1933–1945

Nazism, the Holocaust and Christians in the Third Reich (1933–1945)

Shelley: Nazism was the largest of the “right-wing” totalitarian regimes of postwar Europe: Hitler became chancellor on 30 January 1933 and two years later gained complete control of the government. The Nazis believed in the absolute unity of the people under the Führer, rejected the freedom and tolerance of the Enlightenment, created a “Nazi Jesus” who despised the Jews, and made race the central principle; antisemitism led to the stripping of Jews of civil rights and to the “final solution” – by reliable estimates six million died. Zealous Christians faced a danger like that of the Jews

Key points

• Shelley: millions in Luther’s homeland left the Protestant churches for a new political religion; many were compromised or chose collaboration. After the war Protestant clergy were mostly monarchist and unsympathetic to democracy, while workers came to hate the reactionary Church. Hitler became chancellor of the Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933 and two years later gained full control of the government. Nazis believed in the absolute unity of the German people under the Führer and in the leadership principle across all national structures. They dropped Enlightenment freedom and tolerance but used its methods to attack the Bible, inventing a “Nazi Jesus” who despised the Jews. Race was central: “land” and “blood” set Germans apart, and foreigners and foreign ideas, especially Jews, were seen as vice. The Nazis made Jews scapegoats; stripped of rights, an estimated six million were killed in the “final solution.”

People

• Adolf Hitler

Place

Germany, Eastern Europe, Auschwitz (Poland)