Unless it is the worship of himself, he has not got a religion. Nominally a Roman Catholic, he has long ceased to practise the faith, and indeed, has set himself to di: credit the Church and Christianity in all their forms. As a perusal of his speech on the opening of the winter-help campaign in Germany will show, he still retains God as a useful rhetorical expedient, nothing more. This is proved by his own words, which can be verified by anyone who goes to the trouble of purchasing the condensed version of Dr. Hermann Rauschning's book "Hitler Speaks," which is being sold in Shanghai under the title "Verboten." Lest there should be any doubt of the correctness of the conversations recorded by Dr. Rauschning, it should not be forgotten that the Nazis themselves were most active in suppressing the book in whatever countries it was published, bringing pressure of every description to bear, and thereby, incidentally, proving the book's best advertisers. This is what Hitler said:
The religions are all alike, no matter what they call themselves. They have no future—certainly none for Germans. Fascism, if it likes, can come to terms with thee church. So shall I, Why not? That will not prevent me from tearing up Christianity root and branch, and annihilating it in Germany.... Mussolini will never make heroes of his Fascists. It doesn't matter whether they are Christians or heathens. But for our people it is decisive whether they acknowledge the Jewish Christ-creed with its effeminate pity-ethics, or a strong, heroic belief in God in Nature, God in our own people, in our destiny, in our blood.
As a statement of Hitler's attitude towards religion in general and Christianity in particular, that statement seems clear enough. And Hitler's actions since he came into power bear out the truth of his intention to destroy the Christian belief. His "plan is the same as that which has worked vith considerable success in his destruction of/ many European nations—to bore from within. He has being attempting to make the Church destroy itself. It is his contempt trious conviction that all the servants of the Church are venal, and that to keep themselves in their cures of souls, they will put up with almost anything. His campaign of vilification has blown hot and cold at various times. The immorality allegations made against priests and nuns in Germany were simply a method exploited by the Nazis to discredit the Church. His persecution of the Lutheran clergy, with charges of disloyalty against the leaders of the Church which resulted in their being. thrown into concentration camps even after shadow trials had found no evidence against them, was designed to enable him to get his owr men into the most important posts in the hierarchy, from whence the work of internal destruction could be accelerated. Here is another quotation from Hitler himself What can we do? Just what the -Catholic Church did when it forced its beliefs upon the heathen: preserve what can be preserved, and change its meaning. We shall take the road back: Easter is no longer resurrection, but the eternal renewal of our people. Chri: mas is the birth of our saviour: the spirit of heroism and the freedom of our people. They will replace the cross with our swastika. Instead of worshipping the blood of their quondam saviour, they will worship the pure blood of our peo No student of comparative religion or anthropology can fail to be struck by the remarkable insight of this man Hitler into the weaknesses of the average person. It is true, as he sees, that there is a thin dividing line between the Christian and the heathen, that there is only a crust of culture between the civilized man and the barbarian. He himself has broken through that crust. He is glad of it, proud of being the undisguised bar-parian. From him Christianity can expect no mercy, except insofar as it serves his brutal purposes. That fact should not be forgotten, especially on this coming Sunday, when all the world which has so far escaped the Nazis clutches will unite in prayer. Prayer for what Prayer that this menace to every hope and ideal may be swept away, that this man who boasts of his "secret weapon" may not succeed. Against him all Christians should employ their own "secret weapon," the weapon that can move mountains.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.