Nazism and the Christian Heritage: Robert Carr Draws Uncomfortable Parallels between Christianity and Nazism

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At first sight, the very idea that Nazism bears any relation to Christianity seems absurd. Yet before dismissing such an idea, we have we consider certain similarities. Certainly there were marked Christian influences on Nazism. This article will look specifically at the expression of Nazi anti-Semitism.

Christian Anti-Semitism

Nazi Germany was both a product of, and established in, Christian Europe. The Fuhrer himself was educated in the strictest of Catholic institutions-a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria. More than that, he'd been a church chorister. Without doubt, childhood experiences help to mould adulthood. Christian influences certainly remained important in Hitler's life: his favourite bed-time reading was Martin Luther. Luther had particular advice to offer concerning those who had failed to follow Christ-the Jews. Luther urged Christian action against them, including concentrating them in certain areas, drowning Jewish individuals and even wholesale murder:

   We are at fault in not avenging
   all this innocent blood of our
   Lord and the blood of the
   children they have shed since
   then (which still shines forth
   from their eyes …