QUOTES FROM HITLER’S HENCHMEN AND NAZI SYMPATHIZERS
Compiled by Jim Walker
This text provides a few quotes from Hitler’s henchmen and from other Nazi sympathizers showing how Christianity influenced their lives. Most of Hitler’s henchmen, along with the vast majority of German citizens, were brought up Christian and thought themselves as such. Except for a few who rejected Christianity (like Bormann and Rosenberg), they used their influence (whether through belief or political action) to support both Catholicism and Protestantism.
Each quote includes the citation for the connivance of copying and pasting.
Hermann Göring
God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he [Hitler] was sent to us by God to save Germany.
Hermann Göring (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
How shall I give expression, O my Fuhrer, to what is in our hearts? How shall I find words to express your deeds? Has there ever been a mortal as beloved as you, my Fuhrer? Was there ever belief as strong as the belief in your mission? You were sent us by God for Germany!
Hermann Göring (Reden und Aufsatze, Munich, 1938)
Although he himself [Hitler] was a Catholic, he wished the Protestant Church to have a stronger position in Germany, since Germany was two-thirds Protestant.
Hermann Göring (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol.9)
The Führer wanted to achieve the unification of the Protestant Evangelical Churches by appointing a Reich Bishop, so that there would be a high Protestant church dignitary as well as a high Catholic church dignitary.
Hermann Göring (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol.9)
With the Catholic Church the Führer ordered a concordat to be concluded by Herr Von Papen. Shortly before that agreement was concluded by Herr Von Papen I visited the Pope myself. I had numerous connections with the higher Catholic clergy because of my Catholic mother, and thus ― I am myself a Protestant ― I had a view of both camps.
Hermann Göring (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol.9)
I myself am not what you might call a churchgoer, but I have gone now and then, and have always considered I belonged to the Church and have always had those functions over which the Church presides ― marriage, christening, burial, et cetera ― carried out in my house by the Church.
Hermann Göring (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol.9)
Rudolf Hess
No matter what human beings do I shall some day stand before the judgment seat of the Eternal. I shall answer to Him, and I know he will judge me innocent.
Rudolf Hess, in a statement to the Nuremberg Tribunal, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
We believe that the Fuhrer is fulfilling a divine mission to German destiny! This belief is beyond challenge.
Rudolf Hess, speech, 20 June 1934 (Reden, Munich. 1938, p. 25)
With all our powers we will endeavour to be worthy of the Fuhrer thou, O Lord, has sent us!
Rudolf Hess, address to political leaders, Munich, 21 April 1938 (Rolf Tell, Sound and Fuhrer)
You take an oath to a man whom you know follows the laws of providence, which he obeys independently of the influence of earthly powers, who leads the German people rightly, and who will guide Germany’s fate. Through your oath you bind yourselves to a man who ―that is our faith ―was sent to us by higher powers. Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts!
Rudolf Hess, in his speech, “The Oath to Adolf Hitler,” 1934
Heinrich Himmler
I swear before God this holy oath, that I shall give absolute confidence to the Fuehrer of the German Reich and people.
Heinrich Himmler, reminding his hearers about the oath taken by all SS men as well as by the military forces (Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
You Einsatztruppen (task forces) are called upon to fulfill a repulsive duty. But you are soldiers who have to carry out every order unconditionally. You have a responsibility before God and Hitler for everything that is happening. I myself hate this bloody business and I have been moved to the depths of my soul. But I am obeying the highest law by doing my duty. Man must defend himself against bedbugs and rats ― against vermin.
Heinrich Himmler, in a speech to the SS guards, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
(The mass murderer Himmler got brought up as a devout Catholic, like young Hitler, and was careful to attend mass regularly.)
Rudolf Hoess
In his Nuremberg cell, Rudolf Hoess told psychologist G.M. Gilbert how he got brought up in a rigorous Catholic tradition:
My father was really a bigot. He was very strict and fanatical. I learned that my father took a religious oath at the time of the birth of my younger sister, dedicating me to God and the priesthood, and after that leading a Joseph married life [celibacy]. He directed my entire youthful education toward the goal of making me a priest. I had to pray and go to church endlessly, do penance over the slightest misdeed ― praying as punishment for any little unkindness to my sister, or something like that.
Rudolf Hoess (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
When asked if his father ever beat him, Hoess replied that he was only punished by prayer:
The thing that made me so stubborn and probably made me later on cut off from people was his way of making me feel that I had wronged him personally, and that, since I was spiritually a minor, he was responsible to God for my sins.
Rudolf Hoess (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
Joseph Goebbels
The pious Catholic parents of Joseph Goebbels raised him and his two brothers in that faith. He spoke of Hitler as “either Christ or St. John.” “Hitler, I love you!” he wrote in his diary.
A Jew is for me an object of disgust. I feel like vomiting when I see one. Christ could not possibly have been a Jew. It is not necessary to prove that scientifically ― it is a fact.
Joseph Goebbels, in his attempt to win the eternal gratitude of Hitler, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
We have a feeling that Germany has been transformed into a great house of God, including all classes, professions and creeds, where the Fuhrer as our mediator stood before the throne of the Almighty.
Joseph Goebbels, in a radio broadcast, 19 April 1936
Robert Ley
Dr. Robert Ley held a number of positions in Hitler’s Germany. He was Reichorganisationsleiter (Reich Organization Leader), responsible among other things for much of internal party education. He was also head of the German Labor Front (DAF), the Nazi “union.
Catastrophe was only narrowly averted. It was all due to the faith of one man! Yes, you who called us godless, we found our faith in Adolf Hitler, and through him found God once again. That is the greatness of our day, that is our good fortune!
Robert Ley, in his speech, “Fate ― I believe!“
Understanding sometimes is not enough to explain something. Only faith is sufficient. The Führer in Nuremberg said: “Woe to him who does not believe!” He who does not believe has no soul. He is empty. He has no ideals. He has nothing to live for. He has no sunshine, no light, no joy in life. He is a poor, poor man. What is wealth? What are possessions? What does it all mean? Problems come despite them, only faith is left. Woe to him who does not believe!
Robert Ley, in his speech, “Fate ― I believe!“
Our god is the wonderful law of creation, whose amazing unity of all things shows itself if wonderful flowers, in growing trees, in new born children, in the secrets of a mother, in the growth of our people, in work and accomplishment and creation, in life itself. It is the joy we have in everything. How beautiful everything is. Do you feel the same way? I am so happy to be alive.
Robert Ley, in his speech, “The Jews or Us...,” 1939
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher, the ninth child of a Roman Catholic primary school teacher, also became a school teacher in Nuremberg. He was publisher, editor and a writer for the German newspaper Der Stürmer.
After Hitler’s release from prison in December 1924, Streicher hailed Hitler’s return to politics as a “gift of God,” a judgment the Fuehrer never forgot.
Streicher held an enthusiasm about allegations that the Jews murdered non-Jews in order to obtain blood for the feast of Passover. He charged that Jews hated Christianity and mankind in general. Streicher went to grotesque lengths in his attacks on Jews claiming the discovery that “Christ was not a Jew but an Aryan.”
If the danger of the reproduction of that curse of God in the Jewish blood is finally to come to an end, then there is only one way ― the extermination of that people whose father is the devil...
Julius Streicher paraphrasing John 8:44 as his justification for extermination (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol. 12)
Only the Jews, he shouted, had remained victorious after the dreadful days of World War I. These were the people, he charged, of whom Christ said, “Its father is the devil.”
Julius Streicher [See John 8:44, for Christ’s accusation of father the devil], (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
Germans must fight Jews, that organized body of world criminals against whom Christ, the greatest anti-Semite of all time, had fought.
Julius Streicher (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
During the Nuremberg trials, Streicher was asked about his participation in the Nuremberg Race laws of 1935. He responded:
Yes, I believe I had a part in it insofar as for years I have written that any further mixture of German blood with Jewish blood must be avoided. I have written such articles again and again; and in my articles I have repeatedly emphasized the fact that the Jews should serve as an example to every race, for they created the racial law for themselves ― the law of Moses, which says, “If you come into a foreign land you shall not take unto yourself foreign women.” And that, Gentlemen, is of tremendous importance in judging the Nuremberg Laws.. These laws of the Jews were taken as a model for these laws. When after centuries, the Jewish lawgiver Ezra demonstrated that notwithstanding many Jews had married non-Jewish women, these marriages were dissolved. That was the beginning of Jewry which, because it introduced these racial laws, has survived throughout the centuries, while all other races and civilizations have perished.
Julius Streicher, (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol. 12)
[Note, although Streicher had a part in the race laws, Hitler outlined his religious justification for the race laws in his private notes before he came into power.
When asked if there were any other anti-Semitic publications, other than Der Stürmer, published in Germany, Streicher replied:
Anti-Semitic publications have existed in Germany for centuries. A book I had, written by Dr. Martin Luther, was, for instance, confiscated. Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants’ dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the Prosecution. In this book The Jews and Their Lies, Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent’s brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them...
Julius Streicher, (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol. 12)
Now it goes to God!
Julius Streicher, as he mounted the gallows platform to his death, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
Purim Fest, 1946.
Julius Streicher, his last words before his hanging, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
[Purim describes a Jewish holiday, celebrated in the spring to commemorate the hanging of Haman, biblical oppressor of the Jews.], (Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
Joachim Ribbentrop
May God save Germany!
Joachim Ribbentrop, his last words before his hanging, (“Hitler’s Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich’s Most Notorious Henchmen,” Berkley Books, 1990)
Nazi Non-Christians
Martin Bormann
Martin Bormann stood as one of the few top Nazis who rejected the organized Church (he was not, however, an atheist as many falsely claim). At Hitler’s round table, Bormann noted that the Fuehrer did not want to pursue a campaign against the churches. Only in secret did Bormann hold a grudge against the churches. He carefully avoided the rouse of suspicion of the Fuehrer. If he could not destroy the churches, he could at least demand that his subordinates pay little attention to them.
In perhaps the most misquoted statement by American Christians, incorrectly attributed to Hitler:
The Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines are not compatible.
Martin Bormann, in a letter to Alfred Rosenberg, (Trial of The Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 1945, Vol. 1)
[Here Bormann goes against Nazi doctrine where the Nazi party program explicitly supports “positive Christianity.”]
Not only was Bormann’s decree on the relation of Christianity and National Socialism done in secret, but at no time was there an official Nazi law that tried to destroy Christianity.
Bormann serves at the main reason why many think that Hitler opposed religion. In Bormann’s edited transcripts of Hitler’s Table Talk, he gives the appearance that Hitler opposed the Christian religion.
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg stands as the major reason why so many American Christians think Nazism represented Nordic pagan beliefs instead of Nazi Christianity. Hitler chose Rosenberg to create a ‘religion of the Blood’ knowing that any form of propaganda could prove useful. However, Hitler also attempted to establish a Reich Christian Church for the future of Germany. Hitler, himself, did not believe in pagan cults.
Rosenberg charged that the true picture of Jesus had been distorted by fanatics like Matthew, by materialistic rabbis like Paul, by African jurists like Tertullian, and the mongrel half-breeds like St. Augustine. The real Christ, wrote Rosenberg, was an Amorite Nordic, aggressive, courageous, “a man of true Nordic character,” a revolutionary who opposed the Jewish and Roman systems with sword in hand, bringing not peace but war (see Matthew 10:34-37).
Rosenberg later went on to say that he favored a “positive Christianity,” which would purify the Nordic race, re-establish the old pagan virtues, and substitute the fiery spirit of the hero for the crucifixion.
Quotes from Nazi Sympathizers
The following quotes come from John Laffin’s, “Hitler Warned Us,” from the chapter, “Hitler as God”
Hitler is lonely, So is God. Hitler is like God.
Reichminister Hans Frank (FL Schuman, “Hitler and the Nazi Dictatorship,” London 1936
Adolf Hitler to thee alone we are bound. In this hour we would renew our solemn vow; in this world we believe in Adolf Hitler alone. We believe that National Socialism is the sole faith to make our People blessed. We believe that there is Lord God in heaven, who has made us, who leads us, who guides us and who visibly blesses us. And we believe that this Lord God has sent us Adolf Hitler, that Germany might be established for all eternity.
Schulungsbrief, April 1937. Bibl. 1, 35, p. 222 Nathaniel Micklem, National Socialism and the Roman Catholic Church, OUP 1939
He who serves our Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, serves Germany and he who serves Germany, serves God.
Baldur von Schirach (speech to Hitler Youth, 25 July 1936)
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The way has been shown to us by the Fuhrer.
Dean Eckert, sermon at Tegel, North Berlin, 10 February 1935 (Rolf Tell, Sound and Fuhrer)
We are under the great obligation of recognizing as a holy work of our Volk’s spirit the laws signed by Adolf Hitler’s name. Hitler has received his authority from God. Therefore he is champion, sent by God, of German Right in the world.
Hans Frank, Frankfurt-am-Main, 30 October 1935 (Aurel Kolnai, The War Against the West)
God says as Hitler does: I do not need your assent for my own sake. I need no support. I am firmly in the saddle. God does not need your assent for His own sake, does he? He never needed it from all eternity. God says, as Hitler does: Give me your Aye. He does not need it, but we are lost without this Aye, just as everybody in the German lands is lost if he does not give Hitler his Aye.
Johann Lohmann (Hitlerworte als Gleichisse fur Gotterworte, Bamberg, 1934, pp. 18, 19)
We believe on this earth in Adolf Hitler alone! We believe in National Socialism as the creed which is the sole source of grace! We believe that Almighty God has sent us Adolf Hitler so that he may rid Germany of the hypocrites and Pharisees.
Dr. Robert Ley (quoted in Frankfurter Zeitung, 23 July 1936)
In a certain sense National Socialism is religion, for it does not require its partisans to be convinced of the rightness of its teachings but to believe in it.
Professor Paul Schnabel, Halle University, Mitteldeutsche National Zeitung, 4 July 1935
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.
Just as Christ made his twelve disciples into a band faithful to the martyr’s death whose faith shook the Roman Empire, so now we witness the same spectacle again: Adolf Hitler is the true Holy Ghost.
Hans Kerrl, addressing SA leaders, Brunswick, 19 November 1935
Look at a marching troop of German youths and realize what God has made them for. They are warriors by nature and their calling is to rule.
Walter Stapel, The War Against the West, Bibl 1, 30, p. 609, London 1938
The Jew was created by God to act the traitor everywhere.
Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit monthly publication, cited in John Cornwell’s “Hitler’s Pope”
Jews can help themselves.
Cardinal Bertram to Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) referring to the Nazi attacks on the Jews. (Quoted from John Cornewll’s “Hitler’s Pope”)