Church and fascists. Traitors to the motherland or the Russian Church under German rule during the Second World War. Recent publications on related topics
Your Excellency! Esteemed Herr Reich Chancellor!
When we look at our Berlin cathedral church, which we are now consecrating and erecting thanks to the readiness and generosity of your Government after granting our Holy Church the rights of a legal entity, our thought turns with sincere and heartfelt gratitude, first of all, to you, as to its real creator.
We see the special effect of God's Providence in the fact that right now, when temples and national shrines are being trampled and destroyed in our Motherland, the creation of this temple takes place in the work of your construction. Along with many other omens, this temple strengthens our hope that the end of history has not yet come for our long-suffering Motherland, that the Commander of history will send us a leader, and this leader, having resurrected our Motherland, will return to her national greatness again, like the one who how He sent you to the German people.
In addition to the prayers constantly offered up for the head of state, at the end of each Divine Liturgy we also say the following prayer: "Lord, sanctify those who love the splendor of Your house, glorify them with Your Divine power ...". Today we especially deeply feel that you are included in this prayer. Prayers for you will be offered up not only in this newly built church and within Germany, but also in all Orthodox churches. For not only the German people commemorates you with ardent love and devotion before the Throne of the Most High: the best people of all nations, who desire peace and justice, see you as a leader in the world struggle for peace and truth.
We know from reliable sources that the believing Russian people, groaning under the yoke of slavery and waiting for their liberator, constantly lift up prayers to God that He save you, guide you and grant you his omnipotent help. Your feat for the German people and the greatness of the German Empire made you an example worthy of imitation, and a model of how to love your people and your homeland, how to stand up for your national treasures and eternal values. For even these latter find their sanctification and perpetuation in our Church.
National values constitute the honor and glory of every nation and therefore find a place in the Eternal Kingdom of God. We never forget the words of Holy Scripture that the kings of the earth will bring to the Heavenly City of God their glory and honor and the glory of their nations (Rev. 21:24,26). Thus, the creation of this temple is the strengthening of our faith in your historical mission.
You have erected a house for the Heavenly Sovereign. May He send His blessing to the cause of your state building, to the creation of your people's empire. May God strengthen you and the German people in the fight against hostile forces that want the death of our people as well. May He give you, your country, your Government and army health, prosperity and good haste in everything for many years.
Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia,
Metropolitan Anastassy. "Church Life". 1938. No. 5-6.
They prayed for Hitler
Today you often hear that we owe the victory in the Great Patriotic War primarily to the Orthodox Church. Not the selflessness of Soviet soldiers and home front workers, not the leadership of the party or the art of commanders - but the churchmen who allegedly united and inspired the people to fight.
What is behind this propaganda? The truth is hidden that during the war, many clergymen not only supported Nazi Germany, but also blessed the Wehrmacht to fight the Soviet Union. "Though with the devil - but not with the Bolsheviks." For the sake of their privileges, for the sake of turning a free people into a herd, they did not hesitate to praise Hitler as a "liberator". Here are excerpts from church newspapers and magazines of those years.
From the Appeal to the flock of Archbishop Seraphim (Lyade). June 1941
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ!
The punishing sword of Divine justice fell upon the Soviet government, its henchmen and like-minded people. The Christ-loving Leader of the German people called on his victorious army to the consecrated struggle against the theomachists, executioners and rapists who settled in the Moscow Kremlin... A new crusade has truly begun in the name of saving peoples from the power of Antichrist... Be participants in a new struggle, for this struggle and your struggle; this is a continuation of the struggle that was started back in 1917 - but, alas! - ended tragically. Each of you will be able to find your place on the new anti-Bolshevik front. The “salvation of all,” which Adolf Hitler spoke of in his address to the German people, is also your salvation. The last decisive battle has come. May the Lord bless the new feat of arms of all anti-Bolshevik fighters and give them victory and victory over their enemies. Amen!
leaflet, printed
as a separate print in June 1941.
The hour is near
... The bloody operation to overthrow the Third International is entrusted to a skillful German surgeon, experienced in science. Lying under this surgical knife for someone who is sick is not shameful. It could no longer be expected that those so-called "Christian" governments would take up this task, which in the recent Spanish struggle were both materially and ideologically not on the side of the defenders of the Christian faith and culture.
A new page in Russian history opened on June 22, the day the Russian church celebrated the memory of "All the Saints Who Resplendent in the Russian Land." Is this not a clear sign, even for the most blind, that the events are controlled by the Higher Will. On this purely Russian holiday, connected with the day of resurrection, the demonic cries of the “Internationale” began to disappear from the Russian land ...
Soon, soon the Russian flame will rise above the huge warehouses of godless literature. The martyrs of the faith of Christ and the martyrs of human righteousness will emerge from their dungeons. The desecrated temples will be opened and illuminated with prayer. Priests, parents and educators will again openly teach the truth of the gospel to children. Ivan the Great will speak with his voice over Moscow and countless Russian bells will answer him.
It will be "Easter in the middle of summer", about which 100 years ago, in the insight of a joyful spirit, the great saint of the Russian land, St. Seraphim, prophesied.
Summer has come. Russian Easter is coming...
Archimandrite John (Prince Shakhovskoy),
"New Word", N27 dated 06/29/1941 Berlin
In addition to the fact that some of the Orthodox priests supported the Nazi executioners, other traditional denominations took the same position. For example, as early as February 10, 1930, Pope Pius XI in his message called on the faithful for a "prayer crusade" against the USSR. Hitler was also actively supported by some representatives of the Muslim clergy, in particular, the Supreme Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. In the Islamic legions of the SS, created under his leadership, 305 thousand volunteers who lived in the USSR fought against their fellows.
From the message of Metropolitan Seraphim (Lukyanov). 1941
May the hour and day be blessed when the great glorious war with the Third International began. May the Almighty bless the great leader of the German people, who raised his sword against the enemies of God himself...
"Church Life", 1942, N1
Fascist punishers, with the support of the local clergy in the occupied Soviet territories, killed more than 7.4 million civilians. More than 4 million people died from the cruel conditions of the occupation regime. Over 5 million Soviet citizens were forcibly taken to Germany for forced labor, where 2,164,313 people died in hard labor conditions. In total, more than 26.5 million inhabitants of our country were laid on the altar of the crusade to the singing and psalms of the clergy. Also, during the years of the war, sung by Christ-lovers, 1710 cities and towns, 70 thousand villages and villages, 32 thousand industrial enterprises, over 6 million buildings were destroyed on Soviet territory.
Telegram of the All-Belarusian Church Council to A. Hitler. 1942
The first ever All-Belarusian Orthodox Church Council in Minsk, on behalf of the Orthodox Belarusians, sends you, Mr. Reich Chancellor, heartfelt gratitude for the liberation of Belarus from the Moscow-Bolshevik godless yoke, for the opportunity to freely organize our religious life in the form of the Holy Belarusian Orthodox Autocephalous Church and wishes you a speedy full victory to your invincible weapon.
Archbishop Filofei (Narko)
Bishop Athanasius (Martos)
Bishop Stefan (Sebo)
"Science and Religion", 1988, N5
Anniversary of the Crusade
A year has passed since the sword of Truth was raised against the most terrible enemy of all mankind - the communist international. And now a significant part of European Russia is already free from this accursed enemy and has been rendered harmless and cleansed of this infection. And where the ringing of bells has not been heard for a long time and where praising the Almighty was considered a serious crime - there now the crimson ringing of bells is heard; openly and fearlessly, with only aggravated feelings, the prayerful sighs of the Russian people liberated from hell rush to the throne of the King of the Universe.
And there are no words, no feelings in which one could pour out a well-deserved gratitude to the liberators and their Leader Adolf Hitler, who restored freedom of religion.
But Truth wins, it will win. And it is not for nothing that Providence chose the Leader of Great Germany as Its instrument of crushing this common human enemy. The German people know this, and this is the guarantee that they, in alliance with other peoples, will, with God's help, carry the struggle to the final victory. And we believe that it will be so.
"Church Review". 1942 N4-6
From the Paschal Epistle of Metropolitan Anastassy, 1948
...Our time has invented its own special means of extermination of people and all life on earth. Everything is ready to be incinerated by this hellish fire, caused by man himself from the abyss, and we again hear the prophet’s complaint addressed to God: “Until the earth and grass will weep from the malice of those who live on it” (Jeremiah 12:4).
But this terrible devastating fire has not only a destructive, but also a cleansing effect: for those who ignite it are burned in it.
But you will say that the destroying sword of death falls not only on the depraved and evil, but also on virtuous people, and on the latter even more often than on the former. But for such people, death is not a calamity, for the way is opened for them to the blessed true life, acquired for us by the death and resurrection of Christ.
"Holy Russia", April 1948, Stuttgart
On the subject of the explosion of the monument to Lenin in St. Petersburg, another Christ-lover spoke out - the rector of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, Abbot Sergius. From his "denunciatory" speech, it is clear how the sermons about humility and tolerance for mere mortals differ from their own willingness to shut the mouth of anyone who disagrees with them, not even embarrassed by calls for extremism and vandalism.
. "The Great Patriotic War showed us God's truth about ourselves" - from the speech of Kirill (Gundyaev) on May 9, 2010
In the history of wars, it is impossible to find an analogue of such an initially loyal attitude towards the aggressor, which was demonstrated by the population of the regions of the USSR occupied by the Germans.
Is it any wonder that the Russian Orthodox Church accepted the German attack on the USSR with no less enthusiasm.
A significant part of the population of the Don, Kuban and Stavropol was not inclined to consider the German regime as an occupation.
The 1st Panzer Army of Lieutenant General von Kleist, which broke through in the autumn of 1941 to the Don, was greeted by the population with flowers. What, somewhere in Belarus, could sometimes still be perceived as antics in front of the fascist invaders, here was nothing more than a "demonstration of sincere feelings of gratitude."
It is in this context that one should consider, for example, the speech of Bp. Taganrog Joseph (Chernov) dated October 17, 1942, dedicated to the anniversary of the liberation of the city from the Bolsheviks, it, in particular, said the following: “... the executioners of the Russian people fled forever from Taganrog, the knights of the German army entered the city ... Under their protection, we, Christians, raised the fallen cross, began to restore the destroyed temples. Our former sense of faith was revived, the pastors of the church took courage, and once again bore the people a living sermon about Christ. All this became possible only under the protection of the German army. At the same time, on October 17, Bishop Joseph served a liturgy at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Taganrog, delivered a short speech to the audience dedicated to the event, and then laid a wreath on the graves of German soldiers.
In Rostov-on-Don, where only one church operated before the war, the Germans opened 7 churches. Two liturgies were served daily in churches. In Novocherkassk, all the churches that could be opened were opened. 114 In the Rostov region alone, 243 churches were opened. Bishop Joseph of Taganrog even managed to regain his former bishop's house.115 No interference in church affairs was observed on the part of the Germans. Moreover, in the autumn of 1942, plans were seriously developed to hold a Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in Rostov-on-Don or Stavropol, with the aim of electing Met. Berlin Seraphim (Lade).116
A distinctive feature of the church “revival” in the South of Russia was the fact that the Orthodox clergy had to deal not only with divine services, trebs and catechism conversations, but also with the spiritual nourishment of the soldiers of numerous Russian military units who were in the service of the Nazis. From the Don to the Terek, "the gratitude of the German army was expressed by the population not only in words, but also in deeds." The number of fascist Cossack units alone reached 20 regiments. It is also worth noting that the Cossack regiments were "in particularly good standing" in the Wehrmacht. Their religious appearance was also striking: a mandatory morning and evening rule for everyone, prayers before the battle.
"... Heaven itself stood up for our trampled rights..."
ep. Smolensky and Bryansky Stefan (Sevbo)
The religious upsurge to no lesser extent embraced the population of central Russia. As soon as the Soviets left any settlement, as soon as "the spiritual life in it began to return to its natural course...".
Immediately after the occupation of Smolensk by the German army, divine services began in the miraculously surviving cathedral. Of the 160,000 people in the city, only 25,000 people managed to avoid evacuation. And although the cathedral still had the inscription “anti-religious museum” on it, church services in it immediately began to gather many citizens. In the city, where before the arrival of the Germans there was only one church, a year later there were already five. During the Nazi occupation, the entire child population of the city was baptized without exception. Then the visits to the villages began. From 150 to 200 people were baptized in one baptism. The lack of clergy prompted Bishop. Smolensky and Bryansk Stefan (Sevbo) to organize pastoral courses in Smolensk, which graduated 40 priests in the first 7 months of its existence.120
Another “significant event” is connected with the arrival of the Germans - the acquisition of the icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk. The famous shrine was found by a fascist soldier on the roof of the cathedral just before August 10 (the day this icon is honored). This miraculous icon was considered lost. It was assumed that the Bolsheviks destroyed it in 1918. And for the first time in 23 years, a service was served in front of this shrine. The Danish journalist Jansen describes this service in this way: “The priest did not remember such a large number of people who were gathered for this service. From the shelters near the cathedral, from near and far outskirts, old men, women and children were driven. They quietly ascended the high stairs of the cathedral to the ancient temple of God, now returned to them again. During the divine service, at first they were quiet, as if they did not understand what was happening before them, but then tears began to flow down their frightened faces, and, finally, all these unfortunate, hungry people wept. A priest with a long white beard and broken hands, Sergiy Ivanovich Luksky, raises a cross to the image of the Mother of God, which a German soldier found under the roof of the cathedral, and, asking for blessings from the Most Holy Theotokos, he blessed all the faithful before they dispersed to their poor homes ".
PHOTO: The Orthodox Church in the "territories liberated by the Nazis from Soviet power" was headed by Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky), before the war - the manager of the Moscow Patriarchate.
There was not only the restoration of the destroyed temples, but also the rebuilding of the church organization. On May 12-13, 1943, a congress of the clergy of the Smolensk-Bryansk diocese was held in Smolensk. Judging by the agenda, the congress was a very important event. The participants discussed in the reports and debates a number of issues:
2. On the introduction of the teaching of the Law of God at school.
3. On the education of youth.
4. On the structure of deanery districts.
The congress elected the members of the diocesan administration, approved the estimate for the maintenance of the administration.
It is noteworthy that when the Nazis took up the census of the population of occupied Smolensk, it turned out that out of 25,429 residents of the city, 24,100 called themselves Orthodox, 1,128 - believers of other faiths, and only 201 (less than 1%) - atheists.
In total, 60 churches were opened in the Smolensk region under the Nazis, at least 300 in Bryansk and Belgorod, at least 332 in Kursk, 108 in Oryol, and 116 in Voronezh. During the short occupation of Orel, the Nazis managed to open four churches in it.
In the Lokotsky district of the Bryansk region, even a whole republic arose. Order reigned in the area, material well-being revived. The Lokot Republic even had its own RONA army - the Russian Liberation People's Army (20 thousand people). Over time, the "republic" increased, and it included 8 districts with 581 thousand inhabitants.
The "revival of church life" in the northwest of Russia, for various reasons, turned out to be closely connected with the famous Pskov Mission.
The activities of the Mission became possible thanks to the personality of Met. Sergius (Voskresensky), who was trusted by the occupation administration,
Since August 1942, the magazine "Orthodox Christian" was published in Pskov, which came out every month with a circulation of 2-3 thousand copies, the church word sounded on the air - on the radio.
One of the Mission's appeals:
“Russian patriots are obliged to contribute in every possible way to the destruction of both the fruits and the roots of communism. We believe that there will be many Russian souls ready to take part in the destruction of communism and its defenders.” Metr. Sergius (Voskresensky) in his order of 8.7.1943, which stated: “On the day of the Holy Trinity, the German command announced the triumph of the transfer of land to the full ownership of the peasantry, and therefore it is proposed to the Mission management: 1) Give a circular order to all subordinate clergy .. .specially in the sermons to note the importance of this event. 2) On Spirits Day in the Cathedral, after the Liturgy, perform a solemn prayer service with the participation of all the clergy of the city of Pskov.
Appeal adopted at the congress “Only the German army, having liberated the Russian people, made it possible to completely freely build their spiritual and parochial life. Only the German liberators, from the first days of the war, gave the Russian people complete freedom, providing us with material assistance in restoring the plundered and destroyed churches of God... The clergy and the Orthodox people have deep gratitude to the German people and their army, who freed us from the enslavement of the clergy.” http://www.ateism.ru/article.htm?no=1399
Kirill Gundyaev prefers not to remember the mass cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Nazis during the war years!
On the Fascization of the Church in the Pre-War Period
A brief chronological sketch of the relationship between the Christian Church and fascist regimes can be started from the moment when, after the First World War, the Italian bourgeoisie brought to power "socialist" Mussolini.
It was then that the closest ties between the Vatican and the terrorist dictatorship of the monopolists began to develop. Even before becoming a "Duce", Mussolini was well aware of how great the political influence of the Catholic Church in Italy was. She needed to be played with.
In May 1920, at the Congress of the Fascist Party, Mussolini declared that "The Holy See" has 400 million followers living in all countries of the world, and that “…a prudent policy requires that this great power be used…”
And this power was used by the Nazis.
On February 6, 1922, the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Achille Ratti who took the name Pius XI. This dad was an inveterate anti-communist, an ardent enemy of the USSR. He believed that only a "strong" government could successfully fight Bolshevism.
Mussolini, from the point of view of the pope, personified just such an ideal of a statesman. At one of the solemn ceremonies, Pope Pius XI announced publicly that Mussolini "is a man sent by Providence itself, a man of God." Pius XI was sure that with the coming to power of the fascists, he would also be able to achieve reconciliation with the Italian state on the issue of the territory of Rome controlled by the Vatican. Therefore, the Pope welcomed the transfer of power to Mussolini.
Benito Mussolini in turn, he did everything possible to win the trust of the “holy throne” and the main hierarchs of the Catholic Church. There were, in particular, attempts by the dictator through influential princes of the church to enlist the support of deputies from the Catholic People's Party in the Italian Parliament.
Mussolini offered the Pope a deal that could end the "Roman question" by concluding a treaty that would grant the Vatican extraterritoriality (its own state territory) and an independent existence.
However, soon the People's Party went into opposition to the fascist dictatorship, and the masses of the party demanded from their leadership the condemnation of the bloody crimes that the Blackshirts committed daily. Mussolini did not like this very much. In response, he began to threaten that he would order the banning of all Catholic organizations in Italy.
Then Pius XI and the council of cardinals decided donate to the People's Party to keep the location of Mussolini. The “Holy See” shook violently with fear, as the “furious Benito” promised not only to close the parishes, but also to freeze the accounts of the papal court in Italian banks. BUT money for the "holy fathers" is much more expensive than any parties.
As a result, the People's Party was dissolved, but with its liquidation, the churchmen decided to play it safe and stepped up their activities within the framework of the "Catholic Action" - a mass organization of ordinary parishioners, drugged by religion, workers and peasants, whose branches were under the control of the bishops of the Italian regions.
IN 1929 year between the Vatican and the fascist government of Mussolini were signed Lateran agreements. As a result of these agreements, a new state was formed, the city-state Vatican. The Italian financial capital allocated 44 hectares of expensive Roman land to the Catholic See, one of its most important ideological firms. The secular power of the pope was restored, and he again, as in ancient feudal times, became the head of his state. The bourgeoisie gave the Vatican a country residence Castel Gandolfo and 20 luxurious palaces on the territory of the "big" Rome.
But the contract, in addition to gifts, imposed on the "firm" and significant obligations to the fascist state. In particular, the sanctions of the church court - excommunication, deprivation of the priesthood and other canonical punishments - obligated the state authorities to deprive the punished and civil rights.
This meant that any worker, any progressive-minded citizen, any Italian anti-fascist, upon excommunication, was deprived of the right to vote, work, position, was pushed around by neighbors, expelled from home with his family, and finally, at the request of the priests, could be imprisoned “as an apostate and a dangerous blasphemer."
After the conclusion of the Lateran Accords, compulsory teaching of religion was introduced in the country's primary and secondary educational institutions. Churchmen were entrusted with intensive religious brainwashing of the growing up.
Of particular importance for Catholicism was the financial settlement of the claims of the papacy against Italy. Mussolini's government, despite the dire economic situation of the Italian workers, paid the Vatican "... as compensation for material damage once caused" a huge amount of 1 billion 750 million lira, or about 90 million US dollars at the then "pre-depression" exchange rate.
Cardinal Financiers at the direction of Pius XI, they used these funds, ripped off by the Nazis from the Italian people, to increase the authorized funds of banks owned by the Vatican through nominees. Part of the money was placed on deposit accounts with Swiss Credit Anstalt in Switzerland and Manhattan Chase in the North American States. About 15 million dollars "holy fathers" "invested" in machine-building enterprises in Milan, Genoa and Modena, in fact, becoming the main shareholders of these enterprises, that is, full-fledged capitalists - masters of production.
No wonder that Pope Pius XI did everything to win the sympathy of the fascists and their masters - the most reactionary part of the largest Italian monopolists. The Vatican officially approved the invasion of Italian troops into Ethiopia and its capture by the “Christian army” (remember in this regard 2014 - the first half of 2015, when, on the one hand, the “Russian Orthodox Army” was operating on the territory of the Donetsk region, which defended “autocracy, Orthodoxy , nationality", and on the other - "Drive the Catholic warriors", who brought "the sword of the true faith to the land of pagan Muscovites").
The papal curia fully supported the fascist revolt in Spain and a parcel to help Franco with parts of the Italian army.
In the social encyclical “Quadraghesimo anno” (“In the fortieth year”), published in 1931, the papal council anathematizes socialism, communism, and the class struggle of the proletariat. The Vatican recommends installation throughout the Catholic world "corporate system of class cooperation" working people with capitalists and landowners.
All Catholic priests were ordered to speak from their pulpits "about the great tragedy of the 19th century, when the church lost workers because of the new German heresy" (meaning Marxism). Pastors in conversations with each other openly said that “The working class will not long remain in indecision, and if urgent measures are not taken to save the working souls from the Bolshevik devil, then they will soon turn to the antithesis of the holy church, that is, to communism. And that will be the end of the Christian world…”
The papacy saw no other way to save its capital than to return the working class back to the bosom of the "mother church", for this purpose strengthening the alliance with its opponents, primarily with fascism. Powerful religious propaganda, which necessarily included general curses against the USSR, communists and all democrats and progressive bourgeois figures in general, unfolded in full breadth in the country.
Somewhat more complex and at first sight contradictory were the relations between the exploiting classes in Germany in the same 20-30s of the 20th century.
The leaders of the NSDAP also declared their views on the "proper" role of the Catholic Church long before they received political power. In the program of the National Socialists, adopted on February 24, 1920 in Munich at the "small congress" of the fascist party, it was said on this occasion as follows: “We demand freedom for every religion, provided that it does not threaten the security and does not damage the moral sense of the Germanic race. The party (NSDAP - author's note) is established on the basis of positive Christianity, but is not associated with any particular religion ".
("Positive Christianity"- this is what big capital needs, propagating the complete subordination of the working people to the capitalists, their political apathy and the rejection of any protest activity.)
Our gullible lovers of “strong hand and order” might think that such a statement by Hitler means almost a separation of church and state, or at least the proclamation of freedom of conscience and religion. Gottfried Feder, one of the main theorists of National Socialism, tried to portray this place in the program in this way.
A year later, in his speech in Bremen to school teachers and teachers of technical schools, Feder declares: “We have complete religious freedom. We, the true patriots of Germany, will be guaranteed complete freedom of thought!” (Why not our liberals and democrats in perestroika?)
True, Feder immediately clarifies what he meant: “We must give special protection to Christian denominations! At the same time, there will be a suppression and prohibition of those religions that offend the feeling of the German religion. Here the fascists imagine a revolution even among the priests, so they immediately divide them into “their own” and unreliable ones, they threaten the religious “impious” who allegedly encroach on German morality.
They shared something - in words, but in deeds, fascist policy has always been in the strongest alliance with the church. Protestant and Catholic churches in essence blessed German fascism for any crimes.
But blessings alone were not enough for him. The Nazis sought to influence the broadest masses without distinction of their religion. This meant, in particular, that fascism, on its way to power, tried, with the help of "general Christian" demagogy, to split off the Catholic sections of the working people from the fairly strong Christian "Center Party". In addition, for the time being, the Nazis in their public speeches carefully avoided opposing Protestantism to Catholicism.
Priesthood helped fascism a lot when seizing power. It was the union of the social fascists (who had sold out to the capital of the German Social Democracy, which was part of the Second International) and the "center party" politically and ideologically paved the way for Hitler. At the same time, this alliance of scoundrels disarmed and weakened the German proletarian organizations in every possible way. After the Nazis came to power, Catholic and Protestant priests began to serve in the very apparatus of the fascist dictatorship and zealously protect its interests.
Here it is necessary to say a few words about the clergy's "centre" party itself. This party was in power until 1933 and oppressed the working class of Germany, but did not support fascist ideas and methods. The point was that some of the big German capitalists hoped to continue to enslave the working masses through a curtailed, but still democracy, without resorting to open state terror. These “moderates” were afraid that the power of the fascists and the “crackdown” would intensify the already growing revolutionary activity of the proletarian masses and provoke a new, third in a row, armed uprising of the proletariat now in all the industrial centers of the country.
However, other groups of monopolists gained the upper hand - supporters and inspirers of the fascist dictatorship, headed by Krupp, Stinnes, Halske, Vanderbilt and others. Having miscalculated their forces, being unable to suppress the growing revolutionary movement in Germany, the group of "moderates" and the party of the "center" were forced to support the fascists. Having seized political power in the country into their own hands, the Nazis very soon disbanded and banned all bourgeois parties, including the most Christian party of the "Center". Thus, it became more difficult for the Catholic Church to influence the political affairs of the German state.
Therefore, a completely logical step "to get ahead of the curve" was the conclusion on June 20, 1933 by Pope Pius XI concordata (agreements) with the government of the National Socialists, according to which not only allowed, but also officially approved the cooperation of Catholics with the Nazis. But the same concordat imposed restrictions on the participation of the church in politics.
It is clear that the Catholic priests renounced their open and secret political affairs only in words. The June agreement states that the Reich government undertakes to support Catholic mass organizations, primarily youth unions, which by that time numbered up to 500 thousand members.
For serious financial support of the church, the Nazi leadership demanded that the pastors actively instill fascist beliefs among the proletarian youth. There was no difference between the church and the fascists on this issue. The clergy honestly worked out all the generous handouts from the fascist state.
But the prelates wanted to play a big role in German politics. They are trying to "rebel" against Hitler. And here is an interesting story.
Shortly after the conclusion of the concordat, the Catholic clergy in Germany sharply opposed some of the fascist measures. On January 1, 1934, the Nazi sterilization law came into force, according to which drunkards, the mentally ill, etc. people were subjected to an operation that deprived them of the opportunity to have offspring. (The fascists will also apply this law to revolutionary workers, to German communists, who will be declared mentally ill - in fact, this is precisely why it was adopted for the most part, just like laws on “extremism”, “counter-terrorism activities”, etc. .).
Such a law directly contradicts Catholic doctrine, which equates sterilization with murder. However, during the First World War, the “church of Christ” sent millions of workers to the slaughter, and the priests saw nothing, no violation of faith in this.
So, in the case of sterilization, it was not a matter of observing the canons, but in the struggle of the "heirs of St. Peter" for huge church income and for political influence in society. The church had to show Hitler its strength. In particular, this was manifested in the fact that the pope ordered all German Catholic doctors not to comply with the law on sterilization. The doctors complied. For this, many of them were fired.
But at the beginning of 1934, the Nazi government concludes agreements with local Catholic and Protestant churches, according to which the clergy began to receive state cash salaries and huge rights to ideological and commercial activities.
Especially widely pastors could roam in high school. The Church was entrusted with part of the work of fooling the younger generation, of turning children into obedient "God-fearing" mass, which from an early age was inspired that God is the main one in heaven, and the Fuhrer is his vicegerent on earth. This is not surprising, since the task of the church and the fascist dictatorship was the same - the suppression and oppression of the working people.
However, after a couple of months, small cracks reappeared in the close union of the cross and the ax. Many powerful instruments of religious propaganda remained in the hands of the Catholic Church - popular newspapers and magazines. By order of the Vatican, not a single word against fascism appears in these publications. However, it is not the interests of the "Reich" that are put in the foreground, but the interests of Catholicism. In this connection, the Fascists are trying to oppose Catholic publishing houses.
They are in dire need of subscribers for the Völkischer Beobachter and other print media: the working people refuse to read the fascist lies. BUT priests lie and fool more skillfully, and therefore retained a lot more readers. The militants from the SA arrange several demonstrative raids on the editorial offices of church publications. In response, Catholic priests demanded from the ambos of churches that all believers read only Catholic newspapers and magazines.
But, of course, the main reason for the conflict was different. Fascism began to actively interfere in the affairs of church administration and wanted to decisively put an end to any kind of independence of religious organizations. Some independence of the church was due to the formal division of the German Empire into several states. At the same time, Hitler was constantly rushing about with plans for a radical administrative restructuring of his "third empire", according to which, instead of a cluster of small "principalities", huge provinces with new external borders should be created.
At the same time, it so happened historically that the Protestant Church was especially strongly connected with Prussia, and the Catholic one with Bavaria. Eliminating some autonomy of these German states and including them (as regions, provinces) in a single system of government of the Reich, the Nazis thereby created a strong and centralized management of all church organizations, that is, they deprived these organizations of any independence.
In connection with the rigid centralization of all church life, Hitler, in one of his proclamations, rather pompously addresses all German Protestants: “You must choose: you can still leave the gospel and Germanism alien and hostile to each other. But you will not hesitate, and to the great question that God puts before you, you will answer that you forever surrender to the unity of the gospel and Germanism.
Thus, German fascism directly says that, firstly, it considers the whole church as a single whole, in the words of Goebbels, "... without the stupidest division into evangelists (Protestants) and lovers of the pope (Catholics)". Secondly, Hitler clearly states how useful for Nazism the tested weapon of the oppressors is the Christian religion.
Germany's largest financial capital is demanding that these weapons be made even stronger, that they be impregnated with the poison of nationalism and chauvinism. Therefore, in this appeal to the faithful, Hitler proclaims the demand fascist the whole priesthood.
Action followed the word. The Nazis promptly create an organization of "German Christians", and put a reliable person at its head - the military chaplain Muller. In opposition to the "German Christians", the Protestant priests decided to reorganize themselves and for this purpose convened a confederation of all the Reformed churches in Germany. At the congress of the confederation, the "Organization of the People of the Church" was formed, headed by Pastor Bodelschwing.
Literally ten days after the Reformed Congress, the German Christians, on the instructions of the Hitlerite Ministry of Cults, went on the attack. By personal decree of the Reich Chancellor, the Catholic pastor Müller is appointed "State Commissioner for Protestant Churches." At the same time, the Prussian minister of cults, Rust, replaces the elected church assembly of Protestants with appointed "land commissioners". The "land commissars" immediately turn to Rust with a collective letter demanding the resignation of the Protestant Bodelschwing. And Rust dismisses this priest.
The aged President Hindenburg, a Prussian and zealous Protestant, tried to intervene in this squabble of the “holy fathers”. He turned to Hitler with a request "not to allow the violation of the rights" of the Protestant Church in Prussia. In the meantime, a commission set up by Müller drew up a blueprint for a new church constitution. According to this constitution, the Nazis created "Imperial Protestant Church" headed by a Lutheran bishop who is appointed by the government of the Reich and confirmed by the chancellor. The head of this fascist "church" reports to the Minister of Cults. One of the tasks of this "religious organization" was to communicate with foreign German Evangelical churches, and simply put - fascist propaganda in other countries.
But the Nazis did not rest on this. They decided that the Christian gospel did not accurately "state the truths" of fascism and that traditional religious teaching needed a major overhaul. This alteration was entrusted to a group of so-called "pure Christians" - functionaries from the organization "German Christians" and part-time agents of the secret state police ( Gestapo).
These "pure" criticized to smithereens all the "holy scriptures" of Christians. They officially declared, for example, that the "Old Testament" is unsuitable because "it expounds the morality of a Jewish merchant."
(Pay attention to this point: here the hypocritical attacks of the fascists on “usurious”, i.e., on banking capital, to which he faithfully serves and by whose will he himself was born into the world, appear. Playing on the feelings of the petty-bourgeois layman, the fascists declared industrial capital to be good , necessary and honest, “truly German”, and the banks, respectively, dirty, harmful, “Jewish” capital, which, they say, alone is to blame for the poverty of German workers.)
"Saint" Paul also receives a challenge, like a terry Jew. Etc. The newly-appeared Hitlerite "prophets" declare that divine revelation must be sought not in "sacred" books, but "... in nature, in one's own people, in oneself and, in particular, in the German northern soul."
Further, everything is explained quite openly: “Heroic morality - the morality of National Socialism - knows other principles, different from those set forth by the Jews in the Holy Scriptures. For the National Socialist, redemption is mutual. The National Socialist has no need for a redeemer, because he is his own redeemer,” says Hitler in one of his Nuremberg speeches to the SS. The Führer could only add in this regard that fascism needs its own god, and that god is he, Hitler.
Along with attempts to change priestly teachings, a return to the ancient Germanic religion is increasingly preached in Germany - to the cult of the gods Wotan, Odin, Freya and other "gods". (It is curious that even now in Russia we see something similar - an active propaganda of the idea of seeking "divine revelation in oneself and in one's nation" and the intensified spread of the "true Russian faith" - Slavic paganism.)
But here the German priests could not stand it. I must say that even before Hitler came to power in Germany, there were contradictions between the Nazis and the Catholic clergy. At one time, they escalated to the point that in some parts of the country the priests threatened to excommunicate Catholics who followed Hitler from the church. For their part, the fascists then demanded from the members of the NSDAP, the SS and SA, as well as from all employees of party institutions, to leave the "bosom" of the Catholic Church.
On defense "commandments of Christ" Protestant and Catholic clerics rebelled as a united front. Archbishop Faulgaber of Munich led the fight against Nazi attempts to revive the competitive ancient pagan religion. On January 1, 1934, he said this in his New Year's sermon: “The ancient Teutons, now praised, were in reality a people culturally inferior to the Hebrew. Two or three thousand years ago, the peoples of the Nile and Euphrates had a high culture, and at the same time the Germans were at the lowest, wild level of development.
The first preachers who came to them were supposed to deliver them from paganism, from human sacrifice, from superstition, from laziness and drunkenness... The Germans revered many gods... Some of them were borrowed from Rome and thus, in essence, alien to the Germans... delivered us from Bolshevik atheism, so that we fell into German paganism.
(Today in Russia ROC persecution of paganism is not satisfied, although it does not encourage it, justifying the "Christianization" of Ancient Russia in approximately the same words. Now the priests in Russia understand - let the people worship even the devil himself, just don’t follow the Bolshevik ideas!)
The Nazis, on the other hand, said something completely different. They announced that the ancient Teutons were a model, an example to follow. In general, they chatted a lot about the fact that the most cultured and healthy race is Germanic, and all other races are worthy of being only slaves of the Germans.
But catholic church - gang international. It makes no sense for her to favor any one race. Catholicism strengthens its positions precisely by the hypocritical sermon about "the equality of all peoples before God."
Thus, by 1934, an unenviable situation had developed for all German priests: on the one hand, the successes of proletarian atheism among the revolutionary masses, to whom the union of the church with fascism opened their eyes to the reactionary political essence of priesthood.
On the other hand, such a “purebred German” as the fascist ideological bigwig Rosenberg, “... climbing into the kingdom of heaven in forged boots and unceremoniously demanding that the Christian god himself make room and give place to the Fuhrer.”
In this regard, on March 14, 1934, the papal encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge (“With burning concern”) was published in Rome in German, which analyzed the position of the Catholic Church in Germany and its relations with the Nazis. Today, some advocates of fascism, including those from ROC, call this encyclical anti-fascist.
This is the lie of the united class enemy. In fact, this papal document was not such. True, the encyclical listed some violations of the concordat by the Nazis and mentioned various kinds of oppression in relation to the church and its secular organizations. However, this encyclical is not a penny did not condemn Nazi ideology, did not excommunicate its bearers from the church. On the contrary, it ended with an appeal to Hitler with a call to restore the closest cooperation with the Catholic Church, however, a reservation was made regarding the inviolability of church rights and privileges.
Religious dope dealers had to defend "Christian culture". Didn't they themselves preach a crusade against the USSR - as if to save Christian morality trampled by atheists? And the priests unanimously gave the role of the saviors of this morality to the Nazi executioners.
However, fascism was even beneficial church strife within Germany. These infighting partly distracted the working people from more serious politics. But much more important was the inclusion of religious organizations in the apparatus of the Nazi dictatorship. Such inclusion was opposed for the time being by both Catholic and Protestant priests.
But ultimately the tasks of the church and fascism are the same, so their union, despite some organizational conflicts, became stronger over time. Fascism openly declared the church of Christ to be the means of its propaganda within Germany and abroad.
Hitler's advances had to be worked out. And so the next papal encyclical, Divini Redemptoris (Divine Redemption), published on March 19, 1934, had an already open cannibalistic tone. It had the subtitle "On Atheistic Communism" and was distinguished by a special anti-communist orientation: communism was anathematized in it, and believers, under pain of excommunication, were forbidden to come into contact in any form or degree with Marxist-Leninist teachings.
The encyclical was also aimed at preventing the participation of Catholics in the anti-fascist struggle. ( Don't you dare resist when you are oppressed and deceived, forcing you to live from hand to mouth!)
In a word, the Catholic priests tried to play their game with the Nazis all the time. But this is a special kind of game. After all, the Catholic (and Protestant and any other) church is not at all a principled opponent of fascism. We have seen this clearly from the content of papal encyclicals. Therefore, in Germany, the Catholic priests, quarreling with the Nazis, were ready at any time to conclude peace with them, if it was a question of taming the revolutionary proletariat and fighting against it.
But at the same time, the church wanted a certain independence, since it seeks to strengthen its positions in different countries, not agreeing to completely submit to any particular dictator or government. Why? But because it wants more - to stand above countries and states, like any monopolist, which has become cramped within the framework of one state. She has long since become largest capitalist and simply competes with his classmates under the guise of religious ideas.
For the working class such a policy of the Church cannot be useful. No matter how the priests fight with the Nazis from time to time, the church has never been and will not be on the side of the oppressed. By speaking out against fascism on private, petty issues, the church is making, as they say now, "political capital." It is trying to create the impression among the working masses that the church is the only and principled opponent of fascism and the defender of all the humiliated and offended.
Such a position religious gang extremely profitable for the monopoly bourgeoisie and the church itself, since it leads the workers away from the revolutionary struggle into the jungle of mysticism and at the same time brings big money to church parishes in the form of obligatory donations of fooled parishioners.
The workers must understand these circumstances well, so that rare reports or rumors about conflicts between churchmen and the fascist state do not confuse and make them think that the church really opposes fascism, exploitation, slavery, poverty.
Not, the church always and everywhere - for fascism and exploitation, but she is for such fascism, which gives the priests the opportunity to carry out their vile deeds without any interference from the state, and even on the contrary - with its help and support. That is why such interference with time in the bourgeois state becomes less and less: the guys do one thing.
And at the end of the lecture. Above, we mentioned the helpless attempts of the fascists to concoct for themselves an integral system of ideas from scraps of the most diverse idealist theories. In this regard, one must remember Stalin's words on the political victory of fascism in Germany: “It (this victory) must be considered ... as a sign of the weakness of the bourgeoisie, as a sign that the bourgeoisie is no longer able to rule by the old methods of parliamentarism and bourgeois democracy, which is why it is forced to resort to terrorist methods of management in domestic politics”.
Religion is less and less able to fool the masses of working people who recognize its exploitative hypocrisy. Therefore, fascism, whenever and wherever it appears, tries to breathe fresh strength into religion. But the alliance between the clergy and the Black Hundreds accelerates the exposure of religion in the eyes of the proletariat even more.
Prepared by: A. Samsonova, M. Ivanov
ROCinyearsHitler'soccupation
Seventy years ago, on April 30, 1945, the Fuhrer of Germany committed suicide in the building of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops, together with his wife Eva Braun. He bit through an ampoule of potassium cyanide, after which he shot himself in the head. By order given by Hitler in advance, his servant Heinz Linge and adjutant Otto Günsche carried the body of the Fuhrer and his wife to the garden of the Reich Chancellery and, dousing with gasoline, burned it.
Before his death, he wrote his political testament, in which he called on the German people to continue the struggle, "carefully observe the laws of the race and ruthlessly resist the world poisoner of all peoples - international Jewry." That is, to shed blood and exterminate Jews and other "subhuman" further. As the Apocalypse says: "And they did not repent of their deeds."
However, this massacre, even for Hitler, eventually lost all meaning. He was also disappointed in the German people. Shortly before his death, he declared: the German people did not live up to the expectations placed on him and therefore must disappear and give way to younger and more adapted nations. With envy, Goebbels and he looked at the photographs of the victorious Soviet marshals, who proved that they were not subhuman at all. Hitler regarded the German people as essentially a herd sent to the slaughter. And the herd, ultimately, lousy.
Many myths existed and continue to exist around Hitler.
One of them is that he did not die, but fled to Argentina. This myth is debunked thanks to the following facts.
The remains of Hitler and Eva Braun were found on May 5 by a group of Soviet soldiers under the command of Guards Senior Lieutenant Alexei Panasov, who handed them over to SMERSH. The government commission for the identification and identification of the remains was led by General Konstantin Telegin, and the expert commission for the study of the remains was headed by Colonel of the Medical Service Faust Shkaravsky. Hitler's body was identified by dentures, the similarity of which was confirmed by the Führer's dental assistant Käthe Heuserman.
The remains of Hitler and Braun were buried on the territory of one of the bases of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in Magdeburg in February 1946. In 1970, when this base was to come under the control of the GDR, KGB chairman Yuri Andropov proposed exhuming the remains of the Fuhrer and his wife, cremated to ashes and thrown into the Elbe. This proposal was approved by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and carried out.
Another myth, much more poisonous, is about Hitler as a Christian who fought against atheism and Bolshevism and opened churches in Russia. And how was it really?
Yes, indeed, rising to power, Hitler used Christian rhetoric. Here is just one of its examples - a speech in Passau in 1928: "We will not tolerate anyone in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... In fact, our movement is Christian." What else was there for him to do? After all, in the early thirties of the twentieth century. 95% of Germans considered themselves Christians - Catholics or Protestants. Only 1.5% dared to call themselves atheists. The propaganda of atheism was doomed to failure. Therefore, Hitler used Christian symbolism and rhetoric to come to power - as part of a policy of pragmatic opportunism.
True, some of his church advisers died on the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
Yes, Hitler highly revered Jesus, but who did he take him for? For the God-man, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, who died for the sins of all mankind? Not! Hitler considered Him ... an Aryan warrior who fought against the Jews. Hitler was close to the views of the so-called. "German Christians", who claimed the following: Jesus was one of the Aryan heroes who laid down his life not for all of humanity, but only for the chosen people of the Aryans. Other peoples are only worthy of wandering through history, ringing with chains...
In order not to be unfounded, I will quote the statement of Pastor Langmann, one of the initiators of the “German Christians” movement, which he said at the funeral of Wilhelm Gustlov, where he appeared not in pastoral vestments, but in the form of storm troopers. In his last parting words, he stated that the place of the deceased was in... Valhalla, in the house of Siegfried and Balder - heroes who "sacrificed their blood for the life of the German people... May this God send the peoples of the earth to roam, rattling chains, through history... God bless our struggle."
Seems clear? Before us is the real German neo-paganism, mixed with Christianity.
Orthodox Christianity, according to Hitler, Jewish Bolshevism
But what about historical orthodox Christianity? My friends, according to Hitler, this is Jewish Bolshevism. Yes Yes. Do not be surprised. The true Christian teaching of Jesus was allegedly distorted by the apostle Paul, who turned it into a kind of Jewish Bolshevism. The Apostle Paul, according to Hitler, preached “the equality of people among themselves and their obedience to the only God. This is what led to the death of the Roman Empire.”
Thanks to Hitler, the so-called. The Imperial Protestant Church, whose pastors have publicly stated that Christians with Jewish ancestors are Christians in the New Testament sense, but not German Christians. Moreover, they did not believe that humanity needed the Redemption at all, since it was not originally sinful (in this they shared the ideas of positive Christianity). There are only complete and inferior races. And that's it.
The “German Christians” backed up their words with deeds, first “cleansing” their ranks of pastors with Jewish blood, then “cleansing” the Holy Scriptures from all references (primarily positive ones) about the Jews and the Jewish nature of the biblical faith. Such “purified” (in other words, falsified) texts of Scripture were multiplied in thousands of copies. And the bishop of the "German Christians" Ludwig Müller directly collaborated with the Gestapo, helping to catch and exterminate the disaffected.
Hitler used his own version of the language of Social Darwinism as the centerpiece of the logical justification for the practice of extermination.
But "German Christianity" was not the last word in Hitler's religion. Since 1937, he has been disappointed in him. The English scholar Richard Evans notes that Hitler saw Christianity as "indelibly Jewish in origin and character" and "a prototype of Bolshevism" that "violates the law of natural selection." Ideas were close to Hitler. According to Evans, Hitler "used his own version of the language of social Darwinism as a central element in the logical justification for the practice of extermination." The language of Social Darwinism in the Nazi version helped remove any deterrent to the regime's "terrorist and murderous" police commanders, "by convincing them that their actions would be justified by history, science, and nature." Hitler's racial ideas were primarily based on the work of the thinker Arthur de Gobineau, who was close in spirit and ideas to Charles Darwin and anticipated him. Gobineau's main work, An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, was first published in 1853, 6 years before The Origin of Species. De Gobineau believed that initially all human races were created "pure", but then they began to mix with each other, which leads to their degeneration. At the center of de Gobineau's picture of the world is the struggle for survival between races as between different species and individuals in Darwin's teachings. That is, we have before us a materialistic quasi-religion, implying eugenics, euthanasia, the mass extermination of "inferior races" - Jews, Slavs, gypsies.
Christianity interfered with all this. It is no coincidence that Goebbels wrote in 1941 in his diaries that he "hates Christianity because it humiliates everything noble in humanity." Many historians, such as Mosse, Bullock, Shearer, rightly believe that Hitler intended to bring about the final solution of the problem in relation to Christianity in Germany, restoring instead the cult of the worship of Germanic pagan gods and the veneration of fire.
You say these are dreams, intentions? Unfortunately no. Hitler backed up his words with deeds: at first, Kirchenkampf (fight against the Church) was carried out in Germany, as a result of which hundreds of pastors and thousands of believers ended up in concentration camps, church property was confiscated, church publications were closed, priests were mobilized into the army (moreover, not as chaplains , but ordinary). There were special "barracks for priests" in Dachau. More than 700 Catholic priests were killed or executed in Poland alone. In Croatia, the Ustaše, with the blessing of Hitler, exterminated more than 200 Orthodox priests, who shared the fate of their 500,000 flock. In Belorussian Polissya, 55% of the priests were executed for suspicion of helping the partisans. At times, they were burned in churches along with the flock, like Father John Loiko, who died on February 15, 1943 in the village of Khvorostovo, Storobinsky District, Minsk Region.
Hitler: “It would be in our interests that each village should have its own sect, ... because this would increase the number of factors that break up the Russian space into small units”
This is the kind of religious life planned for the future conquered inhabitants of the eastern space. Here is what Hitler said at a meeting on April 11, 1942:
“It is necessary to prohibit the establishment of single churches for any significant Russian territories. It would be in our interest to have each village have its own sect, where they would develop their own special ideas about God. Even if, in this case, shamanic cults similar to Negro or American-Indian ones arise in some villages, we could only welcome this, because this would increase the number of factors that break up the Russian space into small units.
They nod that the German authorities allowed activities where there were both radio and print publications, but they forget that its activities were controlled by the Gestapo and only 25% of the broadcasts on the radio were about God and faith, the rest was pure politics within the framework of Goebbels propaganda. In the person of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the occupied territories, the Germans sought to have free agitators and free informers, that is, to replace the very essence of their ministry. Thank God that the majority of priests to some extent sabotaged these insidious and, without exaggeration, antichrist initiatives.
In his spiritual appearance, Hitler was a forerunner.
Firstly, this is terrible cruelty, incl. and to his own associates, some of whom he massacred in 1934. This is the extermination of millions of people in savage ways, incl. burning alive, gassed and starved. This is the practice of killing the defenseless (euthanasia).
Secondly, this is a terrible lie. Hitler and Goebbels created a monstrous apparatus of propaganda, the basic principle of which was this: "The more monstrous the lie, the sooner it will be believed."
Thirdly, this is the corruption of the conquered peoples through the promotion of abortion and contraception, through the encouragement of betrayal and denunciation.
Fourthly, this is contempt for Christ, the desire to replace Him with the image of an Aryan warrior, and, ultimately, with oneself. It is no coincidence that the future Patriarch Sergius, then still a locum tenens, in 1942 sagaciously wrote:
“Darkness will not defeat light... Moreover, the fascists, who had the audacity to recognize the pagan swastika as their banner instead of the cross of Christ, will not be defeated ... Let us not forget the words: “By this you conquer.” Not a swastika, but a cross is called to lead the Christian culture, our “Christian living”. In fascist Germany they say that Christianity has failed and is unsuitable for future world progress. This means that Germany, destined to rule the world of the future, must forget Christ and follow its own, new path. For these insane words, may the righteous Judge strike both Hitler and all his accomplices.
And the word was fulfilled. The Lord struck Hitler on the victorious pre-Easter and Easter days of April-May 1945.