IF the people had known what he was about , they would not have "embraced" him....

they were decieved...lied to..about what he was really up to...that is why many were ashamed later...

Whatever you say.

24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the morality and moral sense of the German race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health from within only on the principle: the common interest before self-interest.

No one knew...right.

Krimsa.......... have a good day.

You to MS.

I find out of this discussion, the important thing for me is that I think most can agree that Hitler was an evil individual unfortunately as is the case with most dictators, he had the power to influence people and blind them to his real intent.

It is not so hard to imagine how people could be decieved by such a person. After surviving one world war, overpopulation, financial hardships, people are likely to accept anything that gives them hope. People will also refuse to see what they do not agree with in order to survive. It is human nature, it is not pleasant, but it happens.

Hitler had his own version of the bible, it is clear that his intent was to replace the bible with that, in effect people would be following him not Jesus. That does not represent Christianity to me, not in any shape or form.

To say Jesus is Aryan is ridiculous. That race is merely a theory. One cannot change who Jesus was and is, and still claim to be a real Christian.

Whatever man does, or does not do in the name of religion, it does not change who God is for a person of faith.

For those who do not have faith, that is their right and it is not my intent to debate that.

I dont think anyone is debating individual interpretations of scripture. If we actually sat down and attempted to discern how each individual Christian processes the bible and his or her own faith, we might go insane.

The only reason I jumped in on this thread was to dispel some blatant fallacies and misrepresented historical information.

I make no apologies for that as I do this routinely on forum. I have an educational background in such matters.

Hitler was Catholic

I remember in 4th grade in Germany many of the students asked how could we as a people have cooperated with such a person. The teacher took it to another step and taught us how fascism works and introduced us to a experiment an Californian History teacher used and named "The Wave". His experiment that went out of control later became a best selling novel and a movie in the 80's to watch. It also became later a requirement throughout Germany to understand how dangerous such practices can become. If you want to know more about "The Wave" then google it. You will find it interesting and if you haven't watch the movie yet, I am sure you will find this amusing also.

One has to remember that after WWI, Germany was not doing very well economically and socially. People were hungry and the former SPD and CDU political parties were not giving any solutions to the problem. Hitler at the time was great speechest and offered solutions to motivate the people of the country to be proud of their race. One has to think he had alot of time to think about it when he wrote the book "Mein Kampf". - My Struggle" - In the end he provided jobs, money, food, and motivated the Germans to be proud of their race. For that I am thankful, because my grandparents managed to survive these times. When rules started to change in the country at a fast rate, he managed to take even more control of the government and went on a rampage of who should live or not. He didn't only wanted to kill jews, but also gypsies, and people who were crippled German or not! He wanted a country full of perfect people. Of course as Winx said the Germans didn't know what his true intentions were until it was to late to do anything about it. Not that no one tried. There are many stories of how Germans tried to assassinate Hitler but failed.

I remember my grandmother saying he and the SS Troops were brutal to those who didn't believe in his idealogy. If you didn't say "Heil Hitler" in their pressence the SS troop can shoot you on the spot. What choice would you have if you were forced to obey? Either obey or die.

We must also not forget there were many Germans who tried their best to topple the Nazi regime, but failed. Hitler was no fool in this sense and knew that many will try to assassinate him. He pretty much had that under control at the time he ruled.

Now concerning the religous point of view on this matter, one has to remember that at the time he got in power Germans had nothing but religion to lean on. It was their salvation to find hope for better times. Hitler used Religion as a answer to their prayers and I personally think he went even that far as to claim he is a God himself at one point or another. He was well versed with not only with the Catholic religion, but as of other older religions that existed. The nazi symbol comes from an Egyptian symbol, which indicates he even studied Ancient Egyptian Mythology at one time or another.

With hope for a country that had nothing was the only solution to have something in the end. Unfortunately greed got in the way and left millions of people in misery.

Today regardless of what you think of Germans, I am proud of my nationality. We have great philosophers, musicians, inventors, scholars, and we are considered the third strongest economy in the world. Not only do we have universal health care and education, we have a system that takes care of the people. We believe Health and Education is not a privilige, but a must for everyone in the country to have. College and University doesn't cost a cent, except for books and is equivalent to an American Degree. We have a health care system that the world envies. I can get a heart transplant without worrying about how much money I have to pay for this operation. I can get a education with a degree without leaving in a great debt of payments. I can go on and on about the greatness of Germany today, but I will leave it at that.

In the long run the message of this argument that has been going on for days in this thread is that "The Study of Intolerance" can be very dangerous and I hope that you as the reader here can teach the younger generation that it has no place in our world.

Regardless if Hitler was a Catholic, Atheist, or a Eygptian Pharoah in his mind he knew exactly how to motivate a country that had lost much hope in themselves after losing in the first war.

I have no personal problem with German Christians or Catholics today. Hopefully nobody misinterpreted this data in that sense. Im also not going to sit here and worry about each and every personal internalization of this information. Thats not really my responsibility.

It is what it is.

"Those Who Ignore History are Destined to Repeat It"

Thank you very much for sharing that smiles.

I did not elaborate on my thoughts too much because I did not want you or anyone else to be offended. I often wondered as an 'idealistic' teenager how a woman would be able to tolerate her husband being a part of that, and be able to allow her young sons to be part of that regime.

As I have learnt over the years, life is not that simple, and I am sure many did what they felt they had to in order to survive. We cannot judge them for that until we have walked in their shoes.

"Today regardless of what you think of Germans, I am proud of my nationality. We have great philosophers, musicians, inventors, scholars, and we are considered the third strongest economy in the world. Not only do we have universal health care and education, we have a system that takes care of the people. We believe Health and Education is not a privilige, but a must for everyone in the country to have. College and University doesn't cost a cent, except for books and is equivalent to an American Degree. We have a health care system that the world envies. I can get a heart transplant without worrying about how much money I have to pay for this operation. I can get a education with a degree without leaving in a great debt of payments. I can go on and on about the greatness of Germany today, but I will leave it at that"

You should be rightly proud of your country!

It truly was a horrible war and I have sat down with veterans of both world war 1 and 2 in pubs drinking german beer discussing events that you don't read in history books.

I remember now that it is almost Christmas time, I had a friend who at the time was 92 and I was 18. lol

They actually got together around a huge round oak table with a bell on it. They were over 20 and each year one would die and they would put a x on the huge billboard. Today no one is alive from that group as I am 40 now.

He said he was stationed in Morroco in WW2 and the enemy at the time was only a few miles away. In the day time they would exchange bullets and at night time they would have soccer competitions. They would lay down their weapons and go play some soccer keeping score of the games throughout the war.

At Christmas (only at night) they would exchange Christmas songs while sitting in the ditches.

He said nobody really wanted to fight, but they had to when the high official officers would pay them visits.

Now I am certain that cannot be read in a history book unless a surviving member writes about it one day.

We studied "The Wave" in school. It was actually quite informative. It gave a basic understanding of what can take place on an emotional and psychological level. However it did not touch upon the element of religion and the integral role it played in Hitler's rise to power. .

There must have been something about this man.
Many eyewitnesses of his speeches claimed to have been moved beyond any other experience, but upon being asked what he said they could not for their life remember a word.

He was VERY loud and projected himself well. He had a gift for public speaking, there is no doubt about it. That was something he always possessed, even when he was younger. He had an ability to motivate poeople to action verbally.

You clearly have never been hungry before

When you get to that stage where your stomach starts eating its own intestines then a speech to bring hope for work, food, money, and a chance to raise a family always sounds good.

If it was only that then you would remember what he said.
I do think the man had charisma of some sort, and what he said was unimportant. That's the way I understand it.
My granny claims until today that as soon as she left the venue where he was speaking she could not remember what he said or what he was talking about.

Smiless,

Winx didn't say that.

Thank you for the educational post.

My cousin is married to a German woman and they live in Germany. I have heard how well the educational system has treated his children. Sadly, my cousin is being taken care of now by their health care system. He was in bad car accident.

Thats very true. That was also how Christianity was used as an additional dagger. There was already a climate of mounting hate being directed towards the Jewish populace since WW1 so Hitler simply used religion in order to further create a divide and nurture the "Us against them" mindset.

My pleasure and I hope that education becomes priority for the world.

I am sorry for your cousin. I hope he will get better soon.

He gave an adrenaline power to believe one can actually live a life worth living for. That was his ability to transform a sad society into a economy that brought in the luxuries everyone wishes to have.

Thank you. I hear they're taking good care of him.

This is what I didn't say in your post, "Of course as Winx said the Germans didn't know what his true intentions were until it was to late to do anything about it." Just wanted to clear that up.