Question:
A question to those who say Hitler followed Christ and was a Christian.?
?
2013-10-29 09:11:14 UTC
Can you show me the precepts and exact words of Jesus Christ that prompted Hitler to order the 'Final solution' (complete annihilation of the Jewish people in Europe). Hitlers henchmen did manage to gas six million Jews. Please quote the specific scripture passages in it's full context... please.
21 answers:
Kazoo M
2013-10-29 10:02:59 UTC
Remember, documented truth will always outweigh an "opinion".



Hitler reviewed the Church as an obstacle to social unity and as an inconvenient opponent to the inhuman policies of his Nazi regime.

In response to Hitler's repressive program, Pope Pius issued in 1937 the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, smuggled into Germany and read from Catholic pulpits in March 1937.

This condemnation of the Nazis provoked Hitler's anger, but an even more stinging denunciation was in the works when Pius died on February 10, 1939.



Thus, throughout the war, Catholic priests, nuns, and laypeople were arrested, and thousands died at the hands of death squads, Gestapo torture, or in the concentration camps.

A similar pattern existed as well among any of the Lutheran ministers who protested too loudly, such as Dietrich Bonhoefer, who died at Dachau.

Heroic Catholic figures included Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, archbishop of Munich, Father Rupert Mayer, and Canon Bernhard Lichtenberg, to name only a few.

Faulhaber survived several assassination attempts and never ceased to condemn Hitler for his atrocities against Christians and Jews.



Hitler did not shut down the churches entirely out of the practical realization that far too many Germans remained Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, etc.

He relied upon a multi-pronged strategy of extirpating all forms of dissent by the Gestapo and the Party, cultivating support from those members who shared anti-Semitic feelings with the Nazis, and trusting to the apathy of many others.



It is certain that had Hitler managed to win the war, the Catholic Church would have been exterminated in all occupied territories, and Christianity eventually replaced entirely by a cult of state!

Hitler was himself the heir of the philosophical system of the 18th and 19th centuries – in particular Kant and Nietsche – and the host of pan-Germanic groups such as the Thule and other German Nationalist and Pan-Aryan movements that focused in part on the cultivation of genetic purity, the rise of the Aryan master race, and the rejection or perversion of the Judaeo-Christian tradition.



Nazism was thus anything but Christian, and those members who once were believers in Christ found National Socialism incompatible with the ideology they had embraced.



Furthermore, the Nazi Party not only showed aversion to the ideas of divine Providence but gave proof of a definite hatred directed at God such an attitude led to a rejection of Christianity, and a desire to see the Church destroyed.



God bless'
Alex - Sans the Mercy
2013-10-29 09:19:57 UTC
Technically, Hitler was Jewish, since his mom was Jewish.



Judaism is passed down from the mother, hence why Jewish men prompt their wives to convert in order to keep their children tied to their faith.



Hitler WANTED to be Christian, as can be seen by several of his speeches and personal letters. Whether this is because he really thought he was doing "god's work" or whether he had some serious mommy issues is up for debate.



And atheists do not say Hitler was Christian as a means to describe Christian violence - we don't need to. History has A LOT of examples.



Usually the "Hitler was a Catholic" argument comes into play directly after a Christian claims Hitler was an atheist and committed genocide because of his "lack of morals" or whatnot.
GodwinsLawProfessor
2013-10-29 09:58:14 UTC
When he says...



"In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and of adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before - the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice. And as a man I have the duty to see to it that human society does not suffer the same catastrophic collapse as did the civilization of the ancient world some two thousand years ago - a civilization which was driven to its ruin through this same Jewish people."

-- Adolf Hitler; from speech in Munich (April 12, 1922)



...he is referring to the 12th Chapter of The Gospel of Matthew. When he says...



"I am also religious, profoundly religious on the inside, and I believe that Providence weighs human beings. Those who do not pass the trials imposed by Providence, who are broken by them, are not destined by Providence for greater things. It is a natural necessity that only the strong remain after this selection."

-- Adolf Hitler; from Munich Löwenbräukeller (November 8, 1943)



,,,he is referencing The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) Which is also the passage that right-wingers always cite to defend their policies even today.
J.
2013-10-29 09:19:24 UTC
Hitler was a baptized Christian, but his actions were not Christian. There are no scriptural passages to justify his actions; more importantly, the teachings of Jesus is very specific about how to treat people, something that Hitler did not follow.
2013-10-29 09:16:16 UTC
If your definition of a Christian is someone who perfectly upholds Biblical morality there would quite literally be no Christians.



Instead, take it from the horse's mouth. Hitler said, "In a speech delivered at Koblenz, August 26, 1934 Hitler states: "There may have been a time when even parties founded on the ecclesiastical basis were a necessity. At that time Liberalism was opposed to the Church, while Marxism was anti-religious. But that time is past. National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary, it stands on the ground of a real Christianity. The Church's interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of today, in our fight against the Bolshevist culture, against an atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for the consciousness of a community in our national life, for the conquest of hatred and disunion between the classes, for the conquest of civil war and unrest, of strife and discord. These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles.
Boxerman
2013-10-29 09:24:48 UTC
What's more important than what Hitler believed was the fact that he used the Bible and the Catholic churches to convince German people to follow his agenda... Because ask yourself who is actually the worst? One crazy person or the thousands or even millions who followed his crazy agenda along with the Vatican who stand by the evil things written in the Bible.
nondescript
2013-10-29 09:14:23 UTC
Christians have often used their beliefs to rationalize their actions.



The Bible is very contradictory and almost any position can be supported depending on how it is cherry-picked. I'm not going to justify how Hitler cherry-picked his beliefs to support his actions, but I'm sure he did. It was probably along the same lines of thinking that the Inquisition used in prosecuting Jews, but that's just a guess.



Throughout history, Christianity has been used to justify killing of so-called witches, attacking Muslims, oppressing Jews, enslaving blacks, treating women as property, and ostracizing homosexuals. In each case, Bible verses were touted as "proof" that their way was correct.



Since Hitler called himself a Christian and other Christians seemed to accept him as one, I'll have to take his and their word on it. I'm not going to define other people's religions for them. Remember, it wasn't just Hitler that was oppressing and killing Jews. There were many other Lutherans, Catholics, and others joining in.



Religion is superstition often used as an excuse.
Entirely of This World
2013-10-29 09:13:47 UTC
Claiming to be a Christian and acting like one are different. He claimed he was a Christian, and was in fact baptized a Catholic. A lot of people calling themselves christian do not act like it. Hitler was a particularly egregious case.



@ Sam. I am an atheist and have never ordered the extermination of Jews.
2013-10-29 09:28:17 UTC
I wasn't aware of the idea that one most take and pass a Prove You're A Christian test in order to claim that they are one

Hitler believed that he was a Christian and therefore he was one
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
2013-10-29 09:31:33 UTC
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)



If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)



Hitler himself although babtised was not a Christian, he only pretended to be a Christian in public as most of the nation at the time was Christian. Hatred for the Jews was widspread for centuries and even Marthin Luther wrote a 65,000-word antisemitic treatise titled "Von den Jüden und iren Lügen" (in English "On the Jews and Their Lies") [1]



German Jewish refugees at the time were also denied entry to Cuba, the United States and Canada, until finally accepted to various countries of Europe. [2]
Ernest S
2013-10-29 09:31:13 UTC
Why do you bother?



When people say Hitler was a Christian they are simply loudly proclaiming themselves as fools with a malicious agenda.
2013-10-29 09:33:13 UTC
He welcomed Christianity but didn't really care for it himself, btw there is no evidence he ordered any final solution & i challenge anyone to provide any
The Realist
2013-10-29 09:14:51 UTC
Hitler's religion has been suppressed. I have heard Germany had it's own Bibles at the time which have since been destroyed. I believe the Germans were the chosen ones in these Bibles.
2013-10-29 09:21:08 UTC
Interestingly, Goebbels (who was very close to Hitler) described him as "deeply religious but entirely anti-Christian"
?
2013-10-29 09:15:11 UTC
To be fair Christians were being dicks to Jews long before Hitler so being mean to Jews can't really exclude him from being Christian.
2013-10-29 09:17:53 UTC
His form of "Christianity" was only for the Aryan race - blonde, blue-eyed - altho' it's funny how he was dark-haired and swarthy! Therefore, everyone else was fair game.



People can take their religious books to support any kind of horror, it seems to me.



We have nothing to hide behind - we atheists.



Mo

Atheist
Mintee
2013-10-29 09:13:34 UTC
oh come on.. he might have been a proclaimed christian that just didnt have a moral code of conduct. thats like in Islam.. you cannot say the terrorists are anymore muslim than hitler was christian, even though they proclaim to be..
Slickterp
2013-10-29 09:14:42 UTC
He was Christian. Anyone who claims his Nazism was based on Christianity hasn't done much research.



Please, could every one stop using the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
Enough Trolls
2013-10-29 09:26:24 UTC
He was baptized and confirmed in the church. Simple fact.

What he believed we will never know.
2013-10-29 09:13:17 UTC
A person may profess any thing that they please. The lives actions of Hitler demonstrate an example of atheism.
?
2013-10-29 09:26:12 UTC
hilter is NOT IN THE BIBLE.


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