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Catholic resistance to Nazism was a component of German resistance to Nazism and of Resistance during World War II. The Church in Germany had spoken against the rise of Nazism, but the Catholic aligned Centre Party capitulated and was banned in 1933. After the Nazi seizure of power, the Church attempted to cooperate with the new government, but Catholics soon faced persecution under Hitler, and were offended by moves such as the sterilization law of 1933. The Church challenged efforts to undermine various Christian institutions, practices and beliefs and though it ultimately failed to protect its youth organizations and schools, it did have some successes in mobilizing public opinion to alter some government policies.〔 Among the most courageous demonstrations of opposition were the 1941 sermons of Bishop August von Galen of Münster. Nevertheless, wrote Alan Bullock "()either the Catholic Church nor the Evangelical Church... as institutions, felt it possible to take up an attitude of open opposition to the regime".〔Alan Bullock; Hitler, a Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991〕 An estimated one-third of German priests faced some form of reprisal from the authorities. Thousands of Catholic dissidents of all hierarchical ranks were sent to concentration camps. 400 Germans were among the 2,579 Catholic priests imprisoned in the dedicated clergy barracks at Dachau. Many ordinary German Catholics offered at least passive acquiescence in, if not active support for, the Nazi dictatorship.〔Mary Fulbrook; The Fontana History of Germany: 1918–1990 The Divided Nation; Fontana Press; 1991; pp.80–81〕 Head of the German Bishops' Conference Adolf Bertram generally sought to avoid confrontation, but the activities of bishops such as Preysing, Frings and Galen came to form a coherent, systematic critique of aspects of Nazism.〔 Bishop Galen led protests against "euthanasia". Catholic notions of natural law heavily influenced the outlook of the German Resistance〔Graml, Mommsen, Reichhardt & Wolf; The German Resistance to Hitler; B. T. Batsford Ltd; London; 1970; p. 100–101〕 and religious motives inspired the actions of lay leaders of the movement, including the July Plot leader Claus von Stauffenberg, Caritas activists Gertrud Luckner and Margarete Sommer, Catholic Action leader Erich Klausener and Catholic Youth leader Adalbert Probst, who were among the Catholic leaders who died for challenging the regime. Papal protest against Nazism included the 1937 encyclical ''Mit brennender Sorge''. The Church faced severe persecution in Poland, where Catholicism was integral to much Polish resistance.〔Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Vikiing; 2003; p.402〕 The Church was similarly persecuted in the annexed Czech, Austrian and Slovene regions, yet in the small Nazi puppet states of Slovakia and Croatia, nationalist churchmen collaborated with the Fascists, though here too there was Catholic resistance. Catholic resistance was "armed" in the case of partisans like the Italian ''Fiamme Verdi'' guerrilla campaigns. Catholic resistance to mistreatment of Jews in Germany was generally limited to fragmented and largely individual efforts.〔Ian Kershaw; ''The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation''; 4th Edn; Oxford University Press; New York; 2000; p. 211–12〕 Anti-Judaism on religious grounds had a long history in Catholicism, but where Nazi ideology preached of a "master race", Catholicism preached instead the "unity of the human race". Jewish historian Sir Martin Gilbert wrote that, in every country under German occupation, priests played a major part in rescuing Jews.〔Martin Gilbert; ''The Righteous – The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust''; Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0-385-60100-X; p. 299〕 Michael Phayer estimates that "Rescuers and perpetrators were but a slight minority of Europe's Catholic population" during the Holocaust.〔Phayer, 2000, p. xiii〕 Among the notable Catholic networks to rescue Jews and others from Nazi death camps were Hugh O'Flaherty's "Rome Escape Line", the Assisi Network and Poland's ''Zegota''. Bishops such as the Netherlands' Johannes de Jong, Belgium's Jozef-Ernest van Roey and France's Jules-Géraud Saliège issued major denunciations of Nazi treatment of the Jews. Papal diplomats such as Angelo Roncalli, Andrea Cassulo, Filippo Bernardini and Angelo Rotta engaged in vigorous diplomatic lobbying and clandestine activities. Convents also played a significant role under the leadership of nuns like Margit Slachta and Matylda Getter. ==Background== ; Nazis rise to power The Nazis disliked universities, intellectuals and the Catholic and Protestant churches. According to historian of the German Resistance, Theodore S. Hamerow, many Nazis suspected Catholics of insufficient patriotism, or even of disloyalty to the Fatherland, and of serving the interests of "sinister alien forces".〔Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ISBN 0-674-63680-5; p. 74〕 Various historians surmise that the long term plan of the Nazis was to de-Christianise Germany after final victory in the war.〔 * Alan Bullock; Hitler: A Study in Tyranny; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p 219: "Once the war was over, () promised himself, he would root out and destroy the influence of the Christian churches, but until then he would be circumspect." * Michael Phayer; (''The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism'' ), published by Yad Vashem: "By the latter part of the decade of the Thirties, church officials were well aware that the ultimate aim of Hitler and other Nazis was the total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion. Since the overwhelming majority of Germans were either Catholic or Protestant. this goal had to be a long-term rather than a short-term Nazi objective." *Gill, Anton (1994). ''An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler''. Heinemann Mandarin. 1995 paperback ISBN 978-0-434-29276-9, pp. 14–15: "(Nazis planned to ) de-Christianise Germany after the final victory". *Sharkey, (Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity ), New York Times, 13 January 2002 *(The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches ), Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Winter 2001, publishing evidence compiled by the O.S.S. for the Nuremberg war-crimes trials of 1945 and 1946 *Griffin, Roger ''Fascism's relation to religion'' in Blamires, Cyprian, (World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1 ), p. 10, ABC-CLIO, 2006: "There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it." *Mosse, George Lachmann, (Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich ), p. 240, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2003: "Had the Nazis won the war their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the German Christians, to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and the Catholic Church." *Shirer, William L., (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany ), p. p 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: "And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists." *Fischel, Jack R., (Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust ) , p. 123, Scarecrow Press, 2010: "The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity or to turn Jesus into an Aryan." *Dill, Marshall, (Germany: a modern history ) , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: "It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook." *Wheaton, Eliot Barculo (The Nazi revolution, 1933–1935: prelude to calamity:with a background survey of the Weimar era ), p. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968: The Nazis sought "to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch."〕〔Bendersky, Joseph W., (A concise history of Nazi Germany ), p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: "Consequently, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire."〕 Their ideology could not accept an autonomous establishment, whose legitimacy did not spring from the government, and they desired the subordination of the church to the state.〔Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ISBN 0-674-63680-5; p. 196〕 Aggressive anti-Church radicals like Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann saw the conflict with the Churches as a priority concern, and anti-church and anti-clerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists.〔 But Catholics constituted about a third of the population, and in the short term, and from political considerations, Hitler was prepared to restrain his anti-clericalism, seeing danger in strengthening the Church by persecution, though he intended a show-down after the war:〔Alan Bullock; ''Hitler: a Study in Tyranny''; HarperPerennial Edition 1991; p219"〕 In his semi-autobiographical ''Mein Kampf'', Hitler presented a nihilistic vision, in which the universe is ordered around principles of struggle between weak and strong, rather than on conventional Christian notions long prominent in Germany.〔Laurence Rees; The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler; Ebury Press; 2012; p135.〕 In the 1920s and 1930s, Catholic leaders made a number of forthright attacks on Nazi ideology and the main Christian opposition to Nazism had come from the Catholic Church.〔(''The German Churches in the Third Reich'' by Franklin F. Littell ), published by Yad Vashem〕 German bishops were hostile to the emerging movement and energetically denounced its "false doctrines".〔Joachim Fest; ''Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler 1933–1945''; Weidenfield & Nicolson; London; p.31〕 They warned Catholics against Nazi racism and some dioceses banned membership of the Nazi Party, while the Catholic press criticized the Nazi movement.〔(''The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism'' ) by Michael Phayer; published by Yad Vashem〕 Figures like Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, appalled by the totalitarianism, neopaganism, and racism of the Nazi movement, had contributed to the failure of the Nazi Munich Putsch of 1923.〔Encyclopedia Britannica Online: ''Michael von Faulhaber''; web April 2013〕 With ongoing hostility to the Nazis from the Catholic press and the Catholic Center Party, few German Catholics voted Nazi in the elections preceding the Nazi takeover.〔(Catholic Martyrs of the Holocaust ); by Matthew Bunsen; Catholic Education Resource Centre; 2009 (accessed 30 August 2013)〕 In his history of the German Resistance, Hamerow wrote:〔Theodore S. Hamerow; ''On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler''; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ISBN 0-674-63680-5; p. 132〕 While campaigning for office in the early 1930s, Hitler promised not to interfere with the churches if given power, and called Christianity the foundation of German morality. When the Nazis came to power in Coalition with the Conservatives in early 1933, German Catholics were apprehensive.〔Ian Kershaw; ''Hitler a Biography''; 2008 Edn; WW Norton & Company; London; p.261〕 Parliamentary opposition by parties like the Catholic aligned Centre Party and Bavarian People's Party was rendered impossible by the abolition of all non Nazi parties and proclamation of the "Unity of Party and State".〔Peter Hoffmann; The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945; 3rd Edn (First English Edn); McDonald & Jane's; London; 1977; p 7–8〕 But the new regime treated the churches with circumspection in its first months, having no wish to open an ideological battle with them that precarious moment.〔Peter Hoffmann; The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945; 3rd Edn (First English Edn); McDonald & Jane's; London; 1977; p.13〕 The Fulda Bishops Conference expressed a degree of confidence in the new government, though still noting certain "religious and moral lapses".〔Peter Hoffmann; The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945; 3rd Edn (First English Edn); McDonald & Jane's; London; 1977; p 14〕 Clerical opposition to Nazism diminished following the 1933 Reich concordat between Germany and the Holy See, amid a cautious rapprochment.〔(The German Churches in the Third Reich ); by Franklin F. Littell, published by Yad Vashem〕 Joseph Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda, became one of the leaders of the Nazi persecution of the clergy and wrote that there was "an insoluble opposition between the Christian and a heroic-German world view".〔 Hitler's chosen deputy and private secretary, Martin Bormann, was a rigid guardian of National Socialist orthodoxy and saw Christianity and Nazism as "incompatible", as did the official Nazi philosopher, Alfred Rosenberg. In his "Myth of the Twentieth Century", published in 1930, Rosenberg wrote that Germans were entitled to dominate Europe and that their enemies were Russian Tartars and Semites. Semites included Jews, Latins, and Christianity – especially the Catholic Church.〔Encyclopædia Britannica Online 2013〕〔(Encyclopædia Britannica Online – ''Martin Bormann'' ); web 25 April 2013〕〔(Encyclopædia Britannica Online – ''Alfred Rosenberg'' ); web 25 April 2013.〕 In 1934, the ''Sanctum Officium'' in Rome recommended that Rosenberg's book be put on the ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' (forbidden books list of the Catholic Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, indeed the very fundamentals of the Christian religion".〔Richard Bonney; ''Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: the Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939''; International Academic Publishers; Bern; 2009 ISBN 978-3-03911-904-2; pp. 122〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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