The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany [Paperback]

Guenter Lewy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2000

”The subject matter of this book is controversial,” Guenter Lewy states plainly in his preface. To show the German Catholic Church’s congeniality with some of the goals of National Socialism and its gradual entrapment in Nazi policies and programs, Lewy describes the episcopate’s support of Hitler’s expansionist policies and its failures to speak out on the persecution of the Jews. To this tragic history Lewy brings new focus and research, illuminating one of the darkest corners of our century with scholarship and intellectual honesty in a riveting, and often painful, narrative.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The tragic failure of the Catholic Church to live up to its moral canons in the confrontation with Nazism is traced in shattering detail in this disturbing book." -- The New York Review of Books

About the Author

Guenter Lewy left his native Germany in 1939 at the age of fifteen, emigrating to Palestine and then to the U.S. He has been on the faculties of Columbia University, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts and is the author of Religion and Revolution, America in Vietnam, The Cause That Failed, and The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (February 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306809311
• ISBN-13: 978-0306809316
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #455,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Scholarly, Painfully Convincing, September 20, 2000

By 

John Boland - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany (Paperback)

Having read, "Hitler's Pope" I eagerly grabbed Lewy's book as it became available. To my mind, it is far more scholarly than the former, and thus more convincing. Many of the criticisms leveled at "Hitler's Pope" will be undone by the new year 2000 release of Gunter Lewy's work. He has done his homework and it is painfully clear that "evil triumphs when good men do nothing." One watches the gradual trend from outright condemnation of Nazism by the German Catholic bishops, such as forbidding mutual membership in both th Nazi party and the Catholic church; forbidding the sacraments to Nazi party members; forbidding the wearing of the Nazi uniform in church, etc., to first softening their views, then allowing their protests to be couched in such ambiguous language as to have little effect, then accomodating portions of the Nazi program, then outright concluding an agreement between the Church and Reich. Pressure of the reality of the growing power of the Nazi regime, the desire of the Catholic laity to be both Catholic and Nazi (after all the Nazi party controlled their jobs and all of the societal institutions, in time), and the timorous hope of the Church that by accomodating the Reich, it might favorably influence the Reich toward a more humane perspective, all combined to give Hitler the sanction of the most widely recognized moral authority in the world. Frightening, to be sure.

One sees similar arguments in the recent agreement between the United States and Communist China. We expect to reform them, by getting into bed with them, so to speak. If "The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany" is any indication of how such accomodations work, they will do more to corrupt us than we do to reform them.

Worth reading. A bit difficult to read because of its very methodical scholarship, but compelling nevertheless.

55 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Painfully Fair, May 18, 2001

By 

Douglas Hyden (Tallahassee, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany (Paperback)

The Christian contribution and response to the actions of Nazi Germany, in particular the Holocaust, is perhaps the most apalling event in the history of Western civilization. One reads Mr. Lewy's contribution to Holocaust scholarship with an ever growing sense of rage. One's rage is not directed at the Catholic Church in particular, because there were no corporate heroes in this tragic episode. There were individual acts of heroism, to be sure, but at best the Church (and by Church, I mean Protestant as well as Catholic)is guilty of massive self-interest and moral cowardice. This book is a case study in the behavior of one group. A sense of fairness and dry scholarship pervades this book. One will not find diatribes here; neither will one find the selective omission of facts favorable to the church mentioned by one reviewer. One will find the facts laid out by someone who has bent over backward to give the benefit of the doubt but who has also laid out the case against the Church with the skill of a brilliant and experienced prosecutor. Only occasionally do his outrage and passion shine through, and then only in summary and conclusion paragraphs. Is the author fair? He is at pains to describe the persecution of the Catholic Church by the Nazis. He leaves no doubt that throughout the Nazi period, the very existence of the Church as a moral force was endangered by Nazi arrogance, contempt, deceit, and betrayal. The Church was, indeed, a wounded church, dealing from a position of weakness, not strength. And yet. In its zeal to protect the institution, the Church abandoned, perhaps forever, any claim it may have ever had to moral legitimacy (my claim, not Lewy's). Better for the German Catholic Church to have died a martyr's death than to live as Hitler's more or less willing pawn. People are more precious in God's sight than institutions.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historically Accurate, June 11, 2009

By 

Captain Moderate (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany (Paperback)

The subject matter is controversial; no doubt about it. But sometimes the truth hurts. We have to be honest about what occurred in the past so we do not repeat it. This is probably one of the most authoritative texts on the subject. Another good read is "Constantine's Sword".

This is a very interesting, accurate and informative read, albeit a little dry at times. Books like these can actually help the Church to avoid repeating past mistakes. The purpose is not to "bash" the church, but to document what occurred. What occurred does not put the church in a positive light. Let's face it folks, with the church comes good, and bad. Keep both in perspective.