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The Concordat<\/strong> between the Church and Nazi Germany came after intense pressure<\/strong> from Hitler and was signed to guarantee religious freedom. The Nazi Reich continued to sign treaties with France and England<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On July 20th, the anniversary of the concordat between the Church and Nazi Germany<\/strong><\/mark> was commemorated in Germany.<\/p>\n Signed on July 20, 1933, the political significance of this act is widely overestimated<\/strong> in an anti-clerical sense.<\/p>\n It is argued that by signing the Concordat (in German “Reichskonkordat”<\/i>), the Vatican accommodated<\/strong> the ideology of National Socialism, thereby providing recognition<\/strong> to the German Reich and helping<\/strong> Hitler gain international prestige after his rise to power.<\/p>\n But is this really the case?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n First of all, there is no evidence of the international isolation<\/strong> of Germany; on the contrary, the opposite was true!<\/p>\n Five days before the signing of the Concordat between the Vatican and Nazi Germany, the so-called “Four-Power Pact”<\/strong> (or “Pact of the Four Powers”) was concluded in Rome, a treaty of consensus and cooperation between Great Britain<\/strong>, France<\/strong>, fascist Italy<\/strong>, and Nazi Germany<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Shortly before the signing of the “Reichskonkordat”<\/em>, Germany had also signed similar agreements with the major German Protestant denominations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Between 1933 and 1939, the German Reich<\/strong> concluded no fewer than three multilateral treaties<\/strong> and 40 bilateral international treaties<\/strong> with 21 states.<\/p>\n It cannot be assumed that European states modeled<\/strong> their foreign policies toward Germany based on the Vatican\u2019s actions. The content of the Concordat between the Church and Nazi Germany included the protection of denominational schools<\/strong> and a ban on political party activities<\/strong> by clergy and church associations.<\/p>\n Issues that were irrelevant<\/strong> and of no interest to most European states.<\/p>\n Moreover, Britain and France, the two main powers of Western Europe, had been negotiating<\/strong> with Hitler\u2019s Germany since April 1933 and continued to do so afterward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n In 1936, former British Prime Minister Lloyd George<\/strong> met Adolf Hitler<\/strong> and was so impressed that he called him “the greatest living German” and “the George Washington of Germany.” Even in May 1938<\/strong>, when Nazi antisemitism was blatantly obvious, the English national football team<\/strong> performed the Nazi salute before an international match in Hamburg.<\/p>\n No condemnations<\/strong> of Nazi totalitarian oppression and antisemitism came even from French politicians.<\/p>\n By contrast, it was the Vatican that in 1934<\/strong> had already established a scientific commission to study a resolution based on “racism, fascism, totalitarianism, and Bolshevism,” whose results were incorporated into Vatican statements in subsequent years. Particularly in the “Mit brennender Sorge<\/strong>“<\/i>, a harsh indictment of Germany unusually written in German.<\/p>\n Four years later, on September 6, 1938, Pope Pius XI<\/strong> famously stated: \u201cFor Christ and in Christ we are spiritual descendants of Abraham. No, it is impossible to partake in antisemitism<\/strong>, to share it. Antisemitism is inadmissible. We are spiritually Semitic<\/strong>.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Already in 1934, German bishops, led by Cardinal von Faulhaber<\/strong>, defended Christianity\u2019s Jewish origins and rejected Nazi pagan racism<\/strong>. Their sermons, published under the title “Judentum, Christentum, Germanentum”<\/i>, were widely disseminated across Germany.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Regarding the Concordat between the Church and Nazi Germany, explains Robert S. Wistrich<\/strong>, one of the foremost historians of antisemitism (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), \u201cthe Vatican believed it would help guarantee religious freedom<\/strong> and the legal status of the Catholic minority in the Third Reich.\u201d<\/i>1<\/a><\/sup>R. Wistrich<\/b>, “Hitler and the Holocaust”<\/i>, Rizzoli 2003<\/span>.<\/p>\n It was certainly not a blessing of the political system; indeed, Wistrich acknowledges that the Church \u201cshowed resistance<\/strong> to the enterprise and seductions of Nazi ideology.\u201d<\/i>2<\/a><\/sup>R. Wistrich<\/b>, “Hitler and the Holocaust”<\/i>, Rizzoli 2003<\/span>. It was customary for the Holy See to deal with all possible partners \u2013 even totalitarian regimes \u2013 to protect itself and ensure spiritual care.<\/p>\n Furthermore, it should be noted that the Concordat<\/strong> was concluded with the then President of the Republic, Paul von Hindenburg<\/strong>, through the mediation of Franz von Papen. Not with Hitler<\/strong>, who had been Reich Chancellor for only six months and, although already implementing terrible measures, the horror he would bring was yet to come.<\/p>\n It must also be considered that initially Pope Pius XI<\/strong> saw Hitler as a possible enemy of Communist Bolshevism<\/strong>, the real persecutor of the Church at that time. He included this “anti-communist praise” for the F\u00fchrer in some audiences in March 1933, only to completely revise<\/strong> it two months later when he realized the growing repression by Hitler against politicians, officials, and Catholic clergy3<\/a><\/sup>T. Schulze<\/b>, “Anticommunism as a political guideline of the Vatican? The Holy See and the Nazi regime in 1933”<\/i>, Vierteljahrshefte f\u00fcr Zeitgeschichte 2012, pp. 353\u2013379<\/span>.<\/p>\n However, Pius XI signed the Concordat and, as we wrote some years ago<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli<\/strong> (future Pius XII), revealed to the British embassy that the treaty was like \u201ca gun held to their head with no alternative.\u201d<\/i>4<\/a><\/sup>cited in A. Tornielli<\/b>, \u201cPius XII. Eugenio Pacelli, a man on the throne of Peter\u201d<\/i>, Mondadori 2007, p. 195<\/span>.<\/p>\n Indeed, in the weeks preceding the Concordat, the Nazi regime exerted explicit pressure on the Vatican<\/strong> by imprisoning 92 priests, closing various Catholic newspapers and clubs5<\/a><\/sup>A. Tornielli<\/b>, “Pius XII. The Pope of the Jews”<\/i>, Piemme 2002, p. 78<\/span>.<\/p>\n
\nNazi Germany signed treaties across Europe<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
France, Britain, and praise for Hitler<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Concordat aimed at safeguarding religious freedom<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n