21 Nov. 45
churches. This (influence) must be
broken completely and finally."
"Only the Reich Government and by
its direction the Party, its components, and attached units have a
right to leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences
of astrologers, seers, and other fakers are eliminated and suppressed
by the State, so must the possibility of church influence also be
totally removed. Not until this has happened, does the State
leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then
are people and Reich secure in their existence or all the
future." (D-75)
And how the Party had been securing the Reich
from Christian influence, will be proved by such items as this
teletype from the Gestapo, Berlin, to the Gestapo, Nuremberg, on July
24, 1938. Let us hear their own account of events in Rottenburg.
"The Party on 23 July 1939 from
2100 on carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll.
Participants about 2500-3000 were brought in from outside by bus,
etc. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the
demonstration. This town took rather a hostile attitude to the
demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party
member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat
in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into
the palace, searched the rooms, threw files out of the windows and
rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was
ignited. Before the fire got to the other objects of equipment in the
rooms and the palace, the flaming bed could be thrown from the window
and the fire extinguished. The Bishop was with Archbishop Groeber of
Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at
prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested
those present. Bishop Groeber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was
grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth. Finally the intruders
realized that Bishop Groeber is not the one they are seeking. They
could then be persuaded to leave the building. After the evacuation
of the palace by the demonstrators I had an interview with Archbishop
Groeber who left Rottenburg in the night. Groeber wants to turn to
the Führer and Reich Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick, anew.
On the course of the action, the damage done as well as the homage of
the Rottenburg populace beginning today for the Bishop I shall
immediately hand in a full