One of the greatest illusions
held by those rejecting Hitler is that he was a godless heathen.
Few assertions are more at variance with reality and one need only read
and quote his writings and speeches to prove as much. Regarding belief
in God he said to the English journalist, Ward Price:
I believe in God,
and I am convinced that he will not desert 67 million Germans who have
worked so hard to regain their rightful position in the world.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND PROCLAMATIONS
1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 29
In a speech in Munich on
24 February 1940 he stated:
But
there is something else I believe, and that is that there is a God.
This God has given the same right to all nations. And this God again
has blessed our efforts during the past 13 years.
MY NEW ORDER by Adolph
Hitler, Edited by de Sales, 1941, page 788
At the celebration of the
Gau Party Congress of Mainfranken on 27 June 1937:
We
German National Socialists believe in nothing on this earth--besides our
Lord God in heaven--except our German Volk.
HITLER, [Speeches and Proclamations],
by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 908
Near Augsburg on 23 November
1937 Hitler addressed the Churches formally:
At
the bottom of our hearts, we National Socialists are religious. For
the space of many millenniums, a uniform concept of God did not exist.
Yet it is the most brilliant and most sublime notion of mankind, that which
distinguishes him from most from animals, that he not only views a phenomenon
from without, but always poses the question of why and how.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 980
He also stated:
It
is impossible to escape the problem of God. When I have the time,
I'll work out the formula to be used on great occasions. We must
have something perfect both in thought and in form.
HITLER'S TABLE
TALK, 1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 164
It's a fact that we're feeble creatures, and that a creative force exists.
To seek to deny it is folly.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 87
In his speech in the Reichstag
on 7 March 1936:
I
believe I can say this openly before my conscience and my God.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1301
Near Augsburg on 23
November 1937 Hitler addressed the Churches:
This
entire world, a world so clear-cut in its external manifestation, is just
as unclear to us in its purpose. And here mankind has bowed down
in humility before the conviction that it is confronted by an incredible
power, an Omnipotence, which is so incredible and so deep that we men are
unable to fathom it. That is a good thing! For it can serve
to comfort people in bad times; it avoids that superficiality and sense
of superiority that misleads man to believe that he--but a tiny bacillus
on this earth, in this universe--rules the world, and that he lays down
the laws of Nature which he can at best but study. It is, therefore,
our desire that our Volk remains humble and truly believes in a God.
Hence an immeasurably large scope is given for the Churches, and thus they
should be tolerant of one another!
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 980
To say these
views mirror those of George W. Bush is to utter the undeniable.
Hitler not only said
he believed in a God but specifically rejected atheism.
In an article published
in the Sunday Express 28 September 1930 he said:
It is charged against me that I am against property, that I am an atheist.
Both charges are false.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 93
An
educated man retains the sense of the mysteries of nature and bows before
the unknowable. An educated man, on the other hand, runs the risk
of going over to atheism (which is a return to the state of the animal)....
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 59
Not only did
he strongly believe in god and reject atheism but his determination to
destroy atheism was unmistakable. In a speech in the Sportpalast
in Berlin on 24 October 1933 Hitler said:
Without pledging ourselves to any particular Confession [Protestantism
or Catholicism], we have restored to faith its prerequisites because we
were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have
therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that
not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 378
We
don’t want to educate anyone in atheism.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 6
In a speech to the
Nation on 14 October 1933:
For
eight months we have been conducting a fearless campaign against that Communism
which is threatening our entire nation, our culture, our art, and our public
morals. We have made an end of denials of the Deity and the crying
down of religion. We must humbly thank God that he has not permitted
our fight against distress and unemployment, and for the saving of the
German peasantry, to be in vain.
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 80
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 369
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1095
The allegedly
atheist Hitler called upon God for support. In Munich on 1 January
1938 he stated:
No
matter how great the accomplishments of mankind may be, man will never
be able to boast of having achieved final victory if Providence does not
bless his actions. May it be our uttermost request that the mercy
of the Lord God accompany our German Volk in the coming year on its fateful
path.
HITLER, [Speeches and Proclamations],
by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 997
And he prayed on numerous
occasions. In Berlin on 20 February 1938 Hitler stated:
In this hour I pray that the Almighty will give His blessing in the years
to come to our work and action, to our judgment and to our strength of
resolution, that He may guard us from false pride as from cowardly submission,
that He will let us find the right way, which He in His Providence has
allotted to the German people, and that He give us always the courage to
do right and never to waiver or weaken in the face of any force or danger.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 92
In Cologne on 28 March
1936:
Once
the mercy of God shown upon us, but we were not worthy of His mercy.
Providence withdrew its protection and our people fell, fell as scarcely
any other people heretofore. In this deep misery we again learned
to pray.... This people has become better, more respectable, and
nobler. We all perceive it; the mercy of the Lord slowly returns
to us again. And in this hour we sink to our knees and beseech our
Almighty God that He may bless us, that He may give us the strength to
carry on the struggle for the freedom, the future, the honor, and the peace
of our people. So help us God.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 91
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 802
In a speech at the
Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration on the Buckeberg on 7 October 1933:
And
of our God at this hour we would humbly pray that in the future, too, He
would give His blessing upon our labor for our daily bread.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 874
In his speech to members
of the Party at the Nuremberg Parteitag on 13 September 1936:
Never
in these long years have we offered any other prayer but this: Lord, grant
to our people peace at home, and grant and preserve to them peace from
the foreign foe! We in our generation have lived through so much
fighting that it is natural that we should long for peace. We wish
to work, we wish to mould our Reich, to organize it after our own fashion,
not after that of the Bolshevist Jews!
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 207
In a speech at Konigsberg
on 4 March 1933:
Our prayer is: Lord God, let us never hesitate, let us never play the coward,
let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 116
In Berlin on 30 January
1942:
It is this prayer which will be answered: God give us strength that we
may maintain our freedom for our people, for our children and for our children's
children, not only for us Germans, but also for the other nations of Europe!
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 97
In his speech on May
Day 1933:
... no, Lord,
the German people have become strong again in spirit, strong in will, strong
in endurance, strong to bear all sacrifices.
Lord, we
will not let Thee go: bless now our fight for our freedom; the fight we
wage for our German people and Fatherland.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 410
In the closure to his
speech in the Reichstag on 20 February 1938:
In
this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past,
so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and
our action, to our judgment and our resolution, that He will safeguard
us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant
to us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the
German people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right,
never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 410
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 1034
In his speech at the
Harvest Thanksgiving on 6 October 1935:
We
wish to continue to do our duty, to go straight ahead, not to look to the
right and left as we have done in the past. We want to march through
the distresses of this time, strong and armed, and never play the weakling.
We want to do the right and to dread no one and then we would ask of the
Almighty that in the coming year, too, He will bless our work, that He
may once more give a rich harvest to our fields and to us all great successes.
And in especial may He preserve to our people a right judgment, may He
secure for our people domestic peace, and may He fill us one and all with
the wisdom and the wit to do the right that our people may live and that
Germany and may never perish.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1716
In his speech at the
Harvest Thanksgiving on 6 October 1935:
When
we go into the last battle we would lift of our gaze to Him who guides
all things and, as did a Prussian general before us, we would only say
'Lord God, there is no need for Thee to help us, only do not help our enemies.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1748
HITLER'S REDEN, 1933,
page 95.
In a speech at Frankfurt
on Main on 16 March 1936:
... You must be anchored in yourself and must set yourself with feet firmly
planted on this oscillating world. Only so can you appeal to your
God and pray Him to support and bless your courage, your work, your perseverance,
your strength, your resolution, and with all these your claim on life.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 408
On 3 October 1938 in
Eger:
In this hour we wish to render thanks to the Almighty that He has guarded
us on our path in the past, and we would implore Him that in the future,
too, He would go with us and prosper our way.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1529
Needless to say, those
having no belief in a supreme being--atheists--don’t pray or call upon
an Almighty Being for sustenance or assistance.
Hitler also contended
that prayers are answered for those who fight for them as is shown by his
comments in a Munich speech on 27 September 1922:
.
. . Necessity teaches us to pray, but it also teaches us to fight.
God gave man prayer, but He refuses to grant the fulfillment of prayer
if man does not fight for it.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 76
Assertions such as
those uttered by Hitler during a public speech on 8 November 1943 lend
credence to his claim of being religious:
I, too, am religious; that is, religious deep inside, and I believe that
Providence weighs us human beings, and that he who is unable to pass the
test of Providence but is destroyed by it has not been destined for greater
things.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 29
The following exchange
occurred in a conversation with one of Hitler’s closest confidants, Martin
Bormann:
HITLER: Mark
my words, Bormann, I'm going to become very religious.
BORMANN: You've always been very religious.
HITLER: I'm
going to become a religious figure. Soon I'll be the great chief
of the Tartars. Already Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my
name with their prayers.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK, 1941-1944, Translated
by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 203
In his speech to the
Reichstag on 21 May 1935 he said:
...
We National Socialists may perhaps not have the same views as our church
communities in respect to this or that question of organization.
But we never want to see a lack of religion and faith and do not want our
churches turned into clubrooms and cinemas.
Bolshevism teaches godlessness
and acts accordingly.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 670
With Hitler, as with
George Bush, faith is a key component of his life and the Fuhrer affirmed
his reliance upon same by saying in his closing speech at the Parteitag
in Nuremberg in September 1936:
.
. . Woe to him who has not faith: he sins against the meaning of
the whole of life.... It was the miracle of faith which saved Germany.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 406
Hitler went even further
than Bush dares to venture at this time by openly contending faith should
be imposed on others by force if necessary:
Those
who don't believe should, it seems, have faith imposed on them by force.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 342
What an imposition
of this kind would portend for the US is distressful to say the least.
As far as Hitler is
concerned anything bringing people to god is good and all to the contrary
is wrong, and he makes no effort to hide this attitude:
Let's
not worry about letting young people have these festivals. On the
contrary! Everything is good that brings them closer to the godhead,
and everything is wrong that comes between them and the godhead, even if
it is a Catholic priest.
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 278
In Munich on 8 May
1929 Hitler showed he felt people could be saved by virtually any religion
when he said:
I
represent the view that everyone should achieve salvation according to
his own religion.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 280
He doesn’t seem to
care what religion people adopt as long as they belong to one or the other.
To that extent he is more tolerant than Bush and his fundamentalist compatriots
who contend there is only one correct path to salvation.
Hitler often showed
he believed, like Bush, that people were a God’s creation.
In Berlin on 1 May 1935
he stated:
As
you stand here gathered together before me, may you one and all not forget
what life has made out of you as individuals; may you remember that in
spite of all these barriers you are members of one people and that you
are so not by human will but by God's will. It was He who made us
members of this nation, He who gave us our mother tongue, He who implanted
in us that being with which we are filled, which we must obey if we are
to be more on earth than mere worthless chaff.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 90
Because
God's will once gave men their form, their being, and their faculties.
Who destroys His work thereby declares war on the creation of the Lord,
the divine will.
MEIN KAMPF, Adolph
Hitler, New York, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939, page 827
In Munich on 25 October
1930:
When
we come forth today as Germans and try to guard against infection by another
people, then we attempt to put back into the hand of the all-powerful Creator
that which He has given us.
His will
and His Providence let us become what we are. He gave us the blood
that we possess; He gave us our external, I might almost say purely human
appearance; He placed our souls in us and He gave us the value which is
ours and also the substance of life. It would be an act of infidelity
toward the Creator if we did not endeavor to give the same being back to
Him in the same form in which He gave it to us. I consider it a sin
to corrupt or to debase this our being, to infect it with foreign characteristics,
and thus not to preserve the image of God as He placed it in our inner
nature.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 87
If those words do not
expose someone ideologically in league with the religious views of Bush
what does.
Hitler went so far as to equate the people’s voice with God’s
voice when he said in Munich on 15 March 1936:
Only
the Almighty has the right to decide on what is just in what is not, and
God's voice is the people's voice, and you, my German compatriots, are
therefore the only ones who have the right to judge my actions.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1309
And he reiterated those
words the following day in Frankfurt:
I will accept your decision as the people's voice which is the voice of
God.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1311
Like religious fundamentalists
in general and Bush in particular Hitler links salvation with understanding
God and accepting the laws of nature:
The
essential thing, really, is that man should know that salvation consists
in the effort that each person makes to understand Providence and accept
the laws of nature.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 124
When Hitler speaks
as follows, it is readily apparent that his anti-evolutionary views coalesce
with those of Bush and other fundamentalists:
I
cannot believe that the various ages in the history of the globe lasted
as long as the experts would have us believe. In any case, they have
no proofs to offer of the correctness of their hypotheses.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 707
In the following comment
Hitler describes the clash in his mind between evolution and creation and
judging by the prior comment one can easily see which side he chose to
accept:
The
present system of teaching in schools permits the following absurdity:
at 10 a.m. the pupils attend a lesson in the catechism, at which the creation
of the world is presented to them in accordance with the teachings of the
Bible; and at 11 a.m. they attend a lesson in natural science, at which
they are taught the theory of evolution. Yet the two doctrines are
in complete contradiction. As a child, I suffered from this contradiction,
and ran my head against a wall. Often I complained to one or another
of my teachers against what I had been taught an hour before--and I remember
that I drove them to despair.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 83
Judging from the following
comment it would appear Hitler feels the creation account is valid because
of its acceptance by all human traditions:
In
all the human traditions, whether oral or written, one finds mention of
a huge cosmic disaster. What the Bible tells on the subject is not
peculiar to the Jews, but was certainly borrowed by them from the Babylonians
and the Assyrians.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 249
Hitler not only firmly
believed in God but according to some of his assertions strongly believed
he was chosen by God to rule. He stated in a Munich speech on 4 September
1932:
I
also have the conviction and the certain feeling that nothing can happen
to me, for I know that Providence has chosen me to fulfill my task.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 165
In Berlin on 24 March
1936:
I
would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all
people to be allowed to wage this battle for Germany.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 797
In a speech to some
political leaders at the Nuremberg Parteitag on 7 September 1934:
And
it was no earthly superior who gave us that command; that was given to
us by the God Who created our people and Who cannot will that His work
should go to ruin only because a single generation had grown feeble.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 662
And in a Reichstag
speech on 21 May 1935:
But
the more difficult the decisions, so much the more I as a German should
like to make sure that my actions are completely uninfluenced by instincts
of weakness or fear and to bring them into harmony with my conscience towards
my God and the nation which He permits me to serve.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 457
Besides contending
God chose him to rule, he attributed his accomplishments to God’s help.
In effect, mankind is supposed to believe God was on the side of him and
Germany. That should sound familiar to millions of present-day Americans
listening to Bushites express their views, especially when the latter are
speaking in uniform before congregations.
In Regensburg on 6 June
1937 Hitler stated:
We, therefore, go our way into the future with the deepest belief in God.
Would all we have achieved been possible had Providence not helped us?
I know that the fruits of human labor are hard-won and transitory if they
are not blessed by the Omnipotent. Work such as ours which has received
the blessings of the Omnipotent can never again be undone by mere mortals.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 903
On 6 April 1938 in
Salzburg:
We all must be grateful to Providence
and to our Lord God. He has granted to us success in that for which
formerly generations fought and for which countless numbers of the best
Germans had to sacrifice their lives.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1455
Before the Reichstag
on 30 January 1937:
When
I look back upon the great work of the four years lying behind us, you
will understand that my initial feeling can be none other than that of
gratitude to our Almighty God who allowed us to accomplish this work.
He blessed our work and enabled
our Volk to stride unscathed and confident through all the perils lining
its path.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 873
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 92
In Saarbruecken on
1 March 1935:
I
know, too, that our goal is today far from being attained. But we
strive toward it with burning hearts, and Heaven and Providence have blessed
our efforts....
Fifteen years
of struggle. And when today I here consider the result, then I must
thank God above; he has blessed our efforts time and again. Nor was
our struggle in vain. Fifteen years of battle for a Reich, and today
in the name of this people and in the name of this Reich I can greet you
in the German homeland.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 89
In Berlin on May Day,
1934:
We
would not forget Him Who a whole year through has granted such success
to our work, and we would pray Him that in the time to come, too, He would
not withhold His blessing from our people. Above all may Providence
permit our dearest hope to come to its fulfillment....
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1176
At Rosenheim on 11
August 1935:
Fifteen
years ago I had nothing save my faith and my will. Today the Movement
is Germany, today this Movement has won the German nation and formed the
Reich. Would that have been possible without the blessing of the
Almighty? Or do they who ruined Germany wish to maintain that they
have had God's blessing? What we are we are, not against but with
the will of Providence. And so long as we are loyal, honest, and
ready to fight, so long as we believe in our great work and do not capitulate,
we shall also in the future have the blessing of Providence. . . .
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 404
In his proclamation
to the German People on 1 January 1939:
The
National Socialist Movement has wrought this miracle. If Almighty
God granted success to this work, then the Party was His instrument.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 406
In his New Year Proclamation
of 1938:
Yet
however great human achievement may be, it will never be able to pride
itself upon final success unless Providence blesses its action. Our
deepest prayer is that in the coming year, as in the past, the favor of
Almighty God may accompany our German people upon the path of its destiny.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1373
In a speech to the
"Old Guard" of the Party in Munich on 19 March 1934:
...
We have experienced a miracle, something unique, something the like of
which there has hardly been in the history of the world. God first
allowed our people to be victorious for 4 and a half years, then He abased
us, laid upon us a period of shamelessness, but now after a struggle of
14 years he has permitted us to bring that period to a close. It
is a miracle which has been wrought upon the German people, and we would
not fall into the fault which possessed the German people at the end of
the war-years: we would not be ungrateful. What has come to pass
during the last year is so unheard of that it must constrain us to profound
humility. It shows that the Almighty has not deserted our people,
that He received it into favor at the moment when it rediscovered itself.
And that our people shall never again lose itself, that must be our vow
so long as we shall live and so long as the Lord gives us the strength
to carry on the fight.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 405
And at the annual harvest
celebration on the Buckeberg, on 30 September 1934:
When
folk have set before them a true purpose and then pursue it unmoved with
bravery and courage, when they withstand with a strong heart every trial
which Heaven sends upon them, then one day at the last almighty Providence
will yet grant them the fruits of their struggle and of their sacrifices.
For God has never abandoned any man upon this earth unless he has first
abandoned himself.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 906
Based upon these comments,
it is not hard to discern why Hitler felt the German people were God’s
agent and said:
Germany,
the German Volk! And this Volk will be the Sword of God!
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 215
But although he staunchly
believed God was in the corner occupied by him and the German people, there
was no doubt in his mind that God’s support could not substitute for hard
work and extended labor. On many occasions he emphasized the importance
of work and sacrifice. The “bring yourself up by your own bootstraps”
cry so prominent in Rightist circles clearly emerges in such comments as:
You
[blue-collar workers] represent the most noble of slogans known to us:
"God helps those who help themselves!"
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 1147
In Munich on 24 February
1941:
The
Lord helps those who help themselves.... That is not only a very
pious phrase, but a very just one.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 96
In Hamburg on 20 March
1936:
Hence
today, my German volk, I call upon you: stand behind me with your faith!
Be the source of my power and my faith. Do not forget: he who does not
abandon his principles in this world will not be abandoned by the Almighty
either! The Almighty will always help those who help themselves;
He will always show them the way to their rights, their freedom and thus
to their future. And this is the reason why you, German Volk, are
going to the polls on March 29.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 794
In a speech on 5 July
1944:
I
may not be a light of the church, a pulpiteer, but deep down I am a pious
man, and believe that whoever fights bravely in defense of the natural
laws framed by God and never capitulates will never be deserted by the
Lawgiver, but will, in the end, receive the blessings of Providence.
HITLER'S LETTERS AND
NOTES, by Werner Maser, (1973), page 208
In a March 1933 speech:
The
world will not help, the people must help itself. Its own strength
is the source of life. That strength the Almighty has given us to
use: that in it and through it we may wage the battle of our life....
The others in past years have not had the blessing of the Almighty--of
Him Who in the last resort, whatever man may do, holds in His hands the
final decision. Lord God, let us never hesitate or play the coward,
let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 409
In Nuremberg on 16
September 1935:
God
continues to bestow His Grace only on him who continues to merit it.
But whoever speaks and acts in the name of a people, which is a part of
God's handiwork, will continue to discharge his mandate only so long as
he does not sin against the existence or future of the part of God's creation
that has been entrusted to his care....
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 90
At the annual harvest
celebration on the Buckeberg in October 1936:
If
at any time in Germany the harvest sinks only by 20 percent, then that
is for our people a catastrophe. Twenty percent less grain would
for our German food supply have terrible, hardly imaginable, consequences.
What men can do to avoid such a catastrophe that we do in Germany.
But we feel all the more deeply our duty every year to render thanks to
the Power on which depends in the last resort this final 20 percent of
our harvest. We know that Eternal Providence must first give its
gracious consent to all that human industry and human work can achieve.
And it is for this reason that we unite here on this day to render thanks
to the Almighty that He has not allowed the work of a whole year to be
spent in vain, but that from the work of this year once more our people's
daily bread is secured for the coming year.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 932
At the celebration
of the Gau Party Congress of Mainfranken on 27 June 1937:
...
it is my conviction that the human beings God created also wish to lead
their lives modeled after the will of the Almighty.
God did not create the peoples so that they might deliver themselves up
to foolishness and be pulped soft and ruined by it, but that they might
preserve themselves as He created them! Because we support their
preservation in their original, God-given form, we believe our actions
correspond to the will of the Almighty.
As weak as the individual may ultimately be in his character and actions
as a whole, when compared to Almighty Providence and its will, he becomes
just as infinitely strong the instant he acts in accordance with this Providence....
And when I look back on the five years behind us, I cannot help but say:
this has not been the work of man alone. Had Providence not guided
us, I surely would often have been unable to follow these dizzying paths.
That is something our critics above all should know. At the bottom
of our hearts, we National Socialists are devout! We have no choice:
no one can make national or world history if his deeds and abilities are
not blessed by Providence.
HITLER, [Speeches
and Proclamations], by Max Domarus, Vol. 2, page 908
In Munich on 24 February
1940:
I, however, believe that we are here dealing with divine justice.... Providence,
our God, as I prefer to say, will not abandon such a nation.
This God of whom I speak will not abandon us. He will guide us further
along the path we have set our foot upon, and in this feeling of righteousness
and justice we shall continue our efforts as we have begun them, certain
that victory will be ours, because it is so ordained.
MY NEW ORDER
by Adolph Hitler, Edited by de Sales, 1941, page 788
And feeling himself
fulfilling a divine calling Hitler stated on various occasions:
I
believe that it was also God's will that from here [Austria] a boy was
to be sent into the Reich, allowed to mature, and elevated to become the
nation's Fuhrer.
I follow the path assigned to me by Providence with the instinctive sureness
of a sleepwalker.
When I look back on the five years behind us, I cannot help but say: this
has not been the work of man alone. Had province not guided us, I
surely would often have been unable to follow these dizzying paths.
The Almighty will always help those who help themselves.
God formed this Volk, and it has become what it should according to God's
will, and according to our will, it shall remain, nevermore to fade!
Work such as ours which has received the blessings of the Omnipotent can
never again be undone by mere mortals.
God helped us.
Where will and faith so fervently join forces, Heaven cannot withhold its
approval.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 30
Hitler felt the judging
of whether or not a people’s labor and deeds are good or bad is a matter
for God to determine and not man and uttered words to this effect on 1
April 1939 in front of the Rathaus in Wilhelmshafen:
...
all that we can say is: the judgment whether a people is virtuous or not--that
a mere man can hardly pronounce--that must be left to the good God.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1594
He also believed, as
do the Bushites, that God punishes, tests, and favors believers according
to their beliefs, behavior, and labor and conveyed that message at the
Harvest Thanksgiving Festival on the Buckeberg on 3 October 1937:
...
in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In
the long run He never leaves a decent folk in the lurch. Often He
may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always
lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His
blessing.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 407
In his closing speech
at the Nuremberg Parteitag of 1937:
Often
it is through a chastisement that the deepest love of Providence towards
its creatures is displayed.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 690
On 27 February 1932
in the Berlin Sportpalast:
I
believe in Divine Justice. I believe that it has defeated Germany
because we had become faithless, and I believe that it will help us because
we now once again profess our faith.
I believe
that the long arm of the Almighty will withdraw from those who are seeking
merely alien shelter.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 120
In Munich on 2 April
1927:
We
are not a Party of lazy, narrow-minded townsmen; we are not a Movement
of worthless brothers, who are content to discuss the topics of the day,
who as men say to their wives: My dear wife, the Lord has given, the Lord
has taken away, praise be the will of the Lord; if it pleases Him, He will
make us free again. No! The Lord gave us His blessing because
we deserved it; the Lord revoked His blessing because we were not worthy
of it; the Lord will give us His blessing again when He sees that He has
a rejuvenated people before Him.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 87
And in Karlsruhe on
12 March 1936:
And
should unnecessary sorrow or suffering ever come to my people because of
my actions, then I beseech the Almighty God to punish me.
HITLER'S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, Edited by Gordon Prange, 1944, page 110
Through numerous comments
Hitler, like Bush, made no secret of his firm adherence to Christianity.
At Hamburg on 17 August 1934 he stated:
The
National Socialist State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 385
In the Party Program
formulated in Munich on 24 February 1920:
The party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind
itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats
the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us,...
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 107
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 3
After
all, I am a Christian, am I not?
I AM ADOLPH HITLER,
by Adolph Hitler, Ed. by Werner/Lotte Pelz, 1971, Page 115
I'm
a Catholic. Certainly that was fated from the beginning, for only
a Catholic knows the weaknesses of the Church.
THE VOICE OF DESTRUCTION,
by Hermann Rauschnigg, 1940, page 52
[Footnote]: On 4 July
1933 the Dean of Chichester had an interview with Hitler in the course
of which Hitler said:
I am a Catholic, I have no place in the Protestant church.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 400
In a speech to the
Germans of the Saar at Koblenz on 26 August 1934:
National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious,
but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.
And we have no other desire than to be true to that position. I know
that there are thousands and tens of thousands of priests who are not merely
reconciled to the State of today but who gladly give to the State their
cooperation, and I am convinced that this cooperation will grow ever closer
and more intimate. For their interests cannot fail to coincide with
ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world
of today, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against an atheistic
movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness
of a community in our national life, for the conquest of hatred and disunion
between the classes, for the conquest of civil war and unrest, of strife
and discord. These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles!
But I believe that if we should fail to follow these principles, then we
should not be able to point to our successes, for the result of our political
battle is surely not unblest by God.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 386
And in the Sportpalast
in Berlin on 24 October 1933:
He
[Bishop Mueller] said he knew that the Chancellor [Hitler] himself was
very anxious that the people should not turn National Socialism into a
substitute for Christianity, and that he desired especially to have the
youth rightly guided in this direction.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 379
Hitler not only firmly
believed in Christianity but, like Bush, considered Christian principles
to be the basis of morality.
From the Proclamation
by the Government to the German Nation on 1 February 1933:
The
National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive
in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve
and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built.
It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and
the family as the basis of national life....
MY NEW ORDER by Hitler,
Edited by Raoul de Roussy de Sales, 1941, Page 144
In a statement on the
Enabling Act to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933:
In
the same way, the Government of the Reich, who regards Christianity as
the unshakable foundation of the morals and the moral code of the nation,
attach the greatest value to friendly relations with the Holy See, and
are endeavoring to develop them.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 2, Page 1018
ADOLPH HITLER QUOTATIONS,
by Karl Hammer,1990, Page 58
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 283
In his closing speech
to the Nuremberg Parteitag of 1935:
... And the two factors which made this development possible were the model
set by the States of the ancient world and the Christian religion.
Without these, it is impossible to conceive what would have been the fate
of Europe and of the rest of the world, so far as the white race is in
question;...
Christianity provided the religious
and Weltanschaulich basis on which a German state could be raised despite
the absence of any tribal unity. Only on this platform of religion
and State in the course of centuries could the exclusive peculiarities
of the tribes be smoothed down and overcome in favor of that common blood-descent
and therefore inner community out of which a nation could be born.
The men who carried out this historic process acted under a commission
given to them by Providence, who wished that we Germans should become a
people.
In this process Christianity provided the common store of religious and
moral ideas which formed the unity in which German tribes could unite.
And what Christianity destroyed had to fall if this unity were to be realized.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 439
And finally he stated
in his most infamous writing:
If
one were to take from present mankind its principles based on religion
and faith, which in their practical effectiveness are ethical and moral,
by eliminating this religious education and without replacing it by an
equivalent, one would be confronted with a result amounting to a serious
undermining of the foundations of their existence. Therefore one
may well determine that man lives not only in order to serve higher ideals,
but that these higher ideals, inversely, give also the presumption for
his existence as man. Thus the circle was closed.
MEIN KAMPF, Adolph
Hitler, New York, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939, page 574
As with Bush, religious
Hitler believed life is a fight between good and evil:
Two
worlds face one another--the men of God and the men of Satan!
THE VOICE OF DESTRUCTION,
by Hermann Rauschnigg, 1940, page 241
And, like a recent
Alabama judge determined to oppose the First Amendment to the US Constitution,
he was convinced the Ten Commandments lie at the foundation of all morality:
The
Ten Commandments are a code of living to which there's no refutation.
These precepts correspond to irrefragable needs of the human soul; they're
inspired by the best religious spirit, and the Churches here support themselves
on a solid foundation.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 85
Being a dedicated Christian,
it comes as no surprise to anyone that Hitler accepted Jesus Christ as
his Savior and viewed him as a fighter for the downtrodden.
He made that abundantly
clear in a speech in Munich on 12 April 1922:
My
feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It
points me to the man who, once lonely with only a few followers, recognized
these Jews for what they were, and called me to fight them, and who, so
help me, was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. With boundless
love, as a Christian and as a man, I read the passage which relates how
the Lord finally gathered His strength and made use of the whip in order
to drive the usurers, the vipers, and cheats from the temple. Today
2,000 years later, I recognize with deep emotion Christ's tremendous fight
for this world against the Jewish poison. I recognize it most profoundly
by the fact that He had to shed His blood on the cross for his fight.
As a Christian it is not my duty to permit myself to be cheated but it
is my duty to be a champion of truth and of right.
As man it is my duty to see to it that humanity will not suffer the same
catastrophic collapse as did an old civilization about 2,000 years ago,
a civilization which was also driven to destruction by the Jewish people....
As a Christian I owe something
to my own people. I see how this people is working and working, laboring
and exerting itself, and still at the end of the week it has nothing but
misery and poverty to show for it. One perhaps does not realize it
in the homes of the nobility. But when I go out in the mornings and
see those people in the breadlines and look into their drawn faces, then
I become convinced that I am a veritable devil and not a Christian if I
do not feel compassion and do not wage war, as our Lord did 2,000 years
ago, against those who are pillaging and exploiting this poor people (the
German people--Ed.)....
Two thousand years ago a man was likewise denounced by this particular
race which today is denouncing and blaspheming everywhere.... That man
was dragged into court and they said then: He is arousing the people! So
he also was "agitating." And against whom? Against "God," they cried. Yes
indeed he was agitating against the "god” of the Jews, for that "god" is
money.
HITLER’S WORDS, by
Adolph Hitler, 1944, Edited by Gordon Prange, pages 71-72
MY NEW ORDER
by Adolph Hitler, Edited by de Sales, 1941, page 26
And being consumed
by this mentality one can readily understand why Hitler, like Bush, believed
the teachings of Jesus should be disseminated to everyone especially the
youth:
We
must turn all the sentiments of the Volk, all its thinking, acting, even
its beliefs, away from the anti-Christian, smug individualism of the past,
from the egotism and stupid Phariseeism of personal arrogance, and we must
educate the youth in particular in the spirit of those of Christ's words
that we must interpret anew: love one another; be considerate of your fellow
man; remember that each one of you is not alone a creature of God, but
that you are all brothers! This youth will, with loathing and contempt,
abandon those hypocrites who have Christ on their lips but the devil in
their hearts,...
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 140
Mary
and Mary Magdalene stood at the empty tomb. For they were seeking
the dead man! But we intend to raise the treasures of the living
Christ!
Herein lies the essential element of our mission: we must bring back to
the German Volk the recognition of those teachings!
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 140
And on 20 April 1923:
We
want to prevent our Germany from suffering, as Another did, the death upon
the Cross.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 60
Hitler even extols
the followers of Christ who endured persecution for their beliefs:
Immediately after the death of Christ, whom the reactionaries crucified,
they set about exterminating, at least imprisoning and depriving of their
rights, all those who had accepted Christ before his death. Christ's
body was removed from the tomb, to keep it from becoming an object of veneration
and a tangible relic of the great new founder of a religion! In all
the larger municipalities, commissions were established, special courts,
to pass judgment on Christ's followers. The Gospels report in graphic
detail the expropriations, forced labor, two years or more of prison, and
even death penalties that were inflicted in order to exterminate the plague
of true Christianity. The Roman occupation forces aided in this effort.
And a major re-education program was initiated to reconvert--or rather,
force to reconvert--those who might have gravitated to Christ or were vacillating.
HITLER--MEMOIRS OF
A CONFIDANT, by Otto Wegener, 1985, page 316
The writings of Hitler
are occasionally composed in such a manner as to make it difficult to determine
if he is a politician pontificating on religion or a minister preaching
on politics. With so much of his ideology resting upon religion and
his pronounced proclivity to seek succor from religion, one can easily
understand why Hitler, like Bush, spared no effort to involve government
with religion and to render assistance to the latter by means of the former.
As far as Hitler was concerned, in many ways government was little more
than an adjunct to religion. His desire that government and religion
operate in unison was evident in a speech on 23 March 1933 before the Reichstag:
It will be the Government's care to maintain honest cooperation between
Church and State; the struggle against materialistic views and for a real
national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation
as in that of the welfare of our Christian faith.
THE HITLER DECREES,
by James Pollock and Harlow Heneman, 1934, Page 66
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 371
Hitler felt that one
of the government’s obligations was to protect religion and stated as much
on 22 July 1933 when he said on the wireless:
National
socialism has always affirmed that it is determined to take the Christian
Churches under the protection of the State. For their part the Churches
cannot, for a second, doubt that they need the protection of the State,
and that only through the State can they be enabled to fill their religious
mission.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 375
But
on one point it is well that there should be no uncertainty: the German
priest as a servant of God we shall protect,...
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Pages 397-401
From Hitler’s vantage
point, government was not only bound to protect religion but help it grow
and expand. In a speech to the Reichstag on 30 January 1934 he stated:
The
State has dealt no less radically with the two Christian confessions [Protestantism
and Catholicism]. Filled by the desire to secure for the German Volk
the great religious, moral, and ethical values anchored in the two Christian
confessions, we have eliminated the political organizations while, at the
same time, reinforcing the religious institutions.
HITLER, SPEECHES AND
PROCLAMATIONS 1932-45, Vol. 1, by Max Domarus, page 419
And in a speech delivered
at Stuttgart on 15 February 1933 he professed the desire of the National
Socialist Government to:
...fill
our whole culture once more with a Christian spirit, and that not only
in politics. We want to burn out the harmful features in our theater
and our literature.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 370
In order to achieve
these goals Hitler sought to bestow upon Christian denominations that which
they needed more than anything else to expand their influence and control,
namely, financial support. Hitler’s faith-based initiatives preceded
those of Bush by decades and went even further by employing programs Bush
would no doubt envy and love to inaugurate.
In a speech to the
Reichstag on 30 January 1939 Hitler said:
Amongst
the accusations which are directed against Germany in the so-called democracies
is the charge that the National Socialist State is hostile to religion.
In answer to that charge I should like to make before the German people
the following solemn declaration:
1. No one in Germany has in the past been persecuted because of his
religious views, nor will anyone in the future be so persecuted.
2. The National Socialist State since 30 January 1933 from public
monies derived from taxation through the organs of the State has placed
at the disposal of both Churches [Protestant and Catholic] the following
sums:
Fiscal year 1933--130 million
Reichsmark
Fiscal year 1934--170 million
Reichsmark
Fiscal year 1935--250 million
Reichsmark
Fiscal year 1936--320 million
Reichsmark
Fiscal year 1937--400 million
Reichsmark
Fiscal year 1938--500 million
Reichsmark
In addition to this there has been paid over some 85 million Reichsmark
each year from contributions of the separate States, and some 7 million
Reichsmark from contributions of the parishes and parish-associations.
Apart from this the churches
are the greatest landed proprietors after the App. The value of their
property in land and forests represents more than some 10 millions of Reichsmark,
while the annual income from this landed property is to be estimated as
over 300 million Reichsmark. To this must be added countless gifts,
testamentary dispositions, above all the sums arising from collections
in the churches. Further, the Church in the National Socialist State
is in many ways favored in regard to taxation, and for gifts, legacies,
etc., it enjoys immunity from taxation.
It is therefore, to put it mildly -- effrontery when especially foreign
politicians make bold to speak of hostility to religion in the Third Reich.
But if it be true that the German Churches regard this position as intolerable,
then the National Socialist State is at anytime ready to undertake a clear
separation between Church and State as is already the case in France, America,
and other countries. [Notice that there was no separation between
church and state in Nazi Germany] I would allow myself only one question:
what contributions during the same period have France, England, or the
United States made through the State from the public funds?
3. The National Socialist State has not closed a church, nor has
it prevented the holding of a religious service, nor has it ever exercised
any influence upon the form of a religious service. It has not exercised
any pressure upon the doctrine nor on the profession of faith of any of
the Confessions. In the National Socialist State anyone is free to
seek his blessedness after his own fashion.
4. The National Socialist State is neither prudish nor mendacious.
But there are definite moral principles which must be maintained in the
interest of the biological health of the nation; violations of these principles
we will not permit. Pederasty or offenses against children will be
punished by the law and this State against whoever commits these crimes.
Five years ago when leaders of the National Socialist Party were guilty
of these crimes, they were shot.
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 397-399
With
a tenth part of our budget for religion, we would thus have a Church devoted
to the State and of unshakable loyalty. We must have done with these
out-of-date forms. The little sects, which receive only a few hundred
thousand marks, are devoted to us body and soul.
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 306
In another revelation
of his intentions to support religion financially Hitler stated:
On
reflection, it seems to be that an annual grant of 50 millions should be
enough for the Catholic Church. It would be paid directly to the
princes of the Church, who would be responsible for the sharing out.
Thus we could have the "official" guarantee (since it would be a Church
matter) of a "just" distribution of the money....
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 410
And he also said:
You
can bet anything, if one relies on historical precedents, that the princes
of the church would lick my boots for the value of the money, the more
so if they could do what they liked with it. Therefore, if it's possible
to buy the high dignitaries of the Church with money, let's do it!
And if one of them wanted to enjoy his life, and for this purpose put his
hand into the till, for the love of Heaven let him be left in peace!
HITLER'S TABLE TALK,
1941-1944, Translated by Cameron & Stevens, 2000, page 411
Bishop Mueller said
of Hitler:
“Hitler feels the
office of the Chancellor of the Reich has been directed to the conservation
of the church life of the people. He has given enough proof of that.
His only wish is that a Christian education may be transmitted to the people.”
HITLER'S SPEECHES
by Norman Baynes, 1942, VOLUME 1, Page 382