Did Christianity fail Germany in WWII?
“Politics makes strange bedfellows.” (It happened in the Spanish civil war, too) As atheistic communism was seen as the greater evil, many in the Christian churches saw the National Socialists as at least the lesser of two evils, if not more: the hope of Christianity against atheism. And with practical success, and the rise of the international prestige of Germany 1933-38, there was as near a political consensus as many countries ever see. The Christian church was not monllithic in its response, and there were those opposed the Nazi attitudes and atrocities from the beginning to the end. But not the majority. The pre-nazi slogan on the role of women, Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church) was adopted by the Nazis, and this emphasis on tradition and family (with “church” quietly being de-emphasised) sat well with conservative Christians, compared to the alternatives. Revolution and change was something profoundly *not* to be desired. Remember also that anti-semitism was prese
