Christian Churches Should Have Opposed the Nazi Holocaust

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Recommended: The rise of anti-semitism

"...and we say that the war will not end as the Jews imagine it will, namely with the uprooting of the Aryans, but the result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews. (Adolf) Adolf Hitler said this in a speech in 1942. Obviously he by this point he was not being subtle about his plans to exterminate the Jews. The fact of the matter is that the German people knew about his plans and still didn’t do anything about them. One group in particular who did not do anything that probably should have more than any other group was the churches, specifically Christian churches (including the Catholic church). The fact that they saw the atrocious things that were happening to the Jews and other minority groups and decided not to do anything was horribly wrong and went against everything that they stand for. That is not to say that everyone did nothing. In fact there were a few different groups and even entire sects that started to help. However, churches as a whole did not give a concerted extended effort to combat the Holocaust. Although many churches and religious leaders in Germany believed that ignoring the atrocities of the Nazi regime would save them and their congregations from the unforgiving consequences of disobedience, their lack of resistance was appalling and the incorrect choice of action.

Background

In order to properly understand some of the more prevalent ideas that the Holocaust was allowed to happen, it is important to look at the different churches and the historical anti-semitic feelings among these churches. In Germany, around the time of the Holocaust, there were two dominant churches; the German Evangelical Church, and the Catholic Church. The German Evangelical Church always prided itself as...

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