First they came for the communists, then the socialists (social democrats in some versions), then the trade unionists, then the Jews, and then the Church.
It is important to understand that the Nazi extermination program against the Jews was not just your usual European anti-Semitism that had gone on for centuries, it was far worse than that. The Cultural Bolshevism propaganda painted the Jews as incipient to the ideas of communism, that Jews are core component to the communist ideology, that the Slavic Bolshevism represented a corruption of an inferior race by the Jewish conspiracy.
As such, to weed out communist ideology once and for all, the Jewish people had to be exterminated. Nazism was at its core an anti-communist ideology.
They did not came for the church. Both catholic and protestant churches overwhelmingly at least shut up if not supported nazi Germany. Some priests were persecuted but mostly because they were either personally politically opposed or, more frequently, they belonged to some undesirable cathegory.
Ironically, Jew were also painted as all that’s wrong with capitalism. The majority of German workers were anti capitalist at the time and vilifying the Jews got them on board.
First they came for the communists, then the socialists (social democrats in some versions), then the trade unionists, then the Jews, and then the Church.
It is important to understand that the Nazi extermination program against the Jews was not just your usual European anti-Semitism that had gone on for centuries, it was far worse than that. The Cultural Bolshevism propaganda painted the Jews as incipient to the ideas of communism, that Jews are core component to the communist ideology, that the Slavic Bolshevism represented a corruption of an inferior race by the Jewish conspiracy.
As such, to weed out communist ideology once and for all, the Jewish people had to be exterminated. Nazism was at its core an anti-communist ideology.
They did not came for the church. Both catholic and protestant churches overwhelmingly at least shut up if not supported nazi Germany. Some priests were persecuted but mostly because they were either personally politically opposed or, more frequently, they belonged to some undesirable cathegory.
Lots of nazis escaped at the end of the war through the Vatican and various churches iirc
Yeah, they came to church, not for
Great follow-up
Ironically, Jew were also painted as all that’s wrong with capitalism. The majority of German workers were anti capitalist at the time and vilifying the Jews got them on board.