German Catholic Bishops and the Holocaust, 1940-1952

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 150.131.192.151 on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 05:56:07 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions German Catholic Bishops and the Holocaust, 1940-1952 Frank M. Buscher Christian Brothers College Michael Phayer Marquette UniversityThe first "intentionalist versus functionalist" debate took place, in a sense, among German bishops immediately after World War II when they agonized over a statement on the Holocaust.1 During the four decades that have elapsed since then, these churchmen have been praised and condemned in historical writing and in belles-lettres for their opposition to National Socialism or their insensitivity in the face of the Holocaust.2 Here we focus on the moral consciousness of German churchmen as they confronted the evil of Nazism at its height and during the years immediately thereafter when the perpetrators of the Holocaust were being brought to justice.The bishops' moral authority is the premise upon which we pose serial questions. During the Nazi era German Catholics readily acknowledged their bishops' authority to address moral questions, and after the collapse of the Third Reich high-ranking occupational personnel sought to enlist churchmen in the moral re-education of the German people. What, then, did the bishops know about the Holocaust? What did they think they should do about it and what did they do? What did they have to say about atrocities once Allied occupational authorities confronted the German nation with them? What did they propose as punishment for the perpetrators? While we do not wish to suggest that each of these questions has but one, simple answer, we shall argue here that German bishops failed both during and after the Holocaust to exercise their authority effectively and constructively.The questions we raise here touch upon basic issues. Flow could German society allow their government to engage in genocide? After the war, why did Germans resist the punishment of those who had participated in the This content downloaded from 150.131.192.151 on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 05:56:07 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GERMAN STUDIES REVIEWHolocaust? We propose that dealing with German bishops as a subgroup throughout the decade of the 1 940s pays a double dividend. It offers us greater insight into German society at the time of the Holocaust, and an interpretation as to why its reform afterward failed. Let us explore these concepts in turn.With the publication of the most recent volumes in Series A of the Veroffentlichungen der Kommission fur Zeitgeschichte a mass documentary material bearing on the question of the Nazi atrocities in the minds of Germany's bishops during the war became available. Indeed, much, i...