holocaust, 1933-1945: a brief documentary history, p.12 16 Limberg, p.9 17 Housden, Martyn, Resistance and Conformity in the Third Reich, p.120 13

April 1875. I am required to produce it for my Aryan descent”.18 However, reactions like this do not represent the majority – a horrified mass of citizens under attack. Jewish organisations attempted resistance, but the voice of the regular Jew on the street was brutally suppressed. Here is where the quandary exists, should more Jews have resisted the shocking modifications on their rights? As Martyn Housden explains, “for a ‘Jew’, conformity meant certain death”.19 Jewish men faced the indignity of being unable to provide for their families, as was the traditional role in 1930s German culture. Their wives were often the ones who attempted to persuade them to emigrate, before the situation got worse. Disagreements over a matter as vital as this often put a significant strain on the marriages of Jews. Else Gerstel described herself as being “in constant fury” over her husband’s refusal to leave the country.20 Meanwhile, the children of couples such as these, vulnerable and impressionable in their young age, faced daily reminders of the shame that came with being a member of a Jewish family. A seven-year old boy was asked what he would wish for in 1933 and his response was “To be a Nazi”, while his father agreed that the rest of the family shared the same desire.21 This illustrates the bombardment of Nazi influence Jews faced on a daily basis, spanning all age groups and spectrums of society.

Hillenbrand, F.K.M, Underground Humour in Nazi Germany, 19331945, p.73 19 Housden, p.117 20 Kaplan, p.68 21 Ibid, p.101 18