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The Swastika Against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity Paperback – May 30, 2008

by Bruce Walker (Author)

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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.

Print length

104 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Outskirts Press
Publication date

May 30, 2008
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.25 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1432721690
ISBN-13

978-1432721695
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Outskirts Press (May 30, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 104 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1432721690
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1432721695
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.25 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,424,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13,474 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #14,373 in Christian Church History (Books)

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11 ratings

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Freddy

Some good information not readily available elsewhere

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2016

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Walker’s book is not a stand-alone treatise on the subject, but a brief, condensed, albeit well referenced (he provides a detailed bibliography) argument that the Nazis were at war with the Christian community.

The ideology of National Socialist Germany was a complex mish-mash of ideas cherry picked from a universe of concepts and theories that emerged out of the intellectual milieu of nineteenth century Germany and from around the world; German Romanticism, the Nordic myths and legends (The Edda and the supernatural), the emergent philosophy of Theosophy, historical European/German ingrained anti-semitism, emergent biological theories (Charles Darwin’s Theory On the Origin of Species) plus new social theories (Eugenics), last (and not least) the philosophy of Friedrich Hegel and his concepts about the primacy of the interests of the State over the rights of the Individual.
This complex brew of ideas was freely “mixed and matched” (without regard for any stringent rules of logic) purely to suit the biases and idiosyncrasies of the Nazi intelligentsia (if one wishes to dignify it with that term).

So, it is against this complex backdrop that one must analyze Nazi attitudes toward Christianity and their persecution of Christians. The fact is, the Nazis were “at war” with orthodoxy itself. Their goal (insane) was to build a new paradigm, a utopia, a global “Aryan Super State”. Bruce Walker’s book, “The Swastika Against the Cross; The Nazi War on Christianity” references exclusively the specific measures taken by the Nazis in their war on Christianity (in their view, a manifestation of dangerous and hegemonic orthodoxy) without any consideration to the larger intellectual context.

One troubling aspect of Walker’s scholarship is his Anglicization of German spelling. I have to confess to being disturbed any time I see Adolf Hitler’s name (mis)spelled, “Adolph”. And there are other spelling discrepancies in the book that weaken my confidence in the level of scholarship that Walker put into this effort. But on balance, this book does have some solid information to offer. I think the reader needs to keep in mind that this book is not a completely dispassionate and unbiased look at the history, however.
Walker’s book does provide insight, but it only sheds light on one aspect of the Nazi ideological puzzle.

3 people found this helpful

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Jack McDonald

Christianity Was a "Stumbling Block" for the Nazis

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2009

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This is a nice little book that explains the hostility of the Nazis towards
Christianity despite some lip service pro-Christian remarks by Hitler intended to create just the opposite impression. Christians, especially those in the Confessing Church, were persecuted. Martin Niemoller was a hero of faith at that time.
Further, early in the book Mr. Walker points out that "Christianity" had been losing its hold on the population for a long time before Hitler. Church membership was in sharp decline during the three or four decades before the Nazis.
The Christian battle against godless statism as well as diluted mainline churches continues to this day in America. In fact, the attack on true faith has been accelerating I think, which makes Mr. Walker's book particularly valuable.
The book might seem a bit too polemical at times for some readers, but that doesn't change the fact that it is well-researched, and Mr. Walker is passionate about his subject, as he should be.

9 people found this helpful

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Chrissy the Hyphenated

One of the most important books of our time. ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2015

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One of the most important books of our time. I decided to do Christmas early and mail a copy to five people on my list, urging them to read it with today's political scene in mind.

One person found this helpful

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Vickey E.

Very interesting! Something everyone should read! It was ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2014

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Very interesting! Something everyone should read! It was shipped and received in a timely fashion!

One person found this helpful

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Daniel Plowman

WHAT DID HITLER AND THE NAZIS THINK ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH?

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2010

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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 Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview (Concordia Scholarship Today) 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.

13 people found this helpful

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Andrew P Tanchyk III

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2017

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Great book!

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