DR. NIEMoLLER'S ORDEAL
FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
AYEAR ago a friend of Dr. Niemoller's paid him an evening visit in his study and their discussions lasted far into the night. It was after midnight when their talk was unexpectedly interrupted. Dr. Niemoller's ten-year-old son ran into the room—a pathetic little figure in his night things, frightened and in tears. " Oh father ! " he cried, " I have had such a dreadful dream about you dreamed that the Secret Police came to take you away ! " Dr. Niemoller took the child on his knee and explained to him that we need never be afraid, for God was always present and taking care of us. But it was not easy to soothe the child. " Oh father ! " he cried again, " can God take care of you in a Concentration Camp?" A few days later, on July 1st, 1937, the famous pastor was arrested ; eight months later he was transferred from prison to the Concentration Camp. He spent those eight months in prison awaiting his trial while his enemies ransacked every possible source of evidence against him. They failed. Whatever decrees of the new Ministry for Church Affairs Dr. Niemoller may have infringed (decrees aimed at the strangulation of the Christian Church) no charge of dishonourable action could be brought home to him.
The Court sentenced the prisoner to some small fines and seven months detention in a fortress (representing the lightest and most honourable form of imprisonment) which meant, in view of -the eight months he had already spent in prison, his immediate release. It has since become common knowledge that it was by Hitler's own intervention that Dr. Niemoller was not released, but consigned for an indefinite period to a Concentration Camp. It was in vain that Dr. Giirtner, the Minister of Justice, appealed against this startling procedure, by which the whole judicial system of Germany was set at nought. Among all the arbitrary acts of Hitler and his underlings this overriding of the decision of a Court has done most to confirm the impression that respect for justice, which survived to an honourable degree in the legal profession itself, plays small part in the National Socialist Weltanschauung and in the new code of " German honour."
To the general public of Germany the idea had all along seemed fantastic that the distinguished U-boat commander could swerve one hairsbreadth in his loyalty and patriotism, and the matter was once and for all disposed of by the " Special Court " which tried him. His honour was completely vindicated. To place him in a Concentration Camp rather than in a fortress constituted a further insult both, to Dr. Niemoller himself and to his judges. • When Herr Hitler was imprisoned at Landsberg his con- ditions were such that he was able to devOte himself to the writing of Mein Kampf. Notonlyis Dr. Niemoller denied the amenities of the fortress, but in his cell at Sachsenhausen not even a pencil or pen has been allowed to him, a peculiarly painful deprivation to one who has been accustomed to express his thoughts on paper if not from the pulpit. One would almost think that the author of Mein Kampf regards the Christian pastor as a dangerous potential rival. It is more true to say however that in Hitler's treatment of Martin Niemoller we may see the bitterness of his enmity not so much against the man as against the cause for which he stands —the cause of the Christian faith. There is , nothing else which could make Niemoller, the greatest of patriots, into an enemy of the Fatherland in the eyes of the exponent-in-chief of National Socialism. It is in fact a striking thought how closely Niemoller approximates to Hitler's and Rosenberg's ideal of the `.` Nordic man." The qualities of the fighter, and also of the patriot, are pre-eminent in him; pre-eminent -too his disinterestedness and powers of self-sacrifice in the service he has chosen ; simple, well-disciplined, intrepid, faithful— even, if need be, unto death.
Faithful however to what? The splendid qualities of a Nordic man become his crime if he takes cognisance of Spiritual Powers, and believes that "it is by them and -not by the powers of this world, that the fortunes of Mankind 'are ultimately determined. In June, 1933, some young men came up for trial before the " People's Court " in Essen. Some were sentenced to death, and some to life-long imprisonment. They had been members of a " National "Youth League " and had committed the crime of refusing to be absorbed in -the National Socialist organisations. The State prosecutor described these young men as " real heroes until 1933." But after that they had failed to realise that the day of free organisations was over. " They did' not understand that there can be no other leader today than Adolf Hitler and no other law than his word." Niemoller's crime is the same. He stands for a Church that acknowledges Christ as its leader, and the Bible as its Word. There have been many.in Germany, and more strangely some also in England, who persuaded themselves that Hitler himself was not behind the worst brutalities and the anti-Christian enterprises of Nazi rule. It has taken years to convince, them of the reality of Totalitarianism, and its implications for the Christian Church.
If there is one thing more certain than another in the present regime, it is the reality of this Totalitarianism, and that Hitler himself is the keystone of the Totalitarian arch. It would be an, insult to the intelligence of the Fiihrer to imagine that the highly organised and ever spreading campaign against Christianity and the Christian Churches had either escaped his attention, or did not represent his own set will and purpose. His treatment of ,Dr. Niemoller is strictly in line with his whole policy. No one denies that Rosenberg- is an antagonist of the Christian faith; but it " has sufficed for Rosenberg himself to repeat periodically that his views were personal and not official, for certain people, 'even in England, to overlook the fact that their author was first Hitler's own prophet before Hitler made him the prophet of the New Germany.
It is only logical on the part of Herr Hitler and Herr Rosenberg to extend their Totalitarianism to the field of -faith. They are right in distrusting an outward unity which conceals a disparity in fundamental- outlook. Their own creed, and it is a tremendous one, reaping for them -great and immediate triumphs and successes, may best be represented as, • in the last analysis, an immeasurable faith in the German people, and secondly in the new " German God "—the modern Moloch of Material Force.
This is the positive aspect. There is also the negative aspect—untroubled faith in the absence from the world of any spiritual Power which in the long run might work in a contrary direction to the Nationalist-Socialist plan. ' The approved methods of National-Socialism have in the last few weeks had in Vienna their full demonstration. They are the methods of people who have succeeded in divesting 'themselves of all the inhibitions which are apt to grow out of an education in the religion of the Ten Com- mandments—the legacy of the abominated Jew—and of the religion which has been outlawed with him. , " Can God protect you in a Concentration Camp ? " The same cry must have gone up from the hearts of thousands in the last weeks as the special trains, laden with their untried and guiltless victims, passed over the Austrian frontier on their way to Dachau. Funeral urns containing the ashes of the victims have since, in a number of cases, been received by their families.
Faith in human and material Force, or Faith in God and in the power of His spirit ? Hitler at the height of human glory, Niemoller in the silence and obscurity of a convict's cell. To whom is the victory ?
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