What

effect did
the Nazis'
racial
and
religious
policy
have
on
life
in Germany?
The treatment of religion
The Nazi viewpoint on religion
The Nazis believed in Constructive Christianity and freedom for every religious denomination
(group). But in reality, the Nazis saw the Church and Christianity as a threat to their policies.
One-third of Germans were Catholics and two-thirds were Protestants. At the beginning they
cooperated with the Nazis. They believed that the new government protected them from
communism and maintained traditional morals and family values.

Links with the Catholic and Protestant Churches

Hitler signed a concordat with the Pope in 1933. He promised full religious freedom for the
Church and the Pope promised that he wouldnt interfere in political matters.
Then, the Nazis started to close Catholic churches. Many monasteries were shut down and the
Catholic Youth Organisation was abolished (remember that the Nazis had created the Hitler Youth
Movement).
The Pope protested by issuing a letter in 1937, which was to be read in every Catholic Church.
This didnt have any impact at all.
Around 400 priests were arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp.

The National Reich Church

There were 28 Protestant groups in Germany, and they were merged to form theNational Reich
Church in 1936. A member of the Nazi party was elected Bishop of the Church. Non-Aryan
ministers were suspended.
Church members called themselves German Christians, with "the Swastika on their chest and the
Cross in their heart."

Religion under the Nazis

Martin Niemller

Not everyone was happy with the new Church.The Confessing Church was formed byMartin
Niemller in 1934 with 6,000 ministers, leaving 2,000 behind in the National Reich Church. This
was a challenge to the Nazis. Around 800 ministers were arrested and sent to concentration
camps.

Niemller was arrested in 1937 and sent to Dachau, then Sachsenhausen, until 1945.
Dietreich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned in 1943 and was later executed.

Further information
Christians werent the only ones being persecuted by the Nazis. About one-third of Jehovah
Witnesses were killed in concentration camps as they werent willing to fight for any cause, and
therefore refused to serve in the army.
The following religious groups disappeared from Germany:

The Salvation Army

Christian Saints
The Seventh Day Adventist Church
The following groups were banned:

Astrologers
Healers
Fortune tellers
Pagans - The German Faith Movement was pro-Nazi. They were racist. They worshipped the sun
and the seasons.

The Church - They did not manage to abolish the Church. The majority chose to keep quiet and
appeared to be conforming. There was an intense fear of the Gestapo.

What
effect did
the Nazis'
racial
and
religious
policy
have
on
life
in Germany?
The Nazis' racial policy

The Supreme Race and ideas about the Aryan superiority

Hitlers argument was that the race needed to be purified, therefore some people had to be
prevented from having children, for example, gay people, black people, gypsies, people with a
mental illness and people with a physical disability.
1936 - Lebensborn established
Lebensborn was a maternity home for unmarried mothers. Aryan women would meet SS officers
here, in the hope of having pure children, ie pure Aryans.

Jews
Jews have been subject to persecution (anti-Semitism) in Europe for hundreds of years,
especially in Russia. The Nazis exploited this hatred in election campaigns.
1933 550,000 Jews lived in Germany.
1939 280,000 had left Germany, eg Einstein went to the USA in 1933.

The increasing persecution of Jews between

193339
1933

April

Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. Jews banned from

working as teachers and judges. The SA stand outside Jewish
shops, cafs and businesses to prevent customers from entering,
and paint Jude on their windows.

1936

1935

April

Jews banned from working as doctors and dentists.

October

Jews banned from being journalists.

July

Jews banned from being members of the armed forces.

September

The Nuremberg Laws Jews didn't have the right to be German

citizens. Not allowed to marry Aryans.

1936

November

Jews not allowed to say "Heil Hitler".

1938

July

ID cards for Jews.

August

Jews forced to use Jewish forenames such as Israel and Sara.

November

On the 9th and 10th of November the Nazis destroyed 7,500

Jewish shop windows, burned 400 synagogues and arrested
30,000 Jews and sent them to concentration camps. This was
Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass). The Jews were
forced to pay for all the damage. Following this event, the Jews
knew that Hitler wouldn't stop until he had destroyed them.

1939

December

Jews forced to sell their businesses.

January

Hitler's speech in the Reichstag. On 30 January 1939 Hitler

announced: "If the international Jewish financiers inside and
outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once
more into a world war, then the outcome will not be the victory
of Jewry, but rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in
Europe!"

February

Jews forced to give their metals and jewels to the Nazis.