Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 6 – July 1995

Contents

1. Conferences

2. Book Notices

 

1. Conferences

As most of you know, the initiative for our coming together stems from the German group, organized by Professor Gerhard Besier, now of Heidelberg (Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar, Kisselgasse 1, 69117, Heidelberg), which began to hold its annual conferences in 1989, and publishes the splendid journal twice a year, Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte.

The 1995 conference will be held in Heidelberg itself, from August 25th-27th, on the theme “The Churches, Southern Africa and the Political Context”. Several representatives of the new S.Africa will attend, to give special reference to the role of the churches and of theology in the present situation. In addition several of our German friends, such as Besier and A.Boyens, will present their views and reflect on the significance of the S.African experience for the wider context of contemporary church history. It is certainly to be welcomed that, for the first time, this conference has adopted a non-European theme. The papers should appear in Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, 1996 vol. 1.

 

2. Book notices

Jacques Picard, Die Schweiz und die Juden 1933-1945, Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1995 (Ronald Webster, York University, Toronto, has kindly supplied this short notice, as a prelude to his longer review in Holocaust and Genocide Studies)

The Swiss historian J.Picard has undertaken to provide both an encyclopedic and in-depth analysis of the war-time dilemmas and tragedies of the Swiss Jews and their involvement in Switzerland’s role as the pivotal point in the rescue of Jews in World War II.

The main themes are:

1) The horrible dilemma of Swiss Jews caught between the constant demands to provide their bona fides at home while feeling an active sympathy for the fate of Europe’s Jews under Nazi domination.

2) The role that Switzerland and its Jewish leaders played in disseminating news of the unfolding Holocaust, especially through the efforts of the Swiss Red Cross and the various Swiss legations in Nazi-occupied Europe.

3) The frustrating negotiations between the authorities and the Jewish leaders over the very restrictive Swiss immigration policies. Picard analyses here the questionable role of the Swiss police chief, Heinrich Rothmund, in initiating with the Germans in 1938 the notorious “J” stamped in the passports of both Swiss and German Jews.

4) The role of Sally Mayer, head of the SIG (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund). While Picard criticizes Mayer for his increasingly authoritarian leadership style, nevertheless he sees him as a minor hero, attempting to do what he could under almost unbearable circumstances. Picard especially praises Mayer for his role as the American Joint Distribution liaison in Switzerland, after he resigned his post as head of SIG in 1943.

5) The role of the myriad local and national organizations operating on Swiss soil, devoted to Jewish and refugee questions – some 17 in all. A valuable source of informnation on these operations.

6) Picard provides fascinating insights into the policy of ‘financial blackmail’ perpetrated by the Swiss govt, whereby a mere 18,000 Swiss Jews were obliged, albeit with crucial aid from the Joint and other international organizations, to bear the lion’s share of relief work in Switzerland during the war – probably no less than 100 million Sw Frs between 1933 and 1952.

A very well researched and important book on a crucial issue.

Hansjacob Stehle, Geheimdiplomatie im Vatikan. Die Papste und die Kommunisten. This is an updated and slightly revised edition of his The Eastern Policies of the Vatican 1917-1979, Athens, Ohio 1981, which brings us up to date on events since 1989-90.

Rof Steininger ed., “Der Umgagng mit dem Holocaust. Europa- USA-Israel, Bohlau, Vienna 1994.” Here are the papers delivered at a conference in Innsbruck in 1992, with a fine galaxy of authors, including our own Mike Phayer, who gives an excellent account of the Vatican attitudes towards the victims of the Holocaust, especially after 1945, but suggests that their fate was never a priority for the Vatican leaders. Rather Pius XII set his sights on restoring diplomatic relations with the revived Germany, and thus safeguarding the 1933 Concordat, Only with the Second Vatican Council did matters improve. Various other contributors depict the state of Holocaust reception in different countries in the post- war period.

Bjorn Krondorfer, Between Remebrance and Reconciliation, Yale U.P. 1995 B, who now teaches in Maryland, describes his efforts to promote Jewish-American reconciliation through organizing youth seminars for “3rd generation” Ameican Jews and non-Jewish Germans, at which the question of intergenerational transmission of Holocaust memories and traumas is fully dissected. His initiative came from the fact that, as a post-war German, he was never confronted with this issue until he arrived in the USA, but he has now devised a constructive means of bridging the chasms of memory and geography.

Tony Kushner, The Holocaust and the Liberal Imagination, A social and cultural history, Blackwell, Oxford 1995. (To be reviewed in Albion). Kushner is the director of the James Parkes Library, and teaches, at Southampton University, and here gives a fine account of impact of the Holocaust on ordinary people in the democracies, principally Britain, with comparative looks at the USA. He examines the actions of these states in the light of popular responses.

He naturally highlights the fine efforts of James Parkes to arouse concern for the plight of the Jews during the war,and suggests that the leadership of the churches on this issue was praiseworthy, but not effective enough to overcome the political constraints of war- time circumstances. A thoughtful and sometimes provocative account.

ed.Stephen Batalden, Seeking God. The recovery of Religious Identity in Orthodox Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, Northen Illinois U.P., DeKalb 1993. In fact half this book deals with the history of Russian spirituality, as a background for the revival in the last few years. Highly informative, and well illustrated, this account provides an interesting companion to the books mentioned in my last Newsletter. Those unfamiliar with conditions in Russian Orthodoxy will learn a lot.

4) Contributions for subsequent Newsletters will be most welcome. Since most of you will be away or on holiday for August, I plan the next issue for early September, after I return from the International Historical Congress in Montreal. If anyone else is going, perhaps we could meet for lunch. Do let me know. Have a good summer.

Best wishes to you all,

John S.Conway,
Dept. of History, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1, Canada
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 5: June 1995

Contents

1. Conferences

2. New Books

3. The Vatican and the Jews

4. Contributions

 

1. Conferences:

David Diephouse kindly reported as follows: “Zwischen Weltkrieg und Wiederaufbau: Evang. Kirche in Wurttemberg 1939 bis 1948, Verein f. Wurtt.Kirchengeschichte, Ludwigsburg”, 18-20 May 1995.

This conference could have been just of local interest, but the centrality of the Wurttemberg Church and such leading churchmen as Landesbischof Wurm during the years in question gave it a broader interest.

The conference began with my own paper, as Wurm’s would-be biographer (and token international representative at the conference) which attempted to map out elements of continuity and change in Wurm’s world view after 1945. The conference as a whole was divided into two parts. About half the papers dealt with the war years and post-war military occupation, such as Siegfried Hermle on internal church government, and Eberhard Roehm on the church’s response to the so-called “Judenfrage”. Martin Greschat offered an interesting case study of church policy in the French zone of occupation, while Hermann Ehmer compared the impact of Helmut Thielecke and Karl Hartenstein. Martin Widmann aroused considerable debate with his positive evaluation of Hermann Diem’s work and of the Kirchlich-theologische Sozietaet.

The other half was devoted to post-war reconstruction, with papers on political party formation, school reform, and co-determination. The conference ended with a dramatic debate over the efforts by prominent church officials to rehabilitate a former SS Einsatzgruppen commander, condemned to death (later commuted) for his crimes in Russia. The emotionally charged conversation that ensued between/among the historians, theologians and Zeitzeugen present typified the complex interactions of memory and reflection that marked the conference as a whole – and served as a reminder, if one was needed, of how far kirchliche Zeitgeschichte is from being a detached, dispassionate academic enterprise. The above papers, among others, are included in the volume: Rainer Laechele and Joerg Thierfelder ed.s, “Das evangelische Wuerttemberg zwischen Weltkrieg und Wiederaufbau”, Stuttgart, Calwer Verlag 1995

 

2. New books

Stefan Grotefeld, Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze. Ein deutscher Okumeniker und christlicher Pazifist, (Heidelberger Untersuchungen zu Widerstand, Judenverfolgung und Kirchenkampf im Dritten Reich, Vol 8), Chr.Kaiser, Gutersloh 1995

Siegmund-Schultze was one of Germany’s leading figures in the fields of social reform, ecumenical affairs and the peace movement.

Despite his 60 years of service to his country and church, his career has largely been overlooked and his contributions forgotten. It is Grotefeld’s achievement that he has “rescued” this significant personality from an undeserved oblivion. But the title is somewhat misleading, since G. deals only with Siegmund-Schultze’s arguably least effective period, namely his years of exile after the Nazis expelled him as early as June 1933 until his return to Germany in 1947. G’s study is in fact one of a series, promoted by the late Prof. H-E Todt of Heidelberg, covering the Nazi years. So here we have a marvellously full and meticulously researched account of how this German patriot and pacifist tried to come to terms with the Nazi impact and aggression, undertaking relief efforts for refugees and trying to keep alive the cause of pacifism in such drastic circumstances. It is certainly the fullest account (420 p.) so far of the dilemmas such pacifists in Europe had to face as their cause was so obviously lost. Grotefeld is to be congratulated on his thorough elucidation of the enormous quantity of papers left behind by S-Schultze, now all in the Evang.Zentralarchiv, Berlin, and his sensible and careful evaluation of the evidence. A major contribution to our knowledge of those anti-Nazis forced into exile.

Dokumente zur Kirchenpolitik des Dritten Reiches, Bd III, 1935- 37, Chr Kaiser, Gutersloh 1994.

This is the third vol. produced by Carsten Nicolaisen and co- workers at the Evang. Arbeitsgem. f. kirchl.Zeitgesch. in Munich. It brings interesting documents from the Nazi government and party sources, together with a short introduction. Indispensable for a picture of the conflicts and tensions within the NSDAP over policy towards all the churches, and covers the period July 1935 to the crisis of early 1937, when Hitler suddenly ordered new church elections – later cancelled. To be continued presumably in subsequent volumes.

Helmut W.Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict. Culture,Ideology,Politics 1870-1914, Princeton U.P. 1995 My review of this book appeared on H-GERMAN last week, so watch out!

An excellent study of the attempt by Prussian Protestants to capture the identity of the united Germany after 1870 for their ideology. Drawn mainly from the files of the Evang.Bund, Smith assesses very well the political consequences, and shows how the Catholics successfully resisted such a take-over bid, by appealing to their own different traditions, rival memories, another history, in formulating their own concepts of the nation’s identity.

Other new books:

Jurgen Manmann, “Weil es nicht nur Geschichte ist” Die Begrundung der Notwendigkeit einer fragmentarischen Historiographie des Nationalsozialismus aus politisch- theologischer Sicht, Fundamenaltheologische Studien Bd 2, LIT Verlag Munster 1995

ed. M.Bourdeaux, The Politics of Religion in Russia and the new States of Eurasia, M.E.Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y and London,Eng 1995. (Includes a chapter by our colleague, Bob Goeckel, on the Baltic States and the democratization process)

John Anderson, Religion, state and politics in the Soviet Union and successor states, Cambridge University Press 1994 (Covers the period from Khrushchev to present).

 

3. The Vatican and the Jews

On the HOLOCAUS-L recently, Prof. Stanford Shaw, Turkish and Judeo-Turkish History, UCLA, CA 90024, mentioned that he discusses the role of the Papal Nuncio, Angelo Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, in his book Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey’s role in rescuing Turkish and European Jews from Nazi persecution 1933-45 (N.Y.U.P.,N.Y./Macmillan, London 1992.) He explains how Roncalli helped the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations based in Istanbul in rescuing Jews in eastern Europe and Greece. See also: P.Hoffmann, “Roncalli in the 2nd World War” in Journal of Ecclesiastical HistoryVol XL (1989),pp. 74- 99; V.U.Righi, Papa Giovanni sulle rive del Bosforo (Padua 1971); R.M. della Rocca, “Roncalli Diplomatici in Turchia e Grecia 1935-44” in Christianesimo nella Storia Vol VIII/2 1987,p33-72.

Prof Ingrid Shafer, Dept of Philosophy and Religion, U. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chichasha, Ok 73018, notes that she is currently translating ed. W.Kunzemann, Judenstein: Das Ende einer Legende Innsbruck 1995. This book provides background, history and documentation of the official removal from pilgrimage status of a place near Innsbruck known as Judenstein and a chapel dedicated to the veneration of Anderl von Rinn, a three-year old boy allegedly murdered by Jews in the 15th century. “This book documents the ways of thinking and actions of people who over many centuries have excluded, stigmatized and killed Jews. It documents the guilt of the Church. . .which also psychologically prepared the way for the Holocaust. It also documents the work of those such as the present bishop of Innsbruck, Stecher, who are trying to work off the sad mortgage by setting the record straight, and are now dedicated to Christian penance and reconciliation with the people of Israel.”

 

4. Contributions

Please do not hesitate to send me any news and views which may be of interest to our Arbeitsgemeischaft. I will hope to report again in July.

Warm regards to you all

John S.Conway,
Dept. of History, UBC,
Vancouver V6T 1Z1,Canada
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor.

University of British Columbia

Newsletter no. 4, May 1995

Contents

1.”Christianity and Resistance” Conference, Birmingham, April 19-23 1995

2. 7th International Bonhoeffer Congress

3. Meetings

 

1. “Christianity and Resistance” Conference, Birmingham, April 19-23 1995.

This conference held last month in Birmingham University with the full title “Christianity and Resistance: National Socialist Germany 1933-1945”. A conference on Moral Responsibility and Citizenship. In memory of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester 1929-1957″ was the main occasion in Britain to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his brother Klaus, his brother-in-law Rudiger Schleicher, and other members of the German Resistance at the Nazis’ hands in the last days of the war in April 1945. The meeting was splendidly organised by Andrew Chandler, a young member of the History Department, and proved to be a stimulating, academically scholarly, and yet sobering occasion.

Some 125 participants attended, including several from various countries overseas, Germany, U.S.A., Canada, Switzerland and New Zealand. Many members of the British section of the Bonhoeffer Society and numerous clergy, including 5 Anglican bishops, were present. I am glad to say that several of our fellowship were also present, so they may wish to add their comments and reflections.

The conference had two foci – first the moral dilemmas of the German Resistance Movement, and second, the response of the churches. On the former, Klemens von Klemperer and Beate Ruhm von Oppen gave thoughtful addresses about the moral climate in which the German Resistance had to operate, while Peter Hoffmann of McGill spoke feelingly about the various steps which led these men to the desperate attempt to assassinate Hitler. In addition, we had a unique presentation by two eye-witnesses, Chistabel Bielenburg and Marion Grafin Donhoff, who spoke of their personal experiences during this traumatic time Ursula Buttner from Hamburg gave a most excellent paper about the plight of those persons in “mixed” Christian-Jewish families. My own paper dealt with the question of why the German churches did not do more to resist, when I suggested that part of the reason lay in the loss of Christian credibility as a result of the mutually contradictory stances taken by the churches during the first world war. (Mirabile dictu, this was printed (almost in full) by the Church Times in its issue of April 21st, p. 5, including photographs they had somewhere dug up. If there is any interest, I could retype it for you in a subsequent Newsletter).

The second focus was on the Church in Britain, then and now. Erwin Robertson came to introduce his new little book on Bishop Bell and the Germans, which is useful in giving more detail than contained in Jasper’s biography, but hardly said anything new, or examined the question: why? More stimulating was the presentation by Frank Field, a prominent member of the Labour Party and MP for Birkenhead, who gave his “Political Reflections on Bishop George Bell” , and suggested that Bell might well have been an appropriate choice for the Archbishopric of Canterbury even earlier in his career, but that his well-known stance on the bombing of German civilians dished his chances in 1944, after the death of Archbishop Temple, and he was never given another chance. He speculated as to what kind of stance the Church of England might have taken in the post-war years if Bell had been in charge instead of Fisher. All very good stuff, but perhaps a closer acquaintance with Bell’s papers, now in Lambeth Palace Library, would have induced a more cautious assessment. The key-note speech in the final banquet was given by Shirley Williams, also a prominent member, formerly, of the Labour Party, and later of the S.D.P., and now a Baroness in the House of Lords as well as a Professor at Harvard. She spoke movingly about the dictates of conscience for resistance, and cited the example of her mother Vera Brittain, whose work during and after the first world war is certainly an inspiration for church members.

The conference concluded with a most moving service in Birmingham Cathedral, when the readings and service programme included references to those murdered 50 years ago, at which the Bishop of Birmingham, Mark Santer, preached. Unfortunately I was not able to be present at the final plenary when I believed some resolutions were agreed upon for church members’ guidance. If any of you brought this back and could share it, I would be glad to circulate it to everyone on our list.

 

2. 7th International Bonhoeffer Congress.

This will take place in Cape Town from January 7-12 1996, under the auspices of John de Gruchy (JDEG@socsci.uct.ac.za). Anyone who would like to offer papers should contact John, or write to the American contact, Prf. Michael Lukens, St Norbert Coll., DePere, Wisconsin 54115, lukemb@sncac.snc.edu

 

3. In the meanwhile Roland Blaich, Walla Walla College, Washington State USA attended a meeting of the Assoc. of Seventh-day Adventist Historians to read a paper on “Health Reform and Race Hygiene. Adventists and the Biomedical Vision of the Third Reich”. He has kindly sent us a summary of his paper as follows:

“A foreign sect that resembled Jews in many respects, German Seventh-day Adventists were particularly vulnerable in the Third Reich. Since Nazi leaders were advocates of health reform, German Adventists used their strengths in health reform asa basis on which to work with the Nazi state, and to court its goodwill. As the church joined the state in working for health reform, its “health message” underwent a transformation. German Adventist publications soon adopted elements of the Nazi biomedical/racist agenda as well. A curious path led from caritas, the caring for the weak and less fortunate, to endorsing elimination of the weak through eugenics, as the work of God. Collaboration with the state may have saved the church, but at what cost?” Must have been an interesting occasion. I wonder what the Adventists made of this episode?

I will be glad to hear from any of you who would like to contribute to subsequent Newsletters, and hope next time to report on some new books in this field.

Sincerely

John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

Newsletter no. 3, April 1995

Contents

In Memoriam Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dear Friends,

For April 9th

Fifty years ago, on April 9th 1945, the noted German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered by the SS-Gestapo in Flossenburg Concentration camp in southern Germany. His “crime” had been to be associated with the group of men who sought to overthrow the Nazi regime, culminatin in the traic failure of their attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20th July 1944. Bonhoeffer had become involved with this heroic Resistance group through his brothers-in-law, whose positions in the army and civil service had led them to their determination to put a stop to the Nazis’ criminal barbarities, if necessary by directly conspiring against Hitler himslef. The failure of their attempts and their subsequent executions for high treason deal a decisive blow to any hopes for an early end to the Nazi regime.

Bonhoeffer himself, out of a strong sense of national loyalty, had long opposed the anti-Christian and immoral deeds of the Nazis. As a theologian teaching at Berlin University, he had already spoken out against the Nazi perversion of the Gospel in 1933, and had been sent into banishment to be Chaplain to the Lutherna congregations in London. But then he was recalled to lead a clandestine and later illegal theological seminary for young pstors, and had been drawn in closer to more conspiratorial activities trying to undermine the regime.

In 1939, during a brief visit to the United States, he was offered the chance to stay there in safety. But he refused. “Christians in Germany, he wrote, will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilisation may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilisation. I know which of these alternatives I must choose,. but I cannot make that choice in security”.

So he went back, and became involved in various secret moves, including one to smuggle Jews to Switzerland. He was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion in April 1943, and so was not directly involved in the July 1944 plot. But his close ties to the conspirators led Hitler to order that on no account was he to survive the end of the war. In fact, only a few days after his murder, Flossenburg was liberated by the U.S.army.

While he was imprisoned, Bonhoeffer wrote a series of letters to his friend and pupil, Eberhard Bethge, then serving in th German army in Italy, which were smuglled out by a friendly warder. These letters were buried underground for reasons of safety, but later rescued and published under the title “Letters and Papers from Prison”. Bonhoeffer’s stimulating ideas about the future of Christianity, as seen from his prison cell, made a tremendous impression in the post-war world, and established his reputation as one of Germany’s most significant theologians of this century. Together with his important but unfinished work on Ethics, these writings presented a new and challenging view of Christian responsibility in a world of totalitarian dictatorships, and were to have a profound influence in later years, particularly in Communist-dominated East Germany.

But above all, it was Bonhoeffer’s faith which shines through. After the discovery ofnthe 20th July plot, Bonhoeffe, his brother, his uncle and two brothers-in-law were all aware that they would have to pay the ultimate price. His last word to the outside world was a request to a fellow prisoner to deliver a message to his long-time friend Bishop George Bell of Chichester. “Tell him that for me this is the end, but also the beginning of life. With him I believe in the principle of our universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain”.

Three months later Bishop Bell paid a fitting tribute at a memorial service in London. “As one of the noble company of martyrs of differing traditions, Bonhoeffer represents both the resistance of the believing soul, in the name of God, to the assault of evil, but also the moral and political revolt of the human conscience against injustice and cruelty”.

Fifty years later Bonhoeffer’s witness is still a valid testimony for the Christian church, not only in his homeland Germany, but world-wide. He is now remembered in the Anglican Calendar on his birthday, February 4th.

With best wishes
John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

Newsletter no 1: March 1995

Contents

1. Introductions:

2. Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Vol 7, no 2, 1994
Themenschwerpunkt: Kirche und Diktatur

3. Conferences

4. Auschwitz and other memorials

Dear Friends,

The response to my earlier circular letter of Feb. 17th has been so positive that I am encouraged to send you this Newsletter, and will try to keep in contact with you, possibly on a monthly basis.

I think it would be helpful to include various items such as new publications, notice of forthcoming conferences, archival information and research projects, and even (brief) book reviews. I welcome any contributions you may like to send in for inclusion.

I will also be glad, for those who agree, to circulate information about your research interests and your geographical locations. I will try and compile a complete listing of those so far connected and let you have this by separate posting. But I will also include brief introductions from time to time so that we can get to know each other, even if we have never met.

One obvious gap is the absence of our colleagues in Germany itself. Apparently there is a reluctance, or inability, there to take advantage of new electronic techniques. But if any of you are so linked to kirchliche Zeitgeschichtler in Germany and could share their addresses, this would be a great boon.

I will be glad to share collectively any information or views you care to send me for further distribution. So do let me hear from you..

 

1. Introductions:

Our most distant colleague is undoubtedly Mark Lindsey, Dept. of History, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 6009, Australia. He is a PhD student whose area of interest concerns the Christological foundations of Karl Barth’s response to Nazi antisemitism, as opposed to simply humanitarian motives.

 

2. Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Vol 7, no 2, 1994
Themenschwerpunkt: Kirche und Diktatur

This issue contains the papers (with English summaries) presented at the KZG conference in December 1993, and concentrates on the churches in the former GDR.
Immanuel Geiss: “Der Holzweg der Deutschen Sonderwegs” (provocative!)
A.Boyens: “Das Gipfeltreffen Honecker-Schonherr”. Marz 1978
U.Haese: “Haltung der kath.Kirche in der DDR”
B.Schaeffer: ditto
W.Krotke: K.Barths und D.Bonhoeffers “Bedeutung fur die Theologie in der DDR” (thoughtful analysis)
M.Beintker: “Verhaltnis von Kirche und Staat in der DDR”
Also 120 pp world-wide bibliography for 1993-4 on Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte (very useful)

 

3. Conferences

a) The 25th Annual Conference on the Holocaust and the Christian Churches, Brigham Young U., Provo, Utah March 5th-8th 1995 (report follows in next Newsletter)

b) Christianity and Resistance, University of Birmingham,UK April 19-23 1995. Contact A.Chandler, Dept of History, U. of Birmingham, B15 2TT, U.K. (Will be reported on later)

 

4. Auschwitz and other memorials

The 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz has produced a flood of commentary, underlying which is the enduring question of how such sites of dehumanization and mass murder can or should be preserved for historical memory. Peter Monteath of Flinders U, Adelaide, has contributed an illuminating article on Buchenwald to the May 1994 issue of International History Review. Personally I found James Young, The Texture of Memory, Yale U.P. 1993 very stimulating reading. If anyone was interested, I could supply more references to the whole question of War and KZ memorials.

All the best
John S.Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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Association of Contemporary Church Historians

(Arbeitsgemeinschaft kirchlicher Zeitgeschichtler)

John S. Conway, Editor. University of British Columbia

 

Newsletter 2 – March 1995 

Contents1. 25th Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Provo, Utah, March 4-8, 1995

2. Introductions

3. Book review

a) David Blackbourn, Marpingen Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Ninteenth-Century Germany, published by Oxford U.P 1993.

Dear Friends,

 

1. 25th Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, Provo, Utah, March 4-8, 1995

The Silver anniversary conference of this organisation was held in the idyllic setting of the Salt Lake Valley in Utah under cloudless skies, with marvellous vistas of the snow capped mountains. However, the contrast was startling between the strongly moralistic (some would say rigidly puritanical) ethos of the Mormon community and the horrendous deeds of violence, death and dehumanization of the Holocaust, about which we heard during four days of a very full programme. Perhaps it was appropriate that, for the first time, this conference should be held at Brigham Young University, in order to help to overcome the “incomprehensibility” which many prominent Mormons expressed as their reaction to the Holocaust. Over three hundred persons registered, perhaps too many to avoid having overlapping sessions, or several papers which did not meet the appropriate academic standards. On the other hand, it was once again very valuable to hear the testimonies of some 25 survivors of the Holocaust, including several who related their experiences in concentration camps. An excellent innovation was the invitation to some 50 former U.S. army personnel who had participated in the liberation of these camps just 5o years ago. All of them, and their families were appreciative of this mark of recognition. The “Liberators” session provided a most interesting example of the difficulty of combining eye-witness testimony with the more critical analysis of professional historians. Historians are, of course, paid to be sceptical, and are well aware of the dangers of post-hoc elaboration and glorification. But, as Henry Huttenbach found, his well-founded account of the US Army’s battle plans in 1945, which, he contended, did not include any direct provision for the liberation of forced-labour or concentration camps, aroused great emotional revulsion from those who had actually been there. Despite his clear disclaimer that he was not casting aspersions of any individuals involved, the strong reaction against this dry-as-dust academic presentation evoked a clear emotional hostility against all such “demythologising” by professional historians. The impact of these terrifying events of 50 years ago was obviously still too strong to allow for any rational admission of the Army’s failure to forsee the need for support measures for the liberated victims, who naturally enough poured out their gratitude to their rescuers, even if the latter were only passing by in their pursuit of the enemy forces.

Several German participants took part in the conference, though unfortunately none of them was a church historian. However, there was one useful session on the German churches. Doris Bergen presented an interesting analysis of the “Deutsche Christen” and German missionary endeavours; Robert Ross updated his account of the American religious press’ descriptions of the Church Struggle; Ronald Webster of Toronto described the efforts of leading German protestants after the war to give not only pastoral care, but also political support to convicted German war criminals, largely from a mistaken nationalistic sympathy; and a young Polish scholar presented a well-researched paper on the religious affiliations of concentration camp guards, which confirmed our impressions that moral allegiances played virtually no role in the actions of such men.

Another fine feature of the programme was the perfomance by Al Staggs, a Baptist minister, of his 45 minute monologue on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This reenactment of Bonhoeffer in his prison cell uses the material to be found in the Letters and Papers from prison, as well as other pieces of Bonhoeffer’s writings. Staggs now perfoms this professionally all over the United States, in a most convincing and thoughtful production. It was an entirely appropriate way to mark our commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Bonhoeffer’s martyrdom which falls on April 9th. (I would be interested to hear of any other such commemorative events.)

Since this was the 25th anniversary conference, the opportunity was taken to pay tribute to the founders, Franklin Littell and Hubert Locke, who were presented with appropriate plaques of recognition at the main banquet. Their skilful overcoming of the innumerable difficulties involved in holding such conferences, peripatetically in different sites in the United States, and their fine upholding of the conferences’ main purpose of advancing the cause of reconciliation between Jews and Christians, despite the appalling record of Christian passivity and Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, were once again acknowledged and applauded.

Next year’s conference will be held on the first weekend in March in Minneapolis.

 

2. Introductions:

A new member to our list is Hubert Locke,Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. As mentioned above, Hubert was the co-founder of the Scholars’ Conference in 1970, when he was then attached to Wayne State University in Detroit. He tells me that he was once a policeman, but then came to the Chicago Theological Seminary to study theology, and was amazed to find, in the 1950s, that the discussions were almost all about German theologians, despite this topic being conspicuously absent from the curriculum.

This aroused his interest in the German Church Struggle, and led him to collaborate with Franklin Littell to relate these events with the Holocaust. His notable contribution on the German Church Struggle is to be found in the book he edited, The Church Confronts the Nazis, which was prepared for the 1984 conference in Seattle marking the 50th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration. But, in addition, his interest in his Afro-American heritage, and the deeply-felt parallels between the experience of exile felt by both blacks and Jews, has led to his writing a new book, The black anti-semitism controversy,(1994) which expresses his hurt and pain at the recent sad outbursts of black resentment against the Jewish people. I can commend it highly.

 

3. Book review

Very briefly: A splendid new book by David Blackbourn, published by Oxford U.P 1993, is Marpingen. Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Ninteenth-Century Germany. This is a fascinating account of a small village near Trier, where children “saw” the Virgin in a nearby wood in 1876. Blackbourn skilfully analyses the whole background of heightened religious feelings during the onslaught of the Kulturkampf and the economic depression of those years, and describes the heavy-handed reaction of the Prussian authorities against such ‘mediaeval obscurantism”. He steers an excellent line between sympathy and scepticism, and demonstrates very well how historians should deal with this troublesome matter of finding the right balance between demythologising and credulity.

Best wishes to you all

John Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca

 

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