"If there is a God, then he gives us not only life but also consciousness and awareness. If I live my life according to my God-given insights, then I cannot go wrong, and even if I do, I know I have acted in good faith. I may not be a light of the church, a pulpiteer, but deep down I am a pious man, and believe that whoever fights bravely in defense of a natural law framed by God and never capitulates will never be deserted by the lawgiver, but will, in the end, receive the blessings of Providence."


— Hitler, July 5, 1944 speech

"But he who dares to use the word "God" for such devilish activity blasphemes against Providence and, according to our belief, he cannot end except in destruction."

— Hitler speech before the Reichstag about Jews and international "warmongers," 4 May 1941

The Path to Obedience

Service to the Church and the Teutonic Order

“At the beginning of this millennium, in accordance with the church’s command, almost all not first born sons of the best German clans entered the service of the church as priests and church officials. Many took up the cross and went on the crusades of German blood far eastward into the desert sand. Some of these crusading knights were organized in various knightly orders as knight-priests. They brought with them German courage, German leadership and German incorruptibility. They learned obedience, subordination and state authority - itself even older than the church - in the order of the Roman Catholic Church.”

— Heinrich Himmler in ‘The SS as an anti-Bolshevik Fighting Organization’

References: [1]

“In this obeying unalterable laws are included the sacred belief of our ancestors, that everything on this earth was created by God and inspired by God. Only foolish, malicious and stupid people created this pagan fable, the horror stories, that our ancestors worshipped gods and trees. No, they were convinced in God’s ancient knowledge and ancient teachings of His Divine Order of this world, wherein we were created in His image and where the plant and the animal world co-exist.”

— Heinrich Himmler in ‘The SS as an anti-Bolshevik Fighting Organization’

The ideology Himmler reflects in this statement must have come from the Christian Bible.

References: [1] [2]

"We refuse to allow ourselves to be slandered as atheists - through misuse of the term pagan - simply because we as a community do not embrace a particular denomination or dogma or demand this from any of our men. We allow ourselves the right and the freedom to draw a sharp and distinct line between religious/church/ denominational activity and political/world-view soldiery, and we will fiercely combat any violation. Likewise we teach our men - despite much justified outrage and many bad experiences that our folk has had in this area in the past - to respect everything that is holy to any folk comrade - due to his education and conviction - without any insult in word or deed."

— Heinrich Himmler in ‘The SS as an anti-Bolshevik Fighting Organization’

References: [1]

“In ideological training, I forbid every attack on Christ as a person, since such attacks or insults that Christ was a Jew are unworthy of us and certainly historically not true.”

— A 1937 memorandum from Heinrich Himmler marked "to all SS leaders from Standartenführer up"

The Teutonic Order‘s State in East Prussia

“For the first time it was then easy to introduce obedience into the German territory. In addition to the absolute rule of the Christian religion came the fact that knights of the racially best German blood - men from the noblest clans and proven in combat - formed a ruling class over folks and mixed- bloods racially not equal to our folk. The values of achievement and personality stood next to obedience to the church“

— Heinrich Himmler in ‘The SS as an anti-Bolshevik Fighting Organization’

References: [1]

“Consistency also characterized Goebbels’ low regard for the mysticism enjoyed by many anti-Christians. In June 1941, Goebbels banned all public performances of an occultist, telepathic, astrological or "supernatural" nature.”

Source: The Holy Reich, Richard Steigmann-Gall, pg. 372

"Let us pray in this hour that nothing can divide us, and that God will help us against the Devil! Almighty Lord, bless our fight!"

— Hitler address to the SA in 1930

The Wehrmacht Considered Christianity to be a building block of Western civilization:

“Historical research has identified three main forces that shaped the West in the past: antiquity, Christianity and Germanicism.”

— From a 1944 Wehrmacht publication entitled “Personalamt Des Heeres Wofuer Kaempfen Wir 1944” or “Why We Fight in 1944”

References: [1]

1939 census of religious denominations in the Third Reich

94.5% of the country was Christian, while 3.5% was "Gottgläubig"

Some people who identified as "Gottgläubig" were simply non-denotational Christians, such as Erich Koch, who was one of the most openly Christian members of the NSDAP yet officially identified as "Gottgläubig".

“Adolf Hitler gave us back our faith. He showed us the true meaning of religion. He came to take us from the faith of our fathers? No, he has come to renew for us the faith of our fathers and to make us new and better things.”

— Hans Kerrl, Reichsminister of Church Affairs and SA-Obergruppenführer, 1935

SS HANDBOOK FOR THE IDEOLOGICAL TEACHING OF THE TROOPS

II. Are we fighting the church?

"This reproach has always been made against us by internal enemies together with the first; that is what our external enemies accuse us of today in the most spiteful way. The Fuhrer has emphasized infinitely that the Church and its priests always enjoy the protection of the state provided that they are dedicated exclusively to pastoral care and do not contravene the political will of the people. Too often and too gladly, the confrontation of the individual with an old doctrine is equated with "state tolerated" attacks against the church. Basically, it can be said that at all times and for all peoples there were upheavals in the religious field; one will not want to deny the right of our time to be allowed to seek a belief in God, for that is in our nature."

References: [1]