How Christianity Fed Hitler’s Hate
The church’s long trail of antisemitism gave the Nazis fuel — no matter how much evangelicals try to deny it.
Especially in America, Adolf Hitler’s supposed atheism is blamed for the Holocaust. The irony is that Hitler had nothing to do with atheism. Christianity, on the other hand, has blood on its hands when it comes to Nazi Germany.
This is not atheist propaganda. Personally, I don’t care about Hitler’s private religious views, because Nazism wasn’t a religious movement. It wasn’t for or against faith. For Nazism, the problem was Jewish ethnicity—not whether someone accepted Jesus as their savior or prayed to Buddha in their home.
So I’m not saying Christianity single-handedly caused Nazism. But it’s also true that Christianity made life very easy for the Nazis to carry out their plans.
Let me explain.
Centuries of Antisemitism
When Hitler came along, Europe was already soaked in antisemitism, and that climate pushed him to join the German Workers’ Party, the predecessor of the Nazi Party. Today, people act like Hitler invented antisemitism, dump all the blame on him, and wash their own hands clean.
For centuries, the Catholic Church called Jews “Christ-killers.” Sermons preached that Jews were cursed. Lies about blood rituals, greed, and conspiracies were spread straight from pulpits. Jews were forced into ghettos, banned from trades, and slaughtered in pogroms.
Protestants weren’t any better. Martin Luther—the so-called father of Protestantism—spewed venom at Jews in his old age. He told Christians to burn synagogues, smash homes, and force Jews into slavery. This wasn’t fringe talk. It was mainstream Christian teaching.
So when Nazis screamed about a “Jewish threat,” they were only repeating an old church hymn. Christianity didn’t invent all of Europe’s antisemitism, but it kept the fire burning for centuries until Hitler poured gasoline on it.
Martin Luther’s Hate Was the Nazi Playbook
Think I’m exaggerating? Go read Luther’s 1543 book On the Jews and Their Lies.
Here’s what Luther demanded:
Burn every synagogue and school
Destroy Jewish homes
Confiscate Jewish books
Ban rabbis from preaching
Force Jews into hard labor
Doesn’t that sound exactly like Nazi Germany?
The Nazis thought so, too. They adored Luther. On his 450th birthday in 1933, they celebrated him as a national hero. Nazi newspapers quoted his words to justify their antisemitic laws. His rants became part of Nazi propaganda.
No, Luther didn’t personally cause the Holocaust. But his poisonous words gave the Nazis religious cover. He handed them a centuries-old Christian stamp of approval.
Churches Cheered Hitler
When Hitler came to power, many German churches were thrilled.
Protestant leaders formed the “German Christians,” a pro-Nazi religious movement that fused Hitler’s ideology with the Bible. Catholic leaders signed the 1933 Reichskonkordat with Hitler, basically saying, “You leave us alone, we’ll stay quiet about your policies.”
Church bells rang for Nazi victories. Pastors praised Hitler from the pulpit. Priests blessed swastikas.
Were there exceptions? Yes. A few Christians resisted. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant pastor, openly opposed Hitler and was executed. Some Catholic priests smuggled Jews out of Germany. But let’s be blunt: they were the minority.
The majority of churches either cheered or stayed silent.
Nazi Christianity Wasn’t a Pagan Fantasy
Evangelicals like to argue, “Nazis were pagans, not Christians!”
Sure, some top Nazis toyed with strange occult ideas. But the vast majority of Nazi Germans were either Catholic or Protestant. The clergy wasn’t waving around some special “Hitler Bible.” They were using the same Bible Christians still use today. And the antisemitism that fueled the Holocaust didn’t come from paganism—it came straight out of Christian Europe. The idea that Jews were cursed, dangerous, and Christ-rejecting outsiders was church doctrine.
Even Nazi slogans made it clear. SS belt buckles were stamped with “Gott mit uns” (“God with us”). That wasn’t a pagan rune. It was an old Christian war cry, carried forward for centuries.
Nazism wasn’t “classic” Christianity. But there is no single “authentic” Christianity anyway. Catholics and Protestants both claim to be the true church, yet both can’t be right at the same time. That divide shows how flexible and contradictory Christianity has always been—and it left the door wide open for twisted myths, symbols, and hatreds to be turned into political weapons. Christianity handed the Nazis ready-made tools, and they used them.
Ordinary Christians Ran the Killing Machine
The Holocaust relied on ordinary people for execution: soldiers, police, train drivers, guards, bureaucrats. And most of them grew up Christian.
Did Christianity tell them to gas Jews? No. But it raised them in a culture where antisemitism was normal, where Jews were treated as eternal outsiders, and where church leaders didn’t stand up to Nazi policies.
Christianity failed them when it mattered most. Instead of giving them a moral backbone to resist evil, it gave them centuries of excuses to go along with it.
The Vatican’s Shameful Silence
And then there’s the Vatican. Pope Pius XII’s silence during the Holocaust is one of the darkest stains on Catholic history.
The Vatican had reports about the Holocaust. They knew Jews were being massacred. Yet they stayed quiet. Why? Fear. Political deals. Antisemitism baked into church culture.
Yes, some Catholic priests saved Jews. But the Vatican as an institution did not scream from the rooftops. They looked away. That silence helped Hitler do his work without worrying about the world’s most powerful church speaking out.
It wasn’t until decades later that the Catholic Church admitted its failures and rejected antisemitism officially. Too little, too late.
Christianity Didn’t Create Nazism, But It Helped It Thrive
As I previously mentioned, Nazism wasn’t born out of the Bible. It was born out of nationalism, racism, economic despair, propaganda, and political chaos.
But Christianity gave Nazism cover, tradition, and manpower.
What Christianity handed over:
Centuries of antisemitic teachings
Martin Luther’s hate used as Nazi justification
Churches eager to cooperate with Hitler
Believers who looked away or played along
What Christianity also offered:
A few brave resisters like Bonhoeffer
Individual priests and pastors who saved Jews
Postwar Christian reforms rejecting antisemitism
The story is not “Christianity = Nazism.” The story is “Christianity gave Nazism the tools it needed, then mostly failed to stop it.”
Does It Really Still Matter?
Why dig this all back up? Because evangelicals today still try to whitewash history.
They pretend Christianity was a shining light against Hitler. They paint Hitler as an atheist boogeyman. They never admit that the faith they defend helped fuel Nazi hatred.
That denial is dangerous. When you don’t own your dark history, you risk repeating it. Faith becomes a weapon again, instead of a warning.
If Christians really want to prove their faith is about love and justice, they need to face this past honestly—not bury it under lies about Hitler’s supposed atheism.
Before You Go
Christianity has a lot to answer for when it comes to Nazi Germany. It fed antisemitism for centuries. It gave Hitler cover. It failed to resist when it mattered most.
Today, many Christians claim Islam feeds terrorism in the Middle East and they have a point. What they fail to see is that Islam didn’t cause it in the first place. The West’s modern involvement in the region began with the Christian West allying with Muslim Arabs against the Muslim Ottomans. The idea that Muslim Arabs inherently hate Christians is a myth. What really happens is the same pattern everywhere: religion becomes fuel for political agendas, because faith is a weak point in any society—easy to exploit by leaders hungry for power. Islam is no different. But Christians remain blind to their own history, where Christianity was exploited in exactly the same way.
So if you’re a Christian today, don’t get defensive. Don’t whine, “Not all Christians!” Take the lesson seriously. Learn how your faith got twisted into a weapon last time—so it doesn’t happen again.
Because if you don’t, the next time fascism comes knocking, church doors might swing open for it all over again.
What’s your take on Christianity’s role in the Nazi era? Follow me, drop a comment, and let’s argue it out—I want to hear your side.
Sources and Further Reading
Religious views of Adolf Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_HitlerMartin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies (1543)
https://alphahistory.com/holocaust/on-the-jews-and-their-lies-1543/Christian Antisemitism and Its Historical Roots in Europe
https://www.britannica.com/topic/antisemitismThe German Churches and the Nazi State
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-stateNewly Unsealed Vatican Archives Lay Out Evidence of Pope Pius XII’s Knowledge of the Holocaust
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-find-evidence-pope-pius-xii-ignored-reports-holocaust-180974795/