In 1937 the chaplains of the armed forces of Germany sent to Herr Hitler a memorandum Protesting against the attitude adopted by the nazi Party towards religion. In this outspoken Wocument, they strongly warned the Führer that the campaign being conducted against Christi-unity would undermine the moral of the-fighting forces in time of war, and urged him to change his policy before it was too late. The memorandum opened with: "Today the new. breach that divides the German nation is the breach between National Socialism and Christianity." It described in some detail the struggle between the party and the Church, stating that public acceptance of Christianity was regarded as a tie that tin fits a candidate for service to the state or to the party. It went on to say that it was customary for villages to be divided into two camps, the one supporting the local Nazi leader and the other suppdrting\the pastor. It recounted some of the blayphemies uttered by high Nazi officials, and some of the totally unfounded charges which had been brought against eminent Church dignitaries, and it warned Hefr Hitler that the people no longer believed that these things were being done without his knowledge, and that the suppression in the press of news of what was being done had undermined public confidence. Being a body of chaplains with the. services, the authors of the memorandum were in a position to describe the effect of the anti-Christian drive on the moral of their men, The memorandum said:
......a future war will find the German nation in the midst of the bitterness brought about by the conflict between Christianity and National Socialism. The effect of this struggle upon moral preparedness is evident, Protestant Christians, in spite of all they have experienced, will do their duty in time of Of that there can be no doubt. However, the full enthusiasms that had been natural to the Protestant German when the fate of the Fatherland was at stake will be lacking if matters go on as they are. The comradeship experienced in the World War also will be lacking. It is impossible for Christia: to feel fellowship with those who have been sys tematically trained to speak of Christ as a swin and a Jewish tramp and to flaunt their power. The official war propaganda also will suffer because a not unimportant section of the population will believe not a single word after what they have experienced in the church struggle.
This is a warning which any commander in the world might be expected to heed. But Hitler ignored it, There was no relaxation of his measures against the Church; there were no curbs on the blasphemy of his favoured followers; the Reich Ministry for Church Affairs continued, with only moderate success, to rule the Church by dictatorial methods. Bitterness was intensified and moral deteriorated. How far this process has gone cannot, of course, be: known, but that it has gone a considerable distance is shown in a letter written since the outbreak of the war which said: "We (the clergy) have long foreseen the need of war in order to overthrow the forces which deny us spiritual liberty."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.