Christians Surviving Fascism in World War II: What Were the Major Concerns of the Church?

Under Fascism and Nazism, What were the major concerns
of the church? The major concerns of the church were her
survival, and whether Christians could worship without
harassment.
Just as fascism developed differently in differing countries
and cultures, so the policies of the fascists towards the
church differed country by country. Much of this
discussion is from our videos on how Christians survived
under each of the fascist regimes in the World War II era.

https://youtu.be/yYpNrhpmsYw
https://youtu.be/QP9UR8fqfvs
https://youtu.be/LvNynEdZFuM
https://youtu.be/ozEioe6yyY8

Before seizing power, Mussolini’s street gangs were
known for beating up and even occasionally
murdering priests. After he was elected as the head
of the ruling coalition in Parliament, Mussolini
surprised everyone by proclaiming that he was the
friend of the Catholic church. Fascism, Mussolini
proclaimed, would restore a Christian society in Italy.

Mussolini Was Initially Friend of the Church
Pope Pius XI, by Philip Alexius de László, 1925

Fascism would build a Catholic state befitting a Catholic nation.
The Pope decided swing his support to Mussolini, betraying the
Catholic Center Party, because Mussolini appeared to be on the
winning side in Italian politics. They remained allies after
Mussolini seized absolute power as El Duce, supreme leader in
Italy.

Mussolini, Cardinal Gaspari,
and Vatican delegation prior
to signing the Lateran Treaty

The Pope’s loyalty was rewarded, the Lateran accords
creating the Vatican City were signed in early
1929. The papacy would receive a generous
indemnity for the loss of the Papal States, but the
Pope was recognized as the sovereign ruler over the
Vatican. Catholic education would also be extended
to secondary schools, and all Catholic Action youth
groups could operate freely.

Relations between Mussolini and the pope would
remain cordial until 1938, shortly before the
outbreak of World War II, when Mussolini went full
Nazi and started persecuting the Jews.

.
Adolf Hitler and Mussolini walking in front of saluting
military during Hitler's visit to Venice, June 1934

The regime of General Franco was always seen as a friend of the
Catholic Church. Both sides in the Spanish Civil War were brutal,
both sides committed numerous massacres. While the
Communists on the Republican side massacred priests, monks,
and nuns by the thousands, the Nationalists under the fascist
leader Franco massacred public schoolteachers and other
liberals, socialists, and communists. Franco never persecuted the
Jews, and Spain became a safe haven for Jews during the war.
The Spanish Civil War reinforced the attitude of many Europeans
that fascists were protectors of the church.

Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco during the meeting of Hendaye, France, near Spanish border.
Franco Was Always a Friend of the Church

The positive experience of the Catholic Church with
the fascist regime of Mussolini’s Italy blinded
Christians to the dangers posed by the Nazi Party
when they were elected as part of the ruling coalition
in Germany, with Hitler being appointed Chancellor
in January 1933.

In February 1933 the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, caught
fire, and the communists were blamed. During the political crisis that
followed, Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass the Enabling Act that
would name him dictator to deal with this crisis. Hitler gained the
support of the pope and Protestants by promising to support Christianity
in Germany. This was a promise quickly broken once Hitler became
undisputed Fuhrer of Germany.

Reichstag Fire Reichstag Today

Lesson: Freedom to Worship Without
Harassment is Major Concern of the Church

Unlike the Fascist regimes of Italy, Spain, and Vichy
France, who actively supported the Catholic Church,
the pagan Nazi regime in Germany harassed and
persecuted all Christian Churches from its beginning.

Nuncio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, celebrates Mass in Germany.

Hitler in the 1920 Nazi Party platform supported the
notion of positive Christianity which sought to fuse
Christianity with Nazi racial ideology. This was a
Christianity without an Old Testament, an Aryan Christ
who was not a Jew, an absorbing Nazi Christianity that
would absorb all other Christian Churches, a Nazi Church
that would glorify the fatherland. These Nazi leaning
churches were known as German Christians, and they
managed to gain control of many Protestant Evangelical
Churches.

Nazi Corruption: German Christian Rally, 1933

The Confessing Church movement formed to resist
this pressure to Nazify the German Protestant
Churches. The leading theologian of this movement
was Karl Barth, then theology professor at Bonn,
known for his groundbreaking Commentary on
Romans. During a synod in 1934, Barth was the
primary author of the Barmen Declaration, the main
confession of the Confessing Church.

The Barmen Declaration
declared that Jesus is the sole
authority of the Church, not
the Fuhrer; that the Word of
God is the source of revelation,
not Nazi ideology; and that the
message and order of the
Church should not be
influenced by Nazi politics.
German Christians had the
freedom to disobey Nazi
dictates when they conflicted
with scriptural mandates.

These machinations caused many member churches to
distance themselves from the national organization. Also
deeply controversial were the racial policies that decreed
that any converted Jew should be dismissed from the
clergy and could not draw a state salary. Many churches
were offended by the heavy-handed Nazi attempt to hijack
the churches. Many of the churches were far more
concerned with the fate of Jews who converted to
Christianity than they were with the fate of all Jews.

The cathedral in Aachen,
Imperial Cathedral, viewed
from north at evening. The
oldest part of the church
(built around the year 800
by Charlemagne) has an
octagonal shape and can be
seen in the middle. The
gothic part on the left was
built around 1350. It was a
site of imperial coronations
and pilgrimage for many
centuries.

The Confessing Church was not monolithic. Confessing Churches did not
leave their denomination, they were a church within a church. Although
the Confessing Church resisted Nazi encroachments into the church, it did
not encourage political opposition to the Nazis. Some Confessing Church
pastors refused to make any compromises, chief among them was
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who eventually was involved in the plot to
assassinate Hitler and would die in a Gestapo prison near the end of the
war. Bonhoeffer was also adamant that Christians should concern
themselves with the fate of all Jews. Many Confessing Church pastors
tried to stay off the radar, some pastors were even card-carrying
members of the Nazi Party, which sometimes helped when they were
harassed by the Gestapo.

Catholics Negotiate Concordat with the Nazis

The Nazi regime also harassed the Catholic Church, closing down all church schools
and seizing all their printing presses.
Prior to the Enabling Act Catholics in many German bishoprics were forbidden from
joining the Nazi Party, Nazis were not welcome to attend funerals or other group
functions in Nazi regalia with Nazi banners, and any Catholics who were known Nazi
sympathizers were forbidden from receiving the sacraments.
Since the Catholics acquiesced in the passage of the Enabling Act, these restrictions
were relaxed and Catholics could support the Nazis and join the Nazi Party, and
some did. Although there were definitely anti-Christian elements in the Nazi
program, many Catholics were reassured by the Nazi reassertion of the values of
religion (as the Nazis defined it) and the love of the fatherland, and the Nazi’s strong
opposition to the godless Bolshevism. Why shouldn’t Hitler be trusted? After all, in
Mein Kampf he said he was not interested in interfering with German religious
institutions. But interfere he did.

Signing of the Reichskonkordat on 20 July 1933. From left to right:
German prelate Ludwig Kaas, German Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen,
representing Germany, Monsignor Giuseppe Pizzardo, Cardinal Pacelli,
Monsignor Alfredo Ottaviani, German ambassador Rudolf Buttmann.
Cardinal Pacelli is the future Pope Pius XII.

The Pope had negotiated a Concordat with fascist Italy with generally positive
results in the early years. Soon after the passage of the Enabling Act, Papen
initiated negotiations for a German Concordat with the Vatican. There were many
parallels between the two Concordats. Neither Mussolini nor Hitler were religious
men, both were dictators of totalitarian police states with personality cults, both
sought total control over their citizens, both sought to control the church, both
fascist regimes employed thugs who harassed and persecuted Christians, and both
Concordats were negotiated during times when both regimes openly committed
murder to consolidate their power. In both instances the Pope, being suspicious of
democracy, betrayed the Catholic political parties who supported the Church,
instead choosing the fascist parties as likely political victors. But Mussolini generally
kept his word, becoming a real partner with the Catholic Church up to the start of
the war, whereas Hitler broke the terms of the Concordat before the ink had dried.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN REGIMES: ITALIAN & GERMAN CONCORDATS
Neither Hitler nor Mussolini were religious men.
Both were dictators of totalitarian states with personality cults.
Both fascist regimes had armies of thugs who harassed Christians.
Both fascist regimes openly murdered their opponents.
In both instances, Pope Pius XI betrayed the Catholic
Parties to throw his lot with the fascists and Nazis.
Mussolini kept his word (for many years), Hitler did not.

Hitler was more interested in how the news of the Concordat
would be received diplomatically and in the newspapers than he
was in the actual terms of the Concordat. Although there were
intense negotiations, in the end the exact terms meant nothing
to Hitler since he intended to break the terms of the Concordat
immediately and with impunity, while expecting the Catholic
Church to always conform to their part of the treaty.

Hitler and
Cardinal
Pacelli,
future Pope
Pius XII

The Concordat was finally approved in September 1934. The Concordat was a
political victory for Hitler, the Catholic Church had put their stamp of approval on
the Nazi regime. Maybe the Catholic Church was more likely to survive having
negotiated the Concordat, but the church sold its soul and made resistance to the
regime more problematic for Catholics. The consent to liquidate all Catholic
organizations with a political program helped strengthen the Nazi regime. But both
the German and Italian Concordats survived the end of the war, and they are still in
effect today.
Just like in fascist Italy, after the Concordat was signed the church bells rung for
special Thanksgiving masses celebrating the signing of the Concordat. Just like in
fascist Italy, formations of SA and SS Nazi thugs with swastikas and banners marched
into the churches alongside Catholic bishops and diplomats. Just like in fascist Italy,
members of the Catholic organizations rushed to affirm their loyalties to the Nazi
party and state.

Barracks at Dachau Concentration Camp for 400 Catholic Priests
Catholic politician Eugen Bolz at the People's Court.
Minister-President of Württemberg in 1933, he was
overthrown by the Nazis; arrested for his role in the 20
July plot, he was executed in January 1945.

Lesson: Christians Often Mirror
Values of Their Culture

Many Christians are confused about what spiritual warfare
means, but the definition of spiritual warfare in a relatively free
modern society is simple: the spiritual battle is an eternal contest
of who is going to influence whom. Will Christians push back on
the godless influences surrounding them, slightly improving the
virtues of those who they meet? Or will Christians allow the
godless influences surrounding them to corrupt their love for
their neighbor? Will their politics increase in them their love for
their neighbor, or will their politics decrease their compassion for
the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the unemployed, the
imprisoned, the elderly, and those who do not look like them?

Hitler greets the
Protestant
Archbishop of
Nuremberg,
Ludwig Müller,
and Benedictine
Abbott Albanus
Schachleitner at
the Reich Party
Rally of 1934.

We see in the history of Christians in Nazi Germany, and Vichy France,
that most Christians were not truly compassionate for the plight of the
Jews, though they were concerned about the plight of Jewish converts.
Understandably, most ordinary Christians in any age are far more
concerned with their own survival and the safety and future of their
children than they are for other groups. Those compassionate few who
seek social justice for all are the remnant among us. There are many
stories in my sources of brave Catholic and Protestant bishops and priests
who stood up for the Christian ideals, some defending the rights and
dignity of their Jewish brothers, many who died in Nazi concentration
camps, martyrs for their Christian beliefs.

Members of the Canadian Royal 22nd Regiment in audience
with Pope Pius XII, following the 1944 Liberation of Rome.

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