Hitler's concordat (1933) : Text and background

• Reichskonkordat (with Hitler, 1933): Text with Secret Supplement
• Von Papen, papal chamberlain and Nazi concordat negotiator
• Pius XII, concordat negotiator and Holocaust pope
• Just another neutral state: The Vatican in the Holocaust
• The German churches before and after 1945
• German churches used slave labour
• Vatican anti-Judaism and Nazi anti-Semitism
• The “Jew’s sow” (Judensau) on mediaeval German churches
• “Mother's cross” and Maria cult
• Links to pictures of the Nazis and the churches
• Sainthood doublecross?

Fritz Hirschberger, a Holocaust survivor,
painted a Nazi officer and a faceless Cardinal (Pacelli)
standing on the body of a Jewish prisoner.
He titled it "The Concordat".
Cardinal Pacelli who negotiated the 1933 concordat
with Hitler later became Pope Pius XII.

It was a marriage of convenience between Hitler and the Vatican, one which disenfranchised the Catholic laymen. As Hitler cynically put it:

"We should trap the priests by their notorious greed and self indulgence. We shall thus be able to settle everything with them in perfect peace and harmony. I shall give them a few years' reprieve. Why should we quarrel? They will swallow anything in order to keep their material advantages. Matters will never come to a head. They will recognize a firm will, and we need only show them once or twice who is master. They will know which way the wind blows." [Quoted in Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (2000), pp. 25-26]

This marriage of convenience between Hitler and the Church hierarchy was deeply confusing to Catholics who looked to their church for guidance. Jared Israel explains the signals they received when Hitler was granted a concordat:

"Put yourself in the position of a 1933 German Catholic as you read the text of the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican, the Reichskonkordat.

"The German Catholic Church has rescinded its ban on joining the Nazi Party. The Catholic Centre party has dissolved itself. [And Articles 31 and 32 prevent any revival of this democratic Catholic party which had opposed the Nazis.] In the Reichskonkordat, the Vatican has promised that German Bishops and their subordinates will be obedient to and honour the Nazi state (Article 16). It has promised that German Catholic educators will teach children patriotic love for the Nazi state (Article 21). It has requested and received the Nazi dictatorship's promise to enforce internal Church decisions (Article 10). Cardinal Bertram of Breslau has called on Catholics to avoid all subversive or illegal (by Nazi definition) activities.

"How should you respond to the Nazi's new nightmare state? Doesn't the Catholic Church teach you to view Church officials as exemplary? Shouldn't they be emulated? Isn't the Pope's word law, and didn't the Pope sign the Reichskonkordat, an agreement with the Nazi dictatorship, that [in Article 16 contains this pledge for new bishops]:

In the performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the welfare and the interests of the German Reich, I will endeavour to avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it.

This concordat with Nazi Germany was negotiated by Cardinal Pacelli, who in 1939 became Pius XII. Undaunted by his wartime record, the Vatican is now attempting to have him declared a saint. In his ongoing canonisation process he has reached the venerable stage, which is Church certification that he was "heroic in virtue". Could this be a smokescreen of incense?

	Reichskonkordat (with Hitler, 1933): Full text
	Here is the complete text: Concordat, Supplementary Protocol and Secret Supplement. Article 27 of the Concordat provides for military chaplains in case the Germany re-armed in contravention of the Versailles Treaty, and the Secret Supplement exempted Catholic clergy from military service. Even today the Secret Supplement does not appear in most translations: the Church won't admit to knowing that Hitler was about to start a war.
	Just another neutral state: The Vatican in the Holocaust
	This short excerpt from a noted scholar of the Holocaust, Prof. R.S. Landau, depicts the behaviour of the State of the Vatican City as no different from that of any other neutral country anxious to avoid being attacked and to emerge on the winning side.
	German churches used slave labour during Nazi era
	Both German state churches are now known to have used slave labour during World War II, but only the Catholic Church refused to join the national compensation fund. Documents imply that the churches' slave labourers were sent to death camps when they were no longer useful and that they also knew about the death camps for the babies of the East European workers, yet said nothing.
	Von Papen, papal chamberlain and Nazi negotiator
	Franz Baron von Papen, negotiated the concordat on behalf of Germany. He faithfully served both Hitler and the pope, but escaped punishment at Nuremberg because his crimes were political.
	The German churches before and after 1945
	A strategic alliance between Hitler and the churches was sealed by the 1933 concordat. Overriding their differences was their shared antisemitism and common respect for authority. This work by Professor Johann Neumann, an authority on the German churches, is available in English for the first time.
	Links to two picture collections on the Nazis and the churches
	Links to Jim Walker's collection of photos, badges, paintings and mementos which show graphically how the church-state alliance permeated daily life in Nazi Germany. “The belt buckle” — a battlefield encounter with this belt buckle told by the son of a Russian soldier in the 1941-42 Siege of Moscow.
	Vatican anti-Judaism versus Nazi anti-Semitism: a subtle theological distinction
	To the mediaeval charges against Jews (of "killing Christ", resisting the Truth and hating Christians), in the 19th and 20th centuries the Church in added new ones (of Bolshevism, capitalist exploitation, rationalism, democracy and secularism). Unlike the Nazis, it generously did not blame them for their genes, however, it was inclined to leave the Jews to their fate.
	The Judensau (Jews' sow) on mediaeval churches
	The concordat alliance between Hitler and the Vatican was primarily directed to fighting communism, but the treaty partners also shared an antipathy to the Jews. Mediaeval tales of Jews poisoning wells were updated to claim that “Jewish Bolsheviks” were now poisoning society – and godless Jews, at that. As these sculptures show, the wellspring was Christian antisemitism.
	“Mother's cross” and Maria cult
	Hitler said that women's bodies belonged to the German people, while the Church averred that they were the property of the Holy Ghost. But this difference was theoretical: in practice, both meant that her body didn't belong to her and should therefore be used to produce the maximum number of soldiers and/or Catholics.
	Pope, Concordat and Holocaust
	This is a gateway to more than a dozen online articles about the the connections between Hitler, Pius XII and the concordat. “Intended as a shield for the church, the [concordat] lent Hitler international credibility, criminalised Catholic political activity [the Catholic Centrum Party], and demoralised bishops and priests who opposed Nazi rule.” Cardinal Faulhaber called the concordat a “handshake with the papacy”.
	Sainthood doublecross?
	Was Israel tricked into supporting sainthood for Hitler’s pope? An Israeli negotiator and a Catholic theologian both maintain that shortly after World War II the Vatican promised to recognise Israel if their diplomats and politicians would defend Pius XII against charges that he had turned his back on the Jews.