Copyright (C) 1969 Johan M. Snoek.
Produced by the nephew of the author.
Transcriber's Note: (Gutenberg preparation by Ge J. Snoek 2004: g.snoek3@chello.nl The original printed paper book pages are marked as
JOHAN M. SNOEK
THE GREY BOOK
A COLLECTION OF PROTESTS AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM AND PERSECUTION OF JEWS ISSUED BY NON-ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND CHURCH LEADERS DURING HITLERS RULE
INTRODUCTION BY URIEL TAL
Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V. dr. H.J. Prakke & H.M.G. Prakke—Assen, 1969
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION (by Uriel Tal)
Part I
1 PROBLEMS OF EVALUATION 2 FACTORS LEADING TO PUBLIC PROTESTS 3 RESULTS 4 HELP TO CHRISTIANS OF JEWISH ORIGIN 5 "MERCY-BAPTISMS"
Part II
6 HISTORICAL EVENTS 7 GERMANY 8 THE NETHERLANDS 9 BELGIUM 10 FRANCE 11 SWITZERLAND 12 DENMARK 13 SWEDEN 14 HUNGARY 15 RUMANIA 16 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 17 THE UNITED STATES 18 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF CHURCHES
Part III
19 HISTORICAL EVENTS, 1939-1945 20 GERMANY 21 NORWAY 22 THE NETHERLANDS 23 FRANCE 24 YUGOSLAVIA 25 GREECE 26 DENMARK 27 SLOVAKIA 28 RUMANIA 29 BULGARIA 30 HUNGARY 31 SWITZERLAND 32 SWEDEN 33 GREAT BRITAIN 34 THE UNITED STATES 35 THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES 36 TERRITORIES IN WHICH THE CHURCHES REMAINED SILENT 37 IN CONCLUSION APPENDIX I APPENDIX II BIBLIOGRAPHY PERIODICALS AND REPORTS
INTRODUCTION (by Uriel Tal)
The protests of the non-Roman Catholic Churches against the persecution and extermination of the Jews during the Nazi period, carefully compiled and amply documented in this volume, possess a significance that is not confined to the history of Christian-Jewish relations. They constitute an important chapter in the history of Christianity itself in that they reveal the deeper aspects of the Church's antagonism to the anti-religious and hence anti-Christian character of Nazi anti-semitism. The well-attested facts presented to us in this volume are a clear confirmation of the Church's reputation of Nazi doctrines, not only when these doctrines were directed against the Jews but, first and foremost, when they threatened the very existence of the Church itself, both as a system of theological doctrines and beliefs and as an historical institution. The Church regarded freedom, freedom of man as well as its own, as an inalienable right rooted in the nature of man as a rational being created in God's image. Hence, when the Church was deprived at the right of self-determination, it felt its very existence endangered, and it was then that it recognized the full symbolic import of Jewish persecution. This view was plainly set forth at the beginning of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazi-regime in Holland, by D. J. Slotemaker de Bruine, Protestant pastor and Minister of State, who declared:
"…Freedom of the spirit is our life-blood. By that I mean freedom in questions of the spirit, freedom of conscience, freedom of the Church, freedom of instruction, freedom of the Word of God, freedom to bear witness…" [1] In the light of this statement it is obvious that the Church was provoked to raise its voice in protest chiefly because the Nazis appropriated the messianic structure of religion which they exploited to their own ideological and political ends. This was made clear already in the early days of the Third Reich by "Die Geistlichen Mitglieder der Vorlaufigen Leitung der Evangelischen Kirche" who, in a memorandum (Denkschrift) addressed to the Fuehrer (May 1936), accuse Hitler of pursuing a policy that is not only directed against the Church but which is designed "to de-Christianize the German people" (das deutsche Volk zu entchristlichen), quoting, among other things, the words of Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley:
"The Party lays total claim to the soul of the German people…and hence we demand the last German, whether Protestant or Catholic…" [2]
To those Church circles that raised their voices in protest this totalitarian structure of the Nazi regime presented a double threat to the very existence of the Church. First, the pseudo-religious and pseudomessianic character of Nazism was calculated to weaken the Church from within and to mislead the Christian community, especially its youth. It became increasingly clear to these circles that the Nazi racial doctrine - which Hitler and also the "Deutsche Christen" had called positive Christianity in their first formulation as early as 5 May 1932 - constituted a kind of additional gospel of messianic redemption that ostensibly strengthened Christianity as an institution and as a religion of revelation. Secondly, this pseudo- messianic and pseudo-religious authority that the Nazi regime arrogated to itself was able by means of its repressive measures to curtail the influence of the Church and even to reduce it to silence. This danger was perceived at an early date by the "Bekenntnissynode der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche" in its Botschaft (Part I, par 2, 5) adopted by the Conference held in Berlin- Dahlem 19-20 October 1934, which stated:
Towards the end of the period that is dealt with in the sources collected in this volume, in the year 1943, we also meet with a clear expression of the Church's opposition to this pseudo-religious and pseudo-messianic character of Nazism in the "Pastoral concerning National Socialist Philosophy" that was sent in Holland:
… to parochial church councillors to give them the necessary basis for their opposition in the struggle against National Socialist ideology, and especially against the intangible, but all the more dangerous religious ideas and expressions of National Socialism which will exercise an influence even after the war."
In its penetrating analysis of the totalitarian character of Nazism this
Pastoral observes:
"…It is not surprising that National Socialism has the power to become the religion of the masses, and its assemblies to take the form of a kind of popular worship in which a great deal of latent religious emotion is released…. In carrying out its ministry the Church must therefore make its work in this connection even more definite in character, and must tell its members very clearly and resolutely that what is at stake here is the first commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods besides me…!" [4]
"And there is now a return to the worship of life and power by accepting and exalting the old Adam as the original and eternal MAN. There is an attempt at self-salvation - the old Adam is not crucified with Christ (Rom. 6. 6) but by his very own inmost strength achieves a new life and a heightened vitality…" [5]
Similarly, the theological concepts of sin and redemption were transferred to a legal category of administrative regulations that demanded outer conformity and inner obedience. The traditional conception of sin and redemption that was common to all currents of Christian thought held that man's redemption, and hence eschatological existence, depends on his faith: "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ… since all have sinned and… they are justified by grace… through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…"(Rom. 3. 22-24). In the totalitarian Nazi regime the concepts sin and redemption were used as means by the State or the Party to convert man into a loyal subject whose allegiance is assured by his constant fear not only of violating some concrete ordinance or governmental decree but simply of just deviating from the official ideology. The Christian belief that man could be saved through faith in the forgiveness of Jesus who died for his sins, "so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin" (Rom. 6.6), was transferred from the theological to the secular, political plane. Even the comforting assurance of the believer that his sins shall be forgiven and that he shall be found worthy of the purifying influences of grace could now be gained only by the individual's complete identification with the State, the Party and the superior Aryan race. An instructive illustration of this shift from theology to ideology is to be found in the circular letters (Rundschreiben) and in the speeches of the Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley, for example in his words of 26. June 1935:
"Strength through joy (Kraft durch Freude) is the embodiment of National Socialism.
This doctrine was not mere Aryan propaganda; it became an integral part of school studies and was systematically inculcated into the minds of the young. The following is an example of a dictation given in 1934 to the third grade of an elementary school:
"Just as Jesus redeemed mankind from sin and hell, so did Hitler rescue the
German people from destruction. Jesus and Hitler were persecuted; but whereas
Jesus was crucified, Hitler rose to be Chancellor… Jesus worked for
heaven, Hitler for the German soil…" [7]
This same pattern of reversing meanings was also applied by the totalitarian Nazi regime to the basic concepts of western culture. Nationalism as an historical phenomenon of a people with a common language and culture and with the consciousness of a common destiny was raised to a mythical, meta-historical plane. The essence of national unity was discovered to reside in race and soil; the cultural and spiritual creations of the nation were attributed to man's biological resources. Similarly, the State became an end in itself, an ideal meta-historical entity that was identical with the national spirit. [8] This view was critically described by the Dutch Church as follows:
"… The whole cult of National Socialism finds its most powerful manifestation in a State which claims to support, lead and fill in the material and spiritual, educational, cultural and religious spheres, the whole life of its subjects. Not only does the State order the life of the individual, but it takes a creative part in it. It becomes the founder of the true religion and the dispenser of the true philosophy; it furnishes the data for knowledge…" [9]
"…In the last few weeks the sterilization of the so-called mixed marriages has begun. But God, who created heaven and earth and whose commandments are for all men, and to whom even your Excellency will have to give account one day, has said to mankind: 'Be fruitful and multiply' (Gen. 1. 18). Sterilization is a physical and spiritual mutilation directly at variance with God's commandment that we shall not dishonour, hate, wound or kill our neighbours. Sterilization constitutes a violation of the divine commandment as well as of human rights. It is the last consequence of an anti-Christian racial doctrine that destroys nations, and of a boundless self-exaltation. It represents a view of the world and of life which undermines true Christian human life, rendering it ultimately impossible… [10]
With Marr's intensification of anti-Jewish propaganda inspired by the new racial anti-semitism we find increased criticism of Christianity both as a system of beliefs and as an institution. In one of his popular books "Religioese Streifzuege eines Philosophischen Touristen" (1876) Marr, relying on theories propounded by Voltaire and Feuerbach, observes that from the atheistic point of view it is evident:
Most additional factors in the rejection of Judaism, Marr continues, go beyond the attack directed against Christianity as a system of beliefs and superstitions that demoralizes man and corrupts his nature. Anti-semitism is not only called to combat religion and Christianity; its chief aim is to save the German nation and the whole world from Jewish domination and from the moral depredation of the Jewish race. Christianity is not yet fully cognizant of the gravity of the problem, and it deceives itself when it thinks that baptism or conversion is a gratuitous deliverance from native corruption, for the Jew's aberrations are not religious but biological and hence incorrigible. The Jewish question, Marr concludes, is a racial question for the infidelity of the Jew is essentially biological, and hence Christianity is in no position to save the world from the perils of the Semitic-Jewish race. [17]
We here encounter a primary distinction between the doctrines of racial anti-semitism and those of the Christian Heilsgeschichte, a contradiction that awoke the Church to the dangers of Nazism when, in 1933, it opposed the "Arierparagraph". This racial law rejected the notion that the Jews could still hope for redemption, and for a renewed status of election, assured them in the New Testament (Rom. 9-11) on condition that they acknowledge their error and accept the redeeming truth of Christianity. Even in the early years of racial anti-semitism, in the seventies and eighties of the last century, we already find this inner contradiction between a racial theory that regards Jews as the ontological embodiment of an ineradicable evil and the views of the Heilgeschichte that believes this evil to be remedial if only the Jews could be persuaded that salvation comes from the Savior who was sent first of all to the Jews themselves, and who atoned for the sins of all mankind. It is this inner tension between the recalcitrance of the Jew and the incorrigibility of Judaism that refuses to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, already conspicuous in the change that took place in Luther's attitude to the Jews between 1523 and 1543, which charactarizes the theological and political attitude of Adolf Stoecker, court preacher in the Bismarck era and one of the leading figures of modern anti-semitism. Until recently historians concentrated much on his importance in preparing the ground for racial and political anti-semitism. It is true that without his powerful influence during the last decades of the 19th century the rise of modern political anti-semitism would be incomprehensible. A more balanced approach has been taken lately, as may be seen in the instructive study by Walter Holsten on the part played by Stoecker in the rise of modern anti-semitism. The author shows that many phases of Stoecker's anti-semitism had their roots in the conservative tradition of Lutheranism and at the same time were opposed to the anti-Christian tendencies of racial anti-semitism. [18]
"We can already detect here and there a hatred directed against the Jews that is contrary to the Gospels". [19]
Even in his most violent speeches against the Jews Stoecker did not draw the extreme biological consequences of his racial theories and continued to maintain that conversion was the only authentic solution to the Jewish question that would complete the universal mission of Christianity and that only baptism could save the Jews from their ignominious belief in the validity of the halacha after the coming of Jesus. The salvation promised to the Jew then is to be saved from his Judaism. The final redemption, however, will not raise the Jews above the nations of the world, as promised in the Old Testament, but this position of eminence and election will pass, or actually has already passed, from the Jews not just to the Christians but to Christian Germany. The redemption promised to the Jews is thus to be attained by way of the baptismal font at the entrance to the Church:
The inner tension between the theological view that sees the solution of the Jewish question in the liquidation of Judaism and the racial view that sees it in the liquidation of the Jews is clearly expressed in an address delivered by Stoecker on 8.2.1882 about the danger to the German Reich from Jews in public life, in which he states:
"We regard the Jewish question not as a religious nor indeed as a racial question. Although it is at bottom both of these, it appears in its external form as a social-ethical question, and is treated by us as such. No people can tolerate the preponderance of an alien spirit without degenerating and being destroyed? We would not solve the Jewish question radically by force, but gradually in a spirit of peace and amity… We must keep the wounds open until they are healed…" [21]
Although Stoecker himself was opposed to the use of force, modern political anti-semitism, which was to no small degree influenced by him, did not shrink from advocating violence in its hostility to Judaism, to religion and finally to Christianity. A significant contribution in this direction was made by the Darwinian racial doctrines of Eugen Duehring and his antisemitic disciples. Whereas Marr had formulated the anti-religious meaning of modern anti-semitism in ominous terms of the Jewish domination of Europe and especially Germany, Dühring adopted a so-called constructive approach by suggesting an alternative to religion and religious culture, namely, race. In his antisemitic writings after 1880 Judaism serves as the prototype of religion in general, including Christianity.
"…their anti-semitism lacks the primary truth, namely, that Christianity itself is Semitism, a truth… that must serve as the terminus a quo for all genuine anti-Hebraism…" [23]
As long as the Christians fail to disavow their Jewish source and their Jewishness they themselves will be tainted by its anti-natural influence. But since Christianity is inextricably bound to its Jewish origins, and even the New Testament is nothing but "a racially Jewish tradition" (eine rassenjuedische Ueberlieferung), the only hope for struggling humanity is to throw off once for all this humiliating yoke, meaning the religious heritage of Jews and Christians alike. The liberation from the Jewish-Christian heritage, on the one hand, and the strengthening of the Nordic German race on the other cannot be achieved through the process of education or civilization but only by means of racial purity which will cleanse man of religious depravities and restore the vital sources of his instinctive life. Christianity is inadequate for this struggle since it is itself ineradicably debased by its complicity with Judaism:
This basic thesis that racial anti-semitism must also be directed against Christianity continued to be elaborated from the end of the 19th century onwards by Theodor Fritsch as well as in a number of journals: the Antisemititche Correspondenz, which in 1888 became the official organ of the D.A.P. under the name of Deutsche-Soziale Blaetter, the Antisemiten-Katechismus which was later called Handbuch zur judenfrage and, in the early years of the present century, the influential journal Hammer. The general tendency of this movement was directed against Christianity as an ecclesiastical institution, sometimes chiefly against the Catholic Church which was suspected of "ultramontanist" sympathies for a foreign ecclesiastical power. Christianity was also opposed as a system of beliefs and practices that tended to debilitate the German Aryan race in its struggle for existence. Finally, Christianity was opposed because of its Jewish origins which deteriorate the whole human race by elevating spirit over body, rational thought over the wisdom of the senses, abstract ideas over direct and spontaneous experience, and the discursive intellect over the vital emotions. In the course of this debate the antisemitic movement displayed a readiness to reconcile itself to the continued existence of Christianity on condition that it subsitute the biological values of the Aryan race for its Jewish origins, as was recommended by the idealogues who made Jesus a member of the Aryan race - Julius Langbehn, Max Bewer, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Leopold Werner, and the German Christians in the days of the Third Reich. [25]
"What shall we do with a Christ whose kingdom is not of this world? A Bluecher, a Gneisenau, a Koerner, an Arndt can always be useful for Germany, but not a Christ. The God who was called upon at Leuthen, Leipzig and Sedan was not the God of love, nor the God of Abraham. Christ comforts the lowly, the weak and the sick. We too are sorry for these poor folk and try to alleviate their condition; but they are of no use to us and to our future. They only degrade that which we deem to be the highest good - the German character. Strength, health, the joy of life are what we need. The kingdom of Heaven can be left to the lowly and the wretched, as long as we possess the earth. Give the Bible to the sick and the lonely, the shut-ins and the scholars who wear their faces on their backs!…" [26]
Similarly, the antisemitic propagandist, Dr. Ernst Wachler, writes in the same journal (Jan. 1911):
"Away with the stones and tales, the doctrines and precepts of Jews as well as of Christians!… Not only the free-thinkers, but our basic Aryan instincts demand: the Church with all its trappings must be done away with…" [27]
The available historical sources, including the documents collected in this volume, clearly indicate that the protests of the Church against the persecution of the Jews, with its human and ethical concern for their fate, were an inseparable part of a more comprehensive opposition directed against the pseudo-messianic and hence anti-Christian character of Nazism. Seen in this context, the protest of the Church gives rise to a number of historical and theological questions that require further study. The questions that arise fall into three groups.
A. To what extent did the secularizing tendencies of the last century, the rationalistic attacks on religion, the Romantic philosophies, pagan mythology, Darwinism and the anthropological critique of religion, contribute to the anti-Christian character of modern anti-semitism? How did the process of secularization influence the teachings and art of Richard Wagner, the Christian mythology of Houston St. Chamberlain, Julius Langbehn, Ernst Bergmann and the movement of the "German Christians", or the "Mythus" of Alfred Rosenberg? Can modem historiography support the psychoanalytical Freudian explanation of anti-Christian anti-Semitism in terms of a revival of vestigial pagan elements which were latent in Christianity itself, and which consequently revolted against the ethical Judaic basis of Christianity and against the Jews who were now made responsible for all that disturbed the Christian conscience?
From the vast literature that has grown up around these problems [28] we see that side by side with the all-pervasive secularization of life there were also historical and theological factors embedded in Christianity which later turned against Christianity itself. Through further study, we might find in the history of Christianity traditions
It was applied to social life by various Church Synods (such as Elvira in 306, Clermont in 535, Orleans in 538, the Lateran Councils of 1179 and 1215) with their succession of repressive measures and harassments directed against the Jews. It culminated under the influence of blood libels in the late Middle Ages (Andreas of Ryn p. 1462, Simon of Trient 1475) [29], and in Modern Times (Tisza-Esslar, Korfu, Xanten, Polna, Konitz) - down to the days of the Third Reich. By using the very pattern of a Collective Guilt, the Christian projected on to the Jew the frailties common to all human beings. This mechanism enabled the Christian to see his own weakness reflected in the Jew so that by persecuting the Jew, moreover by exterminating him, the Christian could obliterate his own image as a sinner, and cleanse his conscience from the burden of guilt. These patterns of thought and conduct, these models of generalization, projection and prejudice that originally were established by Christianity with respect to the Jews - to what extent were they now employed by the Nazi regime against Humanity, as well as against the Church itself whenever the racial antisemites attacked its ethical Judaic basis?
As we study the documents before us in their total historical context including parts not directly relevant to the very protest and therefore not printed in this volume, we are impressed with the following fact; while the Church raised its voice against the persecution of the Jews out of human motives, as well as in the hope of thereby strengthening its own members, the traditional, dogmatic concept of the Jew continued to be dominant. According to this view the persecution of the Jews constitutes an error, not only for reasons of humanity, but mainly because persecution prevents the Jew from seeking redemption among his persecutors. It prevents the Jew from turning to Jesus as the Messiah and from seeking in the New Testament that salvation which not only is promised him, but without which Christianity itself is doomed to remain unfulfilled. From the theological point of view regarding the right of Judaism to exist, the Church in its protest against the Nazis reverted to the original attitude of Luther, as expressed in "Das Jesus Christus eyn geborener Jude sey" of 1523. When Luther protested against the anti-Jewish policy of the Church, claiming that the Church treated the Jews "als waren es hunde", and that under such circumstances he himself would: "…ehe eyn saw geworden denn eyn Christe", this very protest was also not based on an acknowledgment of the right of Judaism to exist as an independent, autonomous religion. The motive that inspired this protest was the hope that Christianity would mitigate the persecution of the Jews and apply to them instead the Christian Commandment of love and tolerance, as written by Luther:
"…The true destiny of the Jewish people lies in its Conversion to Christ, by joining the Christian Church. The Jew remains a Jew in the bitter sense which this word has for him first and foremost; the Jew cannot free himself from himself, as long as he does not come to Christ…" [35]
Are there any pronouncements of the Church that offer a Christian-Jewish relationship other than that of conversion? [36] Is there a possibility that the Church may acknowledge the inherent right of self-determination for the Jew, so that he could retain his identity and not seek to "free himself from himself?" This "bitter sense" of the Jew the Church spoke about even when protesting against Nazism, is it indigenous to Judaism or rather the result of the social and political conditions in a Christian world? Similar questions arise when we read the documents in Appendix I which do not deal with the period of the Third Reich but with the period after the Second World War. In these documents we find a number of explicit statements by eminent Christian theologians condemning anti-semitism. But even here we find no acknowledgment of the right of Judaism to exist on its own terms. Nor do we find such acknowledgment in the special declaration of a group of theologians, during the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches which convened in Evanston in 1954, entitled "Hope of Israel" [37]. In this declaration a systematic attempt is made to renew relations with
Another typical example of this attitude is the proclamation of the Joint Committee of the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council, after its Consultation at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Sept. 12-18, 1956. An attempt was made to elevate the missionary activities of the Church, to seek the salvation of the Jews by the power of the spirit only: "…Our hope for the Jews does not mean that we can calculate the time or define the nature of the coming of Christ in his Kingdom… We may find a further warning against too precise speculation with regard to the Second Coming of Christ…" (Ch. III, par. c, d.). [41] In conclusion, however, the Joint Committee could not help adding a declaration which for the Jew makes any authentic dialogue meaningless if not impossible: "… The Jewish people will not find their true destiny until they return and acknowledge Jesus as Christ and Lord" (Cf. Chap. IV, 6) [42].
C. The third group of questions that arise from reading the documents and require careful study, deal with the actual situation as it existed during the Nazi regime. Were the protests of the Church effective, in rescuing Jews and then in strengthening the spirit of resistance, or even the religious feelings among Christians? Were the protests raised at the right time and under the proper circumstances, to mitigate the persecution or to postpone the annihilation of the Jews? Was the protest the most useful means of rescuing Jews, or would it have been more helpful for the Church to keep quiet so that it could devote itself more to actual underground activities - but, then, could the Church keep quiet? Was the Church, in its protest, ready to endanger its members as well as their relatives for the sake of an effective anti-Nazi struggle, or did the protest function as a Catharsis, relieving the members of the Church from the burden of moral responsibility towards the persecuted? Did the protests create a new, perhaps even a revolutionary non-conformist stand of the Church over against political power? How was the protest of the Church related to the concept of obedience to the existing regime, as expressed in Paul's Letter to the Romans Ch. 13, and in Luther's "Von weltlicher Obrigkeit wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig ist" 1523? Finally, what was the reaction of the Jews who were persecuted, and especially of those Jews who lived in free countries and who might have been expected to exert themselves to save their brethren? Did they endanger their personal safety to rescue their fellow-Jews and display a deeper sense of responsibility towards them than the Church?
This collection of sources, by concentrating on only one aspect of the entire interrelationship between Christianity and Judaism during the period of the holocaust may confuse the reader in thinking that the Protest was the prime characteristic and policy of the Church regarding anti-semitism, the persecution of the Jews and their extermination. The author of this book, the Rev. Johan M. Snoek, is correct in bringing to our attention that the Protest must be viewed as one and only one aspect of the position of the Church and of the Christian world as a whole during the Nazi regime. A collection of sources on the Protest of the Church does not preclude the fact that there existed other positions among Christians; the position of cooperation with antisemites, whether it was active or passive, direct or indirect, with knowledge of without, whether voluntary or
Uriel Tal
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
PREFACE
Much has been published as to whether the Pope remained silent during the persecution of the Jews in Europe, primarily as a reaction to Rolf Hochhuth's play "The Representative" (Der Stellvertreter in German or in Dutch "Plaatsbekleder"). Not so much, however, has been published about the attitude of the non-Roman Catholic Churches. When there is a vacuum in our knowledge, it is an excellent breeding place for myths. We should fill a gap therefore as well as possible.
There exist certain myths, which die hard. Many people still believe that it was Richard III who murdered the princes in the Tower, though this has been shown to be false. The Dutch people for instance did not behave as courageously during the Second World War as is generally believed, but the myth seems to be firmly established; just as is the story that the King of Denmark walked through the streets of Copenhagen wearing the yellow badge in protest against the German measures concerning the Jews.
One should not lightly dismiss the existence of such historical untruths on the assumption that there is always a grain of truth in every myth. Sometimes a myth is completely false, as in the case of murdered princes. Moreover, this type of myth is sometimes very harmful. We need only remind ourselves of the infamous ritual-murder myth, suggesting that the Jews used the blood of a Christian child for ritual purposes. <1>
It is undeniable that throughout the ages many Christians took an active part in the persecution of Jews. [43] This fact has been officially and repeatedly admitted by Christian bodies. Some of the statements in this documentation unequivocally plead guilty in this respect. Small wonder, then, that many Christians, as well as Jews, honestly believe that "there was a complete and terrible silence on the part of the Church" [44]. In the process of creation of anti-Jewish myths, there is a tendency to generalize: "The Jews have …" We like to think in general terms because stereotypes are so easy, whilst it costs us much more mental effort to discriminate. Let us not commit the same offence against logic as the anti-Semites have and let us remember that it is just as fallacious to talk about "the Churches" as about "the Jews".
It is important for many reasons not to overrate the positive things the Churches did and said. It is also important, again for many reasons, not to belittle them. We certainly must denounce acts of anti-Semitism, even when outstanding leaders of the Church were the perpetrators, but this remains a negative. We must also mention the positive, which is more encouraging. I believe this is one of the underlying intentions of "Yad Vashem's" competent Department in trying to seek out and honour the "righteous of all Nations": non-Jews who helped Jews at the risk of their own lives. [45] It seems far too early to come to a definite evaluation of many aspects of the holocaust. Far be it from me, to claim that I can say the last word about that one aspect under discussion here: the attitude <2> of the non-Roman Catholic Churches. I can and must try to be objective, but I cannot be detached, as probably none of our generation can: we were all involved, in one way or another. [46] But I am convinced that our generation can and must do the groundwork. It must collect the material that may otherwise be completely lost or forgotten, and investigate it before even more people, who were personally involved, have passed away.
Collecting these documents was like trying to make a jigsaw puzzle from which many pieces are missing, the difference being that in this case one often does not even know that something is missing. However, the lack of other pieces is known. [47] As regards my own country (the Netherlands), I am fairly sure that the collection of documents is well-nigh complete. Some statements issued by Churches were published in Bulgarian or Slovak, etc., but not in English. Even such documents as were available in English were not generally known. Most of the material in this book had to be translated from Hebrew, French, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Slovak, Hungarian, Bulgarian or Greek. Initially, I sent a circular letter to the heads of Churches in Eastern Europe asking for information and I received some replies, though not many. Some replies stated that no documents were available because everything had been destroyed during the war. This seems quite possible, and perhaps we must give the Churches in question the benefit of the doubt. Moreover, it was not advisable, for security reasons, to keep certain documents. Thus, for instance, all documents of the World Council of Churches and its preceding organizations, which might incriminate Christian leaders in Germany, were destroyed when, in 1940, it was feared that Germany would invade Switzerland. [48] <3> Yet, some Churches, which probably could have sent material, and which in some cases as, for example, the Churches in Bulgaria and Greece, had a good record of resistance against anti-Semitism, failed to do so. It would appear that Church archives are sometimes the safest place in the world for documents not to be found. The Library and Archives of "Yad Vashem", in Jerusalem, had much material. I was also able to spend some days in the Wiener Library, in London, and in the Library of the World Council of Churches, at Geneva. I could never have succeeded in finding the material and having it translated without the help of many interested friends, Jews as well as Christians, to whom I am deeply indebted. It would be difficult to mention all their names, but I should like at least to express here my indebtedness to the late Director of "Yad Vashem", Dr. Arjeh Leon Kubovy, of blessed memory; and to Dr. Shaul Esh, of blessed memory, who made valuable suggestions for the chapters on Germany. I am also especially indebted to Dr. J. Robinson, of New York, and Prof. Dr. C. Augustijn, of Amsterdam, who read the manuscript and suggested many improvements. Of course the responsibility for any eventual mistakes solely rests on me. I am deeply grateful for all the kind help rendered to me by the Chief Librarian of "Yad Vashem", Miss Ora Alcalay, and her assistants.
Most of the chapters in Part III (During the War) have some particulars about anti-Semitic measures taken by the Germans: I wanted to give some historical background for the statements issued by Churches. For the background of statements issued in the different countries before the Second World War, the historical survey and the chapter on Germany in part II should be consulted. One can never have too much knowledge of the situation and background in the countries concerned, if one is to see facts clearly in their historical context and interpret them correctly. Thus, more publications are mentioned in the notes for further study. Some figures concerning the membership of Churches are given in Appendix II, though they are of limited value. Many territorial changes took place in Central and Eastern Europe. Some Churches count as members all who were baptized, whether they ever attended services or not; others count <4> "communicants"; the Baptists do not count the children. But one will at least acquire a conception of the numerical strength of a certain Church.
An investigation into the question whether the non-Roman Catholic Churches kept silent, must necessarily have certain limitations. Firstly, no statement issued by a Church under the authority of the Pope are recorded in this book, with the exception, of course, of joint statements issued by Protestants and Roman Catholics, as was the case in the Netherlands. Thus I have recorded nothing from the Polish Greek Catholic Metropolitan Sheptitsky, or from the Maronite Patriarch of Syria, Mgr. Arida. [49] Secondly, this investigation is not concerned with the acts of individual Christians, unless they were leaders of the Church and clearly spoke in the name of their Church. [50] Thirdly, I have not recorded the contents of protests issued solely against the treatment of Christians of Jewish origin. It was certainly the duty of the Churches to do all in their power to protect those Christians, but this is not my subject. I am interested in what manner the Churches acted or failed to act on behalf of the Jews in general.
This book is first of all an attempt to draw up an inventory, rather than to draw up the balance-sheet. However, the fact that I have often had the privilege of lecturing on the subject to Jewish, Christian or mixed audiences, always followed by brisk discussion, encourages me to feel that I have correctly understood some of the problems and questions which arise.
The Introduction arrived only just in time to be printed. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Uriel Tal for his penetrating comment and questions. It stands to reason that our views need not agree in every detail, but <5> Christians should know that such questions as are raised in the Introduction are asked by many Jews. It is of the utmost importance for Jewish-Christian relations to discuss them as frankly as Dr. Tal did. <6>
I
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
1 PROBLEMS OF EVALUATION
Commentators on the attitude of the Churches in certain lands frequently contradict one another. Some Christians, such as Rev. Niemoeller [51] and Rev. Buskes [52] for instance, pass a severe verdict on the Churches and include themselves also. It seems to me that at least one Jewish commentator gives too positive a picture about the attitude of the population in his country, Greece.[53] He may, consciously or unconsciously, have tried not to embarrass the people amongst whom he still lived when he wrote his book. But also the opinion of a Christian that "the hundreds of thousands of Jews that escaped the doom decreed for them owed their survival more to the rescue activities of individuals and private groups, above all the Churches, than to governmental resistance policy" [54], seems to me too favourable.
It must be difficult for Jews who know of anti-Semitic actions perpetrated by Church leaders throughout the centuries, and who personally suffered and lost their relatives in the holocaust, to believe that not merely a few "righteous of all Nations" but also Churches publicly and unequivocally spoke out against Hitler's murderous anti-Semitism. On the other hand, Christians are in danger of trying to whitewash the Church and ignoring the many instances when the Church failed. We all tend to forget our failures and to remember our victories.
Some commentators tend to forget how the actual situation was in those days. Indeed, it is difficult even for people who themselves lived through it, to project themselves back into the time when Hitler seemed all-powerful. Moreover, we now have the benefit of living after the events, and thus we know many facts, which were not generally known in those days. <9>
It seems unbelievable now, but in the summer of 1940, when some people somewhere in the Netherlands formed a resistance group, their leader stated that the British would not liberate us before Christmas 1940, and everybody present felt sorely disappointed. This kind of unwarranted optimism was fostered by many people throughout the war, and thus they underestimated the danger to the Jews and believed that, if German action against them could be delayed by some kind of compromise, much, and perhaps all, would be won. Many people in occupied Europe, in Great Britain and in the United States thought, that the information about the gas-chambers was "atrocity propaganda". The President of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. stated, on May 1, 1943: "What is happening to the Jews on the Continent of Europe is so horrible that we are in danger of assuming that it is exaggerated" [55]. We quote the following from "Unity in Dispersion":
"The undertaking was so staggering that, until the revelation about the Maidanek camp, a majority of the people in the United States as well as in England dismissed the facts of extermination as 'atrocity mongering'… It should be conceded, as extenuating circumstances, that never before in history had states descended to such depths of bad faith, deceit, and treachery as did Germany and some of her satellites in their resolve to murder. In 1942, tens of thousands of Polish Jews volunteered for cunningly disguised 'resettlement' and agricultural work in the territories recently conquered by the Germans in the East, and thus entered of their own accord on a road at the end of which destruction awaited them." [56]
The Germans tried to deceive the victims about their aims as well as the people amongst whom these victims lived, and they succeeded in this to a considerable extent. [57] <10> They had, in occupied Europe, all the instruments of mass communication, such as press and radio, at their disposal. All these and other factors are mentioned in "Unity in Dispersion" [58] in order to explain to some extent "the failure of organized Jewry to halt or even to slow down the most terrible catastrophe in Jewish history". Much of it is, mutatis mutandis, also applicable to "organized Christianity".
On the other hand, when the true facts became known, there was danger mentioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury: "It is one of the most terrible consequences of war that the sensitiveness of people tends to become hardened… There is a great moral danger in the paralysis of feeling that is liable to be brought about." [59]
We now are in danger of forgetting that so many other problems burdened people in those days. The British people were fighting their life-and-death struggle against the Third Reich, but were free. In the occupied countries, many young people were sent to Germany for compulsory labour; food was rationed and became more and more scarce. People went out in the night to cut wood illegally as there was hardly any fuel.
One cannot understand what happened in occupied Europe without remembering these things; neither can one understand, without realising the power of human egoism and the will to survive. No one who has never really been hungry, nor has been deprived of his liberty, can understand what it meant in practice to "love one's neighbour" during the Second World War. The persecution of the Jews was not the only challenge confronting the Churches in those days, though we only now can perceive better that it was the most important one. The list of steps taken by the Churches in the Netherlands shows the type of problems which faced the Churches: intercession in church services for the Queen; arrest of pastors; suppression of the Church press; compulsory labour for youth; requisition of church bells; deportation of labourers to Germany; closing down of the Bible Society; ban on Church conferences; death sentences: plea for mercy; deportation of students, and national-socialist education in Christian schools. [60] <11>
We tend now to underestimate the power of the Hitlerite terror. It has been said that all the Dutch should have blocked the railways with their own bodies, thus preventing the deportation of the Jews, because Hitler could not have murdered the entire Dutch population. I do not doubt that he could have and he would have done precisely that. [61]
It is not surprising then that many lay members of the Church and Church leaders were afraid, and therefore failed to fulfil their duties. Gerstein said, in Rolf Hochhuth's play: "A Christian in these days cannot survive if he is truly Christian". [62] Dr. Banning said: "If the Church had fully exercised the obedience of faith, no pastor or priest would have come out alive. [63]
But the greatness of the risks matched the appalling need to help: the Germans committed genocide. Whenever the Church remained silent in view of the holocaust, it was guilty. "Nevertheless a crime of such magnitude falls in no small measure to the responsibility of those witnesses who never cried out against it - whatever the reason for their silence." [64] Therefore, all the considerations mentioned above cannot exempt Churches, Christians or non-Christians, though they can help us to be fairer in our judgment.
One is sometimes in danger of becoming irritated by people who did not stand the test themselves, and yet claim to know exactly what should have been said and done. There recently appeared a book [65] in which the author sharply criticizes much what was done, or was not done, during the German occupation of the Netherlands. <12> He himself took a very active part in the struggle. Perhaps that is the reason why his criticism is not without compassion, and that it is to a large extent self-criticism. In order to understand how difficult it was to risk one's life or even freedom on behalf of others, one had to have been in it oneself.
I, who am now living in Israel, have sometimes, when lecturing on the subject, invited my audience to imagine for a moment that (God forbid!) some foreign power should occupy the land of Israel, say in the year 1980; and that this foreign power should deport many Jews for compulsory labour abroad, and also ration all food supplies, but that the Jewish part of the population should not risk their lives when complying with the demands of the enemy; that, however, the Christian minority in Israel should be deported and exterminated; that they should be deprived of their ration cards, that their identity cards should be stamped with a C, and that they must wear a yellow badge in the form of a cross, in order to distinguish them as Christians.
I then asked the question: "would you be willing, in such a situation, to hide my wife, one of my children or me, who all look very "Aryan", though you knew that, as in every community, you were in danger of being betrayed and in even greater danger of being given away by careless talk of other people? Or would you, if you were the Chief Rabbi, be prepared to denounce the anti-Christian measures publicly and unequivocally?"
2 FACTORS LEADING TO PUBLIC PROTESTS
There were many factors that led Churches to protest publicly. One of them is mentioned by the Executive Council of the Federal Council of Churches in the U.S.A. in 1941:
"No true Christian Can be anti-Semitic in thought, word or deed without being untrue to his own Christian heritance." [66]
But how often true Christians were untrue… <13>
The National Council of the Reformed Church in France made a similar statement, in September, 1942, declaring:
"A Christian Church would lose its soul and the reason for its existence, were it not to maintain… the Divine law above human contingencies." [67]
The Bible (the Old as well as the New Testament) was frequently cited in the protests. This may appear strange to people who only knew that the New Testament was used as a source of anti-Semitic influence. The same applies, by the way, to the Old Testament. [68] In my opinion, this use is quite indefensible. We list some of the texts cited in the protests:
"Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and the needy. (Proverbs 31, 8-9).
Indirect reference, particularly in Switzerland and Germany, was made to
Ezekiel 33, when the Church's office as Watchman is mentioned.
"When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head… But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel…" (Ezekiel 33, 2-4, 6-7). "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7, 1). "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25, 40). "We ought to obey God rather than man." (Acts 5, 29). "…and (God) hath made of one blood all the nations of men…" (Acts 17, 26). "There is neither Jew nor Greek…: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3, 28). <14>
In addition to this, the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10, 30 - 37) was quoted. It was frequently pointed out, though the wordings differ, that Jesus was born a Jew.
With regard to the Churches in the Netherlands, it has been stated that "the moral implications of Christian doctrine motivated the resistance of the Churches". [69] Such a statement seems to me to oversimplify matters. I believe that the Christian doctrine (or rather: the teachings of the Bible) demanded the resistance of the Churches, but it is always possible to find convenient excuses to escape a challenge, as for example the opinion that the Church should not interfere in political matters.
I once tried to convince a devout Protestant (he was an elder of the Church) that he should hide a Jewish child, by reminding him that one day he would have to give account of his deeds to the Supreme Judge. The man, who certainly could have hidden that child (he had a large farm) flatly refused, not because he denied that he would have to give account of his deeds, but because he was afraid, - too afraid to hide the child. I pointed out to him that he should rather fear God and not man, but my words simply had no effect.
Christian teaching did not work in this case, though that does not mean that it did not work in other cases. Chief Rabbi Safran spoke to the Rumanian Patriarch Nicodemus of the terrible responsibility he was taking upon his conscience in the eyes of the Supreme Judge [70], and in this case it worked, though there were probably other motivations as well.
Everybody's decisions are also motivated by the principles to which he adheres, and thus a Christian's decisions are influenced by Christian principles, though it must be admitted that mostly there are many other influences and motivations, probably more than the person who makes a decision, realizes. <15> The whole matter of the attitude of the Churches during the war was once discussed at a conference, and one of the speakers began by expressing as his opinion that Hitler and Eichmann were Christians, but later on he said that Mr. Johannes Bogaard, one of the "righteous of all Nations" who saved many Jews and whose father, brother and son were murdered by the Germans, was "just a courageous Dutchman".
I happen to know Mr. Bogaard very well and I am convinced that he acted as he did during the war, primarily because he is a committed Christian. Of course this does not alter the fact that many Christians did not do very much, if anything, on behalf of their neighbours, the Jews; nor should it be denied that many non-Christians did do what they could, out of national, socialist, humanist or communist convictions.
The same applies to the attitudes of a community.
A member of a left wing kibbutz stated his views very clearly to me, and
I know that many people hold views similar to his:
"Allow me to express my position which is based on dialectical materialism. The Protestant Churches were active everywhere according to the local circumstances, first of all according to the nature of the people amongst whom they lived. The Churches did not act in a vacuum. For instance, in the countries of Western-Europe, such as Holland, Norway and Denmark, where the 'final solution' met with the resistance of all sections of the population, the courageous stand of those nations found its vehement expression in the attitude of the different Churches. The non-Roman Catholic Churches merely reflected the opinion and reactions of the people."
It seems to me that there is more than a grain of truth in such a view and certainly no Church ever acted in a vacuum. Much in the protests issued by Churches in countries such as Bulgaria and Greece, points to nationalist rather than to spiritual-Christian considerations. Reading and analysing the contents of the statements may be of some help when assessing the motivations of Christians and groups of Christians who resisted the persecution of Jews. <16>
If, however, one indeed believes that everything can be explained by the influences of local circumstances etc., one should be consistent and stop holding Churches responsible for acts of anti-Semitism committed by Churches or by people professing to be Christians throughout the ages, for in such a case they were also "merely reflecting the opinion and reactions of the people amongst whom they lived". In the case of such a rigid determinism, it seems difficult to hold anyone anywhere responsible for his acts and decisions.
In my opinion we are all influenced by the people amongst whom we live, by social circumstances and by many other factors. We are all subject to a kind of mimicry, but that does not necessarily mean that we are just chameleons and nothing else. Churches are certainly influenced, just like any other group of people, by circumstances and surroundings, but they on their part influence these circumstances and surroundings. There is interplay of factors.
Similar to the opinion mentioned above is the viewpoint that Churches always tend to support the Establishment. The United States and Great Britain were at war with Germany, and the Churches participated in the crusade against the enemy. The same applies to Churches in occupied Europe, even when their own Government was in exile. I think that the Old Testament already gives us many examples of organized religion supporting the Establishment, but it also gives us some instances when religious leaders (the prophets!) refused to do so. [71]
It is doubtful whether the British Government was pleased with the Church's protest against the pogroms of the "Crystal Night", just after the Munich agreement. [72] The Archbishop of Canterbury's speech in the House of Lords and the Bishop of Chichester's letters to The Times, in 1943, must have embarrassed political leaders who were of the opinion that the main object was to win the war, and that attempts to rescue Jews were of less importance. [73]
The Swiss Churches could hardly be accused of supporting the Establishment, when they protested against the decision of the Swiss Government to return refugees to Nazi Germany who had illegally entered Switzerland. [74] Similar examples can be given regarding the United States, Sweden and other lands. The little that was said by the "Confessing Church" in Germany on behalf of the Jews was certainly not in support of the Establishment. <17> A Church must try to be the conscience of nation and Government, even though this may mean that its leaders have to speak out against the seeming interests of their nation. Churches frequently failed to do so, but we should refrain from generalizing.
Whenever Churches were conscious of belonging to a worldwide fellowship, this contributed to their making a stand against anti-Semitism.
Church leaders in the Netherlands followed the struggle of the "Confessing Church" in Germany, and were on the alert when they were challenged themselves. The Church in Sweden was moved to protest by the statement issued by the Church of Norway. Church leaders in Hungary realized, when they did not carry their protest before the Hungarian public, that this course would "incur… the reproach and accusation of the leading bodies of the Christian Churches" and stated that, if their intervention proved ineffective, they would be obliged "to testify before the congregations of our Church and the Protestants of the world that we did not suppress the message of God". [75] Many of the Church leaders who took a clear stand, knew one another personally. [76] In view of the attempts of the Germans to deceive world opinion as to their ultimate aims concerning the Jews, and in view of the tendency to dismiss reports about what was going on as "atrocity propaganda", the importance of the information given by the World Council of Churches through its Press Service and by other means can hardly be overestimated. The need to combine efforts and thus break through denominational barriers in order to come to a joint stand, was understood in some countries. In the Netherlands, Protestants and Roman Catholics began a new chapter in their relationship by protesting together. In France and Hungary there was consultation between Roman Catholics and Protestants, but it is to be regretted that they did not achieve a common front. <18>
Sometimes there existed close contact between Christian and Jewish leaders, as for example in the United States, in Great Britain, in Bulgaria and between the leaders of the World Council of Churches and the World Jewish Congress, in Geneva. Thus, again, information about what was going on was communicated and action could be co-ordinated.
The negative implication is also clear: whenever a spirit of particularism, provincialism and isolationism was strong in a Church, it did not fulfil its duty toward the persecuted Jews.
3 RESULTS
In order to ascertain the practical effects that could be expected from steps taken by the Churches, the political and geographical position of the countries concerned, as well as the time factor, must be born in mind. Where there was a national Government, as was the case in Slovakia, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, protests had a better chance of some success than in countries under direct Nazi control. Yet even then what Jeno Levai stated about Hungary was sometimes true:
"The Church was not in a position to promise or to threaten. Thus, in spite of their very best intentions, they could obtain only very little. Naturally this little meant life to the persons concerned." [77]
Typical were the differences between the Scandinavian countries: Sweden was neutral; Finland was an ally of the Germans; Denmark was occupied but it had its own King and was officially not even in a state of war with Germany; Norway's King had fled and the infamous Quisling had become Prime Minister. <19>
Geography also played an important role. The Jews in the Netherlands were in a deadly trap; Hungary was, at least for some time, a place of refuge for Jews in the neighbouring countries; Jews in Denmark and Norway had a chance to flee to Sweden and the Jews in France and Italy to Switzerland, in so far as that country was willing to admit them. The time persecution began was a vital factor. The earlier it started, the smaller the chance of saving at least some lives. It should be noted that these three factors were utterly unfavourable in Germany. It is difficult to assess the range of influence of any Church. Figures have been given about membership in Appendix II, but one must remember that many Churches have a high percentage of nominal members who, perhaps since their baptism, never attended a church service. Therefore it can be misleading to read that there were forty-five million Protestants in Germany, or, that 96,2 per cent of the population of Norway are members of the State Church. Only 5 per cent of the members of the Norwegian Church regularly attend Sunday services. In many other countries the situation is similar.
Many people who were not church goers may never even have known about the protests of the Church, and this is especially true of occupied Europe in those days, for there the Church could only speak from the pulpits, not through press and radio. Moreover, many nominal Christians are influenced by other outlooks on life, rather than by the Christian faith. However, when press and radio were silenced and the Church alone could voice an open and public protest, it met with the response of many people who were outside the fold. Church services were better attended than in times of peace. The former editor-in-chief of the Dutch communist daily De Waarheid relates that he went to a church service in those days:
That church meant something to us in those black days, were it only to listen to the prayer of a man, who dared make a public address on behalf of the people tortured in the concentration camps. [78] <20> I myself belong to the persons who, in those days, found their way back to the fold, attracted as we were by the Church's spiritual resistance to the Nazis.
When attempting to assess the practical results of steps taken by Churches or Church leaders on behalf of the Jews, we distinguish between countries under German occupation, countries under a satellite government, neutral countries, and countries that were at war with Germany. In countries under German occupation, efforts made by the Churches had hardly any direct practical result for the Jews in general. Personal intervention did not help or, at best, could only cause some delay in the deportations. The only step that had some effect on the Germans (as we now know!) was the issuing of a public protest.
Again it was evident, that the German authorities did not fear or have any step taken by the Churches as much as their protests which were read from the pulpits. Letters of protest they could throw in the dustbin or file away. They could listen to oral protests without taking them to heart. But they tried in every way to prevent public protests (in those days the only form of public protest), fearing their effect upon the people."[79]
The most effective protests were those, which clearly encouraged the faithful to help the Jews. Others called for non-cooperation with the Germans, and this had at least some result.
Six Roman Catholic police-agents at Utrecht informed their chief on February 24, 1943, that on the grounds of a pastoral letter read in their church on February 21, they would have to refuse if ordered to arrest Jews. Their chief threatened to dismiss them without pension and said that "those who do not announce their intended refusal and yet have the impudence to carry it out will be considered saboteurs, with all the serious consequences. The Germans immediately tried to arrest these agents but they had gone into hiding. The Germans then arrested their wives and children." [80] <21> Generally speaking, the positive indirect effect of public protests was, that it counteracted the attempts of the Germans to separate and isolate the Jews from the non-Jewish population, in order to break their will to resist deportation and annihilation. [81] It is impossible to count the lives saved through the activities of the Churches in the occupied territories. I agree with the opinion of Dr. Visser 't Hooft:
"So far we have only spoken of public protests. But were these protests implemented by deeds? The answer is that they were, though by no means as generally as ought to have been the case. The full story of Christian assistance to the Jews in their hour of great need will never be fully told, for in many cases individuals acted quietly and behind the scenes." [82]
In the countries under a satellite government, actions undertaken by the Churches were of some and sometimes even of much avail. [83] Concerning the neutral countries, the steps and protests of the Churches in Switzerland contributed to the relaxation of measures against the refugees [84], and in Sweden the Lutheran Archbishop encouraged his government to broadcast its willingness to take in the Jews of Denmark. [85] It is difficult to assess how far the protests of the Churches in countries that were at war with Germany had a practical effect. [86] They apparently helped to combat anti-Semitic influences in these countries (the same applies to protests issued in the countries mentioned above) and they contributed towards "breaking the wall of silence." <22> "The world wide public, overburdened with the issues and the incidents of a world conflict fraught with the gravest consequences, was not receptive to reports which it was ready to dismiss as propaganda tales; besides, the facts were hidden from it, not withstanding persistent endeavours by the (World Jewish) Congress to keep it informed. A wall of secrecy concealed the terrible tragedy… The main difficulty was how to convince public opinion and induce the Allied Governments to act. The battles of World War II raged fiercely on three continents, the onslaught of barbarity was nowhere decisively checked, the democratic nations feverishly tried to overcome their unprepared ness for a conflict of such dimensions. The Governments in Exile were chiefly concerned with the sufferings of their nations as a whole." [87]
The pressure exerted by Jewish and Christian leaders on their Governments did not, however, result in effective rescue activities being undertaken by these Governments.
It has been suggested that the protests from the Churches mostly came too late, and thus fell flat. This is partly true. The Protestant leaders in Hungary did speak out very late, and Bishop Wurm of Wurttemberg sent his letters when there only remained a chance of doing something for the "privileged" Jews.
On the other hand, Churches or Church leaders in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States began to protest in 1933. The Churches in the Netherlands protested at the very beginning of the German attacks on the Dutch Jews, in 1940. The Church of Denmark had prepared a public protest before the deportations started.
It is, however, necessary to keep the dates of protests in mind, in order to arrive at a fair evaluation of the moral courage which such protests required. After Hitler's defeat at Stalingrad, at the end of 1942, and the defeat of Rommel at El-Alamein, it became more and more clear that Germany would lose the war. The measure of success is in itself no yardstick for the moral value of a deed. One can hardly say that Church leaders in Rumania behaved better than Church leaders in, for instance, the Netherlands, because the former, contrary to the latter, actually succeeded in saving many lives. <23>
To this it must be added, however, that the seeming absence of any chance of success could not be an excuse for maintaining silence or for doing nothing against the terror of the Nazis. Prince William the Silent is said to have stated that it is not necessary to hope in order to try, nor to succeed in order to persevere.
4 HELP TO CHRISTIANS OF JEWISH ORIGIN
Apart from the 500,000 Jews who registered as members of their community in 1933, there were some 50,000 Jews in Germany who no longer belonged to the Jewish community. Though born as Jews, they had been baptized. In addition, some 210,000 people had at least one Jewish parent, and another 80,000 one Jewish grandparent; thus a total of some 340,000 people in Germany were, in addition to the "full Jews", affected by racial legislation. [88]
Until the end of the year 1938, Christian leaders and Churches tended to stress the necessity of helping Christian refugees of Jewish origin, rather than calling for help for Jews in general. A notable exception to this rule was the Appeal of the Ecumenical Council for Life and Work, in 1933, to help "Jews, Christians of Jewish origin and political refugees". [89] During the war, Churches in countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary and the Netherlands, instituted steps to protect their members of Jewish origin. It can hardly be denied that it was the right as well as the duty of the Churches to do so, but more than once the Churches were tempted to try and save their own members while neglecting the Jews in general. The announcement read from the pulpits of the Hungarian Protestant churches, on July 16, 1944, is significant:
"The Bishops… wish to inform the congregations that in connection with the Jewish question, and particularly in the case of baptised Jews, they have repeatedly intervened with the competent Government authorities…" [90] <24> A comment on the "Confessing Church" in Germany is:
"The Church took up the cudgels for the baptized Jews and that meant to the average churchgoer that the unbaptized Jew, i.e. the Jew as such, was left to the devil." [91]
Church leaders in the Netherlands regarded the issue as a temptation:
"Great dangers and temptations threatened continually. From the German side came the voice of the tempter: 'do not protest; only negotiate'. 'Do not speak on behalf of the Jews any more; then we shall be lenient to the Christians of Jewish origin.'… It is a great miracle that, in general, the Church recognized these voices as coming from the tempter, and boldly rejected the temptation." [92]
That these questions were very difficult indeed, becomes clear from the following comment of Herzberg:
"The baptized Jews [in the Netherlands], who were able to save their lives, owed this exclusively to the resistance of the Churches, a resistance which was especially impressive because of the principles by which it was motivated." [93]
Quite different, however, is the sharp verdict of Presser:
"And the Churches (in the Netherlands)? With what hesitation did they begin their resistance? How many were there, unfortunately, who were resigned to the fatal decrees of the occupying power, even appealing to texts in the Bible, and actually helping to carry out the decrees. How many times did they stand up only on behalf of baptized Jews and not on behalf of others." [94] <25>
It makes a difference, whether Churches on their own initiative stressed the importance they attached to the fate of Christians of Jewish origin, or were forced into a compromise by the tactics of the Germans. The latter was the case when the DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH failed to read the telegram of protest publicly in the church services. [95] The Protestant Christians of Jewish origin in the Netherlands indeed survived. We should not pass judgment lightly and we must realize that we now have the benefit of being after the events, Church leaders in those days were not always aware of the fact that the Germans, who offered not to deport the Christians of Jewish origin, were not just making a concession, but were also providing themselves with a means of exerting further pressure on the Churches. It is most regrettable that on several occasions certain Churches interpreted the saying "charity begins at home" as they did.
5 "MERCY-BAPTISMS"
Christian clergymen in many lands were prepared to baptize Jews if the ceremony of baptism meant that lives could be saved. The following is related of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia:
"Many Jews who tried to escape persecution sought rescue by giving up their religion and by requesting to be received into the Evangelical Church, for the Catholic Church did not receive them. [96] The Evangelical Church did not refuse them, which was an act of courage in those days, but enabled them to become members of the Church… Here some examples follow: <26> In 1940, 20 persons, most of them adults, became Christians in Bratislava. For the year 1941 the number was 83; for the first half of the year 1942: 47 persons; for the second half: 7.828 persons were admitted in 1943; only 2 in 1944. In Horne Zelenice (near Hlohovec), 169 persons became Christians in 1942; 39 in 1943; in 1945 only one. In Frencin 120 persons; in Kochanovce (near Treucin) 45; in Banska Bystrica, 202 persons became Christians in 1942. This help aroused the anger of the rulers, of the Gestapo and of the Hlinka Guard. They began to arrest Evangelical Christians and pastors. 9 pastors were sent to the concentration camps in Germany. Joseph Bucko, minister at Martine, perished in the camp." [97]
It is reported that in Bulgaria,
"… Ministers of various Christian denominations engaged in mass 'mercy baptisms'; several of them were removed from office because of this (one of these ministers, with a community of about 200 souls, managed to baptize 200 additional persons between January 1 and September 1, 1940). High dignitaries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church declared that 'conversion to Christianity' and 'formal baptism' were two different acts, the first of which necessarily preceded the second, sometimes by a considerable period; because the law spoke of conversion and not of baptism having to have taken place before September 1, 1940, Jews baptized later could also be saved if the minister declared that they had expressed their will to adopt Christianity before that date. Many courts accepted this reasoning. In this way, a number of baptized Jews and offspring of mixed marriages escaped the provision of the law." [98]
The following is quoted from the testimony of Richard Simantov: <27>
"… It must be admitted that, with a few exceptions, all the Christian religious institutions [in Bulgaria], as also their clergy, behaved with sympathy towards the Jewish victims of the anti-Jewish legislation. When issuing the required legal documents to the Christian Jew, the clerk of the court or the judge himself interrogated the priest, whether he had indeed carried out all the religious formalities, and how long the teaching of the catechism had lasted for the person of Jewish origin concerned. The priest would always reply in the affirmative and would declare that the man had received instruction for 3, 4 or 5 months, and that he regularly attended church services etc., although often these documents, which were issued by the Church, were given only in exchange for a payment, without the ceremony having been performed…" [99]
We have the following particulars about Greece :
"Many tried to evade the racial laws through baptism. More than 500 Jews embraced the Orthodox religion; some scores preferred to become Catholics. it was clear that it was not out of conviction that these Jews entered into the Church. It was well-known, that only the desire to escape persecution moved them to seek refuge in the shadow of the cross. Out of compassion, the priests did not hesitate to accept the new converts. They were on friendly terms with them in different ways. Out of noble feelings and not in order to receive a reward, the priests also distributed baptismal certificates to Jews who had never attended a church service…" [100]
The biographer of the Archbishop of Athens, Damaskinos, relates:
"Later on, when the persecutions started affecting the Jews of Athens, the Archbishop decided on the following measures. He summoned the Director General of the Administrative Services of the Community of Athens, Mr. P. Haldezos, and said to him: "I have made the sign of the cross and have spoken to God, and have decided to save as many Jews as I can, even though I run a great risk. I am going to baptize them, and you must give certificates enabling them to obtain the identity cards of Christian Greeks. Mr. Haldezos agreed to this. With the help of a Municipal official, they opened a register wherein they registered 560 Jews as Christians, all of whom were saved. There was no treachery." [101]<28>
Rev. J.J. Buskes discussed the considerations, which led clergymen in the
Netherlands to provide Jews with false certificates of Baptism:
"We are well aware that many pastors had conscientious objections to giving forged baptismal certificates. But, thank God, there were other ministers who had conscientious objections about not doing so. Such a certificate was, of course, false. But the man who wrote it out and gave it to a Jew, did service to the truth and helped his neighbour. The one, however, who would not write it and thus refused help to a Jew, served falsehood and failed the Jew. There is a truth which is like a lie and there is a lie which is like the truth. God commanded us to lie in the service of the truth. Not the end, but the obedience to God's commandment (to love our neighbour as ourselves) justified the means. Thus the humble and scrupulous Dr. Oorthuis wrote in a pamphlet of the underground movement: even forged passports can be safe-conducts from the Lord, and stolen ration cards be gifts of mercy from God, which we accept with Thanksgiving." [102]
Many people may feel horrified when reading the views of Rev. Buskes. The same author stated in another publication:
"If I can save a man whose life is threatened by a scoundrel by saying to that scoundrel that two and two make five, I shall say so to him, in obedience to the ninth commandment. In such a case I am even prepared to declare that two and two make ten." [103]
A personal friend of mine, who is a devout Christian, took the oath declaring that a child in his house was not Jewish but his own child born out of wedlock. He saved the child. People who are horrified at such behaviour, probably never lived under German occupation. At any rate, they should remember St. Paul's saying: "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law". [104]
In my opinion, it was morally permissible and even laudable to baptize Jews in those days in order to save their lives, as long as it was mutually understood that this was in order to deceive the persecutors and that the baptism in fact was invalid. <29>
II
BEFORE THE WAR
6 HISTORICAL EVENTS
a. Hitler's Rise to Power - the Nuremberg Laws. (Jun., 1933-Sept., 1935)
President Hindenburg entrusted Hitler with the Chancellorship on January 30, 1933. The Reichstag fire, on February 27, was followed by a wave of arrests. The "Ordinance for the Protection of the People and the State", issued on February 28, suspended the sections of the Constitution which guaranteed individual and civil rights. The "Enabling Act" (March 23) stripped Parliament of its power and handed it over to the Reich Cabinet. Laws enacted by the Cabinet were to be drafted by the Chancellor (Hitler) and might deviate from the Constitution.
On April 1, Jewish shops throughout Germany were boycotted. Jewish civil servants were dismissed on April 7. On the same day the exclusion of "non-Aryan" lawyers was ordered. According to a decree of April 22, no Jewish physicians were allowed to work for sick funds anymore. At the end of April another decree restricted the admission of Jewish children and students to schools and universities. In the following months Jews were excluded from working in the fields of art, music, literature and journalism. The "Law on revocation of naturalizations and deprivation of German citizenship" (July, 14) robbed Jews, who had been naturalized before or had been born outside Germany, from their citizenship. In January, 1934, it was decreed that Jews could no longer be members of the Labour Front. When President Hindenburg died, on August 2, 1934, Hitler became President and Supreme Commander of the Army. On May 21, 1935, it was decreed that only "Aryans" could serve in the army.
It is estimated that 37,000 Jews emigrated from Germany in 1933; in 1934, the number was 23,000, whilst 21,000 Jews left Germany in 1935. [105] <33>
b. The Nuremberg Laws - Crystal Night. (Sept., 1935-Nov., 1938)
On September 15, 1935, two fundamental laws were adopted by the Reichstag meeting at Nuremberg. One, the "Law Respecting Reich Citizenship", decreed that only a national of German or kindred blood, who proved by his conduct that he was willing and likely to serve the German people and Reich faithfully, could be a citizen. The second, the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour", specifically referred to the Jews and singled them out as undesirable aliens, impure of blood and dangerous to the honour and security of the German people. There followed seven paragraphs, the first of which dealt with the prohibition of marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood. Paragraph three prohibited Jews to employ in domestic service female nationals of German or kindred blood, under the age of forty-five years.
On April 26, 1938, it was decreed that all Jewish assets in excess of 5,000 marks should be registered. On June 15, 1938, about 1,500 Jews were arrested and deported to a concentration camp. On July 25, it was decreed that Jewish physicians were no longer permitted to treat non-Jewish patients. In the same month, Jews had to apply for special identity cards. On August 17, 1938, the first name "Israel" for Jewish men and "Sara" for Jewish women was made compulsory in addition to their own names. In October, all passports of Jews were stamped with the letter J. Austria had been incorporated into the Third Reich, on March 13, 1938. The German anti-Jewish laws were also enforced in Austria, where about 180,000 Jews were living. It is estimated that 25,000 Jews emigrated from Germany in 1936, and 23,000 in 1937. [106]
In March, 1938, President Roosevelt invited thirty-three governments to join in a co-operative effort to aid the emigration of refugees from Germany and Austria. On July 6, 1938, the Intergovernmental Conference met at Evian, France. Nearly all the delegates expressed their sympathy for the refugees but were very careful not to assume any obligations on behalf of their Governments. <34>
It is important to keep some of the major political events of those days in mind. Italy attacked Ethiopia on October 3, 1935. In May, 1936, the Ethiopian emperor went into exile into Great Britain. On March 2, 1936, the Rhineland was remilitarized. On November 25, 1936, the anti-Comintern Pact with Japan was signed. On July 16, 1936, civil war in Spain broke out. On September 30, 1938, the Munich agreement was signed by Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier. As a result, Sudetenland was occupied by Germany. Poland and Hungary also occupied part of Czechoslovakia.
c. Crystal Night - the Outbreak of the War. (Nov., 1938-Summer, 1939)
On October 28, 1938, 15,000-17,000 Jews of Polish origin were rounded up and expelled. On November 7, a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Herschel Grynspan, whose parents had been among the people expelled to Poland, shot Ernst vom Rath, a minor Nazi official in the Paris Embassy. He died two days later. This was the pretext for unleashing a pogrom that has entered history under the name Crystal Night: 7,500 Jewish shops were looted and windows of shops and houses were smashed; many synagogues were burned; more than 26,000 Jews were arrested, many of whom were sent to concentration camps; at least 91 were killed. [107]
On November 12, the Jews in Germany were ordered to pay a collective fine of thousand million Reichsmark. On November 15, Jewish children were dismissed from German schools. Jews were prohibited from visiting theatres, cinemas, concert halls, museums and public baths. On December 8, a decree was issued expelling Jews from the universities.
At the beginning of January, 1939, the "Aryanisation" of Jewish enterprises began. Since January 17, 1939, Jews were forbidden to be employed in the professions of dentist, pharmacist and veterinary surgeon. On January 30, 1939, Hitler publicly declared that the Jewish race in Europe would be annihilated if war broke out. <35> Hitler annexed Czechia, on March 15, 1939. Slovakia became "independent". In April, 1939, Mussolini occupied Albania.
From the beginning of 1938 until October 1, 1941 (when further emigration was forbidden) an estimated 170,000 Jews left Germany. [108] Jews in Germany at the beginning of the Hitler regime, numbered 499,682. The 1939 census, registered within the borders of the pre-Hitler Reich, amounted to no more than 213,930. [109]
7 GERMANY
The vast majority of the Protestants of Germany belonged to one of the 28 Landeskirchen (Lutheran, Reformed or Uniate), of which the largest was the Church of the Old Prussian Union, with 18 million members. The Landeskirchen were independent members of the German Evangelical Church Union, founded in 1922. In all, there were forty-five million Germans who were, nominally at least, members of the Protestant Church. In 1932, members of the Church who supported Hitler had founded the "German Christians' Faith Movement". These "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" demanded the creation of one Protestant Church, the application of the Fuehrer principle in Church affairs, the introduction of racialism within the Church, the "Germanization" of Christianity (the "Aryan Jesus"!) and the elimination of "Jewish influence" from teaching, liturgy and preaching. In 1933, some 3000 pastors belonged to this group. Church elections took place on July 23, 1933. On the eve of the elections, Hitler made an unexpected radio appeal asking the electorate to vote "GERMAN CHRISTIANS". They won a decisive victory.
On September 21, 1933, Rev. Martin Niemoeller and others created the "Pastors' Emergency League", which opposed the "GERMAN CHRISTIANS". In the beginning, Niemoeller's group was definitely in the minority. By December, 1933, its membership had grown to 6,000. Between the two groups, a majority tried to remain neutral while more or less sympathizing with the group of Niemoeller, but in practice obeying Hitler's orders without open protest. <36> After a protege of Hitler, Ludwig Mueller, had been elected as Reich Bishop under pressure of the Government, Niemoeller's opposition group constituted the "CONFESSING CHURCH" which declared itself to be the legitimate Protestant Church of Germany and set up a provisional Church government. [110] The "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" had, in the meantime, gained control in several Landeskirchen, sometimes with the active help of the national-socialist party. In April, 1933, the Landeskirche of Thuringia required of its clergy a formal oath of allegiance to Hitler; the "Thuringian Christians" wanted to give this symbol of unconditional obedience to Hitler as a birthday present. There was a division in other Landeskirchen, as for instance in the largest: the Church of the Old-Prussian Union. In the summer of 1933, a law had been issued forbidding the appointment of pastors or Church officers of "non-Aryan descent" and ordering the dismissal of such pastors and Church officers. [111] In its session on Sept. 5, 1933, the Synod of the Old Prussian Union accepted this law; the opposition party protested and, when this was of no avail, left the meeting. Later on the opposition organized the "CONFESSING Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old-Prussian Union". <37>
It is not, as has been stated in the Preface, my intention to record the contents of statements issued by Churches or Church leaders on behalf of Christians of Jewish origin. It is of importance, however, to know to what extent the "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" supported discrimination against these members of the Church, and, also, to know that the CONFESSING CHURCH defended them. Thus I mention the more important statements, which were issued, without recording their full contents. [112] There was sharp controversy and much discussion as to whether the anti-Jewish laws should be applied within the Church. The following persons and institutions protested against such a measure: the Theological Faculty of the University of Marburg (Sept. 19, 1933); the Theological Faculty of the University of Erlangen (Sept. 25, 1933); Rev. Martin Niemoeller (Nov. 2, 1933), and Prof. Rudolf Bultmann (Dec., 1933). On the other hand, the "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" declared at the beginning of April, 1933, that only those who were "of pure German blood" should be admitted to the ministry. On May 26, 1932, they had already decided to consider Missionary work amongst the Jews as a great danger "as it is the entrance gate for foreign blood into our national body". The example of the Synod of the Old-Prussian Union (see above) was followed by other Landeskirchen, as for instance in Saxony, Thuringia and Braunschweig: ministers of Jewish origin were to be dismissed. The Church in Saxony even voted, on Dec. 10, 1933, to accept the principles of blood and race, and that only those who according to the laws of the State were compatriots should be members of the national Church! <38>
The decision of the Church of Saxony was publicly rejected by the Theological Faculty of the University of Leipzig, and by the Pastors' Society of the Rhine. The majority of the Theological Faculty of the University of Berlin, however, supported the racialism of the Saxonians. This all happened in the years 1933-1934. In those days, it certainly needed courage to stand up publicly for the rights of Christians of Jewish origin in the Church. It should be noted, however, that the publications mentioned above did not publicly oppose discrimination against the Jews in general, nor even discrimination against Christians of Jewish origin outside the Church.
In March, 1935, the CONFESSING Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Old-Prussian Union sent a "Word to the Congregations", which was read from the pulpits. We quote the following:
"We believe that our nation is threatened by a mortal danger. This danger lies in a new religion…. in it, racial and nationalistic ideology becomes supreme. Blood and race, nationality, honour and freedom become its idols. … Whoever substitutes blood, race and nationality as the creator and source of authority instead of God, undermines the state." [113]
The Government struck back with arrests. 500 pastors were imprisoned.
* * *
After the notorious Laws of Nuremberg had been promulgated, only individuals in the CONFESSING Church pleaded for the issue of a public declaration. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said : "Only the man who loudly cries out on behalf of the Jews, is at liberty to sing the Gregorian chants". [114]
The "Council of Brethren" of the CONFESSING Church stated, in a declaration in defense of the right to baptize Jews, in September, 1935: "We only say the necessary minimum (alas, perhaps even not the minimum) concerning things about which we are not allowed to keep silent…" [115] <39>
The Provisional Church Council of the CONFESSING Church sent a Memorandum to Hitler, in May, 1936. We quote the following from it:
"… When blood, race, nationality and honour are thus raised to the rank of qualities that guarantee eternity, the Evangelical Christian is bound by the first commandment to reject that assumption. When the Aryan human being is glorified, God's word bears witness to the sinfulness of all men. When in the framework of the National-Socialist ideology, anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian obliging him to hate the Jews, he has nonetheless the divine command to love his neighbour…" [116]
The Memorandum, which was published in the foreign press without the consent of the CONFESSING Church, resulted in the arrest of Dr. Weissler who worked in the office of the Provisional Church Council. He perished in a concentration camp. [117]
On June 23, 1937, several members of the Reich Brethren Council were arrested, and on July 1, 1937, Rev. Martin Niemoeller also. He remained a prisoner until the end of the war. The office of the Provisional Church Council was closed by the authorities, and thus the CONFESSING Church was to a large extent forced into underground resistance.
* * *
No public protest was voiced after the Crystal Night pogroms. In September, 1938, an office for helping persecuted Jews, but mainly Christians of Jewish origin, was opened under the direction of Rev. Grueber. Rev. Grueber also contacted the Jewish and Catholic relief-organizations. Repeated journeys to Switzerland, the Netherlands and Great Britain were made to find places for Jewish refugees. <40>
At the end of 1940, Rev. Grueber was arrested and the office in Berlin was closed. The branches in Heidelberg, under Rev. Maas; in Breslau, under Vikarin Staritz; and in Kassel, continued to function, though under the pressure of fierce hostility. On the initiative of Rev. Werner Sylten, Grueber's deputy, an attempt was made to continue the work of the Berlin office on a smaller scale. Conversations with the Evangelical Church Council of Berlin took place; negotiations with the Gestapo were held. This eventually led to the arrest of Rev. Sylten, who perished in the concentration camp of Dachau, at the end of 1942. Only a few of the 35 members of Grueber's office, most of them of Jewish origin, lived to see the end of the war. Most of them died in the gas chambers. [118]
In Dec., 1938, the Kirchentag of the CONFESSING Church stated:
"… We again face the fact that many servants of the Church are being hampered in the execution of their ministry and are being expelled from their offices. In the hour of threatening war some fulfilled the duty of the Church, doing penance for the whole nation and beseeching forgiveness and deliverance from God's judgment. Thereupon, they were charged with high-treason. in view of what happened to the Jews others earnestly preached the Ten Commandments and were persecuted for it…" [119]
The Thuringian Church, followed by Mecklenburg, Anhalt and Sachsen (all directed by "GERMAN CHRISTIANS") promulgated (February, 1939) a law which eliminated Jews from membership in their Churches. <41>
In April, 1939, the infamous declaration of Godesberg was published. It accepted National-Socialism and stated that "the Christian faith is in irreconcilable opposition to Judaism". The declaration was accepted by the leaders of 11 Landeskirchen in which the "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" were the ruling party. The CONFESSING Reich Brethren Council sharply opposed the Godesberg declaration in a statement issued on April 13, 1939. One day later, it also opposed the law of the Thuringian Church (see above) which denied permission to Christians of Jewish origin to be members of the Church. The Reich Brethren Council stated:
"… The men responsible for these laws thereby show themselves to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. They cannot exclude anybody from the Church of Christ. They have, however, separated themselves from the holy Christian Church, by the promulgation of these laws…" [120]
The fundamental difference between "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" and the CONFESSING CHURCH is obvious: the former completely identified themselves with national-socialist racialism, the latter repudiated it verbally but showed weakness of action. One feared that, by an all-out intervention on behalf of all non-Aryans, the theological protest against the separation of Christian non-Aryans from the community of the Church would be politically misinterpreted, and that thus the intervention on behalf of them would become even more difficult. [121]
That the CONFESSING Church hardly spoke out at all was not the worst fact; it seems infinitely worse that the so-called "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" supported Hitler and his racialism. One may agree with the words of the German Lutheran pastors in England: "It is not for us who now live in safety to criticise those who, under fire, have done their utmost not to bow to Baal". The fact remains, however, that so many did bow to Baal. [122]
8 THE NETHERLANDS <42>
Before the second world war, no Church in the Netherlands publicly protested against German anti-Semitism, as distinct from Churches in Great Britain, France, Sweden, the United States etc. The following reasons for this can be given: 1. There was little co-operation between the Protestant Churches. 2. The Churches did not speak out publicly on any subject. 3. The spiritual life of many Churches was at a low ebb. 4. Many people were afraid of endangering Holland's precious neutrality and its economic interests with Germany. 5. Many Christians considered National-Socialism a bulwark against Communism. [123] The exceptions to the rule were provided by inter-denominational Church bodies. In April, 1933, the Dutch Council of the "World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches" adopted and published the following motion:
"The Dutch Council of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches, aware of its duty to promote friendly relations among the nations, and convinced that the anti-Jewish measures taken and carried out in Germany must be regarded as a manifestation of racial hatred which considerably prejudices such an understanding, requests the International Executive Committee to define publicly its position with regard to these measures and, subsequently, to do everything in its power in accordance with the aims and principles of the Alliance, to disperse the tension and indignation which these measures have provoked in the Netherlands as well as in the entire civilized world, and to work towards the establishment of those relations which, according to the principles of the Christian conscience, ought to exist among the different races." [124]
This appeal to the International Executive Committee was successful. [125] The same Council also sent a letter to the "Permanent General Committee of the Dutch Israelite Community", informing them that they had heard with a sense of shame and distress of the treatment of the Jews by the German government on grounds of racial hatred. The Council expressed its conviction "that this hatred is contrary to the Christian conscience" and quoted the letter sent to the International Committee. [126] <43>
In May, 1933, a Manifesto was published, signed by many individual Dutchmen, denouncing anti-Semitism. [127] In the same month, Christians of Jewish origin turned to the "Synodal Committee of the DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH", requesting that on one particular Sunday the Jewish question should be the main theme of the sermon. The Committee replied that "they were convinced that it is the duty of the Church to pay attention to Israel and pray for it, but that in the present circumstances it would not be wise to set apart a special Sunday for this purpose". [128] On May 23, 1933, a public meeting of protest was held. Amongst other speakers was the Rev. J.J. Buskes, who later became one of the leaders of Church resistance during the war. He then spoke "as a member of a Christian Church". Dr. W. Banning also protested against the Nazi terror, "in the name of Socialism and of the Gospel". [129]
* * *
On September 19, 1935, a meeting of protest was held at Amsterdam. There were three Protestant speakers, one of them, Rev. J.J. Buskes. [130] In 1936, the Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands declared that members of the Church who were members of the Dutch National-Socialist Party, must be advised to terminate their membership of the party. If they would not heed this admonition, they must be barred from participating in Holy Communion. This measure was maintained throughout the war. The report to the Synod on the N.S.B. (National-Socialist Movement of the Netherlands) says:
"Even though the N.S.B. rejects idolization of the race, the manner in which it stresses in its Program the unity of the Aryan race [131] shows, that it is not blameless in this respect." [132] <44>
A Protestant Committee for help to Protestant refugees of Jewish origin was formed on May 5, 1936.
* * *
In 1938, 7,000 Jewish refugees were admitted into the Netherlands. The Government was of the opinion that Holland could not bear too heavy a strain on the labour market. The Protestant Prime Minister declared: "If an unlimited stream of foreign Jews were admitted, public opinion regarding the Jews will take an unfavourable turn". [133] Thus the border was closed and Jews who had "illegally" entered into Holland were sent back to Germany, unless they could prove that their life was in danger there. Of course it is easy to be wise after the event, and in those days it was not yet clear to everybody that the life of all Jews in Germany was in mortal danger. The fact remains that these inhuman measures were taken by a Government of which most of the members were professing Christians. And no Church protested. Prof. D. Cohen states:
"Our Committee [for help to Jewish refugees] had clashed vigorously with the Government on this point, notwithstanding our good relations and good co-operation with it. However, we had public opinion with us." [134]
The last part of his statement is doubtful, at least regarding a large section of the Protestant press. [135]
A national collection was held on December 3, 1938, and recommended by the
Synodal Committee of the DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH:
"The Committee, concerned about the bitter sufferings resulting from the persecution of the Jews, considers it to be the duty of the Church to practise Christian mercy. It urgently recommends that all local churches should take up a special collection, on behalf of the victims of this persecution, so that their suffering may be alleviated." [136] <45>
Here help to the persecuted Jews in general was recommended, not just to Christians of Jewish origin. In November, 1938, the Executive of the Dutch Ecumenical Council turned to the World Council of Churches, Geneva, requesting it to organize immediate action on behalf of the German Jews. [137]
9 BELGIUM
The Protestant Churches in Belgium are minority Churches, together comprising less than half a percent of the population. The following statements are all from the year 1933. To the best of my knowledge no other statements were issued after this year. On April 4, 1933, the Federation of Protestant Churches of Belgium sent the following letter to Dr. Kapler, the President of the Protestant Federation of Germany:
"The Federation of Protestant Churches of Belgium has directed us to send a fraternal message to the Protestant Federation of Germany. We would ask you, Mr. President to accept it in the same Christian spirit, and to do us the honour of transmitting it to your Executive Council. We are much distressed by the events of recent weeks during which the German Jewish population has been subjected to discriminatory measures; the situation threatens to deteriorate even further. Our German co-religionists, imbued with a sense of justice, must certainly be equally distressed by these excesses. It certainly cannot be pleasing to them that, in most countries, spontaneous public opinion has espoused the cause of German Jewry. We would therefore ask you, Mr. President, if it would not be possible for the Federation of German Evangelical Churches itself to intervene, discreetly as they may deem fit, on behalf of the German Jews so that they may be reinstated in all their rights of citizenship. Would it not be a great triumph for the spirit of tolerance, which is certainly a Protestant attribute? Would it not mean a re-establishment, in the eyes of the world, of that reputation which your country has enjoyed for so long, of being a highly cultured country? May one not say that German Jews have, up till now, been much attached to their country; that they have added to its distinction in the field of science, art and literature. <46> In short, that they are known for their adherence to the principles of freedom of conscience? Inspired as we are by purely Christian and humane sentiments, we have no doubt that you will accept the above message in the spirit of grace." Yours faithfully, Henri Anet, Secretary; A. Rey, President. [138]
This letter was certainly not lacking in courtesy and we get the impression that it was written in a spirit of moderate optimism. Apparently it was some months later that the President of the Synod of the Evangelical Protestant Churches of Belgium sent the following letter to the Chief Rabbi of Belgium:
"Time has passed since, during the first explosion of hate throughout Germany, it might be supposed that a period of calm would follow. But according to accounts in the press, it seems that a general and lasting exclusion of all Jewish intellectuals cold-bloodedly continues. This illegal and cruel oppression of a highly respectable minority shows that the new Germany is descending into a mental attitude fit only for the Middle Ages. The destruction of such an out-grown mentality had been, until now, the noblest work and the most imperishable glory of the new spirit of the last four centuries." [139]
Even more outspoken was the address of Rev. Schijns, the President of the Federation of Protestant Churches, at a Meeting of Protest in Bruxelles, on April 6, 1933:
"You have heard the lay protests against anti-Semitic persecutions in Germany. You have heard the Catholic protest. May I be permitted to speak on behalf of the Protestant Churches of Belgium. It is true that the voice of Christ, who clearly proclaimed the inviolable rights and imperative demands of justice, has not always been listened to over the centuries; on many occasions Christians themselves have had recourse to violence; I cannot forget that in the 16th century my ancestors, the Huguenots, and the Beggars, [140] also suffered cruel persecution… Nevertheless, thanks to a clearer understanding of the demands of the Gospel, as well as to the progressive evolution of the lay conscience, we had become sincerely convinced that henceforth violence, which was unanimously condemned by public opinion, is morally inconceivable. Yet now we discover that violence has been 'honourably' reinstated, so that even today it is still attacking innocent victims." <47> We never supposed that, in our times, any person, on religious grounds, could be accused of a political offence! Yet, now we hear that in Germany a religion (the Jewish religion) is being formally and coldly proscribed, by the civil authorities. This inhuman attitude, inspired by a narrow, sectarian nationalism, stands in absolute contradiction to the Gospel: it is a monstrous heresy, which cannot but dwarf all other crimes. The ancient Jewish law contains the following beautiful maxim: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might'. It is therefore with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my might that I deliver here, in the name of my Protestant co-religionists, a message of vigorous and profound sympathy for all innocent victims of violence. The sufferings of today, like those in the past, tragically illustrate the struggle of brute force against the forces of the spirit. But just as moral strength has triumphed in ages past, we are sure that to-day also, by virtue of an eternal law, victory lies with the powers of the spirit!" [141]
10 FRANCE
Though a small minority, numbering altogether not more than 800,000 souls, the spiritual sons of the Huguenots early and unequivocally protested against the persecution of Jews. They themselves had been persecuted.
Rev. Marc Boegner, President of the Protestant Federation of France, sent the following letter to the Chief Rabbi of France, in 1933:
"The Council of the Protestant Federation of France which reassembled to-day, for the first time since the beginning of the period of the great sufferings of your coreligionists in Germany, has asked me to assure you that the Protestants of France whole-heartedly associate themselves with the indignation of their Jewish compatriots and with the distress of the victims of such base fanaticism. The spiritual sons of the Huguenots are stirred with emotion and sympathy whenever a religious minority is persecuted. They are well aware how much Christianity, and in particular the Reformed Churches, owe to the prophets who paved the way for the Gospel, and feel afflicted by the blows descending upon their Jewish brothers. May God help your sorely tried co-religionists to find in Him their strength and consolation, as did their frequently persecuted ancestors. May He impart to you, and to the Jews of France, the secret of soothing pain and reviving hope. <48>
I wish to reassure you, that we are certain, that all our Churches will unite, during the Holy Week, in fervent intercession on behalf of the Jews of Germany." [142]
In the same year the following letter was sent by Rev. Cleisz, Honorary
President of the Consistory of the Reformed Churches of Lorraine, to the Chief
Rabbi of Nancy:
"You will hardly be surprised to find me among those who energetically protest against the wave of anti-Semitism in Germany, which has cast so many Jewish families in distress. I abhor fanaticism, whatever its source, and am dismayed to observe in the middle of the twentieth century such an excess of folly. Therefore I join whole-heartedly with those who protest against such a tyranny. I wish to assure you of my deep compassion for so many human beings overcome by grief…" [143]
Rev. Wilfred Monod sent the following letter to the French Committee for the
Protection of Persecuted Jewish Intellectuals:
"Allow me to express my feelings of relief at the thought that France is offering hospitality to Jews escaping from the darkness of a new Mediaevalism. Although Jews were crushed by the great Empires of the West; later becoming the vassals of the anti-Semitic Kings of Egypt and Syria; politically annihilated by the Romans; hated by the Moslems; persecuted by the Church; held in public disdain; treated as a stateless and homeless people even in the twentieth century, and sometimes deprived of their civil rights in the countries in which they were dispersed; the Jews have not disappeared as did the Phoenicians or the people of Nineveh. Without territory, without government, without currency, without flag, Abraham's race has kept itself alive. What marvellous obstinacy! What supernatural tenacity! In spite of all this, Judaism has given the human race that mysterious Book which maintains alive on this earth the inextinguishable flame of a universal, international ideal, the world-embracing ideal of human catholicity. Israel has bequeathed to men the Bible, Jesus Christ, and the Messianic vision of the Kingdom of God… On 29th August, 1914, up in the Vosges, one of our Catholic soldiers, mortally wounded, asked for a crucifix, and it was the Jewish chaplain who brought him this venerable symbol, some minutes before he himself gave up his soul in the arms of a Jesuit priest. This happened on a Saturday, the holy day of the Jewish Sabbath. Welcome to the representatives of the wandering nation! On French soil they will find a place to rest their head." [144] <49>
On April 17, 1933, a Protest Meeting was held at Lille. Rev. Bosc was the Protestant spokesman, speaking in his "triple capacity as a human being, a Frenchman and a Christian". We quote the following:
"… Finally, to protest against the persecutions and victimisations of the Jews is a task in harmony with the spirit of Jesus Christ, and here I thank Monsieur l'abbe who has just sounded forth a note of profound truth. Everyone of us knows that the spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of peace, the spirit of justice, and more than that: the spirit of brotherhood and of love. It is the spirit which to-day imbues all moral and social systems in the world, so that Jesus Christ is acknowledged as the unrivalled ruler not only by Christianity as a whole but also by all mankind… The spirit of Jesus Christ which, Ladies and Gentlemen, means the spirit out of which are woven the dreams we have of a better future for mankind, the dreams we dream when, surrounded by all sorts of iniquities and by all kinds of ugliness, we nevertheless look towards some glorious dawn! The spirit of Jesus means that spirit which will triumph because it is the living truth. It is in my triple capacity as human being, Frenchman and Christian that I fully pledge my entire, conscious support to this movement of truth in its efforts to infuse a little justice and kindness into mankind, against the attempt to lead humanity back to the night and the iniquities of the Middle Ages, from which it began to emerge." [144]
* * *
On November 20, 1935, a Meeting of Protest was held in the Hall of Chopin, Paris. Rev. Marc Boegner, President of the Protestant Federation of France, said the following:
"… Since I am here representing both Christian and Protestant France, I should say that in the light of what is going on in Germany - whether it be the persecutions of Jews or of Christians - it is impossible for us not to add our most energetic protests to those you have heard so far.
What Christianity Owes to Judaism
"Christianity, as has been indicated by President Reynaud, is essentially a universal creed. Once one believes in Christ, whatever one's denomination may be, it is impossible not to subscribe fully to the words of that Jew of olden times St. Paul, the apostle, who having plumbed the depths of Christ's thought, exclaimed: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus'. (Gal. 3, 28). This is the basic tenet on which, since July 1933, all preaching in the Churches of Germany has been practically proscribed. <50>
First I wish to state that what has shocked and appalled Christian conscience, what has provoked protests from one end of the Christian world to the other? Protests which will certainly be reiterated and increased - is precisely the fact that this new gospel of racialism already has been applied to the Jews, and seems to have reached its culmination point in the Nuremberg Decrees. One cannot know whether even worse may not happen later on. I have met many Jews who had been driven out of Germany since the Hitler revolution, and when I went to Germany as recently as this year, on two occasions while travelling through a large part of Germany, I could not but feel intensely moved on seeing, at the entrance of villages and towns, large signboards forbidding access to the Jews; and on many trees along the roads, posters full of insults against them. Christian as I am, and knowing what Christianity owes to Judaism, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is the daughter of what it calls the ancient Church of Israel. The Protestant in me knows what the Gospel owes to those prophets who, beginning eight centuries before Jesus Christ, have presaged the universalism which the religion of Christ would later proclaim throughout the world. Did not Isaiah welcome the day when all nations would flow unto the mountain of the Lord? And others after him, such as Jeremiah, did they not show their people, the only people ever elected, the road by means of which they were to bring to others the revelation which had been bestowed upon them, so that all nations might come to know the true God? The Gospel is the heritage and fulfilment of that great hope of the prophets. It is impossible for a Christian, when he sees the infamous crusades conducted against Judaism, not to be among those who declare that they are unable to forget what they owe to the Jewish people. We are among those who remember all this with deep gratitude. We believe that this gratitude, in view of the suffering of this people who are being crucified once again, ought to be shown in acts of sympathy and solidarity.
Racialism inside the Christian Churches
"The gospel of racialism of which you have just been told does not rear its ugly head solely outside the Church, but also inside the Christian Churches. Since July 1933, under the pretext of rallying the whole of Germany round the doctrine of racial superiority - you have seen the outcome of such teaching - and of purity of blood, they have begun to persecute those who are not 100 percent Aryan, even inside the churches. I was in Berlin in July, 1933, and there, where every wall might have been equipped with a hidden microphone, I met one of the most representative personalities of the Evangelical Church of Prussia. He informed me of what had been happening during the last few weeks. He said that he had felt compelled to resign from the high position he had occupied in the German Church, even though his resignation would mean a considerable financial sacrifice. He and those who were thinking and acting like him were now unable to speak, to write, to telephone, or to do anything whatsoever. <51> "But," said he, "how could I have agreed to go and tell the young Evangelical pastors whom I ordained two or three years ago, that they are not fit to preach the Gospel or to carry out the duties of their ministry, simply because they have a Jewish grandmother or grandfather? This problem of the non-Aryam has since then caused much anguish to many men who are pastors or simply beadles. The new gospel has made its appearance in the Church, propagated, preached and spread by groups calling themselves the 'Deutsch-Christliche' or the German Christians. It is necessary, they claim, to expel from the churches and from all church posts, in every denomination, those men who are not of absolutely pure Aryan blood for three or four generations back.
The Church Resists
"This has resulted in unbearably painful conflicts. It should be acknowledged that tremendous pressure was exerted by the State authorities as well as by the pressure of the opinion which increasingly tends to assert in religious circles that Adolf Hitler was the man through whom Germany was able to re-establish herself. in spite of all this, however, there have been instances of Catholic and Protestant consciences refusing to bow and submit. Resistance was organized in the Catholic Church, where the warning bell to the conscience of Christians was rung by that admirable man, the Cardinal Archbishop of Munich. In the Protestant Church, the great voice of the theologian, Kar1 Barth, and the voices of many others, have been raised to rally Christian consciences to their call. A completely new Confessing Church has sprung up comprising more than half of the pastors in Germany, quite apart from those who are still hesitating, because they must make a living, and, therefore, ask themselves what will happen to-morrow. About a thousand pastors have placed themselves behind Bishop Mueller, the 'German Christian', whom you, Mr. Paul Reynaud, have just mentioned.
The "New Gospel"
"It is not only through the persecution of the non-Aryans that the desire has arisen amongst many Germam to preach a new gospel, but because of a claim to meet Christ on a new basis, particularly on the basis of the glorification of the German race and blood. The most extraordinary statements have been made. Paganism has asserted itself on the fringes of the Church and its influence gradually has pervaded it. An effort even has been made in certain churches by pastors imbued with the spirit of national-socialism, to have the Old Testament - containing the magnificent history of the Jewish people and I even would say, of God's great acts toward the Jewish race - banned and barred from religious instruction. Included also is that moving page in the first book of your Bible, and ours - note this, any Jews who may be listening to me - where we are told that Abraham went so far as to be ready to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, to God!
"Never will the Churches Agree…" <52>
"Subsequently there have been attempts to make peace with the Churches, and the papers during the past few weeks have brought us news of 'peace feelers' offered to the Churches. Negotiations were envisaged both with the Catholic Church and with the Evangelical Churches. But they never will induce either true Catholics or Protestants, to put as a Gospel source, an affirmation of the superiority of the German race over the others, nor a denial of anybody's right to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ. They may again start their persecutions, and I think they will. They may chase pastors and priests from their churches and send them to concentration camps. They may resort to petty annoyance and to persecution; however, I am absolutely convinced that the Christian conscience has been aroused. Perhaps this experience was necessary to awaken it out of a certain stupor? The Christian conscience will absolutely oppose the events which have succeeded each other which such rapidity over the past few years and any attempt which may be made to persuade the Churches in any way to insert into the Gospel (which desires that all men should be considered the children of God and be reconciled in universal brotherhood) an addition which asserts that some shall rank first and others may be excluded. Never will the Churches agree that the Gospel of love, symbolized by the two arms of Christ extended on the cross, will be replaced by a gospel of race and blood. I am convinced that by affirming our sympathy with all in Germany who are being persecuted for their views, and with all in the Christian Church who make efforts to resist (as I have tried to show) the determined attempt to lead them onto the ground of racial discrimination, we are helping them in their resistance. We are helping them to discover that there is a Christian, as well as, a merely secular public opinion, throughout the entire world, which is aware of all that this resistance implies in the way of present sacrifice, and perhaps of still more suffering in the future. Let us therefore be among those who by word and example give evidence of that sympathy and solidarity. Let us unite here, as Mr. Paul Reynaud has asked us to do, without distinction of religious, philosophic or even political convictions, in protest against the besmirching of justice and the dignity of man." [145]
* * *
The Council of the Protestant Federation of France, in its session of
November 29, 1938, unanimously adopted the following Resolution:
"The Council of the Protestant Federation of France, reassembled for the first time since a terrible crime has provided a pretext for new persecutions against the Jews, feels itself to be the mouthpiece of all the Churches which it represents in our country, in making a solemn Protest against a similar outburst of violence and cruelty. <53>
The Christian Churches will betray the message entrusted to them, if they do not unreservedly condemn racial doctrines which are contrary to the teaching of Christ and the apostles; and if they do not express their utmost disapproval of the barbaric methods by which such doctrines are practised…" [146]
In the light of "the serious problem confronting the authorities by the arrival on French territory of numerous foreigners who had been expelled from their own country by persecution", the Council of the Protestant Federation in France instructed "all Protestant Frenchmen" as follows:
1. To aid the Government - in determined resistance to any suggestion of violence, wherever it may come from and in whatever manner it expresses itself - to solve so complex a problem in a quiet atmosphere and with respect for human dignity. 2. To contribute as much as possible, by their gifts and by their co-ordinated initiative, for the relief of the terrible distress which they are witnessing and which makes its appeal to them. The Council draws their attention to the existence of a French Committee for Protestant Refugees, Aryans and non-Aryans, which is now functioning and to which financial contributions can be sent… [147]
11 SWITZERLAND
The Protestant Churches of Switzerland are cantonal Churches, distinct and independent from one another. In most of the cantonal Churches, the legislative body is the Synod and the executive organ the Synodal Council. The Federation of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland at first consisted only of National Churches, but it soon admitted the Free Evangelical Churches, the Methodist Church and the "Evangelische Gemeinschaft". The Federation has 2,888,122 baptized members. At the beginning of April, 1933, the following Declaration, signed by 21 Protestant ministers, was addressed to "various Protestant Ecclesiastical groups in French-speaking Switzerland":
"Moved by the present situation of the German Jews, and unable to understand how the authorities, otherwise attentive to moral values, can ignore the right of freedom of conscience, and of work, as well as security to every human being, we, the undersigned, think that the time has come to draw the attention of Christians to the serious implications in an attitude which is the very negation of the evangelical spirit; a spirit which is synonymous with love, freedom and mutual assistance. We expect the Churches to raise their voices in order to claim for the Jews the same degree of justice, which it is their duty to demand for every oppressed minority." [148] <54>
On May 31, 1933, the Synod of the Free Evangelical Church of the Canton
Vaud sent the following letter to the President of the Council of the
Federation of Protestant Churches of Switzerland:
"We beg to bring to your attention the fact that the Synod of the Free Evangelical Church of the Canton of Vaud, at its annual meeting at Lausanne, unanimously resolved upon the following Declaration, which we now submit to use as you see fit. "Moved by the news which has reached us from Germany concerning the numerous and regrettable restraints imposed upon the freedom of conscience, and, in particular, concerning the ill-treatment of the Jewish population of that country; "and with the conviction that the Gospel of Jesus Christ constitutes an affirmation of freedom and love among the races of mankind; the Synod of the Free Evangelical Church of the Canton of Vaud, assembled at Lausanne, unites itself with all protests raised in favour of freedom of conscience and respect for the Jews of Germany." [149]
In September, 1933, the Protestant Churches of Geneva published the following Declaration:
"Events shocking and hurtful to a sense of justice are mounting in Germany and have repercussions here. Men are persecuted for their opinions. Dismissed, boycotted, ostracized, they are suffering as in the days when neither freedom of thought nor of conscience were tolerated. The mere fact of belonging to the Jewish race, even if only by descent, frequently incurs implacable treatment. These actions have given rise to protests in numerous countries and in the most varied circles. Here too, our Christian conscience has been roused. It would be dangerous to consider ourselves better than others. Intolerance and injustice have their roots in our own soil. We must be on our guard. Several papers make appeals for violence. The seeds of discord are being sown among our people. Anti-Semitism, which until now has been foreign to us, now finds its advocates among us. Members of our Churches, also, forgetting that the same blood flows in all mankind, and that, before God our Father, we are all brothers, have been swayed by the passions of these times. Let us not permit a spirit incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ to take root in our country." The National Protestant Church of Geneva; the Free Evangelical Church of Geneva; Evangelical Christian Association; the Committee for Popular Evangelism; the Council of the Methodist Church. [150] <55>
It is striking that the declarations and resolutions issued in Switzerland, so many times mention the danger of anti-Semitic influences within the country itself, and sometimes within the Church. [151]
* * *
On November 14, 1938, the Church Council of Canton Zurich addressed the following public letter "To the Reformed People of Zurich":
"In indignation and horror we recently have witnessed, in the state neighbouring us to the north, that Jew baiting has erupted and, in its dimensions, surpassed the severest atrocities yet experienced. We feel in spirit united with all our brothers and sisters in the neighbouring country who, whatever their attitude toward Jewry may be, deeply deplore such injustice, yet they must keep silent on the subject. We must not be silent. We must consider it a Christian obligation to cry out against it, not only within our church walls but to the world at large. It is a terrible injustice to exterminate, by all conceivable means, a nation which possesses, as does every nation, the right to exist. It fills us with deep humiliation and shame to discover in a country living for centuries under the influence of the gospel and of Luther, that sentiments of passionate hatred can break out and boil over against a small racial and religious minority, and that all humane and Christian feelings be suffocated. It plainly shows us, to our horror, what human hearts are capable of when racial hatred and blind raving passion win the upper hand, drowning the voice of justice, mercy and goodness. Can we Swiss suppose that we are immune against such frenzy? But are not the same dark powers active within our own people, openly at times and sometimes secretly, confusing conscience; stirring passions; igniting racial hatred? It pains us that consideration for so many unemployed citizens in our own nation prevents us from offering a protecting asylum to the suffering refugees, who, like wild game, are chased from country to country. <56> At least let us do for them all that is in our power! When in the next few days a general collection is made for the benefit of these refugees, among whom are not a few who, although Jewish by birth, are of the Christian faith and thus a part of the Evangelical Church, let us open our hearts and hands and express loving-kindness towards these remorselessly persecuted people. Let us close our hearts to all feelings of unchristian racial and religious hatred. Neither hate, slander, oppression nor violence, but Jesus Christ's love alone is capable of bringing longed for peace to restless humanity. But above all, let us pray to the Almighty that He will protect all those who are persecuted, and that He will save our Swiss people from the disgrace of an anti-Jewish campaign and deliver us, and all nations, from the forces of violence and injustice, and bring His Kingdom of justice, love and peace." [152]
Again (as in 1933) the danger of anti-Semitic influences within Switzerland was mentioned. The letter also gave as an excuse for not admitting more refugees, that there were "so many unemployed citizens in our own nation". The same motive had led other Governments - as for instance the Dutch Government - to issue decrees restricting immigration.
The members of the Ministers Union of Geneva wrote a letter to the Chief Rabbi of the City of Geneva in which they expressed their deep sympathy with the persecuted Jews. This letter, together with the declaration of the Church Council of Zurich (see above) was read at a service, held in the synagogue on a Sunday and not, as usual, on a Saturday. This postponement was in order that the prayers of that day could be united with those of all the Christian Churches in Switzerland for the persecuted Jews. [153]
In December, 1938, the Synod of the Canton of Bern issued the following
Declaration:
"The Synod of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Canton Bern declares, that it views the merciless persecution of Jews and Fellow-Christians stemming from Jewry, as an expression of a spirit which has nothing in common with the spirit of Jesus Christ. It calls upon all members of our Church to intercede on behalf of the persecuted, especially our persecuted brothers; to stand up for them on every occasion; and to oppose any further attempt to poison the soul of our people with the spirit of racial hatred." [154]
* * * <57>
12 DENMARK
Leading Danish theologians - three professors and one lecturer of the Copenhagen University [155] and the Bishop of Copenhagen, Fuglsang-Damgaard - published a declaration on January 10, 1936, denouncing an anti-Semitic brochure, "The Christian Church according to the concept of the peoples of the North", based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". Professor Frederik Torm related the history of this forgery in an informative article. The matter drew attention, even in Germany, where the "Volkische Beobachter" in its edition of January 14, 1936 reported the story as told by its correspondent in Copenhagen under the caption "Danish theologians grow nervous" and with the subtitle: "The Jewish question arises in Denmark". The report of the former German Envoy, Richthofen, dated January 13, 1936, shows the same attitude, considering the article of the theologians as an act of defence against "the ever increasing understanding of the Jewish question in Germany among the Danish public". [156]
In the autumn of 1938, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard said in his sermon at the opening of a new church, Lundehuskirken, that it was with deep pain that the Christian community had heard about the persecution of the Jews in Germany, which had reached a culminating-point in those days. 149 pastors of Copenhagen supported these words by a public statement and pronounced their "deep sympathy with our Jewish countrymen on account of the sufferings which at this time befall their brethren and which must fill every Christian with horror". <58> Dr. Fuglsang-Damgaard asked the pastors to pray for the suffering Jews in the services the following Sunday, and he himself declared at a service in Helligkors Church, that we must pray to God "to protect our people against the poisonous pestilence of anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jews and persecution of the Jews. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was David's Son after the flesh, and those who love Him cannot hate His people". [157]
13 SWEDEN
The Swedish Ecumenical Council sent the following letter, dated April 3, 1933, to the German Evangelical Church Council in Berlin:
"The Swedish Ecumenical Council, a representation of different Swedish Church communities, sincerely regrets the existing conditions in Germany and the boycott of German goods abroad, and is deeply concerned by the anti-Semitic action in your country, such as has been expressed in official statements and actions. We hope and pray that, with God's help, it will be possible for the German Evangelical Churches actively to stress the genuinely Christian principles, which you upheld in your appeal before the latest elections. "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." As Christian brothers, we are anxious to be in communication with you in this matter and further hear your views. In sincere communion in the faith, for the Swedish Ecumenical Council: Arch-bishop Erling Eidem, Chairman. [158]
The Appeal of the German Evangelical Church Council to which this letter referred, was published on March 3, 1933, just before the elections for the Reichstag. Unfortunately, we do not know whether any reply was received by the Swedish Ecumenical Council.
In 1933, 64 prominent Protestant Church leaders also published an "Appeal to Swedish Christianity", warning against anti-Semitic influences in Sweden:
"Action against the Jews in Germany seems to work as a stimulant - and no small one - for the anti-Semitism which exists in certain Swedish circles. Many of us may have been prone to consider this movement in our country as insignificant, and not worth combating. But the matter is more serious than that. If sufficiently great spiritual strength is not mobilized against this fanatical and shortsighted nationalism, it is difficult to foresee the result. <59> The undersigned regard it as their duty to express the worry and anger with which this anti-Semitic movement has filled them, and to appeal to Swedish Christianity of all denominations to fight against racial hatred, stressing Christ's valuation of man and his brother-love. <59> Already from a general and cultural viewpoint, anti-Semitism is an expression of ingratitude and shortsightedness. No less in our country, citizens of Jewish descent, have contributed in all fields to such a degree that, if all trace of what they have done were erased from the Swedish civilization, to-day, it would be much poorer. But first, anti-Semitism must be condemned from a Christian-religious viewpoint. Here too one can, rightly, speak of a debt of gratitude. The prophets and psalms of Israel also belong to our holy heritage. And in spite of all wild racial hypotheses, Jesus Christ is a son of Israel and a perfecter of these prophets' work. However, it is not only, and not first and foremost, the gratitude for a spiritual inheritance which urges Christian people to take their stand against anti-Jewish activity. They would be denying their Master if they did not do so. For in Him all racial differences are overcome, in the divine love, which has taken form in Him, we are all each other's brothers, no matter to which nation or race we belong. Whosoever professes himself a follower of Christ, yet lets himself be seized by nationalistic presumption, of which anti-Semitism is one of the most repellant expressions, must realize that any action designed to attach a stamp of inferiority on members of the Jewish people or deprive them of full civil rights, is in absolute opposition to the spirit and teaching of Jesus. The gravity of the situation has impelled us to make public this declaration, which is also an appeal to Swedish Christianity to oppose unmitigatedly a propaganda which is becoming louder and more aggressive anti-Jewish, and the mentality of violence from which it stems. Time must not be lost. Freedom of speech is not yet stifled. The gospel of Truth and Love may still sound its voice." [159]
At a meeting of the Stockholm Pastors' Society, held in 1934, Professor Nygren of Lund opened the discussion on the subject: "What is the reason for the struggle within the German Church?" The Pastors' Society unanimously decided to publish in the press their agreement with the fundamental viewpoints expressed in Prof. Nygren's address. The Society's Resolution reads as follows:
"The furious struggle now taking place within the German Church is not on a personal question, a question of rights or a question of organization. Nor is it a struggle for or against the National-Socialistic State or for or against the liberalistic freedom ideal. <60> The struggle concerns Christianity itself, its existence or non-existence. What is happening in Germany to-day is nothing more or less than the appearance of a new religion, beside and in contrast to Christianity - a religion based on 'Blut und Boden', on racial idealism and racial egoism. This has to some extent thrown Christians and non-Christians into jail. From a deeper viewpoint, the difference between 'German Christians' and the heathen 'German Faith Movement', therefore, becomes surprisingly small. If we observe the deepest tendency, of which, in general, the followers of these movements are quite unconscious, it can even be said that, for the former group, it is a question of the new religion in Christian guise; for the latter, the same religion in Germanic guise. The extraordinary danger is that the present Church management has not the least understanding of the reason for the struggle. It believes that it is fighting for the sake of Christianity and does not realize that it has slipped into a new racial religion. True, it often stresses that the Bible and the Confession should be left 'unas- sailed', but the tone of the voice itself reveals that it is on something else that one subsists. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The real pathos first appears when one can talk of 'Blut und Boden', 'Blut und Rasse', 'Blut und Ehre'. The god one really worships is the idol of one's own people. But in the German Church there are men - and fortunately these are not few - who understand what is at stake; what this new religion has to offer the people, from a Christian viewpoint, is nothing less than idolatry. One creates a new god in one's own image, the image of 'the German Man'. The Christians who see this must, through their faithfulness to the Gospel, be forced out into the struggle. Because of this they find themselves in tragic conflict; for there is so much in the new state to which, in their hearts, they say 'yes', and with joy. But when they fight this new heathen spirit that has penetrated the Church and seized the power in it, they are stamped as enemies of the state by the uncomprehending Church management. The point has been reached, where those who do not want to give up their Christian faith are attacked by the German Church management: with external means of power, the secret state police, removals from office and suspensions. We, Evangelical Christians of a kindred people, have seen with grief and concern that the German Church management through such activities has tarnished the Christian name. With the deepest sympathy we follow the oppressed Christians' brave and joyfully self-sacrificing struggle, in defence of Evangelical Christianity, not only in Germany but also the world over." [160] <61> The Resolution contains points that to-day are obvious to us, but in those days they undoubtedly enlightened many ignorant people. Much that has been said by the Lutheran Church leaders of Sweden, already in the first years of Hitler's regime, shows a deep theological insight into the nature of anti-Semitism. Few Churches in other lands showed this insight at so early a date. This fact should prevent us from over-simplifying the answers to the question, as to how far certain of Luther's views about the Jewish people influenced the Lutheran Churches in the twentieth century.
* * *
The following statement, signed by Erling Eidem, Archbishop of Uppsala, and 25 other Church leaders was issued by the Swedish Ecumenical Council, in autumn 1938:
"A storm of violence and cruelty goes through the world. The Jewish people are severely hit by this. Their horrible fate must awake in Christian minds strong indignation, as well as deep sympathy for the victims. To belong to the Jewish race is becoming equivalent to being stateless within that portion of humanity which calls itself Christian. This brings shame upon the Christian name.
Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Sweden
"In our country, too, anti-Semitic propaganda is prosecuted, even though it may, in some respects, avoid publicity and, especially under the pressure of recent occurrences, has met with deserved resistance. More than others, Christians here must be on their guard. No racial differences exist in the Christian evaluation of man. Love of Christ forbids branding any person inferior. Persecution of the people of Israel on the one hand requests Christ's congregation to fight against violence and injustice, and preventive action on the other. The Swedish Ecumenical Council, representing the ecumenical world organizations as well as the larger Swedish Church communities, hereby begs to remind you of our Christian responsibility in this matter. We must not forget that we too, bear a measure of guilt for this evil power that has arisen through loveless ness and injustice in the world. We appeal to all who, in their capacity as pastor, congregation head or preacher, are responsible for the creation of public opinion in such circles as come under Christian influence, to resist the spirit of mercilessness and injustice in the anti-semitic propaganda, by all ways and means available in each community. It seems especially important to us to try to prevent its poison penetrating the minds of the Young. Not only religious instruction in the schools can give an opportunity for this, but also instruction in Sunday schools, confirmation classes and Bible classes. A few congregational evenings could be used to throw light upon the plight of the Jewish people and to stress our Christian responsibility towards them. The un-Christian element in all racial hatred could at times be stressed in the sermon. All discussion of politics naturally must be banned from such Christian instruction and preaching. <62>
Aid of Refugees
"Where the feeling of responsibility has been awakened, it must be transformed into action. This can be done by gifts to the relief organizations among the banished, which also have branches in our country. In co-operation with other organizations, the Swedish Ecumenical Council's Refugee Committee seeks to aid refugees both within and outside our country's borders, particularly Christians of non-Aryan descent. The money already collected is now almost spent, but the need for help is still very great. Gifts for this activity can be deposited under the name "Help for Refugees" on the Swedish Ecumenical Council's postal current account No. 80710, Stockholm. Recently, the Council's Refugee Committee, the Deacon Board's Social Committee and the Swedish Israel Mission have started other aid activities, such as accommodating children of Jewish refugees, preferably Jewish-Christian, in Swedish homes for a shorter or longer period, and trying to find places farmers' homes for about a year for Jewish-Christian youth, particularly male, who need re-education for later emigration to countries which have declared themselves willing to receive them. Information of such homes as well as financial contributions will be gratefully received by Pastor B. Pernow, Idungatan 4, Stockholm, postal current account No. 125545.
Intercession
"At this period, with the mentality of violence penetrating minds more and more, it is important not to neglect the possibilities we still have to make Christ's mind and Christ's thoughts heard regarding the relation between man and man, between people and people. Scarcely at any other point has this task seemed clearer and more demanding than as it concerns the Western peoples' conduct towards Israel. May Christ's love in our hearts light a flame of concern for a people who were the Lord's own, the people of the Prophets and the Apostles. May Christ's love make us burning and persistent in our intercession for those who suffer persecution, as well as, for those who persecute. May they receive the grace to repent. May Christ's love make us firm against all hatred, drive out all fear, and make our hands ready for service. Brethren, in the name of Christ we beg you to receive this appeal in a brotherly spirit." [161]
It is difficult to understand how "all discussions of politics" can be banned from Christian instruction and teaching, as the statement demands, whilst at the same time resisting "the spirit of mercilessness…". <63> In this same statement, support was requested for the Refugee Committee, which sought "to aid refugees… particularly Christians of non-Aryan descent". We have seen the same trend in Churches in other countries. However, the appeal of the Bishops of Sweden, also in 1938, pleaded for aid to Jewish children and youth in general. This "Appeal for Help to Jewish Refugees" was signed by Archbishop Eidem and 12 other Church leaders:
"With deep sorrow and sincere sympathy, we have witnessed the terrible sufferings to which the Jewish people, not least during recent months, have been exposed spiritually as well as physically. The question of the Jewish people has become a question for all mankind. No one can escape responsibility any longer. Our consciences shaken by the suffering of innocent people will not rest until peace and refuge has been provided for the Jewish people. Each one of us must be on his guard against contamination by the plague of racial hatred; we must not betray the Christian commandment of love to every suffering neighbour. May we willingly do our Samaritan service in aiding mercy. The duty and possibility nearest to us is to support Jewish refugees who have had to relinquish home and property. We must hurry to help provide a refuge and a new future for innocent children and youth. Various collections in this respect have already begun. We hereby wish to stress that collections for Jewish children and youth are being mediated by the Swedish Church's Deacon Board. Contributions should be sent to "Deacon Board, Help for Jewish children, Stockholm 7, Postal Cheque Account No. 155650'." [162]
14 HUNGARY
The first anti-Jewish Law, restricting the economic activities of Jews, was enacted in 1938. The representatives of the Churches in the Hungarian Upper House, amongst whom was the Protestant Bishop Ravasz, voted for the passage of this law. [163] <64>
"The only amendment the representatives of the Churches wished to be introduced was that certain modifications should be included for the benefit of the baptized Jews. Apart from that, they took the view that once the Bill had become law 'it would be possible to avoid emphasis being laid on the Jewish question and thus to allay anti-Semitism'. This attitude turned out to be a fatal mistake. It was the stone that started the landslide, and it is all the more regrettable that the Christian Churches lent this Bill their support." [164]