Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People

by Julia Boyd

Although his trip was so short, the Dean felt that he had grasped the situation well enough to be able to report with confidence to the Council. He had learned that even those suffering under the new regime continued to support Hitler because they regarded the Nazis as the only alternative to Bolshevism. Christ had now become more important as a leader in the fight against communism than as the saviour from sin. ‘They really believe, many of them,’ the Dean wrote, ‘that Hitler is sent by God, and that the success of his movement after such small beginnings and after ten years of struggle, is plain evidence that God has worked a miracle.’ The big question was what, if anything, should the Church of England be doing? Having interviewed many clergy on the front line, it was a point on which the Dean was quite clear – any expression of sympathy with the persecuted by the Church of England would be regarded as ‘absolutely disastrous’.

belief hitler sent by god