Christianity: the last respectable bigotry in the U.S.

One of the most famous photographs of Hitler and is used as proof that Hitler was a Christian and the Christian Church was in cahoots with the Nazis to spread hate and violence.  This faulty logic is called guilt by association. The photograph was used to fool people, it did so, and more today than ever before. The supposed protestant minister's (he believed in the blue-eyed blond-haired Jesus) primary purpose was to mix the churches with National Socialism.  It did not work.

The photograph was taken in 1933 to celebrate Hitler's increased power. Mueller, the man, shaking hands with Hitler, was handpicked by Hitler. His beliefs were identical to Hitler's, and his job was to convert Germans into one new religion, which was a mixture of Hitler's religious beliefs and German Nationalism. That is why many photographs and pictures with Christian symbols and National Socialists Symbols mistakenly give the impression the two were working together. They were not. Below is a quick summary of Hitler's actions after the photograph. 

Since 2017, the world has had access to thousands of pages of information collected by the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.), the precursor to the C.I.A., used against the Nazis during Nuremberg. https://lawcollections.library.cornell.edu/nuremberg/catalog/nur:00773  "S.R. &3114.4/

The Nazi Master Plan/ Annex 4: The Persecution of the Christian Churches / Office of Strategic Services / Research and Analysis Branch / Draft for the War Crimes Staff/ Approved by the Prosecution Review Board / CONFIDENTIAL."  it is just over 90 pages. Although just a summary of the Nazi's actual beliefs. Below is a quick summary of the 90-page document. The numbers at the end of the reference are the page number in the document.  

• Germany intended to convert the country into a homogenous group for aggressive warfare. This required complete extirpation of Christianity and replacement with a purely racial religion tailored to fit the Nazi Party. (5,6)
• Within a couple of months of the Concordat signing, the 700,000 Evangelical Youth Group was dissolved. The new leader of the youth on November 5, 1934,  was announced: Balder Von Schreck ( a staunch atheist with hate toward Christianity). So far as this sector of the National Socialist party is concerned, the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist Movement". (6)
• The Nazis intended to remove any influence of churches as much as possible. This had to be done by slow and gradual encroachment and encouragement of the Positive Church. (7,8)
• Hitler, Rosenberg Goring, Goebbels, Hess, Baldur von Schirach, Frick, Rust, Kerrl and Schemm were the main Nazis in planning the extirpation. 
• There always existed a poor relationship between the Nazi party and the churches. This relation became dramatically worse as the Nazis gained power. 
• The Concordat legally guaranteed the Nazis would not interfere with the church. In reality, except for the Positive Church, they destroyed the churches. (19)
• Most members of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostal churches were placed in concentration camps. (26)
• The S.A. and Hitler Youth were used to interfere with the churches. This included the destruction of property, intimidation, and physical force. (29)
• The Nazis took over control of the German Evangelical Church. The German Christian was another name for the Positive Church. (30)
• Nazis took over the Norway Christian Churches and the entire Norwegian pastorate; with insignificant exceptions, all of the Norway Christian church leaders resigned on Easter 1942. (31)
• Smaller denominations were shut down quickly by directly attacking members personally:  refusing peddler's license, refusing a permit to practice as a midwife, dismissal of a postal clerk, refusal of the right to worship in the home, removal of children from home. (33)
• In Nov 1934, churches could be deprived of all financial support at the hands of the Nazis. (35)
• In 1935 bishops of the Catholic Church were notified that their correspondence and telephone calls were subject to constant surveillance by the church. (36) Numerous times, Nazis did this. (35)
• Reich Bishop Muller removed Dr. Niemoller from his pastorate German Evangelical Church.  (36) 
• Although the Nazi policy wanted to make criminals, not martyrs, out of Christians inside Germany, they did murder Klausener, Beck and, Probst in 1934. ( 41)
• Large numbers of Catholic Priests were murdered in Poland. (41,42)
• Looting, demonstrations, destroying church property, private offices, and physically threatening Bishop Dr, Sproll of Rottenberg occurred on several occasions by the S.A. and the Hitler Youth. This happened in 1938. (42)
• In 1935 Hitler Youth attempted to overturn the car of Archbishop Klein and spat on him. (46)
• After a political meeting ended in November 1938, a uniformed detachment arrived at the residence of Cardinal Faulhaber and started destroying his house and shouting, "Take the rotten traitor to Dachau." (47,48) This type of behavior continued for years. (48) 
• On October 8, 1948, the Nazis looted and damaged Cardinal Innitzer's residence and the episcopal chapel. In the process, a secretary was knocked unconscious. (49)
• In Vienna, October 7, 1938, Hitler Youth and the S.A. demonstrated singing "Down with Innitzer. Our Faith is Germany" (50)
• On October 15, 1938, a mob broke into the Cathedral Curia in Vienna, destroyed property, and threw the priest out the window. (50) 
• In June 1938, Cardinal Innitzer was attacked with rotten eggs, potatoes, and umbrellas. (51)
• In 1933 a nazi official, Bishop Wurm of Wurttemberg, and Bishop Meiser of Bavaria were put under house arrest. (52)
• In September 1943, a prominent protestant was arrested by the Gestapo. (52)
• In January 1937, nine pastors were arrested by the secret police. (52)
• On July 1, 1937, Pastor Martin Niemoller was put in prison. He spent eight months in jail when charges were dismissed, and he was freed. Upon leaving, the Gestapo arrested and placed him in a concentration camp until the Nazis surrendered. 
• In May of 1935, a prest of Koblenz-Neuendorf was put in prison. (53)
• In May 1936, a priest in Mannhein was imprisoned for four months for speaking critically of the Hitler youth. (54) 
• On April 16, under the guise of spiritual advice, supporters of the anti-Christian movement tricked the Parish priest into saying something negative about Rosenberg's book "The Myth of the Twentieth Century" Rosenberg was a Nazi atheist ideologue. Who created the Positive church. In Nazi Germany, saying something negative about an atheist resulted in one and half years in prison(54)
• On July 22, 1937, he was sentenced to six months in jail for preaching. (54) 
• The O.S.S. had limited information on the persecution of Christianity in Poland at that time. However, reports of imprisonment of large numbers of Christian leaders were reported. (56) Although the O.S.S. did not have the information, we now know Hitler slaughtered vast numbers of priests and nuns.
• The O.S.S. had minimal information on persecution of churches in Norway but had reports of many associated with the church being imprisoned. (56)
• in 1938, the Bishop of Rottenberg lost his job for failing to vote in the election in April. (57)
• In 1938 priest protested a denominational school's conversion into a Nazi community school and lost his job. (57)
• In 1938, many Polish churches were closed, sealed, or used as warehouses by the Germans. (59) 
• In 1937 German Government-imposed censorship of church literature and periodicals and forced the cessation of virtually all church periodicals. Some of the printing companies were closed for publishing. The brave Nazis were able to take into custody seven Catholic girls for distributing print materials. (62)
• In 1939 churches were not allowed to read the Encyclical by Pius XII.(63)
• Numerous confiscation of written materials from the churches. (63-67)
• Rosenberg, Hitler's right-hand man, demanded the Germans give up the Christian faith. Papers written by pastors to protest his demand were confiscated. (67)  
• When pastors read a manifesto against Alfred Rosenberg from their pulpits, 700 were arrested, and some were put in concentration camps. (67)
• Closing the theological school at the University of Munich in May 1939. (69)
• All seminaries in Austria were closed. (69) 
• In 1938 the theological seminary department at the University of Innsbruck, Canisiamm, and Salzburg was closed. (70) 
• In March of 1944, the last theological school was closed. (70)
• All religiously affiliated elementary and high schools in Germany were closed by 1940. (71-76) 
• In April 1935, all public activities of the Jesuits were stopped. All private activities of the Jesuits were to be monitored in Germany. (78 -79)
• "In 1939, the Missions Institute of St. Ruprechtin Kreuzberg (Salzburg) was dissolved by the Nazi authorities. The three houses of the "Society of Christ the King" in former Austrian territory were closed and its property confiscated. In the same year, the old Austrian 'Abbeys of Goettweig, Admont, and Engelszell were also appropriated. The Government took over all the leased property of the foundation of Klosterneuburg near Vienna. The Feldkirchner Hof, a hostel of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Feldkirchen near Klagenfurt was also confiscated by the Gestapo".(81) 
• All 700,000 Christian youth groups not associated with catholic youth groups were placed in Hitler Youth groups.  Balder von Scherick  stated: "The Hitler Youth will not compromise but will go on its own way, which must necessarily lead to the destruction of all other youth organizations." Quote from Koelnische Volkszeitung, January 14, 1934. (83)
• Balder von Schrick stated: "The incorporation of the Protestant Youth associations will some time or other be followed, and necessarily followed by that of the Catholic Youth at a time when all are abandoning their private interests, Catholic youth no longer have any right to lead a separate existence." Quote Schesisasche Volkszeitung March 29, 1934 (83)
• Dr. Werner was a Nazi collaborator who was put in place to control the Christian Churches. "On March 8, 1938, all the provincial churches were forbidden by Werner to make any regulations except in matters of faith or worship without his consent." Clearly, this was one of the principal agencies of National Socialist control over the Gerrman Evangelical. Church." (87)
• "Reich propaganda Ministry was a chief agency for the control of Nazi propaganda. It bears chief responsibility for the systematic campaign of defamation waged against the German clergy. It was also the direct agency for the issuance of certain orders for the censorship of Church publications. Sections or 'persons, particularly for carrying out this phase of the work of the Ministry cannot be determined here." (88)
• The Gestapo was used in all aspects of church persecution. (89)
• The S.S., S.A., and Hitler Youth were all used for the persecution of the churches. The Hitler Youth were employed in breaking up Christian Youth Movements and their indoctrination. (90) 
• Although the churches' persecution was most severe in Norway and Poland, the people responsible could not be determined for the Nuremberg Trial. (90), 

The brave Nazis released the seven Catholic girls who distributed church materials; weren't they kind?http://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=nur:01562#page/16/mode/1up

• Borman declared that confiscated property from the churches in monasteries belonged to the Reich. Schirach insisted on no compensation for the properties.(16)
• Schirach received a letter from the dean of theological faculty in Vienna reporting persecution of the Catholic priests. (16)

http://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=nur:00541#page/61/mode/1up