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In the summer of 1941 sermons by the Most Rev. Clemens August Count von Galen, Bishop of Mucnster in Westphalia, protesting publicly against the so-called “merey-killings” of the insane and other Nazi crimes, had met with a widespread response among German Catholics and Protestants. A propaganda department official had suggested on August 12 of that year that the Bishop be hanged, but Dr. .Joseph Goebbcls turned down his recommendation, and this was his reasoning:“It is to be feared,” he wrote in a memorandum, “that we could not count any longer on the people of the city of Muenster, and even of all Westphalia, if something were done against the Bishop.” In other words, the Catholics of Westphalia stood solidly behind their Bishop, as attested by Goebbels himself, and certainly were not in sympathy with the Nazi regime.Goebbels must have been fully aware of this, for the memorandum reveals that he had never been in favor of a frontal attack against the churches, such as the Nazi hot-heads had ‘successfully advocated. During the war, he argued, it was extremely difficult to take a stand against the churches.“A vengeance,” he explained cynically, “must never be enjoyed 'hot,’ but ‘coldly'!’’ During the war, he added, one should have behaved as though there were a loyal cooperation with the churches 011 the part, of the Nazi government. “But after the war,” lie said, “the Fuehrer would have announced in connection with the promulgation of the great social legislation that all the properties of the church now'belonged to theGerman people. Amidst the jubilation of victory and the joy over the social reconstruct ion after t lie war it would have been child’s play to carry out these measures.”Blind Convert Walks..mm
Newspaper Details
Monroe Bulletin
Monroe, Georgia, US
Sat, Dec 22, 1945
Page 23
Full Page
Clipped by
Muskingum C.
OH, USA 04 Nov 2019
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