Dear Friends,
With this issue of our Newsletter, we come to the completion of
Vol. IV.
Editing these issues has been a labour of love for me, which has
been
sustained largely because of the encouragement I have received
from so many
of you. Let me assure you all that I continue to welcome your
contributions,
so that we can more fully produce a truly international and
interdenominational bulletin of value to our world-wide readership
from
Poland to Western Australia.
I shall be returning to Vancouver in mid-month, so individual
correspondence
may be somewhat disrupted. But I want to take this opportunity
to wish each
and all of you my very best wishes for a blessed Christmas and
a happy and
successful New Year.
Contents: 1) Repetition of invitation to supply biographical resumes
2) Forthcoming International Historical Conference
3) Journal issue
4) Thesis abstract: Karl Barth. Covenanted Solidarity. M.Lindsay
5) The Erosion of Conscience
6) Book review: M.Kalusche, Der Schloss an der Grenze
1) Repeat invitation to supply biographical and research interest
information.
As we noted last month, list-members are invited to become better
known to
each other by sending in a short resume of your career and research
interests, along with your e-mail and postal addresses, and home
page if you
have one. Please send this to Randall Bytwerk
The results can be read at
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/bytw/conway.htm
2) Forthcoming conference
It is not too early to take note of the opportunity to take part
in the next
meeting of the International Congress of Historical Sciences to
be held in
Oslo, Norway from 6th-13th August 2000.
The whole programme can be obtained from
thomas.evensen@hi.uio.no
This is the largest most ecumenical gathering of the world's historians,
so
its themes have to be very broad and general. But one of the major
subjects
to be discussed will be "Millennium, time and history"
including a section
on 'eschatology, millennial movements and visions of the future",
while
among the special topics are "Religion and Gender" and
"Christian Missions,
modernisation, colonisation and de-colonisation".
In addition a number of affiliated organisations will hold simultaneous
meetings. Amongst these should be the Commission Internationale
d'Histoire
Ecclesiastique Comparee (CIHEC). If I can establish contact with
any of this
group's executive, I will and get more details of the two-day
programme, and
how to contact the organizers.
3) Journal issue:
The Journal for the History of Modern Theology/Zeitschrift fuer
neuere
Theologiegeschichte, Volume 5, no 2 1998 has now been published
and includes
the third part of a deocumentary edition of the exchange of letters
between
Rudolf Bultmann and Gerhard Krueger 1924-1974, also interesting
reviews of
new books in our field. The web-site is
http://www.degruyter.de/journals/znthg/index.html
4) Thesis abstract
Covenanted Solidarity. The theological basis of Karl Barth's opposition
to
Nazi antisemitism and the Holocaust.
In the historiography of Holocaust and Church Struggle studies,
the figure
of Karl Barth occupies a strangely marginalised position. Historians
have
acknowledged his seminal role in the founding and leadership of
the
Confessing Church, including his pivotal involvement in the writing
of the
Barmen Declaration. Thus, his significance as a 'Founding Father'
of the
ecclesiastical campaign against the Nazi regime has been widely
recognised.
Conversely, his vehement rejection of National Socialist antisemitism
and
the resultant Holocaust, as well as his forceful advocacy on behalf
of the
persecuted Jews, have received scant attention. Historians have
displayed an
unwillingness to encounter in any penetrating depth the theological
issues
involved in Barth's position, and have shied away from Barth's
massive
"Church Dogmatics" in which his most profound defences
of the Jews are
located. The results of these failings has been that most historical
monographs about Nazi antisemitism and the Holocaust that do mention
Barth
do so in critically negative fashion, usually assuming that Barth
was either
anti-Judaistic himself or simply uninterested in the question.
This thesis counteracts this received wisdom by presupposing that
any
historical assessment of Barth must take in utter seriousness
his
theological work on its own grounds. Consequently, while the thesis
falls
within the discipline of history, it is the theological bases
of Barth's
resistance to Nazism and its antisemitism that forms the material
core of
the project.
This approach focusses not only on Barth's explicitly political
pamphlets,
but also on his dogmatic theology from the early 1920s through
the "Church
Dogmatics" period. It looks not only at how Barth treats
the motif of
"Israel" but, more importantly, how his conceptions
of revelation,
Christology and election stand in self-conscious antithesis to
the
voelkisch, Nazified versions of the same. The National Socialists
adopted
and then perverted these theological motifs in an effort not only
to deify
the regime and Hitler, but also to demonize the Jews and thus
to justify
their extermination. This thesis seeks to show that Barth's usage
of these
concepts was both a recapturing of the theological orthodoxy and,
as well, a
basis from which his defence of the Jews could be, and was, launched.
The other central element is the demonstration that Barth was
no mere
armchair theologian, but was socially and politically active throughout
his
career. This theme is developed by showing how Barth's pro-Israel
hermeneutic found practical expression during the Nazi years.
This was no
aberration, but rather the extension of Barth's social(ist) praxis
from his
earlier pastoral work in rural Switzerland.
There are undoubtedly points at which Barth's theological and
practical
political can be criticised. Nevertheless the overwhelming weight
of
evidence shows that, in contrast to previous historical assessments,
Barth
was both actively involved in resisting Nazi antisemitic violence,
and that
this praxis was grounded securely in his profound Christocentric
theology.
Mark Lindsay, Dept of History, University of Western Australia.
5) The Erosion of Conscience
On a recent visit to the University of Western Ontario, Prof Peter
Baehr of
Memorial University, Newfoundland, had these pertinent comments
on the
problem of the loss of moral standards in Nazi Germany, as discussed
by
Hannah Arendt in her well-known book "Eichmann in Jerusalem":
A particularly disturbing fact for a civilisation ostensibly based
on
Judaeo-Christian principles, is that such principles were not
sturdy enough
to forestall the Holocaust, Though the Nazis themselves were decidedly
anti-Christian, Germany had been a Christian region, with Christian
traditions, for centuries. What had then happened to the commandment:
Thous
shalt not kill? To be sure this injunction had everywhere been
previously
qualified to allow for capital punishment or war. But the Jews
were not
criminals in the conventional sense - they had broken no law until
they were
put outside of it - or in a position to assault Germany. In her
book "The
Origins of Totalitarianism", Arendt delineated a number of
historical, macro
elements that had prepared the way for the temporary triumph of
the Nazis,
among them the disintegration of the nation-state, the emergence
of
minorities and millions of stateless peoples, and the development
of racism
which denies the common origins of Man. All of these had weakened
the
conventions, customs and traditions on which moral scruples are
based.
In "Eichmann in Jerusalem" Arendt deepened the analysis
by providing a
phenomenology of the factors and phases by means of which conscience
is
eroded, to such an extent that it is only exceptional people who
are able to
behave "normally".
Arendt was emphatic that someone like Eichmann "commits his
crimes under
circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible to know or to
feel that he
is doing wrong" But what were these "circumstances"
that disabled people
like Eichmann from knowing or feeling that they were doing wrong?
Concentrating primarily on the environment within which Eichmann
and people
like him moved, Arendt enumerated a number of factors that contributed
to
the erosion of conscience. The first of these was linguistic.
A conspicuous
feature of the bizarre world inhabited by the Nazi hierarchy was
a roster of
slogans and catch-phrases - the SS motto "My Honor is my
Loyalty " - that
leant their deeds an inflated importance, and that substituted
the plain
fact of murder with "language rules" (euphemisms like
'final solution'
'special treatment', 'resettlement') whose purpose was to conceal
the
enormity of what was being done.
During the war, the slogan was "the battle of destiny for
the German people"
(der Schicksalskampf des deutschen Volkes) "coined either
by Hitler or by
Goebbels, which made self-deception easier on three counts: it
suggested,
first, that the war was no war; second, that it was started by
destiny and
not by Germany; and third, that it was a matter of life and death
for the
Germans, who must annihilate their enemies or be annihilated".
Moreover, it became evident that such terminology had survived
the war when,
during Eichmann's trial, his defence counsel, Dr Robert Servatius
declared
Eichmann "innocent of charges bearing on his responsibility
for 'the
collection of skeletons, sterilizations, killings by gas, and
similar
medical matters'" Whereupon Judge Halevi interrupted him:
"Dr Servatius, I
assume you made a slip of the tongue when you said that killing
by gas was a
medical matter" To which Servatius replied: "It was
indeed a medical matter,
since it was prepared by physicians; it was a matter of killing,
and
killing, too, is a medical matter".
Second, and relatedly, the Nazis created amongst their functionaries
a
pseudo-morality through warping a component that all ethical ideas
contain:
the notion of obligation and sacrifice. Such a grotesque twist
was required
precisely because the majority of murderers were not "sadists
or killers by
nature". Members of the Einsatzgruppen, for instance, the
mobile killing
units of the SS, were typically reasonably well-educated, Himmler's
stratagem for dealing with feelings of pity they may have harboured
consisted in ramming home the message, not "what horrible
things I did to
people!" But rather "what horrible things I had to watch
in the pursuance of
my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!. And
since it was
an unpleasant "task" for which "sacrifice"
was required, and not a pleasure
experienced for its own sake, such a rationalisation could assume
the
tincture of duty and anaesthetise other moral qualms. A similar
phenomenon
was evident amongst those who built the installations of mass
death. In many
cases, these were the same functionaries who had been involved
in the
euthanasia drive to which around 50,000 Germans had fallen victim
between
December 1939 and August 1941. The phraseology of "mercy
killing" which
justified this policy - and which, again, implied that the killers
were
working with an elevated motive - prepared them well for their
next job.
Third, the sheer fact of war itself, the multiplication of death
it
involved, and the ever-present sense that one's own life now hung
in the
balance, lessened the value of life more generally.
Fourth, and finally, the atmosphere of collusion was so complete
- among the
Nazi Party hierarchy, the Foreign Office, legal experts, the Ministry
of
Finance - that there was nothing, and no-one, to convince Eichmann
that he
was doing anything wrong. The absence of dissenting opinions,
the fugitive
and opaque character of resistance, such as it was, spun a cocoon
in which
crime was transformed into orthodoxy. Who, Eichmann asked, was
he to
protest? The very success of the regime made obeying it seductive,
and a
virtue out of opportunism. But the situation was made even worse,
Arendt
argued, because of the way the Jewish Councils cooperated with
the Nazi
functionaries in the deportation of their own people. Through
the practice
of establishing privileged categories of Jewish persons - "German
Jews as
against Polish Jews, war veterans and decorated Jews as against
ordinary
Jews, families whose ancestors were German-born as against those
recently
naturalised, etc " - through formulating various exceptions,
the Jewish
leaders had seemed to accept the rule. As a result, it was all
too easy for
the Nazi functionaries to feel "that by being asked to make
exceptions, and
by occasionally granting them, and thus earning gratitude, they
had
convinced their opponents of the lawfulness of what they were
doing".
"Nobody", Eichmann explained, " came to me and
reproached me for anything in
the performance of my duties. Not even Pastor Gruber [a Protestant
minister
with whom Eichmann had negotiated, and who gave evidence at the
trial: PB]
claims to have done so . . . He came to me and sought alleviation
of
suffering, but did not actually object to the very performance
of my duties
as such". For Arendt, this and other episodes revealed "the
moral collapse
of Jewish society". And accompanying it, of course, was the
moral collapse
of Christian society too. Peter Baehr, Memorial University of
Newfoundland.
6) Book review:
Martin Kalusche, Das Schloss an der Grenze. Kooperation und Konfrontation
mit dem Nationalsozialismus in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt fuer
Schwachsinnige und Epileptische Stetten i. R.. Heidelberg:DWI
Verlag 1997
(Diakoniewissenschaftliche Studien, Bd 10) 412 pp DM 32-
(English summary: Ed. The tragic history of the mistreatment and
even murder
of the mentally-ill in Nazi Germany is now being explored more
fully,
especially on the local level. Many of these patients were placed
in
church-run institutions, such as the one at Stetten in Wuerttemberg,
which
is the subject of this capable analysis. The author makes clear
that the
clash of loyalties between Christian compassion and Nazi racial
demands was
felt by all the staff, but particularly by the directors. He gives
a full
account of the dilemma of Pastor Ludwig Schlaich, but suggests
that his was
not a strong personality able to withstand the constant pressures
to
conform. Stetten showed how easily all in charge got used to the
poisonous
impact of Nazi ideas. The initial Nazi programme in 1934 was for
compulsory
sterilization of Stetten's patients as a "sacrifice for the
sake of national
health purity", as Schlaich justified such steps.
From May 1940 onwards, the deportations from Stetten began, despite
ineffective protests. Within seven weeks nearly half the inmates
had been
put to death. The author rightly expresses his inability to describe
adequately their feelings, or the conflicts felt by the hospital
staff,
especially when heartrending choices had to be made in the hopes
of saving
some of the victims.
The third part of the book is more analytical and discusses the
whole issue
of "euthanasia" in its wider context, as also a comparison
with the story at
other German institutions. The author successfully combines an
identification with the theme's subjects, but also a due scholarly
distance.
"Stetten" ist fuer viele Menschen in Wuerttemberg ein
Synonym fuer eine
Anstalt, aus der zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus behinderte Menschen
zur
Ermordung abgeholt wurden. "Stetten" - das verbindet
sich schliesslich mit
einer zentralen Gestalt, Pfarrer Ludwig Schlaich (1899-1977),
dem
Hauptprotagonisten dieses Buches. Basierend auf einer 1100 Seiten
dicken
Chronik der Anstalt Stetten widmet sich der Autor in acht Kapiteln
der
Grundfrage: "Wie war es moeglich, dass vor zwei Generationen
fast die
Haeflte der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner verschleppt und auf der
Schwaebischen
Alb ermordert werden konnte? Inwiefern war die Anstalt Stetten
an den
nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen an behinderten Menschen beteiligt?"
(S.16)
Drei Hauptteile sind es, in denen diese Frage aus jeweils veraenderter
Perspektive angegangen wird. Im ersten Teil "Leben und Arbeiten
in der Heil-
und Pflegeanstalt 1933-40" (S 33-142) orientiert Kalusche
die Leser ueber
die Vorgeschichte der Anstalt Stetten wie ueber die Hauptpersonen.
Er
informiert ueber die finanzielle Situation der Anstalten. Stetten
ist im
Dritten Reich ein oekonomisch prosperierendes Unternehmen, was
aber durch
grosse Sparsamkeit und einer damit einhergehenden Verschlechterung
von
Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen erkauft wird. Dabei orientiert
sich der Autor
stark an dem Begriff der "Grenze". Er thematisiert ihn
am
(Nicht-)Verhaeltnis der Anstalt zur Gemeindee Stetten, wie er
auch die
Grenzen der geistlichen Gemeinschaft in Stetten aufweist: Mitarbeiter
und
Bewohner gehen getrennt zum Abendmahl; viele Bewohner, die nicht
konfirmiert
werden koonten, sind vom Abendmahl ausgeschlossen.
Ein erster Hohepunkt des Buches liegt im zweiten Kapitel, in der
Stetten als
Teil der NS-Volksgemeinschaft untersucht wird. Dabei wird deutlich,
wie sehr
NSBO und KdF die "Betriebsgemeinschaft" Stetten praegen
wollen. Natuerlich
muss sich im Herbst 1937 auch die gesamte Mitarbeiterschaft sich
auf Hitler
verpflichten. Zweifellos - so folgert der Autor - war nach dem
Willen der
Verantwortlichen die Anstalt Teil des NS-Volksgemeinschaft. Daneben
steht
jedoch, und dqs wirkt vielfach paradox, die Feststellung, dass
hier
weiterhin im Rahmen des christlichen Menschenbildes der eigene
Wert jedes
behinderten Menschen vertreten wurde, was der Autor zu Beginn
des dritten
Kapitels mit vielen Belegen zeigt. (S.120) Hier wie an vielen
anderen
Stellen wird die schwierige Gratwanderung Ludwig Schlaichs deutlich,
die
zwischen dem Kosten-Nutzen-Aspekt und der positiven Bedeutung
der
behinderten Menschen entlang fuehrt.
"Brauchbare-Auslese" heisst der Begriff, mit dem sich
Schlaich
auseinandersetzen muss. Zusammenfassend muss Kalusche feststellen,
dass bei
aller Paradoxie Stetten nicht der Ort war, an dem sich aus christlichen
Glauben, Ablehnung des NS-Terrors und einem Patriotismus, der
Freiheit und
Menschenwuerde verpflichtet ist, eine Widerstandshaltung entwickeln
konnte.
Er konstatiert vielmehr eine allmaehliche "Gewoehnung an
das Gift des
Nationalsozialismus" (S.145)
Der zweite Teil der Arbeit, der den nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen
an
den Behinderten in Stetten gewidmet ist (S 143-323) thematisiert
zunaechst
in beklemmender Weise Begruendung und Realisierung der von der
Inneren
Mission weithin begruessten Zwangssterilisierung. Der Autor beleuchtet
dieses Thema unter anderem aufgrund einer Rundfunkreportage, einem
"Hoerbericht aus der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Stetten i/Remstal",
die die
Sterilisierung subtil an die Hoererschaft bringen will, spaeter
gleichwohl
doch nicht ausgestrahlt wird. Im weiteren geht er auf den Kreis
der
Sterilisierten ein, wie auch auf die traumatischen Folgen der
Sterilisierung. Der Autor zieht aus Schlaich's Stellungnahmen
und
praktischer Taetigkeit die Einsicht, dass ausgehend von einer
politischer
Entscheidung fuer das Dritte Reich die theologische Urteilsbildung
eindeutig
korrumpiert worden sei. So wird die Unfruchtbarmachung von Schlaich
als
Bewaehrung des "Erbkranken" als Christ und "Volksgenossen"
interpretiert,
als "Opfer" fuer den Staat, "um die weitere Untergrabung
der Volksgesundheit
durch die Erbkrankheiten zu verhindern". (Vortrag Schlaich
27.1.1935 in
Stuttgart, zit. bei Kalusche, S.196)
Am 22 Mai 1940 beginnt die Deportation von Bewohnern der Anstalt
Stetten.
Sieben Transporte schildert Kalusche in seinem Buch, nicht ohne
die
Korrespondenz der Anstalt mit den Angehoerigen zu dokumentieren.
In diesen
Zusammenhang kann nur der Autor recht gegeben werden, wenn er
schreibt:
"Dabei stossen wir immer wieder an die Grenzen dessen, was
im Rahmen einer
wissenschaftlichen Arbeit moeglich ist. Wie soll es gelingen,
das Schicksal
der Deportierten und Ermordeten, aber auch die Todesangst der
mit dem Leben
Davongekommenen angemessen zu schildern? Wie ist es moeglich,
dem tragischen
Konflikt gerecht zu werden, den die Anstaltleitung aushalten muss,
wenn sie
Menschenleben opfert, um andere zu retten?" (S.286).
Der Autor resuemiert, dass die Leitung der Anstalt Stetten mit
den
Deportation rechnen musste. Als die ersten Transporte angekuendigt
werden,
habe man gegen die Deportation beim Reichsstatthalter und beim
Innenministerium interveniert, wenngleich weithin ohne Erfolg.
Auch die
Bemuehungen der Angehoerigen waren nicht ganz fruchtlos, wenngleich
sie
wenig daran aenderten, dass in zwoelf Wochen fast die Haelfte
der
behinderten Menschen umgebracht wurde. Ende 1940 wurde die Anstalt
Stetten
beschlagnahmt. Viele der in anderen Anstalten verlegten Menschen
wurden dort
Opfer der "Euthanasie".
Abschliessend geht der Autor im dritten Teil auf Fragen von Widerstand
und
Nonkonformitaet ein, beleuchtet Schlaichs verklaerende Schrift
"Lebensunwert" aus dem Jahre 1947 und vergleicht Stetten
mit anderen
Einrichtungen der Inneren Mission in Sueddeutschland. (S.324-384)
Das Buch endet mit der Frage nach zeitgenoessischen Herausforderungen
in
Form von sieben sehr bedenkenswerten Thesen. Unter anderem konstatiert
er
hier "Formen von Gewoehnung und Korrumpierung" und fordert
ein offensives
Umgehen mit der "Realitaet eines internationalen
biotechnologisch-industriellen Komplexes". Die wichtigste
Einsicht aus der
Geschichte der "Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens" liege
wohl darin, "dass
ein Verbrechen, auch wenn man annimmt, es sei zu gross, um jemals
begangen
zu werden, dennoch veruebt werden kann" (S.384)
Nur wenige Buecher aus dem Bereich der Kirchlichen Zeitgeschichte,
die in
den vergangenen Jahren erschienen sind, koennen sich mit dieser
Heidelberger
Dissertation messen. Das gilt auf drei Ebenen. Zum einen liest
man selten
eine so geglueckte Synthese vonb Identifikation mit dem Thema
und
wissenschaftlich notwendiger Distanz. Zur anderen is beeindruecken,
dass
sich der Autor nicht von herkoemlichen Schablonen blenden laesst,
sondern
tief in die Quellen eindringt, um die Wahrheit herauszufinden.
Schliesslich
bleibt er nicht in einer unverbindlichen historischen Beschaeftigung
stehen,
sondern schafft es, im besten Sinne einen Lernprozess anzustossen.
Dem
Rezensenten bleibt nur, die Lektuere dieses Buches vorbehaltlos
zu
empfehlen.
Rainer Laechele, Riesengebirgstr.2, D 73457 Essingen, Germany
Rlaechele@t-online.de
It only remains for me to wish you all the compliments of the
season, and to
hope that we shall all meet again in 1999.
Sincerely,
John S.Conway
jconway@interchange.ubc.ca