like clothing, to assemble publicly with pennants and flags, to wear insignia as a substitute for uniforms, or to engage in any outdoor sport activity. (1482-PS)

On 20 January 1938 the Gestapo District Office at Munich, issued a decree which stated in part as follows:

"The Guild of the Virgin Mary (die Marianisch Jungfrauenkongregation) of the Bavarian dioceses, including the diocese of Speyere, together with its branches and associations and the Societies of Our Lady (Jungfrauenvereinen) attached to it, is by police order to be dissolved and forbidden with immediate effect."

Among the reasons cited for this action were the following: "The whole behavior of the Guild of the Virgin Mary had therefore to be objected to from various points of view. It could be repeatedly observed that the Guild engaged in purely worldly affairs, such as community games, and then in the holding of 'Social Evenings'.

"This proves incontestably that the Guild of the Virgin Mary was active to a very great degree in a manner unecclesiastical and therefore worldly. By so doing it has left the sphere of its proper religious task and entered a sphere of activity to which it has no statutory right. The organization has therefore to be dissolved and forbidden." (1481-PS)

According to the report of a Security Police "church specialist" attached to the State Police Office at Aachen, the following points were made by a lecturer at a conference of Security Police and Security Service church intelligence investigators in Berlin, on 22 September 1941:

"Retreats, recreational organizations, etc., may now be for-
bidden on ground of industrial war-needs, whereas for-
merly only a worldly activity could be given as a basis.
"Youth camps, recreational camps are to be forbidden on
principle, church organizations in the evening may be pre-
vented on grounds of the blackout regulations.
"Processions, pilgrimages abroad are to be forbidden by rea-
son of the over-burdened transport conditions. For local
events too technical traffic troubles and the danger of air-
attack may serve as grounds for their prohibition. (One Ref-
erent forbade a procession, on the grounds of it wearing out
shoe leather).” (1815-PS)

(g) The Nazi conspirators suppressed religious education. In a speech on 7 March 1937, Rosenberg stated:

"The education of youth can only be carried out by those who have rescued Germany from disaster. It is therefore

impossible to demand one Fuehrer, one Reich and one firmly united people as long as education is carried out by forces which are mutually exclusive to each other." (2351-PS) In a speech at Fulda, 27 November 1937 Reich Minister for Church Affairs Hans Kerrl stated:

"We cannot recognize that the Church has a right to insure that the individual should be educated in all respects in the way in which it holds to be right; but we must leave it to the National Socialist State to educate the child in the way it regards as right." (2352-PS)

In January 1939, Bormann, acting as Deputy of the Fuehrer, informed the Minister of Education, that the Party was taking the position that theological inquiry was not as valuable as the general fields of knowledge in the universities and that suppression of Theological Faculties in the universities was to be undertaken at once. He pointed out that the Concordat with the Vatican placed certain limitations on such a program, but that in the light of the general change of circumstances, particularly the compulsory military service and the execution of the four-year plan, the question of manpower made certain reorganizations, economies and simplification necessary. Therefore, Theological Faculties were to be restricted insofar as they could not be wholly suppressed. He instructed that the churches were not to be informed of this development and no public announcement was to be made. Any complaints, if they were to be replied to at all, should be answered with a statement that these measures are being executed in a general plan of reorganization and that similar things are happening to other faculties. He concludes with the statement that the professorial chairs vacated by the above program are to be turned over to the newly created fields of inquiry, such as Racial Research. (116-PS)

A plan for the reduction of Theological Faculties was submitted by the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Training in April 1939 to Bormann, who forwarded it to Rosenberg for consideration and action. The plan called for shifting, combining and eliminating Theological Faculties in various schools and universities throughout the Reich, with the following results:

"To recapitulate this plan would include the complete closing of Theological Faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg and Munich, the transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna and the vanishing of four Catholic faculties.

"a. Closing of three Catholic Theological Faculties or Higher Schools and of four Evangelic Faculties in the winter semester 1939/40.

"b. Closing of one further Catholic and of three further Evangelic Faculties in the near future." (122-PS)

In a secret decree of the Party Chancellery, signed by Bormann, and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941, the following statement concerning religious education was made:

“No human being would know anything of Christianity if it had not been drilled into him in his childhood by pastors. The so-called dear God in no wise gives knowledge of his existence to young people in advance, but in an astonishing manner in spite of his omnipotence leaves this to the efforts of the pastors. If therefore in the future our youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself." (D-75)

(2) Supplementary evidence of acts of suppression within Germany. In laying the groundwork for their attempted subversion of the Church, the Nazi conspirators resorted to assurances of peaceful intentions. Thus Hitler, in his address to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 declared:

"While the government is determined to carry through the political and moral purging of our public life, it is creating and insuring prerequisites for a truly religious life. The government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most important for the maintenance of our Folkdom. It will respect agreements concluded between them and the states. However, it expects that its work will meet with a similar appreciation. The government will treat all other denominations with equal objective justice. However, it can never condone that belonging to a certain denomination or to a certain race might be regarded as a license to commit or tolerate crimes. The Government will devote its care to the sincere living together of Church and State." (3387-PS) (a) Against the Evangelical Churches. The Nazi conspirators, upon their accession to power, passed a number of laws, under innocent-sounding titles, designed to reduce the Evangelical Churches to the status of an obedient instrument of Nazi policy. The following are illustrative:

Hitler

Frick

Hitler Frick

Frick

Hitler Rust Koerner

Document
Number

Date

Reichsgesetz-
blatt-Page

Title and Gist of Law

Signed by

I.1370

1.697

the Interior and of Science,
Education, and Training.
Gesetz zur Sicherung der.
Deutschen Evangelischen
Kirche (Law for the Safe-
guarding of the German
Evangelical Church) em-
powering the Reich Minis-
ter of Church Affairs
(Kerrl) to issue Ordinances
with binding legal force.

Fuenfte Verordnung Zur
Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes
zur Sicherung der Deut-
schen Evangelischen Kirche
(Fifth decree for execution
of the law for the Safe-
guarding of the German
Evangelical Church) pro-
hibiting the churches from
filling their pastorates, or-
daining ministers, visita-
tion, publishing of banns,
and collecting dues and as-
sessments.

Fuenfzehnte Verordnung zur
Durchfuehrung des Gesetzes
zur Sicherung der Deuts-
chen Evangelischen Kirche
(Fifteenth decree for the
Execution of the Law for
Security of the German
Evangelical Church) estab-
lishing in the Reich Minis-
try for Church Affairs a
Finance Department, to su-
pervise administration of
the church property bud-
get, tax assessment, and
use of budget funds.

Hitler
Kerrl

Kerrl

Kerrl

With the help of their Reich Bishop, Bishop Mueller, they manoeuvered the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler Jugend under Von Schirach in December 1933. (1458-PS)

They arrested prominent Protestant leaders such as Pastor