ant or Catholic..." [2]

To those Church circles that raised their voices in protest this totalitarian
structure of the Nazi regime presented a double threat to the very existence
of the Church. First, the pseudo-religious and pseudomessianic character of
Nazism was calculated to weaken the Church from within and to mislead the
Christian community, especially its youth. It became increasingly clear to
these circles that the Nazi racial doctrine - which Hitler and also the
"Deutsche Christen" had called positive Christianity in their first
formulation as early as 5 May 1932 - constituted a kind of additional
gospel of messianic redemption that ostensibly strengthened Christianity
as an institution and as a religion of revelation. Secondly, this pseudo-
messianic and pseudo-religious authority that the Nazi regime arrogated to
itself was able by means of its repressive measures to curtail the influence
of the Church and even to reduce it to silence. This danger was perceived at
an early date by the "Bekenntnissynode der Deutschen Evangelischen Kirche" in
its Botschaft (Part I, par 2, 5) adopted by the Conference held in Berlin-
Dahlem 19-20 October 1934, which stated:
<II>
"The National Church that the Reich's bishop has in view under the slogan:
One State - one People - one Church, simply means that the Gospel is no
longer valid for the German Evangelical Church and that the mission of the
Church is delivered to the powers of this world.... The introduction of the
Fuehrer principle into the Church and the demand of unconditional obedience
based upon this principle are contrary to the Word of Scripture and bind the
officials of the Church to the Church regiment instead of to Christ... [3]

Towards the end of the period that is dealt with in the sources collected in
this volume, in the year 1943, we also meet with a clear expression of the
Church's opposition to this pseudo-religious and pseudo-messianic character
of Nazism in the "Pastoral concerning National Socialist Philosophy" that
was sent in Holland:

... to parochial church councillors to give them the necessary basis for
their opposition in the struggle against National Socialist ideology, and
especially against the intangible, but all the more dangerous religious
ideas and expressions of National Socialism which will exercise an influence
even after the war."

In its penetrating analysis