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51 D Chapter Twelve d A pAStor’S growing doubtS Within the first three months of the new regime, Pastor Niemoeller’s initial optimism was shattered,as was his naive faith that the führer would keep his solemn promise not to interfere in church affairs.With the Reichskonkordat of July 30,1933,Pope Pius XI declared total neutrality between the Holy See and Nazi Germany where Adolf Hitler, by birth a member of the Catholic Church, had been successful in winning the support of the majority of bishops. Since the terms of the treaty clearly guaranteed the inviolability of the Catholic Church, they hastened to pledge allegiance to the new government, closely followed by the Protestant clergy, who eagerly declared their loyalty to the regime even before being asked to do so. Hitler was euphoric; his hopes of having churches on his side had been surpassed. Now he had every reason to believe that he had been fully accepted. For the majority of Germans, the traditional bond between state and church, between throne and altar, had not ended just because there was no throne, no monarch anymore. Their new kaiser’s name was Adolf, and he saw every reason to be pleased by the developments . Backed by the churches, he would build a mighty bulwark against Bolshevism, as well as the powerful“International Jewry”still lurking in the background. He officially declared the two Christian churches to be the solid foundation of state and family life. Their rights, he promised, would not be touched.What more could anyone want? Too late, some of those who trusted in the new führer’s promises realized their error in judgment. Soon after the cleverly orchestrated Reichstag fire, Hitler was ready to begin his war against the Jews. The chicanery and harassments against them were soon to be followed by laws barring them from all walks of life in Germany. It would not take long until the phrase “You shall not live among us as Jews” was shortened by two words to “You shall not live among us.” Two more words,“among us,” would later be omitted. Pastor Martin Niemoeller finally realized that all his hopes for a better Germany and a better government had been lost. He wasted no time, warning his congregants from the pulpit to“bow to God’s will and practice love toward all human beings,Christians,Jews,and Pagans alike.”And he gave his young confirmands the option to either “obey the orders of the Nazi party or God’s commandments,”emphasizing that“we must obey God more than man.”These occurrences were swiftly reported to Hitler, who was not amused. He came to the decision that, as far as the Lutherans were concerned, a new and united German Protestant Church was needed, which would practice undivided loyalty and obedience to him ParT one 52 and his party. Unlike the Catholics, who were one united body, the forty-five million German Protestants belonged to no less than twenty-eight different branches of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. The führer determined that the Jewish Old Testament, filled with weird, ridiculous stories and endless lamentations, in their concept totally incompatible with the Teutonic perception of life, would eventually be eliminated. The decision about what to do with the Jewish Jesus seemed, for the time being, fairly easy. Of course he was not a Jew; he was the first Christian! That is why the Jews had to kill him!“Christ,the savior,will come again,”promised the Christian creed.The German people hadtobeconvincedthatthetruesaviorhadalreadycome,andthathisnamewasAdolf Hitler. This new church would have no room for Christians of Jewish descent, neither as members of the congregation nor as clergy. In April 1933, a decree was introduced, which was called the “Aryan paragraph.” It contained the following passage: “Anyone who is not of Aryan descent may not be appointed as a pastor or official. Pastors and officials of Aryan descent who marry non-Aryans are to be dismissed.” The order would not only be ignored, but publicly denounced as unacceptable by the pastor of Dahlem.“A Jew who confesses Christ as his Lord is certainly my brother,”he simply declared,“and I will not deny him membership in the congregation of a Christian Church.” German Protestants now found themselves divided by a deep rift.On one side were the Nazi-oriented“German Christians,”eagerly abiding by the new laws, and on the other side were their brand-new counterpart, the“Confessing Church.”This...

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