The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany / Guenter Lewy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewy, Guenter, 1923-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Germany--History--20th century.

Catholic Church.

Church and state--Germany--History--20th century.

Church and state.

History.

Germany.

Germany--Church history--1933-1945.

Church history.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 416 pages : map ; 22 cm

Edition:

First Da Capo Press edition.

Place of Publication:

[Boulder, Colo.] : Da Capo Press, 2000.

Summary:

"The subject matter of this book is controversial, " Guenter Lewy states plainly in his preface. To show the German Catholic Church's congeniality with some of the goals of National Socialism and its gradual entrapment in Nazi policies and programs, Lewy describes the episcopate's support of Hitler's expansionist policies and its failures to speak out on the persecution of the Jews. To this tragic history Lewy brings new focus and research, illuminating one of the darkest corners of our century with scholarship and intellectual honesty in a riveting, and often painful, narrative.

Contents:

Part I The Course Is Set

1 The Encounter with National Socialism Before 1933 3

1. The Position of German Catholicism in the Weimar Republic

2. The Warnings of the Bishops Against Nazism

3. The Strategy of Nationalism

4. The Policy of the Center Party

2 The First One Hundred and Twenty Days of Hitler's Rule 25

1. Hitler Promises Confessional Peace

2. The Bishops Withdraw Their Ban

3. A Policy of Co-operation Takes Shape

3 The Concordat Between Germany and the Holy See of July 20, 1933 57

1. Prehistory

2. Negotiations (April

July 1933)

3. Terms

4. Ratification

5. Significance

4 The Great Reconciliation 94

1. The Fulda Bishops' Conference of May 30

June 1, 1933

2. German Catholicism Enters the Third Reich

Part II Modus Vivendi

5 Tribulations of the Catholic Organizations and Press 115

1. The Demise of the Catholic Organizations

2. The Gleichschaltung of the Catholic Press

6 The Ideological Contest 151

1. The Collision with Neopaganism

2. Tactics of Adaptation

3. In the Shadow of Murder

7 The Church and Hitler's Foreign Policy 176

1. Exit from the League of Nations

2. The Saar Plebiscite

3. The Occupation of the Demilitarized Rhineland

4. The Struggle Against Bolshevism

5. The Annexation of Austria

6. The Destruction of Czechoslovakia

8 1939-1945: The Church Goes to War 224

1. The Voice of the Episcopate

2. The Army Bishop

3. Pope Pius XII: Dilemmas of Neutrality

4. The Uneasy Truce

9 The Conflict Over Nazi Eugenic Policies 258

1. Compulsory Sterilization

2. Euthanasia

10 The Jewish Question 268

1. The Setting

2. Rehearsal for Destruction

3. The Final Solution

4. The Role of the Papacy

11 The Problem of Resistance 309

1. The Bishops Condemn Revolt

2. The Force of Public Opinion

3. The Church and the German Resistance

Part III Church and Totalitarianism

12 Catholic Political Ideology: The Unity of Theory and Practice 325

1. The Church and Democracy

2. The Challenge of Tyranny

3. The Moral Dimension of Politics

MAP: German Diocesan Boundaries, 1933 342

Appendix The German Catholic Episcopate in September 1933 343.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : McGraw Hill, 1964.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-404) and index.

ISBN:

0306809311

OCLC:

42291217