Confessing Church
Following the Nazi takeover, Hitler attempted the subjugation of the Protestant churches under a single Reich Church. He divided the Lutheran Church (Germany's main Protestant denomination) and instigated a brutal persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses, who refused military service and allegiance to Hitlerism. Pastor Martin Niemöller responded with the "Pastors Emergency League" which re-affirmed the Bible. The movement grew into the Confessing Church, from which some clergymen opposed the Nazi regime. By 1934, the Confessing Church had promulgated the Theological Declaration of Barmen and declared itself the legitimate Protestant Church of Germany. In response to the regime's attempt to establish a state church, in March 1935, the Confessing Church Synod announced: