# Was the Bible banned in Nazi Germany? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925 "2000-02-08T19:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/21 "2023-05-16T23:02:03Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Myths about gender What myths exactly? Please be specific. > [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > And there are a lot of prejudices against Christians Like what?? > [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > I mean, the entire government is lying about a lot of things, and calling things science which clearly are not. Again, can you give specific examples? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/22 "2023-05-17T01:24:27Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > It’s in the New York Times article I posted. The Old Testament is part of the Bible. Ban part of it, you might as well ban it all. Is there another source for the claim that the Old Testament was actually banned in Nazi Germany? Most U.S. papers at that time would say anything to look like they were patriotic, so perhaps a cite a little more neutral? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/23 "2023-05-17T02:25:01Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > We’ll see who the real fascists are. Give it time. Both Right wing and Left Wing are displaying fascist tendencies. DEI is fascism. It’s just a new form of it. No, the evidence shows that fascists were/are the ones opposed to diversity, that is why they talked a lot about race purity, master races and controlling women. > **[What happens to women's rights when democracy backslides](https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/04/26/women-fascists-democracy-backslides-abortion-rights)** > > From Nazi Germany to Mussolini’s Italy, fascists worked to repress the rights of women by restricting education and abortion rights. Now, there are echoes of that past again. [https://interminablerambling.medium.com/florida-fascism-and-the-past-ea6694e10c66`](https://interminablerambling.medium.com/florida-fascism-and-the-past-ea6694e10c66%60) > In “[Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt](https://interglacial.com/pub/text/Umberto_Eco_-_Eternal_Fascism.html),” Umberto Eco lists out features of fascism and points out that “it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around us.” Traditionalism, the longing for a mythological past, looms larges as one of the defining features of fascism. This gazing backwards, immediately raises a wall to learning and expansion, it says, as Eco puts it, that “[t]ruth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.” > > Along with a longing for a non-existent bygone past, fascism explicitly rejects any semblance of diversity that disagrees with those in power and uses the “_fear of difference_” as a means of solidifying and maintaining power. Eco points out, “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” ---
**Author:** ![B.K.Neifert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.k.neifert/32/14062_2.png) [@B.K.Neifert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.K.Neifert)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/24 "2023-05-17T02:29:19Z")
I’m just going to end this conversation, because it seems like you not only are proving my point, but are also being unreasonable. Somehow, both at the same time. The only ones who are unreliable, are you. Note, you did prove my points. All of them. You just twisted it in your favor. You literally did the research I would have done. Just read carefully what you said, and then read carefully what I said. May I also tell you, that in 1933 Americans were sympathetic to the Nazis. Hitler won Man of the Year in 1938. The New York Times was reporting on a danger. I’ll just let you guys bury yourselves with the holes you are digging. You’re brainwashed. God bless. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/25 "2023-05-17T02:29:53Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > It goes on to quote several points from Nazi crank Alfred Rosenberg’s “30 points” (1942) proposal for a National Reich Church that declare the NRC’s demand that the printing, importation, sale, and presence in churches of the Bible be outlawed (and replaced with Mein Kampf). This does not say it actually happened. This says it was part of a 30 point proposal from Alfred Rosenberg. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/26 "2023-05-17T02:38:32Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > You’re brainwashed. > > God bless. Perfect ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/27 "2023-05-17T04:14:18Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > May I also tell you, that in 1933 Americans were sympathetic to the Nazis. Some Americans were. Those Americans were Nazis, too. > [@](#): > > Hitler won Man of the Year in 1938. You seem to no understand exactly what “Man of the Year” means. It’s not like a beauty contest. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/28 "2023-05-17T04:33:05Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Hitler won Man of the Year in 1938. And so did his ideological successor in 2016. What’s your point? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/29 "2023-05-17T05:07:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > > It goes on to quote several points from Nazi crank Alfred Rosenberg’s “30 points” (1942) proposal for a National Reich Church that declare the NRC’s demand that the printing, importation, sale, and presence in churches of the Bible be outlawed (and replaced with Mein Kampf). > > This does not say it actually happened. This says it was part of a 30 point proposal from Alfred Rosenberg. The quote from the book (quoted directly above what you quoted from my OP) said it happened. I obviously thought the Rosenberg stuff was weak sauce, thus my inquiry…23 years ago! Of all the stupid things I posted back then, this isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/30 "2023-05-17T05:16:37Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > You seem to no understand exactly what “Man of the Year” means. It’s not like a beauty contest. Right. Hitler was indeed Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1938, but that is not necessarily an honour. From Time’s Wikipedia item, on its “Man/Woman/Person/Thing of the Year” selection: > **[Time Person of the Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Person_of_the_Year)** > > Person of the Year (called Man of the Year or Woman of the Year until 1999) is an annual issue of the American news magazine and website Time featuring a person, a group, idea, or object that "for better or for worse... has done the most to influence the events of the year". The editors select the featured subject, though the Time website also runs an annual reader's poll that has no effect on the selection. > The tradition of selecting a "Man of the Year" began in 1927, with Time editors contem... Hitler certainly influenced the events of 1938, but not in a good way. “For worse,” to use Time’s own words. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/31 "2023-05-17T05:21:29Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Furthermore, there was a great effort in Poland and other territories, to purge Catholics. As they were being targeted and put in concentration camps too. Something between five hundred thousand, and two million Catholics were purged from Poland and other Nazi Territories during the war. You can read a lot about that, and it’s still accessible online. Yeah, I’m going to need a cite for that because it didn’t happen. At best you seem to be conflating the Nazis working to destroy the Polish Catholic church since it formed a cornerstone of Polish national identity and the Nazis planning and working to destroy the Poles as a race as the Poles were in Nazi ideology _Untermensch_ who were to be exterminated to create _lebensraum_ for the German people. > **[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation)** > > Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, included the genocide of millions of Polish people, especially the systematic extermination of Jewish Poles.\[b\] These mass killings were enacted by the Nazis with further plans that were justified by their racial theories, which regarded Poles and other Slavs, and especially Jews B... > By 1942, the Nazis were implementing their plan to murder every Jew in German-occupied Europe, and had also developed plans to reduce the Polish people through mass murder, [ethnic cleansing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing), enslavement and [extermination through labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_through_labor), and assimilation into German identity of a small minority of Poles deemed “racially valuable”. During World War II, the Germans not only murdered millions of Poles, but ethnically cleansed millions more through [forced deportation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Poles_by_Nazi_Germany) to make room for German settlers (see _[Generalplan Ost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost)_ and _[Lebensraum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum)_). These actions claimed the lives of 2.7 to 3 million [Polish Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Jews) and 1.8 to 2.77 million ethnic Poles, according to Poland’s [Institute of National Remembrance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_National_Remembrance).[[a]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-MaterSzar09-1)[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-4)[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-5) These extremely large death tolls, and the absence of substantial non-Jewish civilian deaths in other occupied European countries such as [Denmark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark) and [France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France), have led some, such as [Timothy Snyder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Snyder), to characterize Germany’s policies against the Poles as genocidal.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-6) > > The genocidal policies of the German government’s colonization plan, _Generalplan Ost_, were the blueprint for [war crimes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes) and [crimes against humanity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_against_humanity) committed against the Polish nation from 1939 to 1945.[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKulesza2004-7) The Nazi master plan entailed the expulsion and mass extermination of some 85 percent (over 20 million) of ethnic Poles in Poland, the remaining 15 percent to be [turned into slave labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II).[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_the_Polish_nation#cite_note-WFF-8) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/32 "2023-05-17T06:34:19Z")
To clarify, I was pointing this out to the person who revived the thread, who tried to use that quote as evidence that it actually happened. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/33 "2023-05-17T06:36:48Z")
I was Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year in 2006. But who wasn’t? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/34 "2023-05-17T10:25:20Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > The only ones who are unreliable, are you. Note, you did prove my points. All of them. Not really, the bible was not banned in Nazi Germany, there was an attempt to do so with the Old Testament, but history showed that many Christians in Germany just were not in agreement with Christians in other countries, particularly the ones in the conquered nations. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/35 "2023-05-17T13:30:36Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Note, you did prove my points. All of them. You just twisted it in your favor. If I made an argument and that argument seemed to be in my favor then I’m not really seeing the issue. That’s called the free marketplace of ideas and the whole purpose is that the winning argument has the freedom to rise to the top. Collectivist thinking is the domain of what group of people? So if, to you, your instinctual reaction to someone not having the exact same ideas and philosophy as yourself is equivalent to “persecution”, then where exactly do you fall on the political spectrum? We are what we believe, not what we claim ourselves to be. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/36 "2023-05-17T15:57:28Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > but are also being unreasonable. > [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > The only ones who are unreliable, are you. > [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > You’re brainwashed. Welcome to the Straight Dope, @B.K.Neifert. We hope that you enjoy your time here. Please note that the general rule around here is that you must be respectful to other users in all forums/categories except the BBQ Pit (you can “flame” and insult others in the BBQ Pit, that’s where that forum’s name comes from). In other words, attack the post, not the poster. You are certainly free to disagree, but please be respectful and do not insult others. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/37 "2023-05-17T17:05:52Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > For your first question, have you ever read 1984? Very easily. That’s one of the problems with a digital medium. Had you stuck around I’d inform you that I’ve read a lot of fiction. So much of it is preferable to reality in concept. but in reality it doesn’t exist at all, nor do rational points based on considering it so. But even in a fantasy world how did you avoid the whitewashing yourself? > [@](#): > > Myths about gender. Myths about Christians causing Nazi Germany. And there are a lot of prejudices against Christians. I mean, the entire government is lying about a lot of things, and calling things science which clearly are not. It’s kind of fascist, in a way, that Schools, Colleges, even Churches are being used to indoctrinate people. Much like what happened in Nazi Germany. It’s just the skin color is different. The ideology is the same. DEI is a fascist ideology, strictly speaking. Especially since it’s permeated and disseminated as if it were gospel by the entire culture. Even PBS. Yes, they’re all lying liars conspiring against Christians just the way they conspired against the Nazis. And of course we know who they are, right?. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/38 "2023-05-17T17:18:22Z")
Might this be the same B.K. Neifert who wrote [“The Wisdom Of B.K. Neifert”](https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-B-K-Neifert-ebook/dp/B0B243DHQL/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=wqyVR&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=145-8204159-8211964&pd_rd_wg=9PHdL&pd_rd_r=6c4269f4-2a62-4248-8523-b6498aee9ed9&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk)? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/39 "2023-05-17T17:26:02Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Myths about Christians causing Nazi Germany. There’s no reason to believe that the shamanic faiths of Northern Eurasia were aware of the Jews or cared about them, prior to their lands being taken over by the Romans and, later, the Christians. Antisemitism predates Lutheranism but it _is_ specific to Abrahamic faiths (some branches of Christianity and Islam) and it does seem likely to me, at least, that Martin Luther’s antisemitic views were a leading force in the large amount of antisemitism in Eastern Europe during the first part of the 20th century. Regardless of how much of an adherent to Christianity we might view Hitler as having been, he was still raised in an environment that had a larger amount of antisemitic views than most other regions of Europe, due to the influence of Martin Luther and of anti-Jewish thought that developed among other Christian groups. > **[Berlin exhibit highlights how the Nazis exploited Martin Luther’s legacy](https://religionnews.com/2017/10/19/berlin-exhibition-highlights-how-the-nazis-exploited-martin-luthers-legacy/)** > > BERLIN (RNS) — Most visitors to events in Germany marking this year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation probably didn’t expect to find an exhibition setting out just how extensively the Nazis used Luther to justify their anti-Semitism and... The vikings didn’t care about Jews - or, at least, anyone is free to identify some evidence to the contrary. But, note that just because anti-semitism is something that developed among the Christians, that doesn’t mean that antisemitism came from a particularly good or reasonable reading of the Bible or understanding of the views of that Jewish guy, Jesus. It’s not an indictment of Christianity, just an indictment of _those particular Christians_ who took on violent views. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/40 "2023-05-17T18:09:04Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The vikings didn’t care about Jews - or, at least, anyone is free to identify some evidence to the contrary. [There is some.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/pmed.2014.18) Vikings were Europeans and aware of the prevailing attitudes on the continent. I don’t know if any of it is particular to the Vikings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925.md?page=3)