The Holy Reich [Quotes]

"In place of Christianity, Himmler advocated ancestor worship and a myth of "Blood and Soil," both of which stood opposed to Christian dogma, and belief in immortality and an omnipotent God, whose anti-Christian credentials was considerably more uncertain. The exact form his replacement faith would take led Himmler down several roads. One was an adoration of the ancient King Heinrich I. Himmler celebrated the I,oooth anniversary of his death at Quedlinburg Cathedral in 1936 and was so enthralled with this medieval figure that he believed himself to be Heinrich's reincarnation Another road was the obscure occultism of Hanns Horbiger, who had propagated a theory of "Glacial Cosmogony," in which world history was a record of the eternal struggle between fire and ice, "linking the flood of Genesis and the destruction of the Teutonic kingdom of Atlantis to 'gravitational catastrophes' supposedly unleashed when the Earth 'captured' a moon in its orbit Even among the party's other paganists, Himmler's religious views were regarded as bizarre. Himmler unwittingly acknowledged this, warning his underlings that no polemics against Horbiger's theories would be tolerated. This particular obsession was too much even for Rosenberg, who sent a circular to all NSDAP offices, assuring them that "adherence to these theories was no part of being a National Socialist."

— The Holy Reich, p.130

"As with other Nazi leaders, Rosenberg believed the Old Testament had to be removed from Christianity's corpus: "As a religious book the so-called Old Testament must be abolished for all time. With it will end the failed attempt of the last fifteen hundred years to spiritually make us Jews .... " However, whereas other Nazis were largely content to stop at the Old Testament, Rosenberg went a step further, calling as well for the removal of "obviously distorted" portions of the New Testament. In addition, a new "Fifth Gospel" should be introduced. Rejecting so much of Christianity and suggesting alternatives clearly prohibits Rosenberg from being considered Christian. However, his agenda did not amount to a total negation of preexisting gospel. Rosenberg approved of two in particular, those of John and Mark. John held out the "first ingenious interpretation, the experience of the eternal polarity between good and evil," and stood "against the Old Testament delusion that God created good and evil out of nothing. " The Gospel of Mark signified "the real heart of the message of kinship with God, against the semitic teaching of God's tyranny. " Even the Christian notion of love, although it had wrought racial contamination in Nordic Europe, could in some instances be salvaged: "Love, humility, charity, prayer, good works, mercy and repentance are all good and useful, but only under one condition: if they strengthen the power of the soul, elevate it and make it more God-like. "

— The Holy Reich, p.98

"Hitler ... like all Nazis who expressed an opinion, rejected the Old Testament and believed Jesus was an Aryan."

— The Holy Reich, p.86

"In August 1941, Rosenberg's Office of Ideological Information appraised the book [Gott Und Volk]. The reviewer noted the following passage as particularly relevant: "We respect this Jesus of Nazareth. But we do not love him. As our leader [Fuhrer] we reject him." The reviewer disagreed with another passage, "How should we educate our children? As if they had never heard of Christianity," adding that one can fight an enemy only by knowing him. The book was nonetheless certified "acceptable" for the party's [NSDAP] educational work. Soon free copies were made available to soldiers of the Wehrmacht. A flood of complaints written by non-party members soon surfaced, one of them complaining that Roosevelt's comments about Nazism being anti-Christian looked to be coming true. By December I94I, Goebbels had the book banned. [For tactical reasons] In June I942, an official from the Propaganda Ministry informed Rosenberg's office that the book could be reissued only if large sections were rewritten and the manuscript sent over to his offices for inspection. The Office of Ideological Information complained that this was an infringement on their territory."

— The Holy Reich, p.242-243

"Reinhard Heydrich was, along with Bormann, one of the regime's most adamant anti-Christians. When two Free Czech agents killed Heydrich in Prague in 1942, Nazi anticlerical ism lost one of its most effective partisans. However, his hatred of the churches was not regarded as a necessary precondition to succeed him as head of the Reich Security Main Office. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the head of the Austrian SS, took over this position in 1943. He considerably relaxed Heydrich's anticlerical campaign, already toned down for the sake of the war. This was not just a strategic consideration: According to one of his former associates, Kaltenbrunner did not understand how Heydrich "could harbor such a deadly hatred of the [Catholic] Church." If Kaltenbrunner was not a practicing Catholic, neither had he left the church. In fact, of all his brothers - all involved in the Nazi movement as he was - he was the only one not to leave the church. Although Kaltenbrunner persecuted clergy who attacked the Nazi State and professed his opposition to "political Catholicism," he had no patience for Heydrich's anticlerical schemes. At the same time that he was busily doing his best to bring the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" to its genocidal climax, he disbanded Department IVB ("religious opponents") within the Gestapo, established by Heydrich headed by Albert Hartl, an ex-priest who had turned against his church. Hartl's activities included penetration of Catholic circles and the collection of intelligence. As part of his resentment for being defrocked, he also conjured up schemes for infiltrating the Catholic Church, including sending Nazis into the priesthood to nazify the clergy from within.

— The Holy Reich, p.251-252

HERE... is the issue with Steigmann-Gal's overall assessment with the idea that Hitler only abandoned Christianity much "latter" in the years of the third Reich. And also his idea that despite the fact that Hitler was an apostate, that he still liked some Christian ethics to intentionally push him towards the Christian side.

Hitler has ALWAYS rejected Christianity as a whole since the beginning of his political career. The evidence for this can be found in early speeches and recollections.

from as far back in WW1, Hitler "Gladly forgot the Gospels", thus disregarding the Bible completely because it contradicted his war-like ethic that he seen as "not a good prescription for the front" in relation to love thy neighbor/enemy. Hitler also read a German philosopher (who also hated Christianity) Arthur schopenhauer

Hitler even makes a remark in a 1920 speech that Christianity was originally spread by Jews to destroy the Roman empire and that the Bible's words were not always 100% true. He also added on by saying that no anti-semite could've wrote the Bible because the Jews were "very liberal in writing it"

There's even evidence from his monologues where he also speaks on leaving Christianity when he was young. Which overall shows that there is many evidence that is not mentioned in The Holy Reich whatsoever that bother to discuses what Hitler's feelings towards Christianity/Religion was in his early years.

Which would also show that this idea from the author of book, that Hitler merely became an apostate later on is very incorrect. The evidence seems to point towards Hitler rejecting it when he reached adulthood.

"Hitler's own religious views underwent significant change in the latter half of the Third Reich. He gave up on the Protestant Church after three failed attempts to achieve unity within its ranks. It is only in the period after this failure that we begin to see some of the anti-Christian remarks for which he is so famous. In October 1937, Hitler commented privately: "I have been freed, after an intense inner struggle, from the still living and childish imaginings of religion .... I now feel as liberated as a foal in the pasture." Although he did not say so explicitly, the personalistic tone of the comment reveals that this was primarily a reference to his original Catholic faith, not to all religion per se. Whereas Hitler insisted as late as 1938 that he still believed in the party's positive Christianity, on other occasions his tone was very different. In December 1939, for example, Goebbels noted in his diary that "The Fuhrer is deeply religious, but entirely anti-Christian. He regards Christianity as a symptom of decay." As unambiguous as this statement appears, it raises an important question: What was Hitler's religion by this time if not Christianity? Had Hitler finally converted to Himmler's paganism? Just the day before, Goebbels wrote: "The Fuhrer rejects any thought of founding a religion. He does not want to become a Buddha." On the one hand, Hitler professed to reject Christianity: On the other, he was still religious and adamantly opposed to a replacement faith"

— The Holy Reich, p.252-253