Interestingly, when Hitler was confronted in January 1940 with the observation that people might not know where he stood religiously, he suggested that, on the contrary, it should not be difficult for people to figure it out. After all, he asserted, he had never allowed any clergy to participate in his party meetings or even in funerals for party comrades. He continued, “the Christian-Jewish pestilence is surely approaching its end now. It is simply dreadful, that a religion has even been possible, that literally eats its God in Holy Communion.” Hitler clearly thought that anyone should be able to figure out that he was not a Christian. Nonetheless, Rosenberg reported in his diary later that year that Hitler had determined that he should divulge his negative views about Christianity in his last testament “so that no doubt about his position can surface. As head of state he naturally held back—but nevertheless after the war clear consequences will follow.” Many times, Hitler told his colleagues that he would reckon with Christianity after the successful conclusion of the war.
Richard Weikart | Hitler’s Religion: The Twisted Beliefs That Drove The Third Reich (Regnery History, 2016), 276–77.
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Weikart presents so good evidence here but Steigmann-Gall argues persuasively in ‘The Holy Reich’ that his attitude towards Christianity veered in many directions over the course of the war. Nazi thought in general was deeply unstable, really only consistent in its belief in a dualist spiritual conflict underlying reality, and Hitler’s views followed suit.
Hi Noah,
Weikart does describe the very phenomenon you mention. I don’t quite see where you/Steigmann-Gall disagree with Weikart. Thanks for the reference.
This is a helpful quote in light of the people who claim Hitler was a “Christian prince.”
I’ve seen other quotes before, including Hitler’s admiration for Islam and his belief that the wrong side won at the Battle of Tours when Charles Martel defeated the Islamic advance out of Iberia and into France, but this one is particularly helpful as to Hitler’s postwar plans.
I can see why people argue that Mussolini made it possible for an Italian Catholic to be patriotic again, though it’s patently obvious Mussolini accepted baptism purely for pragmatic political reasons. The argument for Franco’s version of Catholic Christian nationalism is far better. It’s true that there were others in the “broader orbit” of fascism who were more like Franco than like Mussolini and seemed to take the Christian component of “traditional national values” seriously. History is complicated and sometimes, as with Hungary and Romania and Vichy France, people take sides in politics that later turn out, with 20-20 hindsight, to be horribly and obviously wrong.
But Hitler?
Anyone defending Hitler does not deserve to be taken seriously as a student of history — or perhaps more to the point, such people need to be taken as a serious danger because they are seriously wrong and need to be publicly proved wrong.