Betrayal [Paperback]

Robert P. Ericksen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 5, 1999

A sweeping historical examination of the often-neglected roles that Christian churches played in the Third Reich, this outstanding volume presents original research on Christian attitudes and responses to Hitler's persecution of the Jews.

Probing the churches' history, institutional structures, teachings, and actions of prominent church people and theologians, leading historians tell the story of Christian involvement from the rise of the Nazi party to the post-World War II period. They document the general support of Christians for Hitler and his program, and they detail the range of ecclesial responses---from occasional resistance to passionate and enthusiastic leadership. They ask, "What religious convictions sparked resistance in some and compliance in others, and why did so many people simply fail to act?' Together these superb studies show how the powerful moral authority of the Christian pulpit sanctioned death-dealing Nazi propaganda and raise profound questions about Christian responsibility for the ensuing catastrophe.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Ericksen and Heschel's collection of articles provides concise access to cutting-edge scholarship on an important and sensitive topic. Their authors share a common starting point of placing the 'church struggle' in a demythologized context. It was a struggle for the preservation of church autonomy within the Nazi dictatorship, not a struggle against either the regime or the mass murder of the Jews. They then confront the far more crucial questions: Why and how did so many Christians in Germany---both Protestant and Catholic---reconcile their religious beliefs with National Socialism and embrace the Hitler's regime? How did this accommodation and enthusiastic support facilitate the Holocaust? The answers are careful and qualified, disheartening and convincing." ---Christopher R. Browning, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and author of Ordinary Men

"After more than fifty years, the wounds of the Holocaust remain---as do the questions. These important and insightful essays remind us of Christian complicity in the Holocaust and the difficulty of coming to grips with that complicity. The contention of this volume---that the German churches played a far more important role in the Nazi atrocities than has been hitherto realized---is convincingly documented here in a readable and provocative way." ---Marc H. Ellis, Baylor University

About the Author

Robert P. Ericksen (Editor) is Associate Professor of History at Pacific Lutheran University. He is the author of Theologians under Hitler: Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus, and Emanuel Hirsch (Yale University Press). He is also on the editorial board of Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, and he is a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Susannah Heschel (Editor)is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (University of Chicago Press) and co-editor of Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism (University of California Press).

Contributors: Shelley Baranowski is Professor of History at the University of Akron. She is author of The Confessing Church, Conservative Elites, and the Nazi State (Edwin Mellon Press) and also The Sanctity of Rural Life: Nobility, Protestantism, and Nazism in Weimar Prussia (Oxford University Press).

Kenneth C. Barnes is Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of Nazism, Liberalism, and Christianity: Protestant Social Thought in Germany and Great Britain 1925--1937 (University Press of Kentucky).

Doris L. Bergen is Associate Professor of History at Notre Dame University. She is the author of Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (University of North Carolina Press).

Micha Brumlik is Professor of Education at the University of Heidelberg. He is the author of Der Anti-Alt (Eichborn Verlag).

Guenter Lewy is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Smith College. He is the author of The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (McGraw Hill).

Michael B. Lukens is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Norbert College. He is Director of the Killeen Chair of Theology and Philosophy and he is a Research Fellow at the Institut fr Europische Geschichte in Mainz, Germany.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers (January 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800629310
• ISBN-13: 978-0800629311
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling expose of Anti-semitism in the Church, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Betrayal (Paperback)

Half a century after the Holocaust, surely it is time for those of us who are Christian to face, acknowledge, and examine the truly horrifying streams of anti-semitism that have been part of even "main stream" Christianity for so long. This is a virtually untold history that will shock almost all readers who think of themselves as Chritians, and it should. It is probably the least well known aspect of the Third Reich, and raises very sensitive issues about Christian theologies (and theologians) which have been unable or unwilling to learn from this history. From the startling photograph on the cover, to the last page, this book is a powerful wake-up call!