Friday, December 05, 2008
TIME magazine reprinted an article from Christmas 1940 on the suffering of Christians in Germany at the time. Very interesting and inspiring...
More than 80% of the prisoners in the concentration camps are not Jews but Christians, and the best tribute to the spirit of Germany's Christians comes from a Jew and agnostic — the world's most famous scientist, Albert Einstein. Says he:Sadly, history has forgotten the stand that Christians made against the Nazis while everyone else bowed to worship them. Another deadly idea, that Hitler was a Christian and used the Bible to support his evil plans, is much more likely to be heard in our universities than the fact that if it were not for Christians, Hitler's hate would have spread much more quickly and easily.
"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. . . .
"Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
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Said a Catholic news dispatch from Geneva last month: "It is generally anticipated that in the case of a victorious war the Nazi regime would no longer hesitate to wipe out all vestiges of Christianity in Germany and try to establish a 'national church' under Nazi supervision which would be entirely based on the pagan conceptions of 'blood and soil.' "
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And one of Hitler's first acts as Chancellor was to declare: "In the two Christian creeds lie the most important factors for the preservation of the German people." Only in secret did he tell his confidant Hermann Rauschning: "The parsons will be made to dig their own graves. They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes. ... I can guarantee that they will replace the cross with our swastika."
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[Reichbishop] Kerrl's creed: "The primacy of the State over the Church must be recognized. . . . The question of the divinity of Christ is ridiculous and unessential. A new authority, Adolf Hitler, has arisen as to what Christ and Christianity really are." To Minister Kerrl, Adolf Hitler is "the Jesus Christ as well as the Holy Ghost of the Fatherland."
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[F]rom his prison cell the Advent message that Martin Niemoller smuggled out last December reached the U. S. in time for another Christmas:
"There is one thing I want to ask of you all; that we give no place to weariness, to capitulation! There are those who would persuade us that the suffering of our Church is a sign that it follows a perverted way. To that we reply confidently that the Apostles have borne witness to the contrary. ... In their strength let us go forward on the way—in His footsteps—unconcerned with the censure of men, but with the peace of Christ in our hearts and with praise of God on our lips. So help us God!"
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5 comments:
Another thing that has been forgotten is the support the Nazi part had within the U.S. Not only were the same negative eugenics policies already being practiced here in a measure, there was a literal American branch of the Nazi party who held a convention at Madison Square Garden. Prescott Bush, grandfather of the current president, had known associations with the German faction. After the war the government froze his assets due to his financial connections with the Nazis.
Chris, it is unbecoming of a Christian to spread lies and slander about someone, even if that person is long dead. I won't delete your comment, but please avoid spreading this kind of silliness around. In case anyone cares, I was equally annoyed at your unsubstantiated falsehoods about Obama's birthplace.
http://www.adl.org/internet/prescott.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush#Business_career
Bush's contacts with German companies were PURELY related to business, no evidence has ever shown that he was a Nazi sympathizer.
I didn't say that his associations were not purely business. I simply said the U.S. government froze his assets because of those associations...and they did. I can you see how you thought I was calling him a Nazi, but I didn't mean it that way.
My point is that associations with Nazi Germany, ideological, political, and professional is a bit of forgotten history.
Even so, his "links" to the Nazis are tenuous at best. He didn't have his assets frozen except indirectly when a company of which he owned a share had their assets frozen. He wasn't directly involved with Nazis, companies where he served on boards or led in some way were connected to companies in Germany. Most of these companies were just trying to make a buck and had no ideological reasons for their partnership.
He definitely wasn't alone in being a war profiteer for the enemy. IBM was at least equally involved in business dealings with the Nazis. They produced the machines that generated the numbers German Jews were tatooed with.
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