21 Nov. 45
report, after I am in the act of
suppressing counter mass meetings...
"In case the Führer has
instructions to give in this matter, I request that these be
transmitted most quickly...." (848-PS)
Later, Defendant Rosenberg wrote to Bormann
reviewing the proposal of Kerrl as Church Minister to place the
Protestant Church under State tutelage and proclaim Hitler its
supreme head. Rosenberg was opposed, hinting that nazism was to
suppress the Christian Church completely after the war (See also
098-PS).
The persecution of all pacifist and dissenting sects, such as
Jehovah's Witnesses and the Pentecostal Association, was peculiarly
relentless and cruel. The policy toward the Evangelical Churches,
however, was to use their influence for the Nazis' own purposes. In
September 1933 Mueller was appointed the Führer's representative
with power to deal with the "affairs of the Evangelical
Church" in its relations to the State. Eventually, steps were
taken to create a Reich Bishop vested with power to control this
Church. A long conflict followed, Pastor Niemöller was sent to
concentration camp, and extended interference with the internal
discipline and administration of the churches occurred.
A most intense drive was directed against the
Roman Catholic Church. After a strategic concordat with the Holy See,
signed in July 1933 in Rome, which never was observed by the Nazi
Party, a long and persistent persecution of the Catholic Church, its
priesthood, and its members, was carried out. Church schools and
educational institutions were suppressed or subjected to requirements
of Nazi teaching inconsistent with the Christian faith. The property
of the Church was confiscated and inspired vandalism directed against
Church property was left unpunished. Religious instruction was
impeded and the exercise of religion made difficult. Priests and
bishops were laid upon, riots were stimulated to harass them, and
many were sent to concentration camps.
After occupation of foreign soil, these persecutions went on with
greater vigor than ever. We will present to you from the files of the
Vatican the earnest protests made by the Vatican to Ribbentrop
summarizing the persecutions to which the priesthood and the Church
had been subjected in this twentieth century under the Nazi regime.
Ribbentrop never answered them. He could not deny. He dared not
justify.
I now come to "Crimes against the
Jews."
THE PRESIDENT: We shall now take our noon recess.
[A recess was taken until 1400
hours.]