The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity
by Bruce Walker
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bruce WalkerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-30
ISBN: 1432721690
Number of pages: 104
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Book Reviews of The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity
Book Review: WHAT DID HITLER AND THE NAZIS THINK ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH?
Summary: 5 Stars
Like most of us, you have probably read and heard multiple ideas about Hitler and his fellow Nazis' view of Christianity. A friend of mine recently returned from the Holocaust Museum in shock, telling me that they were blaming the Holocaust on the Christians! I have heard some say that Hitler claimed to be a Christian. Certainly there is a lot of misinformation.
In Swastika against the Cross, Bruce Walker goes back to historical sources of the 30's and 40's to expose the real Nazi attitude toward Christianity. What is obvious after reading this book is that Hitler was not by any measure a Christian. Not that you needed this book to tell you that he wasn't one; his actions speak for themselves. But since we live in a time when every assumption is challenged, Walker clears up any confusion over the Fuhrer's worldview. "I am heathen to the bone," (p. 26) said Hitler. "Whether it's the Old Testament or the New, or simply the sayings of Jesus ... it's all the same Jewish swindle ... We are not out against the hundred and one kinds of Christianity, but against Christianity itself." (p. 18)
Hitler's vague references to providence and God are just political bones he threw at the masses to imply he was somehow wedded to God.
Hitler was biding his time. Gene Veith in his book on Modern Fascism sources Helmerich who quotes Hitler saying, "The war is going to be over. The last great task of our age will be to solve the church problem. It is only then that the nation will be wholly secure ... When I was young, my position was: Dynamite. It was only later that I understood that this sort of thing cannot be rushed. It must rot away like a gangrened member. The point that must be reached is to have the pulpits filled with none but boobs, and the congregations with none but little old women. The healthy young people are with us." (p.66 in Modern Fascism by Gene Veith, Jr.)
The Hitler Youth, the program established by the Nazis to indoctrinate the youth had as it's initiation a vow that all the Hitler Youth were to state: "German blood and Christian baptismal water are completely irreconcilable." (p. 53)
The Confessing Church was those Protestant Christians who would not be assimilated into the "German Christians." (The "German Christians" were the state sponsored "Church," which in reality was a propaganda machine for replacing transcendent Christianity with immanent Aryan worship.) Walker mentions both Catholic and Protestant resistance. Nonconforming bishops met in Bavaria in 1931 which resulted in them releasing a declaration that Nazi Party members were to be denied the sacraments. (p.63) Eventually the Confessing Church sent a letter to Hitler. They stated, "If the Christian is forced by the Anti-Semitism of the Nazi Weltanschauung (worldview) to hate the Jew, he is on the contrary, bidden by Christian commandment to love his neighbor." (p. 64) The letter asked Hitler point blank if he intended to de-Christianize the Church. There was no answer. (p. 65)
An important thing that the author makes clear is that the Nazis were waging war on pastors who offered such resistance. The Nazis sent some of the uncompromising Christian clergy to the front lines (p. 43) not unlike David's reason for sending Uriah the Hittite to the front line; so they would most likely be killed. Christian schools were attacked (p. 52), and eventually closed (p. 54).
Sometimes the role of the Confessing Church and the Catholics who offered resistance is downplayed. However, Walker writes that "Until the outbreak of the war, and even afterward, the 'church story' was one of the biggest features of the news from Germany. All in all, it constituted the only significant and persistent resistance to Adolph Hitler during a dozen incredible years of mass hysteria, ruthless tyranny and insatiate aggression." (p. 65) The author also lends credence that the number of pastors offering resistance was substantial; in 1934 there were barely 3,000 of the 16,000 pastors aligning themselves with "Bishop" Muller and the "German Christians" state church (p. 64). Walker reminds us that for the first time in the history of the German Army the troops went off to war without "the blessing of the German Church." (p. 67) Additionally, Claus Von Stauffenberg, "the German general who almost killed Hitler in late 1944, was a devout Catholic who because of his faith was deeply opposed to the persecution of the Jews and considered that Kristallnacht in 1938 brought great shame upon Germany. Stauffenberg was tortured and killed for his assassination attempt while his pregnant wife was sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp (p. 69).
This small synopsis cannot begin to contain all the information Walker provides in this small book to show what was really going on in Nazi minds and activities. I recommend this book to anyone interested in deepening their understanding of the church-state relations in Germany during this sad time.
Summary of The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity
The Nazi War on Christianity
The Nazis planned the elimination of Christianity. Once, this was common knowledge and authors writing while the Nazis were in power recognized this crucial fact. Today, in a political and social climate drenched with fear and hatred of Christianity, the Nazi war on Christianity and Christian opposition to Nazism is "politically incorrect" history. But the words written in old books cannot be rewritten to fit the contemporary slander of Christianity. The record-from more than forty books published while Hitler was in power, is clear and strong: The Swastika was at war with the Cross.
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