I will admit my ignorance. Somehow I believed Hitler was a Germanic Pagan who dabbled in the occult and black magic. Turns out I was wrong, very wrong. Hitler was a Catholic Christian that often quoted scripture in his speeches and books. Look up ‘Religious views of Adolf Hitler’ on Wikiqoute.org to see for yourself.
Pointing out the similarities between what is happening today and during Hitler’s rise to power is not mere hysteria, but seriously urgent. There are just too many connections to ignore. From the failed assassination attempt, being protected by Providence, to the transformation of Jesus into a warrior figure fighting a battle against the evil ‘Woke Mind Virus’.
Musk and Bannon making Nazi Salutes, Musk supporting the AfD in Germany, the MAGA rally in Madison Square Garden, Nick Fuentes and Kanye meeting Trump. Immigrants, trans people, and Muslims being treated like trash, Universities targeted, law firms targeted, women, the media, the judiciary, and on and on. Just like Hitler, Maga and Project 2025 want to restore morality and prosperity to American life, they want to Make Germany, I mean, America Great Again.
We are not there yet, but all the signs are flashing bright blood red.
One of my former followers unfollowed me because he said I had been infected by the WMV. I graciously bid him farewell and reminded him to be careful that the door doesn’t hit him on the way out. At this stage of the game, I honestly couldn’t care less if people followed me or not. This work is way too important to be dictated to by how other people perceive what is going on.
I lived through Apartheid, so I can, and do speak with authority. My job is not to soften the blow or mollycoddle people with half truths and nothing but the truth. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry to say, but it’s not my problem.
Ignorance is not bliss.
Don’t forget that on Easter Sunday, 4/20, Hitler’s birthday, a decision will be made whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. 47 is also planning a huge military parade for 14 June, Trump’s birthday, the 250 year anniversary of the US military. The more things don’t work out because of incompetence, the more likely it is that Trump will resort to taking control by force.
I AM DOING THE LORD’S WORK – AH. For some reason, Catholics are not eager to claim Hitler.
Even today, when I refer to Hitler’s Catholicism in conversation or a speech, it immediately becomes apparent that I have said something “not quite nice,” and I am often challenged. Nontheists, I then explain, know that many modern tyrants, whether petty tyrants such as Richard Nixon, or more successful tyrants such as Hitler, have regarded themselves as exemplary Christians, an estimate their followers had no trouble accepting. Hitler’s religiosity — he was a Catholic until his death — is often glossed over, but it is critical in understanding his motivation.
Born and bred a Catholic, he grew up in a religion and in a culture that was anti-semitic, and in persecuting Jews, he repeatedly proclaimed he was doing the “Lord’s work.”
You will find it in Mein Kampf: “Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s Work.”
Hitler said it again at a Nazi Christmas celebration in 1926: “Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews … The work that Christ started but could not finish, I — Adolf Hitler — will conclude.”
In a Reichstag speech in 1938, Hitler again echoed the religious origins of his crusade. “I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord’s work.”
Hitler regarded himself as a Catholic until he died. “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so,” he told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals, in 1941.
There was really no reason for Hitler to doubt his good standing as a Catholic. The Catholic press in Germany was eager to curry his favor, and the princes of the Catholic Church never asked for his excommunication. Religions encourage their followers to hold authority in unquestioning respect; this is what makes devout religionists such wonderful dupes for dictators.
When Hitler narrowly escaped assassination in Munich in November, 1939, he gave the credit to providence. “Now I am completely content,” he exclaimed. “The fact that I left the Burgerbraukeller earlier than usual is a corroboration of Providence’s intention to let me reach my goal.” Catholic newspapers throughout the Reich echoed this, declaring that it was a miraculous working of providence that had protected their Fuhrer.
One cardinal, Michael Faulhaber, sent a telegram instructing that a Te Deum be sung in the cathedral of Munich, “to thank Divine Providence in the name of the archdiocese for the Fuhrer’s fortunate escape.” The Pope also sent his special personal congratulations!
Later the Pope was to publicly describe Hitler’s opposition to Russia as a “highminded gallantry in defense of the foundations of Christian culture.” Several German bishops openly supported Hitler’s invasion of Russia, calling it a “European crusade.” One bishop exhorted all Catholics to fight for “a victory that will allow Europe to breathe freely again and will promise all nations a new future.”
Biographer John Toland wrote of Hitler’s religion: “Still a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite detestation of its hierarchy, he carried within him its teaching that the Jew was the killer of god. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of god — so long as it was done impersonally, without cruelty.
Himmler was pleased to murder with mercy. He ordered technical experts to devise gas chambers which would eliminate masses of Jews efficiently and ‘humanely,’ then crowded the victims into boxcars and sent them east to stay in ghettos until the killing centers in Poland were completed.”
Jews, of course, were not the only “holy” victims. In Yugoslavia, Hitler installed a Croatian, Ante Pavelic, as his puppet, and Pavelic, a Catholic like Hitler, began extermination of the Serbs, who were Greek Orthodox.
The Vatican was not unaware of the massacres conducted in Yugoslavia in the name of Catholicism, but Pope Pius remained diplomatically quiet. In fact, one of his actions was to receive Ante Pavelic in private audience, thereby giving his blessing to this regime.
War’s causes, of course, are complex, but it would be difficult to overestimate the disastrous role religion played in World War II. Distrust, fear and hatred of Jews was a lesson Hitler learned early in life. It was taught by his church and reinforced by his culture. It became his obsession, his version of “the Lord’s work.” That Hitler, that supreme villain of the 20th century, could see himself, and be seen by others, as “providentially” guided, protected and inspired should certainly serve as an ominous clue to the dangers of religious belief.
Just as the Vatican umbrella could be maneuvered to shield the massacres of Serbs by Catholics in Yugoslavia, so can religion validate any behavior, any atrocity, any war.
Article written in 2004 by Anne Gaylor, founder and president emerita of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Excerpts not the full piece.
Mother Mary and Holy Child painting – Adolf Hitler 1913.
Apr 14, 2025 3:37:14 pm
