From: Richard Ridge (richard_ridge@tao-group.com)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 04:49:39 MST
Having seen the following article I thought it to be a reasonably safe bet
to predict that anyone advocating the dismantling of christianity will
henceforth be increasingly tarred with the brush outlined below (though I'm
not sure that these new documents tell us anything we weren't already aware
of). This already occurs to some extent, as believers have long argued that
the atheism of Hitler and Stalin was at the heart of the evil of their
respective regimes (though describing either of them as a secular humanist
seems more than a little far-fetched). I personally recall an incident when
a christian (who had previously been telling a gay poster to a bulletin
board that while he was clearly sick and diseased she was nonetheless deeply
concerned for his welfare) accused me of seeking to put all christians in
concentration camps. My reply was that while many christians show a
pronounced tendency towards being passive-aggressive, I had no wish to
dignify her lust for martyrdom.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1753000/1753469.stm
Rare documents used as evidence in the Nuremberg war crimes trials are being
made available to the public for the first time via the internet.
The papers - some marked Top Secret - include transcripts in German and
English and additional material, which researchers believe could cast new
light on the trials of the Nazi hierarchy.
The first instalment, entitled "The Nazi Master Plan; The Persecution of
Christian Churches", shows how the Nazis planned to supplant Christianity
with a religion based on racial superiority.
The report, prepared by the Office of Strategic Services - a forerunner of
the CIA - says: "Important leaders of the National Socialist party would
have liked... complete extirpation of Christianity and the substitution of a
purely racial religion."
"The best evidence now available as to the existence of an anti-Church plan
is to be found in the systematic nature of the persecution itself," it said.
"Different steps in that persecution, such as the campaign for the
suppression of denominational and youth organisations, the campaign against
denominational schools, the defamation campaign against the clergy, started
on the same day in the whole area of the Reich...and were supported by the
entire regimented press, by Nazi Party meetings, by travelling party
speakers."
The documents - with original handwritten notes - appear on the web site of
the Rutger University School of Law in New Jersey in the United States.
The 148 volumes of material, which will be published in parts every six
months, were compiled by General William J Donovan, an investigator at the
International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg after World War II.
General Donovan supplemented the trial documents with his own notes,
drawings, photographs and letters, which researchers say provide new
insights into the trials.
Project editor Julie Seltzer Mandel believes the first instalment presents a
different perspective on Nazi persecution. "A lot of people will say, 'I
didn't realize that they were trying to convert Christians to a Nazi
philosophy', Ms Mandel, a third year law student, told Philadelphia's The
Inquirer newspaper.
"They wanted to eliminate Jews altogether, but they were also looking to
eliminate Christianity."
The next set of papers, to be posted in six months, will be drawn from a
secret OSS document entitled "Miscellaneous Memoranda on War Criminals". It
documents the efforts made by various nations to capture and prosecute
Nazis.
A third instalment, to go online in a year, reveals confidential Nazi
orders. Included are instructions for the infamous Kristallnacht ("Broken
Glass Night").
A message entitled "Measures To Be Taken Against Jews Tonight" informed Nazi
authorities that "Jewish shops and homes may be destroyed, but not
looted....Foreigners, even if Jewish, will not be molested".
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