Sarah Mitchell
The persecution of Catholics by the Nazis is a complex topic. While Hitler and several key Nazis were raised as Catholics, they became hostile to the Church as adults. Hitler retained some regard for the Church's organisational power, but he and other Nazi leaders, such as Joseph Goebbels, were contemptuous of its central teachings. They believed that Nazism and religion could not coexist in the long run, and sought to suppress the power of the Catholic Church in Germany. This resulted in the closure of Catholic institutions, interference in Catholic education and youth groups, the arrest and imprisonment of clergy, and the murder of Catholic lay leaders. While there was some anti-Nazi sentiment within the Catholic Church, the Church did not openly challenge the legitimacy of the Nazi regime, and there was little public opposition to antisemitism or state-sanctioned violence against Jews.
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What You'll Learn
Hitler's contempt for the Catholic Church
Hitler was raised as a Catholic but became hostile to the Church in adulthood. He retained some regard for the organisational power of Catholicism but had contempt for its central teachings, believing that they "would mean the systematic cultivation of human failure". Hitler's goal in the Kirchenkampf was not only ideological struggle but also the eradication of the Church. He believed that Nazism could only succeed if political Catholicism and its democratic networks were eliminated.
Hitler's inflammatory remarks to his inner circle encouraged them to continue their battle with the Church. He said that science would destroy superstition and that Nazism and religion could not coexist in the long run. Hitler also referred to priests as "black bugs" and "abortions in black cassocks".
The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity, interfering with Catholic education, youth groups, workers' clubs, and cultural societies. They dissolved Catholic institutions, censored and suppressed publications, disbanded youth organisations, searched monasteries, and arrested priests and laymen, some of whom were killed in concentration camps. Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, particularly from the SA, SS, or Hitler Youth.
The Catholic Church in Germany opposed the NSDAP, and in the 1933 elections, the proportion of Catholics who voted for the Nazi Party was lower than the national average. However, the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler additional powers to suppress political opponents.
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Catholic resistance to the Nazis
The Roman Catholic Church in Germany faced persecution under the Nazi regime. The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity, interfering with Catholic education, youth groups, workers' clubs, and cultural societies. Catholic schools, press, trade unions, political parties, and youth leagues were eradicated. Welfare institutions were interfered with or transferred to state control. Monasteries and convents were targeted for expropriation. Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, particularly at the hands of the SA, the SS, or Hitler Youth. An estimated one-third of German priests faced some form of reprisal, and many were sent to concentration camps.
Despite the persecution, there were Catholics who resisted the Nazis. The Catholic Church provided the earliest and most enduring centres of systematic opposition to Nazi policies. Catholics fought on both sides during World War II, and Hitler's invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland ignited the conflict in 1939. In the Polish, Slovenian, Austrian, and Czech areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Nazi persecution of the church was intense, and the Catholic religion was integral to much Polish resistance.
Some Catholic bishops and priests openly opposed the Nazi regime and its treatment of Jews. For example, Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen's 1941 sermons expressed opposition to the regime and its euthanasia programs. Bishop Johannes de Jong of the Netherlands, Bishop Jozef-Ernest van Roey of Belgium, and Cardinal Jules-Géraud Saliège of France also issued major denunciations of Nazi treatment of Jews. Pope Pius XII used diplomacy to aid war victims, lobbied for peace, and spoke out against atrocities through Vatican Radio and other media.
There were also Catholic groups that actively resisted the Nazis. The group around Augustinian monk Roman Karl Scholz sought to inform the population about Nazi crimes. The group around Karl Burian planned to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna. The group around Heinrich Maier successfully redirected the production sites of V-1, V-2 rockets, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt aircraft, and other weapons to the Allies so they could bomb more accurately and end the war faster. Maier's group also reported to the Allies about the mass murder in Auschwitz. These Catholic resistance groups were radically persecuted by the Gestapo.
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Catholic leaders persecuted
The Nazis were cautious about murdering church leaders, as they did not want 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. Catholic leaders were also targeted by the Gestapo, which launched an intense persecution of monasteries in 1940.
During the 1934 Night of the Long Knives purge, Catholic Action head Erich Klausener, Papen's speechwriter and advisor Edgar Jung, and Catholic Youth Sports Association national director Adalbert Probst were executed. Former Centre Party chancellor Heinrich Brüning narrowly escaped execution.
The OSS cited several instances of violence or the threat of violence against Catholic leaders, including three demonstrations against Bishop Sproll of Rottenburg in 1938, one against Archbishop Caspar Klein of Paderborn, two attacks against Bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser of Trier, and various attacks against Cardinal Faulhaber.
The Dominican Province of Teutonia provincial and German Resistance spiritual leader Laurentius Siemer was influential in the Committee for Matters Relating to the Orders, which formed in response to Nazi attacks on Catholic monasteries.
The Nazis claimed jurisdiction over all collective and social activity, and Catholic clergy 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. Anti-Catholic propaganda and "morality" trials were staged, and 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 Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp.
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Catholic press, schools, and youth organisations closed
The Catholic Church was indeed persecuted by the Nazi regime in Germany. Hitler and several other key Nazis were raised as Catholics but became hostile to the Church in adulthood. Hitler retained some regard for the Church's organisational power, but he was contemptuous of its central teachings. He believed that Nazism could only succeed if political Catholicism and its democratic networks were eliminated.
The Nazi government interfered with Catholic education, youth groups, workers' clubs, and cultural societies. Catholic press, schools, and youth organisations were closed, property was confiscated, and about one-third of its clergy faced reprisals from the authorities. The OSS reported that throughout the period of National Socialist rule, religious liberties in Germany and in the occupied areas were seriously impaired. The various Christian Churches were systematically cut off from effective communication with the people. They were confined as far as possible to the performance of narrowly religious functions and were subjected to many hindrances by the Nazis.
The Nazis' sterilization law, the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, was offensive to the Catholic Church. Days later, moves began to dissolve the Catholic Youth League. Hitler's 1934 Long Knives purge targeted political Catholicism, and those executed included the head of Catholic Action, Erich Klausener, and the national director of the Catholic Youth Sports Association, Adalbert Probst. Catholic schools, press, trade unions, political parties, and youth leagues were eradicated.
Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, particularly at the hands of the SA, the SS, or Hitler Youth. From 1940, the Gestapo launched an intense persecution of the monasteries. Catholic lay leaders were among those murdered during the Night of the Long Knives. During the rule of the regime, the Church frequently found itself in a difficult position. The Church hierarchy (in Germany) tried to work with the new government, but Pius XI's 1937 encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge, accused the government of hostility to the church.
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Catholic clergy imprisoned
The Nazis were cautious about murdering church leaders, not wanting to create martyrs. However, Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, particularly from the SA, the SS, or Hitler Youth. Catholic clergy 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. Anti-Catholic propaganda and "morality" trials were also staged.
In 1934, the Nazis began their Night of the Long Knives purge, targeting political Catholics. Executions included the head of Catholic Action, Erich Klausener, and the national director of the Catholic Youth Sports Association, Adalbert Probst. In 1935, Wilhelm Braun, a Catholic priest from Frankfurt an der Oder, became the first clergyman imprisoned at Dachau Concentration Camp. From 1940, the Nazis gathered dissident priests in a dedicated barracks at Dachau. Of the 2,720 clergy imprisoned there, 2,579 (or 94.88%) were Catholic, and 1,034 died.
In Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, the Nazis attempted to eradicate the church; over 1,800 Polish clergy died in concentration camps. 122 Czechoslovak Catholic priests were sent to Dachau, of whom 76 did not survive. Nazi policy towards the Church was at its most severe in the territories it annexed to Greater Germany, where they set about systematically dismantling the Church.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, the Catholic Church was persecuted by the Nazis. Catholic schools, press, trade unions, political parties, youth leagues, monasteries, and convents were all targeted by the Nazis. Catholic leaders frequently faced violence or the threat of violence, and thousands of Catholic activists were arrested.
Hitler and other key Nazis were raised as Catholics but became hostile to the Church in adulthood. Hitler believed that Nazism could only succeed if political Catholicism and its democratic networks were eliminated. He also believed that science would eventually destroy religion, and that Nazism and religion could not coexist in the long run.
Anti-Nazi sentiment grew in Catholic circles as Nazi repression increased. The Church did not challenge the legitimacy of the Nazi regime, but it did protest when its interests were affected. Catholic groups were involved in rescue and resistance activities, and Catholic leaders spoke out against Nazi racial ideology and the persecution of Jews.
