sep 1, 1943 - 1943 report: The Atlantic: Prince Hubertus Zu Loewenstein: Fascism and Christianity. German Church opposition and appeasement of fascism

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In this 1943 report, Prince Hubertus Zu Loewenstein reported on the Nazi repression of Catholic Center Party, the resistance of German church hierarchy and ministers at the church level, protesting and preaching against Nazi fascism and its war of terror across Germany against opponents, against ethnic groups and Jewish people, and across Europe.

Other sources such as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum suggest that this resistance was in reality mixed with sympathy and appeasement, in a Kirchenkampf, or "church struggle" within German Protestantism—an ongoing debate and struggle for control between those who sought a "nazified" church, those who opposed it, and the so-called "neutral" church leaders whose priority was the avoidance both of church schism and any kind of conflict with the Nazi state.

He noted that in Italy, the church organization preferred to appease Mussolini; or at most, to call the matter settled and demand no more as long as Mussolini himself was removed.

He notes that "There are still sections of world Christianity which, fearing the awakening of the peoples, favor some kind of fascism to check the rising tide of revolutionary democracy."

When he visited the US in 1935, he found that German-American Catholics were reluctant to commit themselves concerning Hitler and Nazi Germany. "At a time when tens of thousands of Christians filled Nazi concentration camps, German-American Catholics were told by local organizers that unconditional opposition to Hitlerism was inspired by 'Jewish propaganda' or was suspect of 'Bolshevism.'

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A descendant of an old German family and a devout Catholic, PRINCE HUBERTUS ZU LOEWENSTEIN was a leader of the Catholic Youth Movement in Germany. He has fought Nazism unceasingly, and his books and lectures have been rallying points for young Catholics here and in Europe.

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