David asks…
What are the best books about religion in World War II?
I am writing a research paper for a class, but I’m unsure where to begin. My school’s library has a meager selection of books on the subject, mostly about the Holocaust and the Catholic church. I’m looking to include the Eastern Orthodox Church, Shintoism, and Protestant Christianity as well, but I haven’t come up with much on those subjects. What are the best books for researching Religion in World War 2?
weight loss cardiff answers:
One of the leading protestant clergy of Germany during Hitler’s regime was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a professor of religious studies and one of the founders of the Confessing Church. He was implicated in the ‘Valkyrie’ plot (even though a pacifist) which caused him to be martyred at the end of World War II. He was an author in his own right but one of his students, named Bethge, wrote a biography on his life.
Some felt Hitler had the Church of Rome in his pocket (not all agree with this). One book about his relationship with the Church of Rome is: Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII by John Cornwell.
Albert Speer, while imprisoned for war crimes did some writing and one of his works, Inside the Third Reich, speaks about how Nazism took over the churches of Germany under Hitler.
During the interwar years cooperation among Christian denominations came to the fore and this led to many Christians espousing pacifism. Those who were reticent to go to war in England, France and North America, for instance both helped shape this sentiment and were affected or infected by it on a religious basis.
Linda asks…
Commentaries, please: “A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol.”?
Quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945): he was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism. His involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler resulted in his execution. Bonhoeffer was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually executed by hanging shortly before the war’s end. He was only 39 years old when assassinated.
weight loss cardiff answers:
Very interesting statement and I’m so very glad you didn’t come up with the concept all by yourself ..lest yahoo answers would be getting higher praise from me .. I was scared for a moment there .. True that if we knew without faith that god was an absolute than it wouldn’t leave room for disbelief …
Although the depths of sin ought to account for something here .. Possibly we have no concept of hope deep the wounds our sins inflict on the hidden realms of which we know not yet.
Carol asks…
how did the German public react to Hitlers opposers?
I am writing an essay on Opposition to Hitler in Germany but I can’t seem to find anything about how other people reacted to the opposition. I do know that when news of opposition reached other countries (the allies) that they had more sympathy with German civilians but that doesnt seem like enough information. I would also be interested in knowing things like what happened to some of the resisters. (camps,…) thanks
weight loss cardiff answers:
The German Resistance movement consisted of several disparate strands, which represented different classes of German society and were seldom able to work together – indeed for much of the period there was little or no contact between the different strands of resistance.
One strand was the underground networks of the banned Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists (KPD).
Another strand was resistance based on minorities within the Christian churches, both Catholic and Protestant. Protestant pastors Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller (the latter after having initially supported Hitler), and the Catholic Bishop Clemens von Galen, and their example inspired some acts of overt resistance, such as that of the White Rose student group in Munich. The Catholic Church as a whole opposed the regime only when its own deepest values were challenged, as in opposition to the Nazi T4 “euthanasia” program.
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer (read about his imprisonment and death)
A third strand might be called the “unorganized resistance” — individual Germans or small groups of people acting in defiance of government policies or orders, or in ways seen as subversive of the Nazi system. Most notably, these included a significant number of Germans who helped Jews survive the Nazi Holocaust by hiding them, obtaining papers for them or in others ways aiding them. More than 300 Germans have been recognised for this kind of activity. It also included, particularly in the later years of the regime, informal networks of young Germans who evaded serving in the Hitler Youth and defied the cultural policies of the Nazis in various ways. In Munich in 1942, university students formed the White Rose resistance group. Its leaders, Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie Scholl, and professor Kurt Huber were arrested and executed in 1943 for the distribution of anti-Nazi leaflets.
Http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/socialeffectsofwar/p/whiterose.htm (read about the students’ beheading)
Finally there was the resistance network within the German state machinery itself, centered in the Army, the Foreign Office and the military intelligence organisation, the Abwehr. These groups hatched conspiracies against Hitler in 1938 and again in 1939, but for a variety of reasons were unable to take action. After the German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, they were able to make contact with a significant number of Army officers who were convinced that Hitler was leading Germany to disaster, although fewer who were willing to engage in overt resistance. Active resisters were drawn largely from the old Prussian aristocracy, since this was the only social class which had not been successfully penetrated by Nazi ideology.
Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to concentration camps, as early as 1935 there were jingles warning:
“Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not to Dachau come.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_resistance
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