Customer Reviews

The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany

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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.

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.

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.

Rightwing Catholics cannot stand any criticism of the machiavellian policy which is correctly identified with the Catholic Church. Prof. Lewy was one of the first to tell the awful truth. He is a pioneer. If I hear one more time that Pius XI or Cardinal Faulhaber defended Jews I will scream! The Pope attacked racialism to be sure, but not in any way meaningfully to retard the Nazi program or the enrolling of Catholics in the racist scheme. The Cardinal defended Old Testament Jews, which meant he had nothing to say about the living Jews being beaten or shipped off to death camps in his midst in Cologne.

The Catholic Church destroyed the Zentrum in Germany which before 1933 was the strongest anti-Nazi force. Thereafter Catholics fearing being regarded as unpatriotic Germans flew into the arms of the Nazis with enthusiasm. The Church bears considerable responsibility for the weakness of the anti-Nazi resistance.

Despite the trappings of scholarship, the book is unbalanced. It systematically ignores or downplays the evidence of the Catholic Church's opposition to Nazism. Mit Brennender Sorge, Pius XII's courageous encyclical against Nazism in 1937, is dismissed as a fluke. In fact, it was written with the full support of the German bishops and its publication triggered a bitter persecution of German Catholics. There is little here on the destruction of Catholic schools, the show trials of clergy, the destruction of the Catholic press, the persecution of the religious orders. On the other hand, every sign of Catholic sympathy for Hitler is magnified out of proportion.

The result is an anti-Catholic cartoon.

A balanced, fair, detailed and scholarly book that could be of interest to all except those who are irrevocably, rigidly and unalterably pro- or anti-Catholic.

A balanced, fair, detailed and scholarly book that could be of interest to all except those who are irrevocably, rigidly and unalterably pro- or anti-Catholic.