Do you know it was ordinary christians that were responsible for the holocaust, not Hitler and the Nazis?

Question

Recent well-researched history books like the award winning "Hitlers Willing Executioners" show that it was mostly ordinary germans who manned the death camps, not member of the nazi party. They show by analysing thousand of letters home that people did so willing, not because they were forced. And they justified it in their letters because of their christian faith. Not only that, they did it with energy and enthusiasm. Their research shows that Antisemitism, the hatred of jews, was not something started by Hitler and the nazis. It was a widely held and popular belief in germany for many years. They saw the jews as evil for rejecting christ's divinity, and their continued presence in german society as an affront to christianity.
It wasn't because of moneylending, political influence or other reasons that some people say now.
The germans hated jews because of their christian beliefs, and they hated them long before Hitler and the Nazis came to power.
This is what religion does to people. The Genocide was a christian thing, not a Nazi thing

Answer 1

I'm sorry people are disbelieving the existence of this book. It's on my bookshelves. The author, Daniel Goldhagen is well-respected. "Hitler's Willing Executioners" shows without doubt, from good research, that ordinary Germans were not deluded or blinded or unknowing - they were willing partners in the Nazi's genocide against Jews, Roma, Sinti, disabled people, gay and lesbian people, etc. The book is not really very recent (1997), and its general thesis is now accepted among all historians of Germany between 1933 and 1945.



I'm not sure it's quite fair, though, to derive from the book a general blaming of Christians and Christianity for the state of affairs which prevailed. Of course it's true that Christianity, for hundreds of years, preached a doctrine that supported the persecution of Jews who were in the same communities, at the same time (i.e. not just hating those Jews who might have been around in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus's presumed death). But anti-semitism has always had a wide range of underlying causes, and while Christianity may have provided a reason for the hatred, it doesn't explain why it came about. People only do this sort of irrational hatred of a labelled group of people when they feel insecure. It's abundantly clear that Germany suffered terribly after the Great War and they were humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles. They needed someone to blame. Jews were handy and they could find reasons in Christian doctrine, but this doesn't mean that the hatred arose directly because of Christian doctrine.



However, there is no rational way to deny the essential truth that Germans as a whole were largely supportive of anti-Jewish sentiment and knowingly tolerated greater and greater persecution of Jews and others, through to actual slaughter. You can read much of the book online at the Amazon site the asker has given you the link for.

Answer 2

What it shows is that hitler used xian rhetoric to unite the "good xian German people". Clearly, many of the nazi's considered themselves xian though most of the top nazi's, including hitler, we're either atheist or involved in the spiritualistic practises of the day. I do not know if the holocaust could have been avoided without xianity. Clearly genocides have happened independent of xianity or religion at all for that matter. I do know that one sentence, did not alone, cause the deaths of millions.

Answer 3

So, these so called "Christians" broke the Commandments by murdering people. Not only jews were murdered, But innocent children who were still in their Mothers arms. They murdered gypsies, and any one with mental health illnesses. They murdered millions of Russians who were not even jews. The People who ran the death Camps were all listed as members of Hitlers Socialist party, andwere Nazis, not ordinary people at all. This is well known from the Nuremberg war crimes Tribunal after WW2.Do you think that Josef mengle was just an ordinary person, or Rudolf Hoess, Irma Grise, and hundreds more. If you believe that, then you need to visit the Shrink.

Answer 4

Don't believe everything you read even if made to sound good



It was very political

The death camps were manned mostly by German soldiers--so yes the nazi party



There still are some (a few) survivors from that time. Many say something different

Answer 5

we can blame some Christian influences on anti semitism but I think it wouldn't be fair to put all of the emphasis on Christianity for Nazism.

Why did the Nazi's not try to convert the Jews like Christians had attempted in earlier centuries, rather than implement racial genocide?

Why did the Nazis treat Christian slavs in such horrendous ways?

Why didn't other religious countries like the USA create death camps?

Answer 6

As opposed to atheism and it great effect with Mao, Pot Pol and Stalin. Great choice there.



Its greed and the desire to hold power over others that causes war and atrocities. It is going to happen no matter what religion man holds to, including atheism. Unfortunately fools like you know so little of human history that you assume its history.



Most of the hatred of the Jews is spawned by jealousy. The Jewish people throughout history have been known to be studious and good with money. They have been successful throughout history and it is this success that led to the jealousy. WW2 is not the first time in history the Jewish people were treated badly. They were treated badly prior to Christ.



Further throughout history mankind has used whatever excuse they wanted for mass murder. And while you are attacking Hitler and Germany as being Christians, so were the British, French and Americans who fought against Hitler.



So why is it that you have such a poor grasp of history as to not understand this? Confirmation bias perhaps?

Answer 7

Even Rev. Billy Graham had hatred for jews at least in the Nixon tapes in which he attack them very verbally so no wonder his son hates the Muslims it is what he was taught. Hate is the biggest tool of religion

Answer 8

The literal meaning of geneivat da'at in Hebrew is theft of one's mind, thoughts, wisdom, or knowledge, i.e., fooling someone and thereby causing him or her to have a mistaken assumption, belief, and/or impression. Thus, the term is used in Jewish law to indicate deception, cheating, creating a false impression, and acquiring undeserved goodwill. Geneivat da'at goes beyond lying. Any words or actions that cause others to form incorrect conclusions about one's motives might be a violation of this prohibition. One does not have the right to diminish the ability of another person, Jew or Gentile, to make a fair and honest evaluation, whether in business or interpersonal relations.

Answer 9

you say fact. i call it conspiracy theories. you call it free choice. i call it brainwashing. you say that they were fueled by Christianity. i say Hitler messed up their views of what the Bible says. The Nazis hated Jews, which heavily goes against the Bible.

Answer 10

Did you also know that it's atheists that are responsible for global warming, not just the human race. It's been scientifically proven that atheists farting has caused the co2 levels to rise, and their stupidity has caused the ozone layer to run away in fright.



So global worming is a atheist thing, not a human thing.

Answer 11

>no1home: actually, I quoted my sources. You could check them out

>and evaluate their research yourself, but you won't because you prefer

>ignorance over knowledge



NO YOU DID NOT! You did not give one single, solitary, citation of your alleged source.



And that fact is very telling in and of itself.

Answer 12

WOW! Did you stay awake all night making up this fable?



Seriously, you need to join us here in reality!

Answer 13

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