“Such an arrangement would be in line with the basic idea of the settlement originally worked out between the Party Chancery and the Reich Minister of the Interior.” (R-101-D)
The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the suppression of religious publications and interfered with free religious education. In a letter dated 27 September 1940, Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Fuehrer Bormann transmitted to Rosenberg a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian to Hess, dated 23 September 1940, which expresses the Gauleiter’s intense disapproval on Nazi ideological grounds of a religious pamphlet entitled “The Spirit and Soul of the Soldiers,” written by a Major General von Rabenau (064-PS). The Gauleiter urges that the religious writings of General von Rabenau be suppressed. Florian also discusses a conversation he had with General von Rabenau at the close of a lecture delivered by the General to a group of younger Army officers at Aachen. This conversation illumines the hostile attitude of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party toward the Christian churches:
“After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said, with emphasized self-assurance, something like the following: ‘Dear Gauleiter, the Party is making mistake after mistake in the business with the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Fuehrer and I guarantee that I shall succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all times.’ After this catastrophic ignorance, I gave up the conversation. Dear Party Member Hess: the reading of von Rabenau’s pamphlet ‘Spirit and Soul of the Soldier’ has reminded me again of this. In this brochure, Rabenau affirms the necessity of the Church straight-forward and clearly, even if it is prudently careful. He writes on page 28 ‘There could be more examples; they would suffice to show that a soldier in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.’ Because von Rabenau is falsely based spiritually, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs as dangerous, and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with absolutely and that the publication section of the NSDAP can and must renounce these writings * * * The churches with their Christianity are this danger against which the struggle must always be carried on.” (064-PS)
That the Party Chancellery shared the Gauleiter’s hostility to the Christian churches is further revealed by Bormann’s instruction to Rosenberg to “take action” on the Gauleiter’s recommendation that the General’s writings be suppressed. (064-PS)
Another letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, dated 8 March 1940, enclosed a copy of Bormann’s letter of the same date to Reichsleiter Amann (089-PS). Amann was a top member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Reichsleiter for the Press and Leader of the Party Publishing Company. In this letter to Amann, Bormann expressed his dismay and dissatisfaction that only 10 percent of the 3,000 Protestant periodicals in Germany had ceased publication for what are described as “paper saving” reasons. Bormann then advised Amann that “the distribution of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals” was barred (089-PS). Bormann also instructed Amann to make sharper restrictions in the distribution of paper against religious writings in favor of publications more acceptable to the Nazi ideology:
“I urge you [Bormann is addressing Reichsleiter Amann] to see to it in any redistribution of paper to be considered later that the confessional writing, which according to experiences so far gathered possesses very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance of the people toward the external foe receives still sharper restrictions in favor of literature, politically and ideologically more valuable.” (089-PS)
A further letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, dated 17 January 1940, expressed the Party’s opposition to the circulation of religious literature to the members of the German Armed Forces (101-PS). Pertinent excerpts from Bormann’s letter read as follows:
“Nearly all the districts [Gaue] report to me regularly that the churches of both confessions are administering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This administering finds its expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the spiritual leaders of the home congregations. These publications are, in part, very cleverly composed. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on the morale.
“I have, in the past, sought by sounding out the General Field Marshal, the High Command of the Armed Forces, and * * * Reich Director Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remains unsatisfactory. As Reichsleiter Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the * * * paper rationing has not been achieved because the paper * * * is being purchased on the open market.
“If the influencing of the soldiers by the church is to be effectively combatted, this will only be accomplished by producing many good publications in the shortest possible time under the supervision of the Party * * *.