The Catholic Church, led by Popes Pius XI (1922 to 1939) and Pius XII (1939 to 1958), confronted National Socialism from the rise of the Nazi Party through the Second World War. In the early 1930s, about one third of the German population was Catholic, and Catholic regions generally gave the Nazi Party lower electoral support than the national average. Although the Catholic-aligned Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act of 1933, the Church hierarchy and many Catholic leaders had criticized National Socialism since the 1920s, and numerous bishops issued formal condemnations of Nazi ideology.
The 1933 Reichskonkordat formally guaranteed Catholic rights, but the regime soon restricted Catholic institutions, closed schools and organizations, and targeted clergy and lay leaders, including those killed during the Night of the Long Knives. Pius XI's 1937 encyclical Mit brennender Sorge accused the government of violating the concordat and promoting hostility towards the Church. Persecution intensified in annexed and occupied territories during the war, particularly in Poland, Slovenia, and Austria, where many clergy were imprisoned or killed. Thousands of priests were held at Dachau, where more than 1,000 died.
Catholic responses to Nazism varied. Some clergy and laypeople resisted, while others remained passive. The Vatican used diplomatic channels to assist victims and advocate for peace, and Vatican Radio and other Catholic media outlets condemned Nazi atrocities. Historian Alan Bullock argued that the Church did not feel it was "possible to take up an attitude of open opposition to the regime", while Mary Fulbrook wrote that Christian belief often "proved compatible with at least passive acquiescence in, if not active support for, the Nazi dictatorship".Alan Bullock, Hitler, a Study in Tyranny. Harper Perennial edition (1991).Fulbrook (1991), pp. 80–81.
Catholics also played significant roles in rescuing Jews in several occupied countries by providing false documents, shelter, and diplomatic assistance. Pius XII's wartime actions remain debated, although he condemned racial persecution in public statements such as Summi Pontificatus and his 1942 Christmas Address. After the war, some individual clergy aided fleeing Nazis without institutional sanction, and the Vatican later acted to remove those involved.
Overview In the 1930s, about one third of the German population was Catholic, and political Catholicism remained an important force in the Weimar Republic. Catholic leaders criticized Nazi doctrine before 1933, and Catholic regions generally gave the Nazi Party lower electoral support than the national average. The Nazi Party first developed in largely Catholic Munich, where it initially attracted some Catholic backing,Ericksen, 2012, pp. 47–49 but this support declined after 1923. Following its reorganization in 1920, Nazism increasingly adopted positions hostile to Catholicism and by 1925 had a pronounced anti-Catholic character.Derek Hastings, Catholicism and the Roots of Nazism, Oxford Press, 2011, preface. In 1931, the German bishops endorsed a decision by the Bishop of Mainz to excommunicate Nazi leaders and to forbid Catholics in his diocese from joining the party, a measure that applied only to Catholics under his jurisdiction.Scholder, Klaus, The Churches and the Third Reich. 2 vols. Fortress Press, 1988 pp. 150–162.
After the Nazi electoral gains of 1932, Franz von Papen's negotiations and Kurt von Schleicher's unsuccessful efforts to maintain a government helped create the political situation that led Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor. In March 1933, amid political pressure and intimidationWilliam L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon & Schuster, 1959, pp. 188-204 following the Reichstag Fire Decree,Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship, p. 250 the Centre Party (led by Ludwig Kaas),William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1959, pp. 188–202 the Bavarian People's Party, and the German National People's Party (DNVP) voted for the Enabling Act after obtaining a written assurance that the president's veto power would be retained. The Centre Party's support was decisive, since the Nazi-DNVP coalition alone lacked the necessary votes, and the act marked Hitler's transition from constitutional chancellor to dictatorial rule.Ericksen, Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany, p. 52 By June 1933, the military and the churches were the only major institutions not fully brought under Nazi control.Evans 2005, p. 14
The Reichskonkordat of July 1933 between Germany and the Holy See pledged to respect Catholic autonomy and required clergy to abstain from political activity. Hitler welcomed the agreement, but the regime repeatedly violated its provisions in its broader struggle with the churches.*Evans, 2008, pp. 245–246 * Shirer, 1990, pp. 234–35 * Hamerow, 1997, p. 136 * Gill, 1994, p. 57 * Kershaw, 2008, p. 332 * Paul O'Shea; A Cross Too Heavy; Rosenberg Publishing; pp. 234–35 * Ian Kershaw; The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation; 4th Edn; Oxford University Press; New York; 2000"; pp. 210–11 * Peter Hoffmann; The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945; 3rd Edn (First English Edn); McDonald & Jane's; London; 1977; p. 14 After Hindenburg's death in August 1934, the Nazis claimed authority over all levels of government, and a referendum confirmed Hitler as Führer. The policy of Gleichschaltung then extended state control over collective and social life, including Catholic schools, youth organizations, workers' associations, and cultural groups.
According to Peter Stachura, most Nazi voters came from the rural and small-town Protestant middle class, while German Catholics predominantly supported the Centre Party and the Bavarian People's Party instead. Voting preferences in Weimar Germany were strongly shaped by social class and religion, and Catholics formed a distinct subculture that was often separated from the largely Protestant mainstream. This was partly as a result of the legacy of Kulturkampf and the Nazi Party's increasingly anti-Catholic identity.
Various senior Nazi officials, including Heinrich Himmler, Alfred Rosenberg, and Martin Bormann, sought to weaken or remove Christian influence in Germany, or to reshape it in line with their own views.*Sharkey, Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity, The New York Times, 13 January 2002 Griffin, Roger Fascism's relation to religion in Blamires, Cyprian, World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1, p. 10, ABC-CLIO, 2006: "There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it." Mosse, George Lachmann, Nazi culture: intellectual, cultural and social life in the Third Reich, p. 240, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2003: "Had the Nazis won the war their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the German Christians, to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and the Catholic Church." Shirer, William L., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p. 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: "the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists." Fischel, Jack R., Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust, p. 123, Scarecrow Press, 2010: "The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity or to turn Jesus into an Aryan." Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history, p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: "It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook." Wheaton, Eliot Barculo The Nazi revolution, 1933–1935: prelude to calamity:with a background survey of the Weimar era, pp. 290, 363, Doubleday 1968: The Nazis sought "to eradicate Christianity in Germany root and branch."Bendersky, Joseph W., A concise history of Nazi Germany, p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: "Consequently, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire." The government closed many Catholic institutions that were not strictly religious; Catholic schools had been shut by 1939, and the Catholic press was largely suppressed by 1941.Evans, 2005, pp. 245–246Hamerow, 1997, p. 136 Clergy, members of religious orders, and lay leaders were targeted, and thousands were arrested, often on charges such as currency offences or "immorality".Shirer, 1990, pp. 234–35
Germany's leading Catholic prelate, Adolf Cardinal Bertram, issued limited protests and left broader resistance largely to individual Catholics. The hierarchy, which had initially sought a degree of accommodation, was disillusioned by 1937. Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, which condemned racism and accused the regime of violating the Reichskonkordat and displaying "fundamental hostility" to the Church; the government responded with renewed repression and anti-Catholic propaganda.
Despite the occupation and harsh treatment of Catholic Poland, some German priests prayed publicly for the German war effort at the outbreak of the conflict. Security chief Reinhard Heydrich further tightened restrictions on Church activities, and the expropriation of monasteries, convents, and other Church properties increased in 1941. In the same year, Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen's sermons denouncing Nazi euthanasia and defending basic human rights prompted rare popular dissent. The German bishops also condemned state policy towards the Church in pastoral letters, describing it as "unjust oppression".Fest, 1997, p. 377The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942; pp. 74–80.
Eugenio Pacelli, formerly the papal nuncio to Germany, became Pope Pius XII shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. His legacy remains debated. As Vatican Secretary of State, he supported the Reichskonkordat and sought a diplomatic relationship with the German government. He contributed to the drafting of Mit brennender Sorge, and his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, described the invasion of Poland as an "hour of darkness". Although Pius XII affirmed Vatican neutrality, he maintained contacts with members of the German Resistance. Scholarly discussion continues regarding his reluctance to speak publicly and explicitly about Nazi crimes.Ventresca, 2013, p. 207
During the war, Pius XII used diplomatic channels to assist victims, advocated for peace, shared intelligence with the Allies, and employed Vatican Radio and other media to condemn atrocities. In Mystici corporis Christi (1943), he denounced the killing of disabled people, and the German bishops soon issued a pastoral letter condemning the murder of the "innocent and defenceless", including "people of a foreign race or descent".Evans, 2008, pp. 529–30 While Nazi antisemitism was grounded in racial ideology, older Christian-Jewish tensions contributed to broader European antisemitism. Under Pius XII, Catholic institutions rescued many thousands of Jews by issuing false documents, lobbying Axis officials, and sheltering fugitives in monasteries, convents, schools, and other Church properties, including the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo.