THE NAZIS AND THE CHURCH - PHOTOGRAPHS

 

The following photos provide a pictorial glimpse of Hitler, how his Nazis mixed religion with government, and the support for Hitler by the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Germany.   In, no way, does this gallery of photos intend to support Nazism or anti-Semitism, but instead, intends to warn against them.

 

SMOKING GUN ! Hitler wth Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin, 1935 On April 20, 1939, Archbishop Orsenigo celebrated Hitler's birthday. The celebrations, initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) became a tradition. Each April 20, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin was to send "warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the dioceses in Germany" and added with "fervent prayers which the Catholics of Germany are sending to heaven on their altars." (Source: Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell) The Concordat between the Vatican and the Nazis Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican at a formal ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sits at the left, Pacelli in the middle, and the Rudolf Buttmann sits at the right. The Concordat effectively legitimized Hitler and the Nazi government to the eyes of Catholicism, Christianity, and the world. The full text of the concordat appears on the Concordat Watch website. (click here to see the text). Catholic Bishops giving the Nazi salute in honor of Hitler. Note Joseph Goebbels (far right) and Wilhelm Frick (second from right) (Source: USHMM, Photo source: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek [Bavarian State Library]) Priests giving the Hitler salute Priests giving the Hitler salute at a Catholic youth rally in the Berlin-Neukölln stadium in August 1933. (Source: A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair  - by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen)

http://nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

compiled by Jim Walker - 1998