Chapter 16

“The Party on 23 July 1938 from 2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants about 2,500-3,000 were brought in from outside by bus, etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. The town took rather a hostile attitude to the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party Member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched the rooms, threw files out of the windows and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. Before the fire got to the other objects of equipment in the rooms and the palace, the flaming bed could be thrown from the window and the fire extinguished. The Bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth. Finally the intruders realized that Bishop Groeber is not the one they are seeking. They could then be persuaded to leave the building. After the evacuation of the palace by the demonstrators I had an interview with Archbishop Groeber, who left Rottenburg in the night. Groeber wants to turn to the Fuehrer and Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick anew. On the course of the action, the damage done as well as the homageof the Rottenburg populace beginning today for the Bishop I shall immediately hand in a full report, after I am in the act of suppressing counter mass meetings.” (848-PS)

Reich Minister for Church Affairs Kerrl and other Party officials alleged that these demonstrations were spontaneously staged by indignant citizens of Rottenburg and caused representations to be made to the Holy See in an effort to effect the Bishop’s removal from office. (849-PS)

On or about 3 December 1941, a copy of a secret decree of the Party Chancellery on the subject of Relationship of National Socialism to Christianity was found by the Security Police in the possession of Protestant Priest Eichholz at Aix-la-Chapelle. For this he was arrested and held for questioning for an unknown period of time. (D-75)

(d)The Nazi conspirators confiscated church property.On 20 January 1938, the Gestapo District Office at Munich issued a decree dissolving the Guild of the Virgin Mary of the Bavarian Diocese, together with its branches and associations. The decree also stated:

“The property belonging to the dissolved Guild is to be confiscated by the police. Not only is property in cash to be confiscated, but also any stock on hand and other objects of value. All further activity is forbidden the dissolved Guilds, particularly the foundation of any organization intended as a successor or as a cover. Incorporation as a body into other women’s societies is also to be looked on as a forbidden continuation of activity. Infringements against the above prohibition will be punished according to par. 4 of the order of 28.2.1933.”

The reasons for the dissolution and confiscation were that the Guild of the Virgin Mary had occupied itself for years “to a most far-reaching degree” with arrangements of a “worldly and popular sporting character” such as community games and “social evenings”; and further that the president of the society supplied the members with “seditious materials” which served for “seditious discussions”; and that the members of the Guild were trained and mobilized for “political and seditious tasks.” (1481-PS)

In a lecture delivered to a conference of police investigators of Church Affairs assembled in the lecture hall of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Berlin, 22 September 1941,RegierungsratRoth stated that about 100 monasteries in the Reich had been dissolved and pointed out that the proper procedure called for seizure of the churches at the same time the monasteries were dissolved. (1815-PS)

In February 1940, SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich suggested to Himmler the seizure of monasteries for the accommodation of Racial Germans. He proposed that the authorities of the monastic orders be instructed to make the monasteries concerned available and move their own members to less populous monasteries. He pointed out that the final expropriation of properties thus placed at their disposal could be carried out step by step in the course of time. Himmler agreed to this proposal and ordered the measure to be carried out by the Security Police and Security Service (Sipoand SD) in collaboration with the Reich Commissioner for Consolidation of German Folkdom. (R-101-A)

These orders for confiscation were carried out, as revealed in a letter dated 30 March 1942 from the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) Chief of Staff to Himmler mentioning claims for compensation pending in a number of confiscation cases. In this letter he stated that all rental payments to those monasteries and ecclesiastical institutions whose premises had been put to use as camps for resettlers had been stopped on receipt of Himmler’s order. Concerning current developments, he stated:

“After further preparations in which the Party Chancellery participated prominently, the Reich Minister of the Interior found a way which makes it possible to seize ecclesiastical premises practically without compensation and yet avoids the impression of being a measure directed against the Church. * * *” (R-101-D)

In a letter of 19 April 1941, Bormann advised Rosenberg that libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries and that the Fuehrer had repeatedly rejected the suggestion that centralization of all such libraries be undertaken. (072-PS)

(e)The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious publications.On 6 November 1934, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued an order forbidding until further notice publication of all announcements in the daily press, in pamphlets and other publications, which dealt with the Evangelical Church; with the exception of official announcements of the Church Government of the Reich. (1498-PS)

By order of the State Police for the District of Duesseldorf, the Police Regulation which is quoted in part below was promulgated 28 May 1934:

“The distribution and sale of published items of any sort in connection with worship or religious instructions in public streets or squares near churches is forbidden. In the same sense the distribution and sale of published items on the occasionsof processions, pilgrimages and similar church institutions in the streets or squares they pass through or in their vicinity is prohibited.” (R-145)

In January 1940, Bormann informed Rosenberg that he had sought to restrict production of religious publications by means of having their rations of printing paper cut down through the control exercised by Reichsleiter Amann, but that the result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. (101-PS)

In March 1940, Bormann instructed Reichsleiter Amann, Director of the NSDAP Publications Office, that in any future redistribution of paper, confessional writings should receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable. He went on to point out:

“* * * according to a report I have received, only 10% of the over 3000 Protestant periodicals appearing in Germany, such as Sunday papers, etc. have ceased publication for reasons of paper saving.” (089-PS)

In April 1940, Bormann informed the High Command of the Navy that use of the term “Divine Service” to refer exclusively to the services arranged by Christian Confessions was no longer to be used, even in National Socialist daily papers. In the alternative he suggested:

“In the opinion of the Party the term ‘Church Service’ cannot be objected to. I consider it fitting since it properly implies meetings arranged and organized by theChurches.” (068-PS)

(f)The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious organizations.On 28 May 1934, the State Police Office for the District of Duesseldorf issued an order concerning denominational youth and professional organizations which stated in part as follows:

“Denominational youth and professional organizations as well as those created for special occasions only are prohibited from every public activity outside the church and religious sphere.“Especially forbidden is: Any public appearance in groups, all sorts of political activity. Any public sport function including public hikes and establishment of holiday or outdoor camps. The public display or showing of flags, banners, pennants or the open wearing of uniforms or insignia.” (R-145)

“Denominational youth and professional organizations as well as those created for special occasions only are prohibited from every public activity outside the church and religious sphere.

“Especially forbidden is: Any public appearance in groups, all sorts of political activity. Any public sport function including public hikes and establishment of holiday or outdoor camps. The public display or showing of flags, banners, pennants or the open wearing of uniforms or insignia.” (R-145)

On 20 July 1935, Frick, as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior, issued secret instructions to the provincial governments and to the Prussian Gestapo that Confessional youth organizations were to be forbidden to wear uniforms, or uniform-likeclothing, to assemble publicly with pennants and flags, to wear insignia as a substitute for uniforms, or to engage in any outdoor sport activity. (1482-PS)

On 20 January 1938 the Gestapo District Office at Munich, issued a decree which stated in part as follows:

“The Guild of the Virgin Mary (die Marianisch Jungfrauenkongregation) of the Bavarian dioceses, including the diocese of Speyere, together with its branches and associations and the Societies of Our Lady (Jungfrauenvereinen) attached to it, is by police order to be dissolved and forbidden with immediate effect.”

Among the reasons cited for this action were the following:

“The whole behavior of the Guild of the Virgin Mary had therefore to be objected to from various points of view. It could be repeatedly observed that the Guild engaged in purely worldly affairs, such as community games, and then in the holding of ‘Social Evenings’.“This proves incontestably that the Guild of the Virgin Mary was active to a very great degree in a manner unecclesiastical and therefore worldly. By so doing it has left the sphere of its proper religious task and entered a sphere of activity to which it has no statutory right. The organization has therefore to be dissolved and forbidden.” (1481-PS)

“This proves incontestably that the Guild of the Virgin Mary was active to a very great degree in a manner unecclesiastical and therefore worldly. By so doing it has left the sphere of its proper religious task and entered a sphere of activity to which it has no statutory right. The organization has therefore to be dissolved and forbidden.” (1481-PS)

According to the report of a Security Police “church specialist” attached to the State Police Office at Aachen, the following points were made by a lecturer at a conference of Security Police and Security Service church intelligence investigators in Berlin, on 22 September 1941:

“Retreats, recreational organizations, etc., may now be forbidden on ground of industrial war-needs, whereas formerly only a worldly activity could be given as a basis.“Youth camps, recreational camps are to be forbidden on principle, church organizations in the evening may be prevented on grounds of the blackout regulations.“Processions, pilgrimages abroad are to be forbidden by reason of the over-burdened transport conditions. For local events too technical traffic troubles and the danger of air-attack may serve as grounds for their prohibition. (One Referent forbade a procession, on the grounds of it wearing out shoe leather).” (1815-PS)

“Retreats, recreational organizations, etc., may now be forbidden on ground of industrial war-needs, whereas formerly only a worldly activity could be given as a basis.

“Youth camps, recreational camps are to be forbidden on principle, church organizations in the evening may be prevented on grounds of the blackout regulations.

“Processions, pilgrimages abroad are to be forbidden by reason of the over-burdened transport conditions. For local events too technical traffic troubles and the danger of air-attack may serve as grounds for their prohibition. (One Referent forbade a procession, on the grounds of it wearing out shoe leather).” (1815-PS)

(g)The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious education.In a speech on 7 March 1937, Rosenberg stated:

“The education of youth can only be carried out by those who have rescued Germany from disaster. It is thereforeimpossible to demand one Fuehrer, one Reich and one firmly united people as long as education is carried out by forces which are mutually exclusive to each other.” (2351-PS)

In a speech at Fulda, 27 November 1937 Reich Minister for Church Affairs Hans Kerrl stated:

“We cannot recognize that the Church has a right to insure that the individual should be educated in all respects in the way in which it holds to be right; but we must leave it to the National Socialist State to educate the child in the way it regards as right.” (2352-PS)

In January 1939, Bormann, acting as Deputy of the Fuehrer, informed the Minister of Education, that the Party was taking the position that theological inquiry was not as valuable as the general fields of knowledge in the universities and that suppression of Theological Faculties in the universities was to be undertaken at once. He pointed out that the Concordat with the Vatican placed certain limitations on such a program, but that in the light of the general change of circumstances, particularly the compulsory military service and the execution of the four-year plan, the question of manpower made certain reorganizations, economies and simplification necessary. Therefore, Theological Faculties were to be restricted insofar as they could not be wholly suppressed. He instructed that the churches were not to be informed of this development and no public announcement was to be made. Any complaints, if they were to be replied to at all, should be answered with a statement that these measures are being executed in a general plan of reorganization and that similar things are happening to other faculties. He concludes with the statement that the professorial chairs vacated by the above program are to be turned over to the newly-created fields of inquiry, such as Racial Research. (116-PS)

A plan for the reduction of Theological Faculties was submitted by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Training in April 1939 to Bormann, who forwarded it to Rosenberg for consideration and action. The plan called for shifting, combining and eliminating Theological Faculties in various schools and universities throughout the Reich, with the following results:

“To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of Theological Faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties.“a.Closing of three Catholic Theological Faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic Faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.“b.Closing of one further Catholic and of three further Evangelic Faculties in the near future.” (122-PS)

“a.Closing of three Catholic Theological Faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic Faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.

“b.Closing of one further Catholic and of three further Evangelic Faculties in the near future.” (122-PS)

In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann, and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statement concerning religious education was made:

“No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by pastors. The so-called dear God in no wise gives knowledge of his existence to young people in advance, but in an astonishing manner in spite of his omnipotence leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If therefore in the future our youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself.” (D-75)

(2)Supplementary evidence of acts of suppression within Germany.In laying the groundwork for their attempted subversion of the Church, the Nazi conspirators resorted to assurances of peaceful intentions. Thus Hitler, in his address to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 declared:

“While the government is determined to carry through the political and moral purging of our public life, it is creating and insuring prerequisites for a truly religious life. The government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most important for the maintenance of our Folkdom. It will respect agreements concluded between them and the states. However, it expects that its work will meet with a similar appreciation. The government will treat all other denominations with equal objective justice. However, it can never condone that belonging to a certain denomination or to a certain race might be regarded as a license to commit or tolerate crimes. The Government will devote its care to the sincere living together of Church and State.” (3387-PS)

(a)Against the Evangelical Churches.The Nazi conspirators, upon their accession to power, passed a number of laws, under innocent-sounding titles, designed to reduce the Evangelical Churches to the status of an obedient instrument of Nazi policy. The following are illustrative:

With the help of their Reich Bishop, Bishop Mueller, they manoeuvered the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler Jugend under Von Schirach in December 1933. (1458-PS)

They arrested prominent Protestant leaders such as PastorNiemoeller. By 1937, the result of all these measures was complete administrative control by the Nazi conspirators over the Evangelical churches.

(b)Against the Catholic Church.Just as in their program against the Evangelical Churches, so in their attack on the Catholic Church, the Nazi conspirators concealed their real intentions under a cloak of apparent respect for its rights and protection of its activities. On 20 July 1933, a Concordat was concluded between the Holy See and the German Reich, signed for the Reich by Von Papen (3280-A-PS). It was the Nazi Government, not the Church, which initiated the negotiations.

“The German Government asked the Holy See to conclude a Concordat with the Reich.” (3268-PS)

By Article I of the Concordat,

“The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of the Catholic religion.“It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the limit of those laws which are applicable to all, to manage and regulate her own affairs independently, and, within the framework of her own competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on her members.” (3280-A-PS)

“The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of the Catholic religion.

“It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the limit of those laws which are applicable to all, to manage and regulate her own affairs independently, and, within the framework of her own competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on her members.” (3280-A-PS)

Other articles formulated agreements on basic principles such as free communication between Rome and the local ecclesiastical authorities, freedom of the Catholic press, of Catholic education and of Catholic action in charitable, professional, and youth organizations. In return, the Vatican pledged loyalty by the clergy to the Reich Government and emphasis in religious instruction on the patriotic duties of the Christian citizen. (3280-A-PS)

In reliance upon assurances by the Nazi conspirators, the Catholic hierarchy had already revoked their previous prohibition against Catholics becoming members of the Nazi Party (3389-PS). The Catholic Center Party, under a combination of Nazi pressure and assurances, published on 29 December 1933, an announcement of its dissolution (2403-PS). Thus the Catholics went a long way to disarm themselves and cooperate with the Nazis. Nevertheless, the Nazi conspirators continued to develop their policy of slow strangulation of religion, first in covert, and then in open, violation of their assurances and agreements.

In the Encyclical “Mit Brennender Sorge”, on 14 March 1937, Pope Pius XI described the program:

“It discloses intrigues which from the beginning had no other aim than a war of extermination. In the furrows in which we had labored to sow the seeds of true peace, others—like the enemy in Holy Scripture (Matt. xiii, 25)—sowedthe tares of suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny of secret and open fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church, fed from a thousand different sources and making use of every available means. On them and on them alone and on their silent and vocal protectors rests the responsibility that now on the horizon of Germany there is to be seen not the rainbow of peace but the threatening storm clouds of destructive religious wars. * * * Anyone who has any sense of truth left in his mind and even a shadow of the feeling of justice left in his heart will have to admit that, in the difficult and eventful years which followed the Concordat, every word and every action of Ours was ruled by loyalty to the terms of the agreement; but also he will have to recognize with surprise and deep disgust that the unwritten law of the other party has been arbitrary misinterpretation of agreements, evasion of agreements, evacuation of the meaning of agreements, and finally more or less open violation of agreements.” (3280-PS)

The Nazis suppressed the Catholic Youth League, beginning ten days after the concordat was signed. (See Section 8, infra.)

On 18 January 1942, in declining to accede to a demand made by the German Government that no further appointment of Archbishops, Bishops, and other high administrative dignitaries be made in the new territories of the Reich, or of certain of them within the old Reich, without previous consultation with the German Government (3261-PS), the Secretary of State of Pope Pius XII pointed to measures taken by the German Government,

“Contrary not only to the existing Concordats and to the principles of international law ratified by the Second Hague conference, but often—and this is much more grave—to the very fundamental principles of divine law, both natural and positive.”

The Papal Secretary of State continued:

“Let it suffice to recall in this connection, among other things, the changing of the Catholic State elementary schools into undenominational schools; the permanent or temporary closing of many minor seminaries, of not a few major seminaries and of some theological faculties; the suppression of almost all the private schools and of numerous Catholic boarding schools and colleges; the repudiation, decided unilaterally, of financial obligations which the State, Municipalities, etc. had towards the Church; the increasing difficulties put in the way of the activity of the religious Orders and Congregations in the spiritual, cultural and social fieldand above all the suppression of Abbeys, monasteries, convents and religious houses in such great numbers that one is led to infer a deliberate intention of rendering impossible the very existence of the Orders and Congregations in Germany.“Similar and even graver acts must be deplored in the annexed and occupied territories, especially in the Polish territories and particularly in theReichsgau Wartheland, for which the Reich Superintendent has issued, under date of September 13th last, a ‘Decree concerning Religious Associations and Religious Societies’ (Verordnung ueber Religioese Vereinigungen und Religion-gesellschaften) in clear opposition to the fundamental principles of the divine constitution of the Church.” (3261-PS)

“Similar and even graver acts must be deplored in the annexed and occupied territories, especially in the Polish territories and particularly in theReichsgau Wartheland, for which the Reich Superintendent has issued, under date of September 13th last, a ‘Decree concerning Religious Associations and Religious Societies’ (Verordnung ueber Religioese Vereinigungen und Religion-gesellschaften) in clear opposition to the fundamental principles of the divine constitution of the Church.” (3261-PS)

Illustrative of the numerous other cases and specific incidents which might be adduced as the program of suppression was carried into action within Germany proper, are the measures adopted beginning in 1936 to eliminate the priest Rupert Mayer of Munich. Because of his sermons, he was confined in various prisons, arrested and rearrested, interned in Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the Ettal Monastery, from which he was released by Allied troops in May 1945, and later died. (3272-PS)

(c)Against other religious groups.

Members of the sect known as “Bibelforscher”—meaning “Members of a Biblical Society” or “Bible-Researchers”—were as early as 1937 sent as a routine matter to concentration camps by the Gestapo, even after serving of a sentence imposed by a court or after the cancellation of an arrest order (D-84). At one camp alone—Dachau—there were over 150 “Bibelforscher” in protective custody in 1937. (2928-PS)

B.Acts of suppression of the Christian Churches in Annexed and Occupied Territories.

(1)In Austria.The methods of suppression of churches followed in Austria by the occupying power began with measures to exclude the Church from public activities, such as processions, printing of newspapers and Reviews which could spread Christian doctrines; from forming Youth organizations, such as Boy Scouts; from directing educational or charitable activities; and even from extending help in the form of food to foreigners. Unable in conscience to obey the public prescription, ministers of religions were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and some were executed. Churches were closed, convents and monastriessuppressed, and educational property confiscated. The total number of confiscations, suppressions, or alienations of religious institutions exceeded 100 cases in one diocese alone. (3278-PS)

The Lutheran Church in Austria, though comprising a small minority of the population, was subjected to organized oppression. Its educational efforts were obstructed or banned. Believers were encouraged, and sometimes intimidated, to repudiate their faith. Lutheran pastors were given to understand that a government position would be awarded to each one who would renounce his ministry and if possible withdraw from the Lutheran Church. (3273-PS)

In summation of the period of Nazi domination and in review of the attempted suppression of the Christian Church, the Archbishops and Bishops of Austria in their first joint Pastoral after liberation declared:

“At an end also is an intellectual battle, the goal of which was the destruction of Christianity and the Church among our people; a campaign of lies and treachery against truth and love, against divine and human rights and against international law.” (3274-PS)

(2)In Czechoslovakia.The Czechoslovak Official Report for the prosecution and trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal established according to the Agreement of the Four Great Powers of 8 August, 1945 describes in summary form the measures taken by the Nazi conspirators to suppress religious liberties and persecute the churches. The following excerpts are quoted from this report (998-PS):

“(a)Catholic Church.“* * * At the outbreak of war, 487 Catholic priests were among the thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration camps as hostages. Venerable high ecclesiastical dignitaries were dragged to concentration camps in Germany. * * * Religious orders were dissolved and liquidated, their charitable institutions closed down and their members expelled or else forced to compulsory labor in Germany. All religious instruction in Czech schools was suppressed. Most of the weeklies and monthlies which the Catholics had published in Czechoslovakia, had been suppressed from the very beginning of the occupation. The Catholic gymnastic organization “Orel” with 800,000 members was dissolved and its property was confiscated. To agreat extent Catholic church property was seized for the benefit of the Reich.“(b)Czechoslovak National Church.“* * * The Czechoslovak Church in Slovakia was entirely prohibited and its property confiscated under German compulsion in 1940. It has been allowed to exist in Bohemia and Moravia but in a crippled form under the name of the Czecho-Moravian Church.“(c)Protestant Churches.“The Protestant Churches were deprived of the freedom to preach the gospel. German secret state police watched closely whether the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it. * * * Some passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at all. * * *“* * * Church leaders were especially persecuted, scores of ministers were imprisoned in concentration camps, among them the General Secretary of the Students’ Christian Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the Vice-Presidents was executed.“Protestant Institutions such as the YMCA and YWCA were suppressed throughout the country.“The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, HUS Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.“(d)Czech Orthodox Church.“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.“All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.” (998-PS)

“(a)Catholic Church.

“* * * At the outbreak of war, 487 Catholic priests were among the thousands of Czech patriots arrested and sent to concentration camps as hostages. Venerable high ecclesiastical dignitaries were dragged to concentration camps in Germany. * * * Religious orders were dissolved and liquidated, their charitable institutions closed down and their members expelled or else forced to compulsory labor in Germany. All religious instruction in Czech schools was suppressed. Most of the weeklies and monthlies which the Catholics had published in Czechoslovakia, had been suppressed from the very beginning of the occupation. The Catholic gymnastic organization “Orel” with 800,000 members was dissolved and its property was confiscated. To agreat extent Catholic church property was seized for the benefit of the Reich.

“(b)Czechoslovak National Church.

“* * * The Czechoslovak Church in Slovakia was entirely prohibited and its property confiscated under German compulsion in 1940. It has been allowed to exist in Bohemia and Moravia but in a crippled form under the name of the Czecho-Moravian Church.

“(c)Protestant Churches.

“The Protestant Churches were deprived of the freedom to preach the gospel. German secret state police watched closely whether the clergy observed the restrictions imposed on it. * * * Some passages from the Bible were not allowed to be read in public at all. * * *

“* * * Church leaders were especially persecuted, scores of ministers were imprisoned in concentration camps, among them the General Secretary of the Students’ Christian Movement in Czechoslovakia. One of the Vice-Presidents was executed.

“Protestant Institutions such as the YMCA and YWCA were suppressed throughout the country.

“The leading Theological School for all Evangelical denominations, HUS Faculty in Prague and all other Protestant training schools for the ministry were closed down in November 1939, with the other Czech universities and colleges.

“(d)Czech Orthodox Church.

“The hardest blow was directed against the Czech Orthodox Church. The Orthodox churches in Czechoslovakia were ordered by the Berlin Ministry of Church Affairs to leave the Pontificat of Belgrade and Constantinople respectively and to become subordinate to the Berlin Bishop. The Czech Bishop Gorazd was executed together with two other priests of the Orthodox Church. By a special order of the Protector Daluege, issued in September 1942, the Orthodox Church of Serbian Constantinople jurisdiction was completely dissolved in the Czech lands, its religious activity forbidden and its property confiscated.

“All Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment; moreover the State grant to salaries of many Evangelical priests was taken away.” (998-PS)

(3)In Poland.The repressive measures levelled against the Christian Church in Poland where Hans Frank was Governor-Generalfrom 1939 to 1945, were even more drastic and sweeping. In protest against the systematic strangulation of religion, the Vatican, on 8 October 1942, addressed a memorandum to the German Embassy accredited to the Holy See in which the Secretariat of State emphasized the fact that despite previous protests to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Reich, von Ribbentrop, the religious condition of the Catholics in theWarthegau“has become even sadder and more tragic.” This memorandum states:

“For quite a long time the religious situation in theWarthegaugives cause for very grave and ever-increasing anxiety. There, in fact, the Episcopate has been little by little almost completely eliminated; the secular and regular clergy have been reduced to proportions that are absolutely inadequate, because they have been in large part deported and exiled; the education of clerics has been forbidden; the Catholic education of youth is meeting with the greatest opposition; the nuns have been dispersed; insurmountable obstacles have been put in the way of affording people the helps of religions; very many churches have been closed; Catholic intellectual and charitable institutions have been destroyed; ecclesiastical property has been seized.” (3263-PS)

On 18 November 1942 the Papal Secretary of State requested the Archbishop of Breslau, Cardinal Bertram, to use every effort to assist Polish Catholic workers transferred to Germany, who were being deprived of the consolations of religion. In addition, he again appealed for help for the Polish priests detained in various concentration camps, whose death rate was “still on the increase.” (3265-PS). On 7 December 1942 the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau replied that all possible efforts were being put forward by the German Bishops without success on behalf of the victims of concentration camps and labor battalions, and deplored “the intolerable decrees” against religious ministration to Poles. (3266-PS)

On 2 March 1943, the Cardinal Secretary of State addressed a note to von Ribbentrop, Reichsminister for Foreign Affairs, in which the violations of religious rights and conscience among the civilian population of Poland were set out in detail, and the time, locality, and character of the persecutions were specified. Priests and Ecclesiastics were still being arrested, thrust into concentration camps, and treated with scorn and derision, while many had been summarily executed. Religious instruction was hampered; Catholic schools were closed; the use of the Polish languagein sacred functions and even in the Sacrament of Penance was forbidden. Even the natural right of marriage was denied to men of Polish nationality under 28 years of age to women under 25. In the territory called “General Government” similar conditions existed and against these the Holy See vigorously protested. To save the harassed and persecuted leaders of the Catholic Church, the Vatican had petitioned that they be allowed to emigrate to neutral countries of Europe or America. The only concession made was that they would all be collected in one concentration camp—Dachau. (3264-PS)

The Nazi conspirators adopted a dilatory and obstructionist policy toward complaints as to religious affairs in the overrun territories, and a decision was “taken by those competent to do so. * * * that no further consideration will be taken of proposals or requests concerning the territories which do not belong to the Old Reich.” (3262-PS)

“Those competent” to make decisions on complaints as to religious affairs in the overrun territories—especially the Party Chancery, headed by Bormann—the methods they used, and the reasons for their attitude are outlined by the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau, a German living in Germany, in a letter to the Papal Secretary of State on 7 December 1942 as follows:

“Your Eminence knows very well the greatest difficulty in the way of opening negotiations comes from the overruling authority which the “National Socialist Party Chancery” (Kanzlei der National-Sozialistischen Partei, known as thePartei-Kanzlei) exercises in relation to the Chancery of the Reich (Reichskanzlei) and to the single Reich Ministries. This ‘Parteikanzlei’ directs the course to be followed by the State, whereas the Ministries and the Chancery of the Reich are obliged and compelled to adjust their decrees to these directions. Besides, there is the fact that the “Supreme Office for the Security of the Reich” called the ‘Reichssicherheitshauptamt’ enjoys an authority which precludes all legal action and all appeals. Under it are the ‘Secret Offices for Public Security’ called ‘Geheime Staatspolizei’ (a title shortened usually toGestapo) of which there is one for each Province. Against the decrees of this Central Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) and of the Secret Offices (Geheime Staatspolizei) there is no appeal through the Courts, and no complaint made to the Ministries has any effect. Not infrequently the Councillors of the Ministries suggest that they have not been able to do as they would wish to, because of the opposition of these Party offices. As far as the executivepower is concerned, the organization called the SS, that isSchutzstaffeln der Partei, is in practice supreme.“This hastily sketched interrelation of authorities is the reason why many of the petitions and protests made by the Bishops to the Ministries have been foiled. Even if we present our complaints to the so-called Supreme Security Office, there is rarely any reply; and when there is, it is negative.“On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have also presented our complaints to the Supreme Leader of the Reich (Fuehrer). Either no answer is given, or it is apparently edited by the above-mentioned Party Chancery, which does not consider itself bound by the Concordat made with the Holy See.” (3266-PS)

“This hastily sketched interrelation of authorities is the reason why many of the petitions and protests made by the Bishops to the Ministries have been foiled. Even if we present our complaints to the so-called Supreme Security Office, there is rarely any reply; and when there is, it is negative.

“On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have also presented our complaints to the Supreme Leader of the Reich (Fuehrer). Either no answer is given, or it is apparently edited by the above-mentioned Party Chancery, which does not consider itself bound by the Concordat made with the Holy See.” (3266-PS)

The interchange of correspondence following the transmission of the above-described note of 2 March 1943 on the religious situation in the overrun Polish Provinces illustrates the same evasive tactics. (3269-PS)

In his Allocution to the Sacred College, on 2 June 1945, His Holiness Pope Pius XII recalled, by way of example, “some details from the abundant accounts which have reached us from priests and laymen who were interned in the concentration camp at Dachau”:

“In the forefront, for the number and harshness of the treatment meted out to them, are the Polish priests. From 1940 to 1945, 2,800 Polish ecclesiastics and religious were imprisoned in that camp; among them was the Auxiliary bishop of Wloclawek, who died there of typhus. In April last there were left only 816, all the others being dead except for two or three transferred to another camp. In the summer of 1942, 480 German-speaking ministers of religion were known to be gathered there; of these, 45 were Protestants, all the others Catholic priests. In spite of the continuous inflow of new internees, especially from some dioceses of Bavaria, Rhenania and Westphalia, their number, as a result of the high rate of mortality, at the beginning of this year, did not surpass 350. Nor should we pass over in silence those belonging to occupied territories, Holland, Belgium, France (among whom the Bishop of Clermont), Luxembourg, Slovenia, Italy. Many Of those priests and laymen endured indescribable sufferings for their faith and for their vocation. In one case the hatred of the impious against Christ reached the point of parodying on the person of aninterned priest, with barbed wire, the scourging and the crowning with thorns of our Redeemer.” (3268-PS)

Further revealing figures on the persecution of Polish priests are contained in the following extract from Charge No. 17 against Hans Frank, Governor-General of Poland, submitted by the Polish Government, entitled “Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Western Provinces”:

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