02-09-2017, 02:17 PM
(02-09-2017, 01:49 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:(02-09-2017, 12:59 PM)SomeGuy Wrote: > German Catholics? German Protestants were not involved?
Sorry, I should have said German Christians.
I admit that there is an unanswered question in my mind about this.
There are a couple of dozen Protestant denominations in Germany, and I
would guess that some of them supported the Holocaust and others did
not. At any rate, there was no common policy. But in the 1930s, it
was still official Catholic policy that the Jews were to blame for the
death of Jesus Christ, as specified by the 1555 "Cum Nimis Absurdu"
Papal bull, and the Jews were not officially forgiven until 1986. And
so suspicion has to fall far more upon the Catholics than on the
Protestants.
** 25-May-14 World View -- Pope Francis visits Mideast to reconcile with Jews, Orthodox, and Muslims
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/x...tm#e140525
No worries. The thing is, Germany is a majority Protestant country, even with Austria included. They were only about a third of the population in the 1930s, and were suspected of dual loyalties by the Nazi party, which persecuted the Church itself. Political Catholicism had been been an issue in Germany from the kulturkampf in the 19th century to the Zentrum party into the 20th. Catholic nobleman like Claus Staffenberg were prominent in the right-wing opposition to Hitler (Staffenberg in particular cited his Catholicism in his growing dislike of the Nazis), and it was the staunchly Catholic Konrad Adenauer who was there to pick up the reins after the Nazi regime was overthrown. Nor were the more culturally Catholic Fascist regimes in Spain and Italy more anti-Semitic than the Nazis, indeed, they were far less.
This is not to say that the Church up until Vatican II (and really a little since then) wasn't a deeply conservative organization, long suspicious of democracy and comfortable cozying up to reactionary regimes. I just don't think that they were the driving force behind the Nazi's particular obsession with the Jews.
*I've used Wiki articles because they are convenient for consolidating information (as an encyclopedia should), I can use other sources if you like.
