# 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:** 3
**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 17, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/41 "2023-05-17T18:26:35Z")
I Googled BK Neifert and found his blog. I’m temporarily stunned- and not in a good way. I don’t know what to say or if I should quote the relevant passages. I will say that I learned he also suffers from dysgraphia. The average six year old has better hand writing than I do. It’s good to know I’m not alone. One day, we’ll rise up and protest with signs that are almost but not completely illegible. ETA I really do have dysgraphia. I thank G-d I live in the age of the keyboard. ---
**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, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/42 "2023-05-17T18:26:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > [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. The sagas under discussion, at your link, were written by Christians and the tales of Jews in the sagas are tales of Christians from Scandinavia going South, to convert pagans to Christianity. > **[Olaf Tryggvason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Tryggvason)** > > Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway. He is numbered as Olaf I. > Olaf was important in the conversion of the Norse to Christianity, but he did so forcibly within his own kingdom. He is said to have built the first Christian church in Norway in 995, and to have founded the city of Trondhei... Scandinavia began to convert over to Christianity around the 800s, with Iceland going over in 1000AD. > **[Christianization of Scandinavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Scandinavia)** > > Chronological history > The Christianization of Scandinavia, as well as other Nordic countries and the Baltic countries, took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own archdioceses, responsible directly to the pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively. The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, since it took additional efforts to establish a network of churches. > The earliest signs of Christian... Prose Edda and Heimskringla were written around 1200, Njáls saga around 1270, Laxdæla saga in the 1200s, Sturlunga saga is a collection of writings from the 1200s, Völsunga saga from the 1200s, etc. By the point that these were written, the region had been Christian for 200-400 years. Though, I realize now that the vikings were an artifact of the 800-1200AD time period, and not before so that does make it a bit confusing since I was trying to specify the pre-Christian beliefs. (And, realistically, even there we’d have to worry that the Christians might have influenced their thinking on the subject since they’d be largely dependent on mainland Europe for information about them, during the Christian period.) ---
**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, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/43 "2023-05-17T18:38:49Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > The sagas under discussion, at your link, were written by Christians and the tales of Jews in the sagas are tales of Christians from Scandinavia going South, to convert pagans to Christianity. Yes, not particular to Vikings. The same as found throughout Europe. ---
**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, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/44 "2023-05-17T18:40:36Z")
But let me amend my statement to: The shamanic peoples of Scandinavia, the tundra, and Siberia, had no reason to have any particular opinion of Jewish people, prior to the influence of Christianity, and there’s no evidence that they were aware of or cared about the Jewish people during that time period. ---
**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, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/45 "2023-05-17T18:52:23Z")
That’s OK, your point was clear. Of course people who hadn’t encountered Jews or been influenced by Christians wouldn’t care about them. Even Muslim antisemitism is weak sauce in comparison to the Christian’s. ---
**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, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/46 "2023-05-17T20:52:51Z")
Yes. I did write that book. And I’m proud of it. ---
**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, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/47 "2023-05-17T21:03:07Z")
I actually had no idea it could blow up like this, Elmer. I was more telling that to you. You didn’t do anything wrong. I just answered your question. I didn’t do anything wrong, either. It just seemed like a timely question, considering there’s a bunch of dangerous people afoot, and censorship is a huge issue right now. And I stand by what I said. Obviously. ---
**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, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/48 "2023-05-17T21:07:38Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > I didn’t do anything wrong, either. Except you haven’t convinced me that the Nazis actually banned the Bible. ---
**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, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/49 "2023-05-17T21:08:47Z")
Well, they banned the Old Testament, and I think your source says they were replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf. I think that’s a pretty important thing, actually. The Nazis weren’t Christian. They were Occultists. ---
**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, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/50 "2023-05-17T21:09:50Z")
It doesn’t matter if you’re convinced, only that I tell you the truth, because no one else was, and it’s dangerous right now how close we are to something like that happening again. Either left or right could be responsible for it. I’m just for books, and saying what you want to say without people trying to destroy you for it. God bless! ---
**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, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/51 "2023-05-17T21:14:31Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > I think your source says they were replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf. My source also inferred that Germany wasn’t one of the countries that banned the Bible in the 20th Century. My source contradicts itself. That’s why I started the thread. The writers of that book were sloppy. Their only evidence is the writings of an individual (albeit influential) Nazi theorist. ---
**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, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/52 "2023-05-17T21:18:49Z")
Well, that’s a first hand source. Isn’t it? And I sent you a New York Times article saying they were banning the Old Testament—obviously, because it’s Jewish. Doesn’t that make sense? ---
**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, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/53 "2023-05-17T21:19:41Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Well, they banned the Old Testament, and I think your source says they were replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf. I think that’s a pretty important thing, actually. The Nazis weren’t Christian. They were Occultists. Nope, they were opportunists, they used Martin Luther’s antisemitic writings for support. One of the main reasons why the bible that Luther published was not banned. And… it did include a version of the old testament too. > **[Luther Bible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Bible)** > > The Luther Bible (German: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. A New Testament translation by Luther was first published in September 1522, and the completed Bible, containing a translation of the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha, in 1534. Luther continued to make improvements to the text until 1545. It was the first full translation of the Bible into German that used not only the Latin Vulgate but also the Greek. > Luther did not trans... ---
**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, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/54 "2023-05-17T21:19:58Z")
And remember Jesus was a Jew named Yeshua. The Nazis had no sympathy for Him. And they weren’t only replacing Bibles, they were tearing down Church Crucifixes. I watched video of it on YouTube, which that actually got taken down not too long ago. There was film of it happening. ---
**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, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/55 "2023-05-17T21:22:53Z")
I mean, it is true that Nazis propagandized Christianity. But they did the same with Ovid and Homer and the Norse Canon. They didn’t principly elevate Christ because He was Jewish, but because they viewed the New Testament as Greek. ---
**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, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/56 "2023-05-17T21:23:39Z")
As noted before, a lot of that took place to ethnically cleanse what was not German. That there were also protestants and Catholics still running around in Germany was because they also where simpatico with the fascists. [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/german-churches-and-the-nazi-state-photographs](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/german-churches-and-the-nazi-state-photographs) ---
**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, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/57 "2023-05-17T21:26:16Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > Well, that’s a first hand source. Isn’t it? And I sent you a New York Times article saying they were banning the Old Testament—obviously, because it’s Jewish. Doesn’t that make sense? Your Times article is about the same Rosenberg writings a few months into Nazi rule. Hitler never followed through. If he had, his reign would have likely been much shorter. And are you calling the Times (the Times in 1933, no less) a Jewish source??? I kinda see where this is going… ---
**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, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/58 "2023-05-17T21:31:57Z")
So you don’t want the Nazis to have censored Bibles? I don’t know, or care what the Times are. But the fact is that the Nazis did. The Old Testament is as much a part of the Bible as the New to me. And My Savior is Jewish. So, if you wish to spin that as Anti-Semitic that’s a lack of good faith on your part. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/59 "2023-05-17T21:32:44Z")
I suspect he means that the Old Testament is Jewish, not the NYT ---
**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, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925/60 "2023-05-17T21:42:18Z")
> [@B.K.Neifert](#): > > I don’t know, or care what the Times are. But the fact is that the Nazis did. Sorry for misunderstanding you about the Times. But do you have _any_ evidence the Nazis actually banned the Old Testament other than what Rosenberg _proposed_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-bible-banned-in-nazi-germany/6925.md?page=4)