History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: A Catholic Showdown in Germany as Bishop Openly Accuses Gestapo
Sub-Headline: Killing Insane Is Condemned

Publication Date: Sunday, September 28, 1941
Historical Event: German Bishop Condemns The Killing Of People With Disabilities
This database includes 241 articles about this event
Tags: Gannett full page downloadable; Deportation and Mass Murder; Resistance; Anti-Nazi Protest and Activism; Eugenics and People with Disabilities
Article Type: News Article
Newspaper: The Des Moines Register
Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Page Section and Number: 26
Author/Byline: --
Article Text: SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE—The Roman Catholic church once again has collided head-on with the S. S. (Hitler elite guard) and the Gestapo in a conflict that may develop into a showdown in the Reich.

It must be emphasized that the dispute involves no church pronouncement on Nazi foreign policy or the war with Russia and England, but is confined exclusively to internal affairs. It has the most far-reaching implications, however.

Continued Persecution.

Continued persecution of church institutions forms the background. Convents, monasteries, and schools have been closed and their membership , scattered. Restrictions have been placed on religious festivals. The church, for a long time relatively silent, now is striking back.

The leader is Count Von Galen, bishop of Muenster, and representative of an old, aristocratic Westphalian family. Whether the movement stems from a joint decision of German church lenders or the individual determination of the bishop to accept martyrdom is unknown.

It is believed hardly possible that Bishop Von Galen is acting without the sanction of his superiors.

An historical accident contributed to make Muenster the center of the outbreak. During the Thirty Years war the city was threatened with destruction by fire but saved by a fortuitous wind.

The anniversary ceremonial, a solemn religious festival, was banned this year.

That night British bombers again fired the city. The devout saw this as divine punishment for failure to observe the rites.

Bishop Galen subsequently preached three powerful sermons and addressed personal protests to ranking members of the Nazi regime, including Hitler.

Only Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers, head of the Reich chancellery, replied, saying merely that the protest had been referred to the "competent official"—Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler.

The bishop returned to Dr. Lammers a full report on Gestapo and S. S. activities, insisting that they be called to account.

His first sermon on July 13 likewise dealt with Gestapo persecutions and mentioned the dread secret police by name. It: directness astounded listeners.

The bishop noted the large part the church has played in the historical development of Germany and accused Himmler's organizations of disrupting the national community (the Volksgemeinschaftun).

Bishop Galen drew heavily from the so-called fuldaer, or pastoral letter, dated one week earlier, in which the German bishops without specific reference to the Nazis, had said that forces in the Reich again were attacking the church.

They had hoped, said the letter "that the crusade" against Russia would mean respite for German churches, but "with great sorrow" they had found this to be untrue. The issues involved, said the letter, included the very existence of the church.

"Recently," the letter continued, "a book has been prepared in hundreds of thousands of copies, which expresses the opinion that we Germans today must elect between Christ and the German volk (people). With flaming indignation we German Catholics deny that any such choice is necessary.

"We love our German people and serve them, if necessary, to death. But at the same time we live and die for Christ and will remain bound to him now and for all eternity."

Bishop Galen's second sermon, July 27, is reported to have been a beautifully worded, powerful elaboration on a similar theme, again mentioning names, which few clergymen previously had d:uod to do.

"We Christians,” said Galen, "are the anvil, the others are the hammer, and the anvil never yet gave out first."

His third sermon, on Aug. 3, opened one of the sorest spots in internal German affairs, the killing of the insane, hopelessly ill and crippled.

This practice, which first became known in the Reich years ago, apparently has no legal foundation beyond the theories of the most extreme party elements, and has at least the tacit approval of Hitler.

Bishop Galen cited the law against murder and the statute making guilty any persons knowing in advance of a crime and failing to report to the authorities. Reciting the number of persons taken away "the day before yesterday" in Westphalia, the bishop said in effect:

"I am now reporting to the competent authorities that these people have been taken away with intent to dispose of them. I am jointly guilty if I fail in this duty."

Bishop Galen said that the victims were determined by irresponsible groups, a practice which might lend to untold excesses. He argued that the German people soon would distrust their own doctors, a weapon that might be used to wipe out whole elements of the population. Most of the victims, he said, had relatives on the Russian front, fighting to preserve the nation.

Sermons Circulated.

These sermons were mimeographed in thousands and circulated throughout the entire Reich, according to reports. Many have been sent to soldiers at the front, where they have been widely read. They have created a sensation unlike any similar occurrence within the Reich in years.

The bishop's stand was supported by a second pastoral letter, which, in more moderate and general language, without names or references to the Nazis or Germany, condemned unauthorized killings of invalids and the insane.

The church so far appears to hold the temporary advantage. Persecutions of church institutions are reported to have been halted early in August.

Galen was at first officially urged to travel "for his health," preferably outside the Reich. He replied that his health was good and that he required no vacation.

He now is said to be under house arrest though otherwise unharmed to the amazement of parishioners in the rest of Germany.

This coincides with the new report that Dr. Martin Niemoeller is no longer in solitary confinement at Sachsenhausen but has been transferred to Dachau where he shares three cells with two Catholic priests, giving him the opportunity for the first time in four years to speak to others except during the rare visits of his wife.
History Unfolded Contributor: Marlene K.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)

Euthanasia Program (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
Nazi Persecution of the Disabled: “Murder of the Unfit”
Bishop of Muenster Protests Killings

Bibliography

Aly, Götz, Peter Chroust, and Christian Pross. Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: "Euthanasia" in Germany c. 1900-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

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