Title: Resisting the Third Reich : the Catholic clergy in Hitler's Berlin /
Authors: Spicer, Kevin P., 1965-
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Catholic Church. History; Catholic Church Germany Berlin Region Clergy History; Church and state Germany History; National socialism and religion; Berlin Region (Germany) Church history
Abstract: "When Nazism swept Germany, how did religious leaders respond to attacks not only on their fellow citizens and their government but on their faith as well? Despite charges of complacency, most of the Catholic clergy of the Berlin diocese in fact maintained a quiet resistance to the Nazi regime by offering their parishioners an alternative to National Socialism. In thus broadening the definition of resistance, Kevin Spicer shows why Nazism was so powerfully alluring in the first place. It provided - indeed demanded - a total way of life, encompassing rituals and social belonging, personal identity and charismatic leadership, moral values and a sense of purpose. In a word, it was a religion."
Contents: Initial encounters -- Guiding the flock -- Negotiating pastoral care -- Serving the home front -- Jews and the diocese of Berlin -- For the glory of the Führer: Brown priests -- The unique path of Bernhard Lichtenberg.