Confessing Church
The position of the Protestant churches in Germany was not any easier than that of the Catholics. In the past, the German Protestant Church enjoyed a close relationship with the state. However, things began to change with the rise of the Nazi regime, which tried to take more control of the church. The churches refused to become a source of Nazi propaganda tactics and therefore started moving away from the state.
In the summer of 1933, the Nazi backed Reichbischof adopted the Aryan Paragraph, which removed the frock from anyone of Jewish descent (having a parent or grandparent that was Jewish) and removed any clergy member who was married to someone who was not Aryan. This led to members of the clergy taking a stand and the Pastors’ Emergency League under Martin Niemoller was formed. The League sought to resist the programs of the German Christians and support clergy members of Jewish descent.
The group eventually evolved into what became known as the Confessing Church. In 1934 the opposition created the Barmen Declaration which affirmed that the German Church was not under the command of the state, and that the commandments of God would always supersede the commandments of the state. This split the German Protestant Church into the German Christian Movement and the Confessing Church.
In 1936 the Confessing Church sent a memorandum to Hitler which spoke out against the regime’s anti-Christian tendencies, the regime’s anti-Semitism, and the regime’s interference with the Protestant Church. In response, hundreds of dissenting pastors were arrested and many opposition leaders were sent to concentration camps or killed. The Confessing Church tried to help some Jews in Germany by providing them with fake papers, but many of these forgers and sympathizers were eventually captured and killed. Largely the Confessing Church did very little to stand up to the Nazis or stop the atrocities that were occurring, but they were a religious voice taking a stand against the regime.