One of the most disturbing aspects of the Nazi rise to power was the ease with which the stab-in-the-back myth took hold – a truly toxic narrative that falsely blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I. This myth, while politically useful – especially to veterans and Prussian warmongers – was amplified by a foul alliance between Nazi ideology and Christian theology, which helped justify the genocide of six million Jews in Christian Europe during the mid 20th Century.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler capitalised on a country already in horrific turmoil by its own design. Germany, ravaged by the Great War and then rightly held accountable by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, was desperate for its honour to be rescued. Of the 60 million-odd Germans at that time, Jews made up less than one per cent yet, after the war, they became the scapegoats for Germany’s defeat. The stab-in-the-back myth held that Germany’s military leaders had not lost the war on the battlefield, but were betrayed by civilians – particularly Jews – who had undermined the war effort from within. The terms of the Versailles Treaty were far less severe than what Germany had in mind to impose upon its enemies had it won. One only need to read the memorandum known as the Septemberprogramm, written by Kurt Riezler, secretary to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, for a rundown of Germany’s war aims.
The myth found fertile ground in a nation where Christianity was deeply ingrained in the cultural and social fabric. For centuries, antisemitism had been woven into Christian doctrine, with Jews depicted as the killers of Christ (or killers of God), which is peculiar considering the Romans actually crucified him.
The Jewish Sanhedrin of that time were forbidden under Roman law to use corporal punishment at all. The role they did play was to hand Jesus over to Pilate, Judea’s governor. Yet, if anyone reads the synoptic gospels concerning Jesus’ anguish in Gethsemane, he prays in pure distress for “the cup of suffering to be removed” from him, as he was intelligent and obviously read the room: upstart Jews were a threat to the peace – and Rome crucified ‘revolutionaries’ of every stripe, especially if they had a populist/religious following. But he was delivered up to the Romans and did not put up a fight, unlike his disciple Peter, whom Jesus rebuked after Peter cut off a soldier’s ear in resistance. This tells me that Christ went willingly to his death as a matter of personal resolve and conviction; something I do not pretend to understand.
This narrative of Jewish betrayal, based on centuries-old religious prejudices, was heightened in the Nazi era and was fused with political and racial ideology. Christian leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, did not just passively accept this new antisemitism – they supported it.
In Nazi Germany, despite the brave protestations of some Christian leaders, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, the Christian church’s role in antisemitism became undeniable. The Lutheran church, in particular, was complicit in helping to legitimise the Nazi regime’s persecution of Jews.
Martin Luther, the 16th century monk of the Augustinian Order and founder of Protestantism, had made infamous statements about Jews in his later years, advocating for their expulsion, and so did John Calvin, founder of Calvinism, the Reformation faith. These ideas were preached from the pulpit by many in the church during the Nazi period. Catholic leaders such as Pope Pius XII, while less openly vocal, failed to outrightly condemn the Nazis and their brutal evacuations of Jews from Italy, steadily playing a role of political ‘neutrality’ according to the Reichskonkordat agreement between the Holy See and the German Reich. This amalgam of religious authority and state power helped create a cultural climate where the genocide of Jews could be enacted.
For many Germans, it was easy to reconcile their Christian faith with the Nazi ideology of racial purity and hatred. Christianity’s historical role in promoting Jewish exclusion was a convenient foundation for the Nazis to build upon. The stab-in-the-back myth fed into this, presenting Jews not just as political traitors but as an existential threat to the nation’s religious and cultural identity. The idea that Jews were responsible for the collapse of pre-World War I Christian Germany became an effective tool for stirring up hatred, and many Christian Germans were either complicit in, or passive towards, the horrors that followed.
Today, this uncomfortable truth remains hard for many to reconcile. How could a Christian nation, a people so deeply rooted in the teachings of compassion and love, justify the systematic extermination of millions of Jews? The question remains, and we must confront it head on. It’s a moral reckoning that hasn’t been fully addressed, even decades after the war.
Modern-day antisemitism, much like the stab-in-the-back myth, still echoes in some halls of Christianity today. The resurgence of antisemitism, particularly online, is augmented by the same prejudices that were present in the early 20th century. New convert to Catholicism, Candace Owens, is a stark exemplar of this despicable trend. She tweets out “Christ is King” every five minutes, yet proudly accepts her “antisemite of the year” award, as she continues to rag on “the Joos, the Joos,” whenever a microphone happens to be in front of her sorry arse.
While the explicit support of genocide is not prominent (outside of Islam), the roots of Christian antisemitism chillingly continue to influence modern discourse, particularly in circles where the demonisation of Jews takes center stage, as Israel conducts a retaliatory war to conquer rabid jihadists intent on murdering, raping and butchering Jews, again, of any age or status, as we have recently seen with the little Bibas brothers. The likes of Candace Owens are silent on that horrific and dehumanising atrocity.
The Holocaust didn’t emerge in a vacuum, and the myths and ideologies that supported it are far from erased. The role of Christianity in perpetuating these ideas remains a very difficult and uncomfortable truth – and I say that as a Christian. But by acknowledging our own murky history, we may begin to smash the verbal power-plays which allow undue hate to grow and flourish.
Olivia is a NZ blogger, author and essayist who likes to write about history and its wide influence on our present time. This article was sourced HERE
In 1933 Adolf Hitler capitalised on a country already in horrific turmoil by its own design. Germany, ravaged by the Great War and then rightly held accountable by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, was desperate for its honour to be rescued. Of the 60 million-odd Germans at that time, Jews made up less than one per cent yet, after the war, they became the scapegoats for Germany’s defeat. The stab-in-the-back myth held that Germany’s military leaders had not lost the war on the battlefield, but were betrayed by civilians – particularly Jews – who had undermined the war effort from within. The terms of the Versailles Treaty were far less severe than what Germany had in mind to impose upon its enemies had it won. One only need to read the memorandum known as the Septemberprogramm, written by Kurt Riezler, secretary to Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, for a rundown of Germany’s war aims.
The myth found fertile ground in a nation where Christianity was deeply ingrained in the cultural and social fabric. For centuries, antisemitism had been woven into Christian doctrine, with Jews depicted as the killers of Christ (or killers of God), which is peculiar considering the Romans actually crucified him.
The Jewish Sanhedrin of that time were forbidden under Roman law to use corporal punishment at all. The role they did play was to hand Jesus over to Pilate, Judea’s governor. Yet, if anyone reads the synoptic gospels concerning Jesus’ anguish in Gethsemane, he prays in pure distress for “the cup of suffering to be removed” from him, as he was intelligent and obviously read the room: upstart Jews were a threat to the peace – and Rome crucified ‘revolutionaries’ of every stripe, especially if they had a populist/religious following. But he was delivered up to the Romans and did not put up a fight, unlike his disciple Peter, whom Jesus rebuked after Peter cut off a soldier’s ear in resistance. This tells me that Christ went willingly to his death as a matter of personal resolve and conviction; something I do not pretend to understand.
This narrative of Jewish betrayal, based on centuries-old religious prejudices, was heightened in the Nazi era and was fused with political and racial ideology. Christian leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, did not just passively accept this new antisemitism – they supported it.
In Nazi Germany, despite the brave protestations of some Christian leaders, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, the Christian church’s role in antisemitism became undeniable. The Lutheran church, in particular, was complicit in helping to legitimise the Nazi regime’s persecution of Jews.
Martin Luther, the 16th century monk of the Augustinian Order and founder of Protestantism, had made infamous statements about Jews in his later years, advocating for their expulsion, and so did John Calvin, founder of Calvinism, the Reformation faith. These ideas were preached from the pulpit by many in the church during the Nazi period. Catholic leaders such as Pope Pius XII, while less openly vocal, failed to outrightly condemn the Nazis and their brutal evacuations of Jews from Italy, steadily playing a role of political ‘neutrality’ according to the Reichskonkordat agreement between the Holy See and the German Reich. This amalgam of religious authority and state power helped create a cultural climate where the genocide of Jews could be enacted.
For many Germans, it was easy to reconcile their Christian faith with the Nazi ideology of racial purity and hatred. Christianity’s historical role in promoting Jewish exclusion was a convenient foundation for the Nazis to build upon. The stab-in-the-back myth fed into this, presenting Jews not just as political traitors but as an existential threat to the nation’s religious and cultural identity. The idea that Jews were responsible for the collapse of pre-World War I Christian Germany became an effective tool for stirring up hatred, and many Christian Germans were either complicit in, or passive towards, the horrors that followed.
Today, this uncomfortable truth remains hard for many to reconcile. How could a Christian nation, a people so deeply rooted in the teachings of compassion and love, justify the systematic extermination of millions of Jews? The question remains, and we must confront it head on. It’s a moral reckoning that hasn’t been fully addressed, even decades after the war.
Modern-day antisemitism, much like the stab-in-the-back myth, still echoes in some halls of Christianity today. The resurgence of antisemitism, particularly online, is augmented by the same prejudices that were present in the early 20th century. New convert to Catholicism, Candace Owens, is a stark exemplar of this despicable trend. She tweets out “Christ is King” every five minutes, yet proudly accepts her “antisemite of the year” award, as she continues to rag on “the Joos, the Joos,” whenever a microphone happens to be in front of her sorry arse.
While the explicit support of genocide is not prominent (outside of Islam), the roots of Christian antisemitism chillingly continue to influence modern discourse, particularly in circles where the demonisation of Jews takes center stage, as Israel conducts a retaliatory war to conquer rabid jihadists intent on murdering, raping and butchering Jews, again, of any age or status, as we have recently seen with the little Bibas brothers. The likes of Candace Owens are silent on that horrific and dehumanising atrocity.
The Holocaust didn’t emerge in a vacuum, and the myths and ideologies that supported it are far from erased. The role of Christianity in perpetuating these ideas remains a very difficult and uncomfortable truth – and I say that as a Christian. But by acknowledging our own murky history, we may begin to smash the verbal power-plays which allow undue hate to grow and flourish.
Olivia is a NZ blogger, author and essayist who likes to write about history and its wide influence on our present time. This article was sourced HERE
5 comments:
The holocaust and prior attitude to jews is nowadays especailly difficult to undersatnd, but the present attitude of the Palestinians is not. Nor the attitude of those who symapthise with them. Long after the event, and despite negligible involvement at the time, they have continued to pay a huge price for being associated with the losing side in WW1, jews being the illogical benficiaries.
This writer, I have to say, strikes me as someone who knows almost nothing about the holocaust, Germany or German christianity. It's embarrassing, actually
The long hatred of Jews has nothing to do with their national character... which would be as diverse psychologically as any other. Jews are no more or less inherently "virtuous" or "non-virtuous" than any other group ... so this cannot explain their persecution. Jews are disliked for 3 primary reasons ...
1. They do not integrate willingly into society and this makes people suspicious of them, and it makes them fodder for scapegoating. 2. For complex reasons they tend to become successful in spite of persecution. In the 1930's German Jews were disproportionally prominent in academia and in high professions ... their imminent displacement created opportunities. In the US Jews still disproportionately occupy high positions in academia, entertainment, banking, Board rooms, Hollywood etc. ... again making them the subject of resentment.
And then the third mysterious fact. ..
3. The average Jewish IQ has been demonstrated again and again (for reasons largely unknown) to be at least 10 points higher than the general average ... and disproportionately represented at the top end. (Don't believe me, check it out).
All of this makes them highly problematic and an obvious target for resentment.
This is an important and problematical topic and thank you for taking it on.
Over and over in the Old Testament , Jews are called God's chosen people , the apple of God's eye etc . However when they went astray as they frequently did they were punished and restored only after they had been humbled. They gave most of their prophets , who tried to correct them a bad time and were rebuked severely for that.
It was the priestly class who instigated Jesus's crucifixion , not ordinary folk on grounds of sedition , in declaring he was God. It is a matter of interpretation whether the Romans were entirely responsible for his death .Christianity was very revolutionary and a real threat to Judaism.
Many Christian reformers , certainly were quite anti -Semitic blaming the Jew's for Jesus's . Some Jews can also be quite anti - Christian challenging nativity and other activities even today . There are Christians in Palestinian territory , who have suffered along with Muslims. There are also a growing number of Messianic Jews who have become Christian but retain their Jewish roots.
It is hard to understand why there is a growth in anti - antisemitism in the West but it accompanies a Marxist anti Christian movements as well . Why you would choose Mohammedanism and jihad over Judeo - Christian values which encourages freedom and equality is difficult to grasp.
Anti-semitism has a very long history in Europe, and wouldn't have been hard to mobilise between the wars.Jews were seen as 'other' and could easily be scapegoated as non-Christian and as responsible for the killing of Christ. More recently, I wonder if the most bigoted people can be the most fervent in their beliefs, often new converts rather than those brought up in a religion? They like to define themselves as believers through contrasting themselves with others. That would be true of Candace Owens as a recent Catholic convert; I know one Jew given to extreme views of others, and he is also a recent convert to Judaism.
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