The Confessing Church (German: Bekennende Kirche) was a Christian resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups dedicated to fighting an Invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers In 1933 the Gleichschaltung forced Protestant churches to merge into the Protestant Reich Church and support Nazi ideology. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Gleichschaltung, meaning "coordination" "making the same" "bringing into line" is a Nazi term for the process by which the Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reich Church ( Reichskirche) was formed by Adolf Hitler in 1933 by merging 28 regional churches into one Church Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Opposition was forced to go "underground" to meet, and created the Pfarrernotbund that September. In 1934 the Barmen declaration, primarily authored by Karl Barth, with the input of other Confessing Church pastors and congregations, was ratified at the Barmen Synod through which it was re-affirmed that the German Church was not an "organ of the State" for the purpose of strengthening Nazi agendum but only subject to Christ and his mission. Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Barmen Declaration or The Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 is a statement of the Confessing Church opposing the Nazi-supported "German-Christian" Karl Barth ( May 10, 1886 &ndash December 10, 1968) (pronounced "bart" a Swiss Reformed theologian was one

Some of the leaders of the Confessing Church, such as Martin Niemöller, were sent to concentration camps, and some died there, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was sent to Tegel Prison, then to Buchenwald concentration camp, and later to Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he was hanged. Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 &ndash 6 March 1984 was a prominent German anti-Nazi Theologian and Lutheran pastor Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial Dietrich Bonhoeffer ˈdiːtrɪç ˈboːnhøfɐ ( February 4, 1906 &ndash April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran Buchenwald concentration camp (German Konzentrationslager or 'KZ' Buchenwald) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain near Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel (SS Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Christians who did not agree with the Nazis were left without leadership. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings The Confessing Church engaged in various forms of resistance, notably hiding Jews^[1] from the Nazi regime. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The Confessing Church is a unique example of a crypto-Christian movement operating in a majority Christian country. Crypto-Christianity commonly refers to the secret practice of the Christian Religion, usually while attempting to camouflage it as another faith or observing the rituals

Some members of the Confessing Church risked their lives to help Jews hiding illegally in Berlin during the war. A hat would be passed around at the end of church services into which the congregation would donate identity cards and passbooks. These were then modified by forgers and given to underground Jews so they could pass as legal Berlin citizens. ^[2]. Several members of the Confessing Church were caught and tried for their part in creating forged papers, including Franz Kaufmann who was shot, and Helene Jacobs, who was jailed^[3]. Franz Kaufmann (1886–1944 was a German Jurist and victim of the Holocaust.

Most members of the Confessing Church, however, were relatively cautious and strategic in their protests. A few urged more radical and risky action in the presence of genocide. Daniel Goldhagen, in his book Hitler's Willing Executioners, describes Berlin Deaconess Marga Meusel as a Christian offering “perhaps the most impassioned, the bluntest, the most detailed and most damning of the protests against the silence of the Christian churches” because she went the furthest in speaking on behalf of the Jews. Another Confessing Church member unusual in his speaking-out against antisemtisim was Hans Ehrenberg. Hans Philipp Ehrenberg ( 4 June 1883, Altona - 31 August 1958, Heidelberg) was a German theologian

Meusel and two other leading women members of the Confessing Church in Berlin, Elisabeth Schmitz and Gertrud Staewen, were members of the Berlin parish where Martin Niemöller served as Pastor. Her efforts to prod the church to speak out for the Jews were unsuccessful and Meusel and Bonhoeffer condemned the failure of the Confessing Church — which was organized specifically in resistance to the Nazis — to move beyond a very limited concern for their church and its Jewish converts to advocacy for all people and especially those suffering the most. Meusel responded to the Confessing Church's timid action in 1935 by saying: “Why does the church do nothing? Why does it allow unspeakable injustice to occur? …What shall we one day answer to the question, where is thy brother Abel? The only answer that will be left to us, as well as to the Confessing Church, is the answer of Cain. " ("Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9)

Karl Barth also wrote in 1935: "For the millions that suffer unjustly, the Confessing Church does not yet have a heart. "^[4]

References

External links

• The Confessing Church at the Columbia Encyclopedia