Essay about Nazi Uprising: A Focus on Christianity’s Role

The article I read while researching is called, “The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Experience in the Nazi Concentration Camp: A History of Their Conflicts with the Nazi State” written by Jerry Bergman who has his B.S., M. Ed., and his Ph.D. He currently is an instructor of Behavioral Sciences at Northwest State College. I retrieved this academic article from the Hiebert Library from Fresno Pacific University. Additionally, this journal covers the topics of National Socialism with Jehovah’s and the Nazi’s in Germany, the concentration camps, government, the history of Jehovah Witnesses’ in Germany, and the church history of the

2000 years of anti- Jewish teachings in Christianity made the acceptance of racial anti- Semitism possible. In 1935, the Nazis established laws which stripped Jews of German citizenship and took away their livelihood. From 1939, the Germans began deporting Jews to overcrowded ghettos and concentration camps. Over 6 years during the war, 6million Jews, including 1.5million children were murdered by Nazis. Hitler’s deliberate annihilation of the Jews resulted in the extermination of one third of the total Jewish population or two-thirds of the Jews in Europe. The Nazi Party used terror and propaganda to persuade people to believe Hitler had all the answers to all their

Within Germany, a country torn between the rise of a totalitarian party that determined a superior race, Nazism, and the survival of the oppressed, young Germans face a test between a sense of self and society. Individuality would be suppressed within this new type of society, and being different would be the deadliest obstruction to life. The violations of the rights to life, religion, and speech are relived through the stories of the German youth that lived through this haunting time, whose name would be tarnished in their struggle to survive. In their fight, their morals would be challenged and influenced until the Nazi regime ended, and the violation of human dignity would leave them wondering if life was worth living after all. The Nazi Party grew under its leader, Adolf Hitler, which struggled not to use violence against those that disagreed with their views, starting with armed groups known as the Strum Abteilung, who pledged to be ready to sacrifice their life in the aims of the Nazi Party and absolute loyalty to their leader. Their cruel intolerance began by their strong nationalism and their hatred of democracy and communism, and they gained power through the economic depressions around the world, controlling the media by instilling fear and propaganda that influenced a strong belief in their leaders. This belief in the leaders would soon seem to override Church influence when the official body of the Church failed to do anything significant

It is extremely evident that Jews were the main target for dire judgmental opinions, but there was one man who had a passion for Germany; he believed he was the ‘saviour’ of Germany, this man served in the first world war, and it was then, near the end of the war, recovering from a war wound, when Germany was weak and crumbling, he made a vow to himself, that he would be the one, to make Germany strong, he was: Adolf Hitler.

These ominous “commandments” foreshadow and foreground some of what is later to come in Nazi Germany with the reading of these of Luther’s statements, among others, in Protestant churches to incite violence against the Jews. It is no coincidence that Kristallnacht coincides with Luther’s birthday (Burston, 2014). Many Nazis even thought that they were finishing Luther’s

Adolf Hitler wanted the Jewish race to be destroyed forever. But he didn’t just stop at beliefs. Even if you were a Christian, Catholic, Atheist, etc., you were still in danger. You were still in danger because if you looked Jewish to him then you were swooped up and taken hostage in a concentration camp.

Due to the inhumane methods towards the Jews during the Holocaust, many lost their faith and commitment to Judaism. Jews were appalled that God, who was supposed to be their savior, abandoned them in a time where they needed him the most. Although many Jews kept their faith and did not question God’s mysterious ways, many did not have the same outlook. People assume that hard times strengthen people’s faith, but that was not always the case. During great tragedy's, people’s faith may disintegrate and become completely absent from their minds. Many prisoners including Elie Wiesel could not accept God’s silence and rebelled against their religious upbringing during the Holocaust.

   The world has been plagued with the specter of anti-Semitism for many centuries. This hatred manifested itself in the frenzy of Nazism and the deaths of six million Jews, the Holocaust as it has come to be known. If someone were to reveal an eight step plan for the removal of Jews from European society, one would readily associate such a plan with Adolf Hitler. One would not, however, think also of Martin Luther, though he himself wrote an essay in 1543 entitled "Concerning the Jews and their Lies" outlining such a plan. This is not to suggest that Luther was akin to Hitler in action or deed. This does suggest that Luther, the spark of the Protestant Reformation and father of German

German Attitudes Toward the Jews and the Final Solution There are those that claim that Hitler’s conscious personal hatred of the Jews, his unique and central role in the rise of Nazi Germany were fundamental in the development of the anti-Jewish policies that emerged leading to the final solution. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the anti- Jewish feeling in Germany reflected a much stronger, widespread support amongst its people and this essay will examine the role and attitudes of the German people towards the Final Solution. On the 1st of April, 1933, the boycott of Jewish businesses reflected evidence of widespread anti Jewish feelings amongst the lower bureaucracy of the

In summary, Eckart suggests that it was the religious zealotry by which the German church taught the population that planted the initial seeds of the Holocaust . Throughout the recorded history of the church it has been the religious zealotry that was taught to various populations that has been the cause of numerous bloody conflicts and acts of inhumane cruelty. From the Crusades to the Salem witch hunts and various other historical incidences it has been religious zealotry, the Christian feeling of spiritual superiority and the claims of the church to possess the only sure means of forgiveness, grace and salvation that such incidents happened in the first place.

One is a faith that billions of people have worshiped for hundreds of years, and the other is a regime based on racist theories. Catholicism and Nazism. These two congregations have more in common than anyone could have imagined. Both had principles and theories. History shows that both parties shared hatred and sought out those they disapproved of for questioning, torture and even execution. The medieval Catholic Church and Nazi Party had common motives. However, those in disagreement argue that one is a faith and the other is politics. The actions of the Nazi Party were distinct replications of those of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, which is a reminder to all that any prevailing party, whether it be political or religious, can command a threatening power.

In the tumultuous period leading up to World War II, a series of laws were devised in Nazi Germany that subjected the Jewish people to prohibitory and discriminatory forms of treatment. Although the Jewish people only accounted for 503,000 of the 55 million occupants of the country, Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship preached the incorporation of anti-Semitism into law and practice in order to quell the people he considered to be the enemy of the country.

From 1933 to 1945, Germany was under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and the Nationalist Socialist German Party, or Nazi Party. The group promoted German pride and Anti-Semitism, hate towards Jews, and expressed disgust towards the Treaty of Versailles, a peace document signed between Germany and the Allies at the end of World War 1 (History.com Staff). In order to grow his movement, Hitler recruited Germans for his armies, his factory workers, and his death camp guards. Because of this, it was easy to assume that all Germans supported the Nazi dictatorship and the ideas they preached. However, throughout this time period many Germans of different political and religious beliefs came together to protest against the regime.

Starving. You are starving. According to Germany during the Great Depression you would have been out of work and hungry for many years now. You take your trillion marks down to the corner store, wait in line, claw and fight your way for the last couple of items and then find out when you get to the cashier that due to the ever growing inflation your trillions of marks won’t be enough for a single loaf of bread, as is life in Germany in the late 20’s and early 30’s. According to Commanding Heights: The German Inflation most people especially the young have grown up in these terrible conditions were it was more cost effective to take the German marks and burn and use them as wallpaper than as actual money. Around this time you hear about a

The terror and frightened experience of Septimus calls him to give his all to Christ and began to speak the good news of the Lord he did this by telling people what the Lord can do and what he has in stored for us, so other people would understand the reality of humanity. In Arthur F. Bethea, “Septimus, the War-Shattered Christ Substitute in Mrs. Dalloway”, writes “Septimus, That life is not only what we experience around us but it goes beyond that. “Septimus perceives himself as “the Lord”........come renew society” (25),” carrying “the greatest message in world”” (83). “Septimus thinks that the earth is about “to burst into flames”(15)”­an apocalyptic detail, evocative of both the horror of World War I and Christ’s prophesied triumph in Revelation and hears the”whole world”clamoring”kill yourself,kill yourself for our sake”(92) “The “rusty spike”that impale him analogize the nails in Jesus’s hands on the cross(184).The Lord who has come to bring renewal to society” (Bethea 250). Septimus thought he was carrying the greatest message in the world and taught the world is coming to an end. He began to give revelation about the end time as Jesus came to do on Earth, at a point in time all of his sayings brings him out as the lord and personal savior. As Christ prophesied triumph in revelation as the bible declares so did Septimus trying to imitate. He was misinterpreting how Christ sacrificed his life for humity to have life and have it abundantly, the death of Christ was