Religious Leaders, Priests, Pastors, and Clergy

(i.e.: Catholics, Christians, Lutherans, etc.)

Also known under the title of conscientious objectors or pacifists, religious authority figures represented many religions, even those religions in which Nazi’s had been baptized or raised. Like the Jewish people and the Jehovah Witnesses, these other religious figures were persecuted for refusing to embrace the Nazi state, criticizing the Nazi Regime’s policies, assisting Jews and other refugees, and pacifism (1). According to one source, Hitler wanted to wipe out organized religion and replace it with a worship of the Nazi ideology, something insupportable by religious leaders (2).

“4. Pastor Martin Niemoller is the originator of the now-famous quotation: “In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no one left to speak up for me (3).”

Punishments ranged from a few days in jail, street executions and brutality, concentration camp imprisonment, and executions (4)(5)(6). Hundreds of thousands were massacred in Soviet villages (7). In Poland, tens of thousands were killed in the AB-extraordinary Pacification Action (Ausserordentliche Befriedungs aktion), which included intellectuals and elites as well as Catholic priests (8). Dachau Concentration Camp had a special barracks reserved for clergymen, including pastors, priests, nuns, and other religious figures. A few of these prisoners survived the camps, some were executed, but many were starved to death or died of diseases (9). “On one occasion Mengele even sterilized a group of Polish nuns with an X-ray machine, leaving the celibate women horribly burned (10).”

As most religious affiliations, aside from Jewish or Jehovah’s Witnesses, were not recorded in concentration camp records, it is uncertain the full number of incarcerated or executed. However, Dachau had 2,579 Catholics and 141 ‘other’ religious prisoners, 1,034 who died in the camp, 132 who were transferred out or liquidated or exterminated, 314 who were released prior to the liberation of Dachau, and 1,240 who were liberated on April 29, 1945 (11).

Many of the deaths of these religious figures were listed officially as accidents or illness, however it is uncertain. The victims died under ‘mysterious’ circumstances while awaiting trial or serving their sentences (12).

Sources:

(1) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/details.php?lang=en&topic=0303 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(2) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(3) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, footnote page 110.

(4) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/details.php?lang=en&topic=0303 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(5) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(6) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(7) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(8) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(9) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(10) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/4b.html (accessed April 13, 2011).

(11) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/details.php?lang=en&topic=0303 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(12) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/faq/details.php?lang=en&topic=0303 (accessed April 13, 2011).