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New Gospel of Blood, Strength and Germanity
Excerpt from: 'Behind the Steel-Wall'
by Arvid Fredborg, 1944
Spring 1943 ...In a few years that uniform facade was created which has since presented itself to the world as the Third Reich.How this happened cannot be explained without emphasizing that before Hitler's assumption of power only a few had any conception of what Nazism really meant. Most people looked upon it as a strong nationalist movement with an intensive social philosophy which would, under the pressure of circumstances, soon turn evolutionist and abandon its revolutionary ideas. Hitler and his men managed in a masterly way to camouflage their real purpose during the long years of advance towards power. Besides, Nazism only assumed its definite character after 1933. It was the mentality of the leaders which decided this character. Rauschning has rightly predicted that Adolf Hitler and his men will go down in history as the big nihilists. The Nazis tried to change the whole basis of the life of the German nation. The German people were certainly secularized to a large extent before Hitler came to power, and indifference towards religion was rather on the increase than the reverse. Yet the ethical basis of society was undoubtedly Christian, and even the religiously indifferent were largely guided by norms common to Christian civilisation. Hitler tried to give the German people a new religion. This was never frankly stated, nor did it seem to represent an unbroken line in Nazi ideology. But, looking back on Nazi policy throughout the last ten years, it appears obvious that a large-scale effort was launched to curb the Christianity of the German people as representing their last barricade against National Socialist nihilism. An attempt was made to keep the youth away from the churches and give them something new to believe in. Hitler has been said to consider himself a Messiah, and worshipping his person in some quarters assumed the form of a real cult. But this was only a superficial phenomenon. What was inoculated into the German youth was rather Nature worship, a gospel of blood, strength and Germanity.
About a year ago a book appeared in Germany which, I think, is one of the most interesting manifestations of this new religion, or rather this attempt to replace Christianity with something else. Its title was Gott und Volk - God and People - and was written by a young anonymous S.S. man.
In the last chapter of his book the author defined the calling of the followers of "the German faith."
I have quoted this book at some length as it gives an unusually clear idea of what Nazism has set out to achieve with the youth - a new ideology, a martial religion glorifying inflexibility, masculinity. Its language is uniquely frank. It tells, in words perhaps too clear, the intentions of the Nazi youth leaders. These intentions were otherwise seldom openly pronounced. The Nazis preferred to act. But the worship of sternness and strength pleaded by the author was representative of wide circles of the youth of to-day. That should not be forgotten.
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We must raise a new man - a new form of life Excerpt from a speech that Hitler delivered to the youth of the nation in 1934:
From the German youth of the future I expect something different....something new. We must raise a New Man....so that we can give the German people a new ideal....forge a strong bond between the people and the ideal....and shape them into a new form of life. This shall be the greatest achievement of our people in this century. The young German of the future shall be slender and straight....fast as a greyhound, tough as leather and as hard as Krupp steel!
'Long Live Germany' An eagle hovers against the light of heaven over Hitler
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