Ethan Walker
The persecution of the Catholic Church by the Nazi regime in Germany is a well-documented aspect of history. While the relationship between the two entities was fraught with tension and conflict, the question of whether Nazis specifically targeted Catholics for extermination is more complex. The Nazis' ideological opposition to Christianity and the Church, their sterilization laws, and the dissolution of Catholic institutions indicate a systematic attempt to eradicate Catholic influence. However, the dynamics varied across territories, with Nazi-occupied Poland experiencing intense persecution, including the targeting of priests for extermination. The complex interplay between Catholics and Nazis during the Holocaust, including silence, aid, and support, adds nuance to the discussion.
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What You'll Learn
Catholic clergy targeted for extermination
The Catholic Church was a target of the Nazis. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were persecuted following the Nazi takeover. Priests were closely watched and frequently denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. From 1940, a dedicated Clergy Barracks was established at Dachau concentration camp, where Catholic priests were targeted for especially brutal treatment by the guards. Of the 2,720 clergy imprisoned at Dachau, 2,579 were Catholic priests, along with an uncertain number of seminarians and lay brothers. The majority of these priests were Polish, with 1,748 Poles and 411 Germans. Of the 1,034 priests who died in the camp, 868 were Polish.
In 1937, the New York Times reported that Christmas would see "several thousand Catholic clergymen in prison." Catholic clergy were targeted by Nazi propaganda, legal traps, and murder. One of the most effective Nazi legal maneuvers against Catholic priests was the use of show trials that highlighted supposed criminal immorality. Priests were lured to hotel rooms or apartments on the pretense that someone needed the last rites, only to be set upon by a prostitute while Gestapo officials took photographs.
In the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Nazi persecution of the church was intense, and many Polish clergy were targeted for extermination. It is estimated that at least 3,000 Polish priests were sent to concentration camps other than Dachau, including Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen, and Buchenwald. These numbers do not include the priests who were murdered en route to the camps or who died from diseases and exhaustion in the inhuman cattle cars used to transport victims.
In the Sudetenland, Nazi policy saw ethnic Czech priests expelled, deprived of income, and forced to do labor while their properties were seized. Religious orders were suppressed, private schools closed, and religious instruction forbidden in schools. 122 Czechoslovak Catholic priests were sent to Dachau, of whom 76 did not survive.
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Catholic schools, press, unions, parties, youth leagues eradicated
The Nazis sought to suppress the power of the Catholic Church in Germany. Hitler wanted to end all Catholic political life and the Church hierarchy in Germany tried to work with the new government. However, the Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity, and the Church was persecuted. Clergy were watched closely, denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. Welfare institutions were interfered with or transferred to state control.
Catholic schools were shut by 1939, and the Catholic press by 1941. Catholic newspapers were closed, and Catholic presses were shut down following the issuing of Pope Pius XI's Mit brennender Sorge anti-Nazi encyclical. Catholic trade unions were liquidated, and their leaders arrested. Catholic youth organisations were also closed, with the dissolution of the Catholic Youth League beginning just days after the Nazis' offensive sterilization law was promulgated.
The Nazis confiscated Church property, closed Catholic organisations, and sent many priests to concentration camps. Monasteries and convents were targeted for expropriation. Catholic activists were arrested, and Catholic lay leaders were among those murdered during the Night of the Long Knives.
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Catholic leaders, activists arrested, murdered
The Nazis' long-term plan was to de-Christianize Germany, and their ideology could not accept an autonomous establishment whose legitimacy did not spring from the government. They desired the subordination of the church to the state. Catholics were suspected of insufficient patriotism and disloyalty to the Fatherland, and they were thought to support "sinister alien forces".
The Nazis targeted clergy, nuns, and lay leaders, arresting thousands of them on trumped-up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality". Priests were watched closely, frequently denounced, and sent to concentration camps. From 1940, a dedicated Clergy Barracks was established at Dachau concentration camp. The intimidation of clergy was widespread.
Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber was shot at, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer had his Vienna residence ransacked in October 1938, and Bishop Johannes Baptista Sproll of Rottenburg was jostled and his home vandalized. In 1937, the New York Times reported that Christmas would see "several thousand Catholic clergymen in prison".
Catholic activists were also arrested and executed. The Lübeck martyrs, for example, were a group of parish priests who participated in local resistance. They spoke publicly against the Nazis and distributed pamphlets with information from British radio and Galen's sermons. They were arrested in 1942 and executed.
The Nazis were cautious about murdering church leaders, conscious of not wanting to create martyrs. However, Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, particularly at the hands of the SA, the SS, or Hitler Youth.
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Catholic monasteries, abbeys, institutions expropriated
The Nazis targeted Catholic monasteries, abbeys, and institutions for expropriation and suppression. The Nazi authorities claimed that these properties were needed for wartime necessities such as hospitals or accommodations for refugees and children. However, they often used them for their own purposes, such as converting them into cinemas and brothels. Hostility to the state was another common justification for the confiscations, and the actions of a single member of a monastery or convent could result in the seizure of the entire institution. The Jesuits and the Papal Nuncio were especially targeted.
The Nazi authorities decreed the dissolution of all monasteries and abbeys in the German Reich, and many were occupied and secularized by the Allgemeine SS under Himmler. This campaign against the monasteries and convents resulted in the charging of 276 members of religious orders with the offence of homosexuality. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were also targeted on trumped-up charges of currency smuggling or "immorality". Priests were closely watched, denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps, with a dedicated Clergy Barracks established at Dachau concentration camp. Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber was shot at, and Cardinal Theodor Innitzer had his Vienna residence ransacked.
The expropriation of Church properties surged from 1941, with the Nazi authorities intensifying the persecution of monasteries. The Provincial of the Dominican Province of Teutonia, Laurentius Siemer, a spiritual leader of the German Resistance, was influential in the Committee for Matters Relating to the Orders, which formed in response to Nazi attacks on Catholic monasteries. Figures like Galen and Preysing attempted to protect German priests from arrest. In his famous 1941 anti-euthanasia sermons, Galen denounced the confiscation of church properties and the mistreatment of Catholics in Germany, including the suppression of monasteries and the expulsion of religious orders.
The Catholic Church in Germany opposed the Nazi Party, and the proportion of Catholics who voted for the Nazis was lower than the national average in the 1933 elections. However, the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler additional powers to suppress political opponents. Hitler and several other key Nazis had been raised as Catholics but became hostile to the Church. Many German Catholics were disillusioned with the institutions of the Weimar Republic, and their attitudes and actions were shaped by various factors, including backlash against the Weimar Republic and the political, economic, and social changes in Germany.
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Catholic priests, nuns, bishops in Nazi Party
The Catholic Church suffered intense persecution in Nazi Germany. Clergy, including priests, were watched closely, denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. Welfare institutions were interfered with or transferred to state control. Catholic schools, press, trade unions, political parties, and youth leagues were eradicated. Monasteries and convents were targeted for expropriation. An estimated one-third of German priests faced some form of reprisal in Nazi Germany, and 400 German priests were sent to the dedicated Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp.
The Nazis targeted Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops for their resistance to Nazi doctrine. Priests were frequently denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. Nuns were expelled from their convents, and Catholic bishops were targeted for their outspoken criticism of National Socialism. Many Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops played a significant role in rescuing Jews and opposing Nazi crimes.
Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, for example, wrote that:
> [t]he bishops as guardians of the true teachings of faith and morals must issue a warning about National Socialism, so long as and insofar as it maintains cultural-political views that are not reconcilable with Catholic doctrine.
Cardinal von Faulhaber's residence was shot at, and his criticism of National Socialism gained widespread attention and support from German Catholic churches. Bishop Johannes Baptista Sproll of Rottenburg was jostled and his home vandalised. In 1937, the New York Times reported that Christmas would see "several thousand Catholic clergymen in prison."
Bishop Clemens August von Galen of Münster refused to follow the Nazi school superintendent's decree to combine religious instruction with a discussion of the "demoralising power" of the "people of Israel." Bishop von Galen also spoke against the state seizure of properties and the expulsions of nuns and monks, and criticised the euthanasia programme. In response, the police raided his sister's convent and detained her in the cellar.
In the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, as well as in the annexed regions of Slovenia and Austria, Nazi persecution of the church was particularly severe, and many Polish clergy were targeted for extermination. Over 1,000 priests died in Dachau, where 95% of its 2,720 inmates were Catholic.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, the Nazis targeted Catholics for extermination. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were targeted following the Nazi takeover, often on false charges of currency smuggling or "immorality". Priests were watched closely and frequently denounced, arrested, and sent to concentration camps.
The Nazis saw Christian values as the enemies of Nazism. They considered Christianity and liberal individualism to be the residue of inherited racial characteristics biologically sourced from Jews. The Nazis also wished to de-Christianize Germany or realign its theology with their ideology.
The Catholic Church hierarchy tried to work with the Nazi government, but Pope Pius XI's 1937 encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, accused the government of hostility to the church. Catholic leaders were initially more suspicious of National Socialism than their Protestant counterparts. With time, anti-Nazi sentiment grew in both Protestant and Catholic church circles, and the Nazi regime saw a potential for dissent in church criticism of state measures.
