Nazi policy was anti-Christian

I would like to correct two gross historical falsehoods in the letter by Mr. Lowry on Dec. 6 that stated the Nazis were complicit with Christian churches regarding atrocities, and soldiers of the German army were also Nazis who adopted "Gott Mit Uns" (God with us) as a slogan. Completely wrong.

Gott Mit Uns became a Prussian Army slogan in 1600s, and was adopted in 1871 for the entire German Army during German unification. It was on the belt buckles of German uniforms in the late 1800s, in World War I and World War II, and I heard it shouted loud once by a German army battalion in the 1994 when I was at a partnership Christmas event when I served in Europe. That slogan has absolutely nothing to do with Nazi ideology. Now the SS troops, i.e. the socialists, did not wear Gott Mit Uns. They were usually atheists and against God - which brings us to the Nazis.

As a politician, Hitler did make nice with some high-level church leaders in his rise to power, but once a dictator he was an ardent atheist and socialist who had little use for Christianity. Socialists seek to replace God with the state, in order to eliminate competition with pastors and priests using the pulpit to preach the gospel of Christ instead of their political propaganda. Some Nazis envisioned eliminating the churches.

Nazis in Heidelberg declared they were replacing Christmas with a "winter pagan solstice celebration," pastors and priests alike everywhere had their sermons pulled for any criticism of Nazi policies, and hundreds of pastors were jailed during the Third Reich. Many Nazis were anti-Christianists, hence Christians were their victims, not their partners. Undeniably, atheistic socialists like the Nazis have committed the world's worst atrocities.

Harold Knudsen

Arlington Heights