The Historiography of the Holocaust

304 Robert P. Ericksen and Susannah Heschel
Socialism, which despises all ‘corporality’ and must therefore combat everything
associated with Judaism.
The linkage Heinonen exposes between the writings of a respected New Testament
scholar and the political activities of pro-Nazi clergy is a significant first
effort in an important line of research. Schlatter was clearly not the only Protestant
theologian in Germany to espouse Christian justifications for anti-Judaism;
investigations have yielded few Christian theologians whose work does not
express anti-Jewish tendencies. By limiting his consideration to Schlatter’s
writings, Heinonen’s analysis may exaggerate his influence and fail to appreciate
how widespread anti-Judaism was. On the other hand, Heinonen’s work is
path-breaking in developing a crucial link between the theologies developed
within the universities and their political consequences within the Churches.
By contrast, James Zabel and Hans-Joachim Sonne strike a far less critical and,
at times, even apologetic tone presenting the DC as a purely Nazi era phenomenon,
unrelated to larger trends within Christian theology. 21
In Zabel’s portrayal, the DC are Protestants who viewed National Socialism
as a movement of nationalist renewal that would re-establish Christian values.
In his effort to sympathize with DC members and understand their motivations,
Zabel loses critical judgement with regard to the deadly side of the DC’s efforts.
In their church newspapers, theological tracts and revised liturgical material
the DC provided enthusiastic Christian justifications for National Socialism, a
far more powerful form of propaganda than anything the regime could offer.
The very act of placing a swastika on the altar shows the synthesis with Nazism
that DC pastors voluntarily undertook. Zabel fails to question the ominous
consequences for churchgoers of their pastors’ support for the regime. To what
extent was resistance forestalled by the DC and perhaps even transformed into
voluntary collaboration in atrocities?
Hans-Joachim Sonne’s more recent study of the DC, which includes previously
unpublished archival documents, also emphasizes the nationalist elements within
the DC movement. He identifies the sacramentalization of the Volk and the
polemical, resentful evaluation of the Weimar Republic as its two most salient
features, and analyses the political theology of the three main factions within
the DC, to present a differentiated picture of DC ideology.
While Zabel and Sonne offer correctives to the false picture presented in earlier
scholarship of unity within the DC, they err in not recognizing the central role
played by antisemitism in determining the DC’s theological platform and
attracting members to its organization. Nor do they question the impact of
a DC pastor, supporting National Socialism from the pulpit. Moreover, both
Zabel and Sonne limit themselves to discussing developments during the Third
Reich, as though the DC’s ideas emerged solely, or primarily, in response to
National Socialism. In contrast to Heinonen, neither Zabel nor Sonne recognizes
the connection between the DC and traditional Christian theology. In fact, the