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WEHRMACHT PRIESTS Wehrmacht Priests CATHOLICISM AND THE NAZI WAR OF ANNIHILATION Lauren Faulkner Rossi Cambridge, Massachusetts . London, En gland 2015 Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data Faulkner Rossi, Lauren. Wehrmacht priests : Catholicism and the Nazi war of annihilation / Lauren Faulkner Rossi. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0-6 74- 59848- 5 (alk. paper) 1. Catholic Church—Germany—History—1933–1 945. 2. Priests—G ermany. 3. Catholic Church— Germany—Clergy. 4. Germany—A rmed Forces— History—World War, 1939– 1945. I. Title. BX1536.F38 2015 282'.4309044—dc23 2014031312 For my parents CONTENTS Abbreviations Used in Text ix Introduction 1 1. Catholic Bishops and Catholic Youth in Germany after the Great War 13 2. Pastoral Care in the Wehrmacht 64 3. Priests and Seminarians in the Wehrmacht 112 4. Religion, Nationalism, and Why Priests Went to War 154 5. The German Catholic Church and the Reality of Defeated Germany 192 Conclusion 239 Appendixes 1. German Church Provinces, Dioceses, and Bishops in the Third Reich 2 57 2. April 1944 Overview of Catholic Priests, Members of Religious Orders, Seminarians, and Theologians in Military Ser vice for Greater Germany (Including Austria and the Sudetenland) 259 3. Chaplain Rankings and Equivalents 2 63 Notes 265 Ac know ledgm ents 325 Index 329 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT BVP Bavarian People’s Party (Bayerische Volkspartei) DNVP German National People’s Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei) HJ Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) NSFO National Socialist Leadership Officer (Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffizier) NSV National Socialist Social Ser vices (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt) OKH Army High Command (Oberkommandes des Heeres) OKW Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) OKW/AWA General Office of the Armed Forces RSHA Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) SA Stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung) SD Security Serv ice (Sicherheitsdienst) SiPo Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei) SPD Social Demo cratic Party of Germany (Sozialistisches Partei Deutschland) SS Protection Squad (Schutzstaffel) ix

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Between 1939 and 1945 more than 17,000 Catholic German priests and seminarians were conscripted into Hitler’s Wehrmacht. Men who had devoted their lives to God found themselves advancing the cause of an abhorrent regime. Lauren Faulkner Rossi draws on personal correspondence, official military rep