“You may say, what else do you want, you have the absolute power, but we do not have the whole people, we do not have you workers 100 percent, and it is you whom we want; we will not let you be until you stand with us in complete, genuine acknowledgement.” (614-PS; see also2224-PSand2283-PS.)
“You may say, what else do you want, you have the absolute power, but we do not have the whole people, we do not have you workers 100 percent, and it is you whom we want; we will not let you be until you stand with us in complete, genuine acknowledgement.” (614-PS; see also2224-PSand2283-PS.)
(3)Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators took drastic action to convert the Factory Representative Councils into Nazi-controlled organizations.The Nazi conspirators eliminated the independence of the Factory Representative Councils by giving the Governors of the Laender authority to cancel the membership of labor representatives in the councils; by abrogating the right of the councils to oppose the dismissal of a worker when he was “suspected of an unfriendly attitude toward the state” (1770-PS); and finally by limiting membership in all Factory Representative Councils to Nazis (2336-PS). (After 7 April 1933, the Governors of the Laender were appointed by the Reich President “upon the proposal of the Reich Chancellor,” Hitler,2005-PS).
(4)Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators proceeded to destroy the independent unions.In mid-April 1933, Hitler directed Dr. Robert Ley, then staff director of the PO (Political Organization) of the NSDAP, to take over the trade unions. (2283-PS)
Ley issued an NSDAP circular directive on 21 April 1933 detailing a “coordination action” (Gleichschaltunsaktion) to be taken on 2 May 1933 against the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees Federation (AFA), the so-called “Free Trade Unions” (392-PS). This directive created a special “Action Committee” to direct the entire action and declared that the supporters of the action were to be drawn from the National Socialist Factory Cells Organization or NSBO (Nationalsozialistiche Betriebszellen-Organisation), the NSDAP political leaders (Politische Leiter) in the factories; it named NSDAP commissars for the administration of the larger ADGB unions to be seized in the action; it made the Gauleaders (Gauleiter) of the NSDAP responsible for the disciplined execution of the action in their respective areas and authorized them to nominate additional commissars to administer the unions subjected to the action. The directive ordered that SA and SS were to be used in occupying union offices and theBank of Workers, Employees and Officials, Inc., and for taking into protective custody the higher union leaders.
The order of seizure was carried out as planned and ordered. On 2 May the official NSDAP press service reported that the NSBO had “eliminated the old leadership” of Free Trade Unions and taken over their leadership. (2224-PS)
On 3 May 1933 the NSDAP press service announced that the Central League of Christian Trade Unions (Gesamtverband der Christlichen Gewerkschaften) and several smaller unions “have unconditionally subordinated themselves to the leadership of Adolf Hitler” (2225-PS). The next day the NSDAP press stated that the German Nationalist Clerks League (DHV) had also “recognized the leadership of the NSDAP in German trade union affairs * * * after a detailed conversation” between Dr. Ley and the leader of the DHV (2226-PS). In late June 1933, as a final measure against the Christian Trade Unions, Ley directed that all their offices were to be occupied by National Socialists. (392-PS)
The duress practiced by the Nazi conspirators in their assumption of absolute control over the unions is shown by a proclamation of Muchow, leader of the organizational office of the German Labor Front, in late June 1933. By this Party proclamation, all associations of workers not yet “concentrated” in the German Labor Front had to report within eight days. Thereafter they were to be notified of the branch of the German Labor Front which “they will have to join”. (2228-PS)
(5)The Nazi Conspirators eliminated the right of collective bargaining generally.During the same months in which the unions were abolished, a decree eliminated collective bargaining on conditions of employment and substituted regulation by “trustees of labor” (Treuhaender der Arbeit) appointed by Hitler. (405-PS)
(6)The Nazi conspirators confiscated all union funds and property.The NSDAP circular ordering the seizure of the Free Trade Unions on 2 May 1933 directed that the SA and SS were to be used to occupy the branches and paying offices of the Bank for Workers, Employees and Officials and appointed a Nazi commissar, Mueller, for the bank’s subsequent direction. The stock of this bank was held entirely by the General German Trade Union Association and its affiliated member unions. The NSDAP circular also directed that all union funds were to be blocked until re-opened under the authority and control of NSDAP-appointedcommissars (392-PS;2895-PS). The Fuehrer’s basic order on the German Labor Front of the NSDAP in October 1934 declared that all the property of the trade unions and their dependent organizations constituted (bildet) property of the German Labor Front (2271-PS). Referring to the seizure of the property of the unions in a speech at the 1937 Party Congress, Ley mockingly declared that he would have to be convicted if the former trade union leaders were ever to demand the return of their property. (1678-PS)
(7)The Nazi conspirators persecuted union leaders.The NSDAP order on the seizure of the “Free Trade Unions” directed that the chairmen of the unions were to be taken into “protective custody”. Lesser leaders could be arrested with the permission of the appropriate Gau leader of the NSDAP (392-PS). In late June 1933 the German Labor Front published a “List of Outlaws” who were to be denied employment in the factories. The List named union leaders who had been active in combatting National Socialism and who allegedly continued to carry on their resistance secretly. (2336-PS)
The Nazi conspirators subjected union leaders to maltreatment ranging from assaults to murder. Among the offenses committed against union leaders are the following: assault and battery; degrading work and work beyond their physical capacity; incarceration in concentration camps; solitary confinement; denial of adequate food; surveillance; arrest and maltreatment of members of their families; murder. (2330-PS;2331-PS;2335-PS;2334-PS;2928-PS;2277-PS;2332-PS; and2333-PS)
B.The Nazi conspirators introduced the Leadership Principle into industrial relations.In January 1934, a decree introduced the Leadership Principle (Fuehrerprinzip) into industrial relations, the entrepreneur becoming the leader and the workers becoming his followers. (1861-PS)
C.The Nazi conspirators supplanted independent unions by an affiliated Party organization, the German Labor Front (DAF).
(1)They created the German Labor Front.On the day the Nazis seized the Free Trade Unions, 2 May 1933, they publicly announced that a “united front of German workers” with Hitler as honorary patron would be formed at a Workers’ Congress on 10 May 1933. (2224-PS)
Ley was appointed “leader of the German Labor Front”(Deutsche Arbeitsfront, or “DAF”) on 10 May 1933 (1940-PS). The German Labor Front succeeded to the confiscated property of the suppressed trade union. It was an affiliated organization of the NSDAP, subject to the Leadership Principle; Ley was concurrently Reich Organization Leader (Reichsorganisationsleiter) and leader of the German Labor Front (1814-PS). The National Socialist Factory Cells Organization or NSBO contained the political leaders (Politische Leiter) of the NSDAP in the German Labor Front and those political leaders were given first preference in the filling of jobs in the DAF (2271-PS). The German Labor Front became the largest of the Party’s organizations. At the outbreak of the war it had 23 million individual members and about 10 million corporative members who were members of organizations affiliated with it. (2275-PS)
(2)They utilized the German Labor Front as an instrument to impose their ideology on the masses, to frustrate potential resistance, and to insure effective control of the productive labor capacity of Germany.The DAF was charged with the ideological orientation of the broad masses of Germans working in the factories. Its leaders were charged with weeding out potential opponents to National Socialism from the ranks of the DAF and from employment in industry. In its surveillance functions, the German Labor Front relied on Gestapo reports and on its own intelligence service (2336-PS). The German Labor Front took over the leadership of the German Cooperatives with the view to their subsequent liquidation (2270-PS). The Nazi conspirators established Factory Troops (Werkscharen) within the Strength Through Joy branch of the German Labor Front as an “ideological shock squad (Weltanschaulicher Stosstrupp) within the factory” (1817-PS). These shock squads were formed only of voluntary members ready “to fight” for Nazi conceptions. Among their objects were the speeding up of labor effort and the forging of a “single-willed community” (1818-PS). The SA was charged with the promotion and building up of Factory Troops by all means. When a factory worker joined the Factory Troops, he automatically became an SA candidate. Factory Troops were given a special uniform and their physical training took place within SA cadre units. (2230-PS)
During the war, the German Labor Front was made responsible for the care of foreign labor employed within the Reich (1913-PS). Barely two years after the suppression of the independent unions and the creation of the German Labor Front, the Nazi conspirators decreed compulsory labor service (Reichsarbeitsdienst)under which young men and women between 18 and 25 years of age were conscripted for labor service under the administration of the Reich Minister of Interior, Frick. (1389-PS)
After war had been declared, the Nazi conspirators openly admitted the objectives of the Nazis’ control over labor. A publication of the Scientific Institute of the German Labor Front declared that it had been difficult to make the German people understand continuous renunciations in social conditions because all the nation’s strength had been channeled into armaments (Wehrhaftigkeit) for “the anticipated clash with an envious surrounding world” (2276-PS). Addressing workers five days after the launching of war on Poland, Ley admitted that the Nazis had mobilized all the resources and energies of Germany for seven years “so as to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle” and that the First World War had not been lost because of cowardice of German soldiers, “but because dissension and discord tore the people asunder” (1939-PS). Ley’s confidence in the Nazis’ effective control over the productive labor capacity of Germany in peace or war was declared as early as 1936 to the Nurnberg Party Congress:
“The idea of the Factory Troops is making good progress in the plants, and I am able to report to you, my Fuehrer, that security and peace in the factories has been guaranteed, not only in normal times, but also in times of the most serious crisis. Disturbances such as the munitions strikes of the traitors Ebert and confederates, are out of the question.National Socialism has conquered the factories. Factory Troops are the National Socialist shock troops within the factory, and their motto is: THE FUEHRER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.” (2283-PS)
“The idea of the Factory Troops is making good progress in the plants, and I am able to report to you, my Fuehrer, that security and peace in the factories has been guaranteed, not only in normal times, but also in times of the most serious crisis. Disturbances such as the munitions strikes of the traitors Ebert and confederates, are out of the question.National Socialism has conquered the factories. Factory Troops are the National Socialist shock troops within the factory, and their motto is: THE FUEHRER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.” (2283-PS)
A.The Nazi conspirators sought to subvert the influence of the churches over the people of Germany.
(1)They sought to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany.
(a)Statements of this aim.Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed by him and distributed to all Gauleiters 7 June 1941:
“Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the conceptsof Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry * * *. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here * * * the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. * * * All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer with the help of the NSDAP must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs the pastors. * * * Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakers are eliminated and suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of church influence also be totally removed. * * * Not until this has happened, does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are the people and Reich secure in their existence for all time.” (D-75)
“Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the conceptsof Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry * * *. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here * * * the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. * * * All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer with the help of the NSDAP must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs the pastors. * * * Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakers are eliminated and suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of church influence also be totally removed. * * * Not until this has happened, does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are the people and Reich secure in their existence for all time.” (D-75)
Hans Kerrl, Reich Minister for Church Affairs, in a letter dated 6 September 1939 to a Herr Stapel, which indicated that it would be brought to the attention of the Confidential Council and of the defendant Hess, made the following statements:
“The Fuehrer considers his efforts to bring the Evangelical Church to reason, unsuccessful and the Evangelical Church with respect to its condition rightfully a useless pile of sects. As you emphasize the Party has previously carried on not only a fight against the political element of the Christianity of the Church, but also a fight against membership of Party Members in a Christian confession. * * *“The Catholic Church will and must, according to the law under which it is set up, remain a thorn in the flesh of a Racial State * * *.” (129-PS)
“The Fuehrer considers his efforts to bring the Evangelical Church to reason, unsuccessful and the Evangelical Church with respect to its condition rightfully a useless pile of sects. As you emphasize the Party has previously carried on not only a fight against the political element of the Christianity of the Church, but also a fight against membership of Party Members in a Christian confession. * * *
“The Catholic Church will and must, according to the law under which it is set up, remain a thorn in the flesh of a Racial State * * *.” (129-PS)
Gauleiter Florian, in a letter dated 23 September 1940 to the defendant Hess, stated:
“The churches with their Christianity are the danger against which to fight is absolutely necessary.” (064-PS)
“The churches with their Christianity are the danger against which to fight is absolutely necessary.” (064-PS)
Regierungsrat Roth, in a lecture 22 September 1941, to a group of Security Police, in the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) concluded his address on Security Police (Sipo) measures for combatting church politics and sects with the following remarks:
“The immediate aim: the church must not regain one inch of the ground it has lost. The ultimate aim: Destruction of the Confessional Churches to be brought about by the collection of all material obtained through the intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst) activities which will at a given time be produced as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.” (1815-PS)
“The immediate aim: the church must not regain one inch of the ground it has lost. The ultimate aim: Destruction of the Confessional Churches to be brought about by the collection of all material obtained through the intelligence service (Nachrichtendienst) activities which will at a given time be produced as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.” (1815-PS)
The Party Organization Book states:
“Bravery is valued by the SS man as the highest virtue of men in a struggle for his ideology.“He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State; Jews, Free Masons, Jesuits, and political clergymen.“However, he recruits and convinces the weak and inconstant by his example, who have not been able to bring themselves to the National Socialistic ideology.” (1855-PS)
“Bravery is valued by the SS man as the highest virtue of men in a struggle for his ideology.
“He openly and unrelentingly fights the most dangerous enemies of the State; Jews, Free Masons, Jesuits, and political clergymen.
“However, he recruits and convinces the weak and inconstant by his example, who have not been able to bring themselves to the National Socialistic ideology.” (1855-PS)
(b)The Nazi conspirators promoted beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teachings.The 24th point of the Program of the NSDAP, unchanged since its adoption in 1920, is as follows:
“We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.” (1708-PS)
“We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.” (1708-PS)
In official correspondence with the defendant Rosenberg in 1940, Bormann stated:
“Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible. * * * The churches cannot be subjugated through compromise, only through a new philosophy as prophesied in Rosenberg’s works.”
“Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible. * * * The churches cannot be subjugated through compromise, only through a new philosophy as prophesied in Rosenberg’s works.”
He then proposed creation of a National Socialist Catechism to provide a “moral foundation” for a National Socialist religion which is gradually to supplant the Christian churches. He stated the matter was so important it should be discussed with members of the Reich Cabinet as soon as possible and requested Rosenberg’s opinion before the meeting. (098-PS)
In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann and distributed to allGauleiterson 7 June 1941, the following statements appeared:
“When we National Socialists speak of a belief in God, we do not understand by God, like naive Christians and their spiritual opportunists, a human-type being, who sits around somewhere in the sphere * * *. The force of natural law, with which all these innumerable planets move in the universe, we call the Almighty, or God. The claim that this world force * * * can be influenced by so-called prayers or other astonishing things is based upon a proper dose of naiveté or on a business shamelessness.“As opposed to that we National Socialists impose on ourselves the demand to live naturally as much as possible, i.e., biologically. The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and of life, the more we adhere to them, so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes.” (D-75)
“When we National Socialists speak of a belief in God, we do not understand by God, like naive Christians and their spiritual opportunists, a human-type being, who sits around somewhere in the sphere * * *. The force of natural law, with which all these innumerable planets move in the universe, we call the Almighty, or God. The claim that this world force * * * can be influenced by so-called prayers or other astonishing things is based upon a proper dose of naiveté or on a business shamelessness.
“As opposed to that we National Socialists impose on ourselves the demand to live naturally as much as possible, i.e., biologically. The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and of life, the more we adhere to them, so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes.” (D-75)
Rosenberg in his book “The Myth of the 20th Century” advocated a new National Socialist faith or religion to replace the Christian confessions in Germany. He stated that the Catholic and Protestant churches represent “negative Christianity” and do not correspond to the soul of the “Nordic racially determined peoples”; that a German religious movement would have to declare that the idea of neighborly love is unconditionally subordinated to national honor; that national honor is the highest human value and does not admit of any equal valued force such as Christian love. He predicted:
“A German religion will, bit by bit, present in the churches transferred to it, in place of the crucifixion the spirit of fire—the heroic—in the highest sense.” (2349-PS)
“A German religion will, bit by bit, present in the churches transferred to it, in place of the crucifixion the spirit of fire—the heroic—in the highest sense.” (2349-PS)
The Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), a National Socialist youth organization, was prohibited from participating in religious celebrations of any kind, and its members were instructed to attend only the parts of such ceremonies as weddings and funerals which took place before or after the church celebration. (107-PS)
The Nazi conspirators considered religious literature undesirable for the Wehrmacht. National Socialist publications were prepared for the Wehrmacht for the expressed purpose of replacing and counteracting the influence of religious literature dissimulated to the troops. (101-PS;100-PS;064-PS)
The Nazi conspirators through Rosenberg’s Office for Supervision of the Ideological Training and Education of the NSDAP and the Office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer “induced” the substitution of National Socialist mottoes and services for religious prayers and services in the schools of Germany. (070-PS)
On 14 July 1939, Bormann, as Deputy of the Fuehrer, issued a Party regulation excluding clergymen, persons closely connected with the church, and Theology students from membership in the Party. It was further decreed that in the future Party Members who entered the clergy or turned to the study of Theology must leave the Party. (840-PS)
(c)The Nazi conspirators persecuted priests, clergy and members of monastic orders.The priests and clergy of Germany weresubjected by the police to systematic espionage into their daily lives. The Nazi conspirators through the Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) maintained a special branch of the Security Police and Security Service (Sipo/SD) whose duties were to investigate the churches and maintain constant surveillance upon the public and private lives of the clergy. (1815-PS)
At a conference of these police “church specialists” called by Heydrich, who was then SS Gruppenfuehrer and Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), in Berlin, 23 September 1941, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Hartl, acting for Heydrich, stated that the greatest importance was to be attached to church political activity. The intelligence network in this field, he continued, was to be fostered with the greatest of care and enlarged with the recruitment of informants, particular value being attached to contacts with church circles. He closed his lecture with the following words:
“Each of you must go to work with your whole heart and a true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you, since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the enemy should be constantly tackled with determination, will, and effective initiative.” (1815-PS)
“Each of you must go to work with your whole heart and a true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you, since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the enemy should be constantly tackled with determination, will, and effective initiative.” (1815-PS)
In a letter of 22 October 1941, Heydrich, as Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) issued detailed instructions to all State Police Offices outlining the organization of the Catholic Church and directing close surveillance of the activities, writings, and reports of the Catholic clergy in Germany. In this connection he directed:
“Reports are also to be submitted on those Theological students destined for Papal Institutes, and Priests returning from such institutes to Germany. Should the opportunity arise of placing someone for intelligence (Nachrichtendienst) purposes in one of these Institutes, in the guise of a Theological student, we should receive immediate notification.” (1815-PS)
“Reports are also to be submitted on those Theological students destined for Papal Institutes, and Priests returning from such institutes to Germany. Should the opportunity arise of placing someone for intelligence (Nachrichtendienst) purposes in one of these Institutes, in the guise of a Theological student, we should receive immediate notification.” (1815-PS)
Priests and other members of the clergy were arrested, fined, imprisoned, and otherwise punished by executive measures of the police without judicial process. In his lecture before a conference at the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, for “church specialists,” of the Security Police, 22 November 1941,RegierungsratRoth stated (1815-PS):
“It has been demonstrated that it is impracticable to deal with political offenses (malicious) under normal legal procedure. Owing to the lack of political perception which stillprevails among the legal authorities, suspension of this procedure must be reckoned with. The so-called “Agitator-Priests” must therefore be dealt with in future by Stapo measures, and, if the occasion arises, be removed to a Concentration Camp, if agreed upon by the RSHA.“The necessary executive measures are to be decided upon according to local conditions, the status of the person accused, and the seriousness of the case—as follows:1.Warning2.Fine3.Forbidden to preach4.Forbidden to remain in parish5.Forbidden all activity as a priest6.Short-term arrest7.Protective custody.”
“It has been demonstrated that it is impracticable to deal with political offenses (malicious) under normal legal procedure. Owing to the lack of political perception which stillprevails among the legal authorities, suspension of this procedure must be reckoned with. The so-called “Agitator-Priests” must therefore be dealt with in future by Stapo measures, and, if the occasion arises, be removed to a Concentration Camp, if agreed upon by the RSHA.
“The necessary executive measures are to be decided upon according to local conditions, the status of the person accused, and the seriousness of the case—as follows:
1.Warning2.Fine3.Forbidden to preach4.Forbidden to remain in parish5.Forbidden all activity as a priest6.Short-term arrest7.Protective custody.”
1.Warning
Warning
2.Fine
Fine
3.Forbidden to preach
Forbidden to preach
4.Forbidden to remain in parish
Forbidden to remain in parish
5.Forbidden all activity as a priest
Forbidden all activity as a priest
6.Short-term arrest
Short-term arrest
7.Protective custody.”
Protective custody.”
Members of monastic orders were forced by the seizure and confiscation of their properties to give up their established place of abode and seek homes elsewhere (R-101-A;R-101-D). A secret order of the SS Economic Administration Office to all Concentration Camp Commanders, dated 21 April 1942, concerning labor mobilization of clergy, reveals that clergymen were at that time, and had previously been, incarcerated in Concentration Camps. (1164-PS)
On the death of von Hindenburg, the Reich Government ordered the ringing of all church bells on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th August 1934. In Bavaria, there were many instances of failure to comply with this order. The Bavarian police submitted a report outlining the above situation and stating that in three cases the taking into protective custody of recalcitrant clergy could not be avoided.
“The Parish priest, Father Johann Quinger of Altenkunstadt BA Lichtenfels. He was taken into protective custody on 3 August on the express order of the State Ministry of the Interior, because he assaulted SA leaders and SA men who were ringing the bells against his wishes. He was released from custody on 10 August 1934.“The Parish priest, Father Ludwig Obholzer of Kiefersfelden, BA Rosenheim. For his personal safety he was in police custody from 2400 hours on the 2 August 1934, till 1000 hours on 3 August 1934. On 5 August 1934, he said sarcastically in his sermon, referring to the SA men who had carried out the ringing of the funeral knell on their own account, ‘Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do’! “The Parish priest, Father Johann Nepomuk Kleber of Wiefelsdorf,BA Burglengenfeld, refused to ring the church bells on the 2nd and 3rd. He is badly tainted politically and had to be taken into protective custody from the 5th to the 8th of August 34 in the interests of his own safety.” (1521-PS)
“The Parish priest, Father Johann Quinger of Altenkunstadt BA Lichtenfels. He was taken into protective custody on 3 August on the express order of the State Ministry of the Interior, because he assaulted SA leaders and SA men who were ringing the bells against his wishes. He was released from custody on 10 August 1934.
“The Parish priest, Father Ludwig Obholzer of Kiefersfelden, BA Rosenheim. For his personal safety he was in police custody from 2400 hours on the 2 August 1934, till 1000 hours on 3 August 1934. On 5 August 1934, he said sarcastically in his sermon, referring to the SA men who had carried out the ringing of the funeral knell on their own account, ‘Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do’! “The Parish priest, Father Johann Nepomuk Kleber of Wiefelsdorf,BA Burglengenfeld, refused to ring the church bells on the 2nd and 3rd. He is badly tainted politically and had to be taken into protective custody from the 5th to the 8th of August 34 in the interests of his own safety.” (1521-PS)
After Hitler’s rise to power, Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg delivered a series of sermons regarded by the Nazis as damaging, and on 10 April 1938 he refrained from voting in the plebiscite. For this, the Reich Governor of Wuertemberg declared he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as head of the Diocese of Rottenburg; made an official request that he leave the Gau; and declared he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse between the Bishop and the State and Party offices as well as the Armed Forces would be denied (849-PS). For his alleged failure to vote in the plebiscite, of 10 April 1938, the Party caused three demonstrations to be staged against the Bishop and his household in Rottenburg. The third demonstration was described as follows in a teletype message from Gestapo Office Stuttgart to Gestapo Office Berlin: