Our Lady's College, Year 10 Religion Report: Holocaust and the Church

This report, prepared for a Year 10 Religion class at Our Lady's College, Annerley, investigates the Catholic Church's response to the Holocaust. The report addresses whether the Church acted as a bystander or a rescuer during this period of persecution, providing a detailed analysis of its actions, including the support provided to Jews and the challenges faced under Nazi rule. The report examines key historical events, the role of the Roman Catholic Church, and the perspectives of various groups, including the German population and the Jewish community. It utilizes a variety of sources to support its arguments and provides a comprehensive overview of the Church's complex role during the Holocaust. The analysis includes the initial measures taken by the Nazis against the Jews, the number of victims, and the extent of support the Church provided to Jews during the Holocaust. The report concludes by summarizing the systematic persecution and murder of millions of Jews sponsored by the state during the Holocaust.

Religion and Ethics
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Research Table
1. Inquiry Question: What is the Holocaust?
Answer: Holocaust is the state determined murder plan to
exterminate the Jews from the Germany, by the Nazis during the
World War II. The Holocaust was the period in the Germany when
Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany during the end of
World War II. The holocaust was a process that started with the
discrimination against the Jews. (Cole, 2013).
Reference: Cole, T.,
2013. Holocaust city:
The making of a Jewish
ghetto, Routledge.
2. Inquiry Question: What were the first measures taken by the Nazis against the
Jews?
Answer: The first measures against the Jews included the
boycott of the shops and the businesses of the Nazis, in April 1,
1933. There also had been the enforcement of the Law for the
Re-establishment of the civil Service on April 7th, 1933 (Zweig,
2014).
Reference:
Zweig, R.W.,
2014. German
reparations and the
Jewish world: A history
of the claims conference.
Routledge.
3. Inquiry Question: How many Jewish and non-Jewish civilians were murdered
during World War-II in Europe?
Answer: The approximate number of the Jewish that had died in
the holocaust were six million people. The Non-Jewish groups
that the Nazis had murdered involve the Serbs, the Gypsies, the
resistant fighters from nations as well as the German opponents
of Nazism, which almost accounted for 5 million people (Deak,
Reference:
Deák, I., 2018. Europe on
Trial: The Story of
Collaboration, Resistance,
and Retribution During

2018). World War II. Routledge.
4. Inquiry Question: Did the Roman Catholic Church support the Jews? and why?
Answer: The Roman Catholic Church supported to Jews and
protected them from the Nazis by hiding them in the monasteries
and convent schools. The catholic church faced the percesution
in the Hitler’s Germany. Just before the Holocaust, the popes
preached against the racism and the Nazi’s and the Jews of
Rome found shelter in almost 150 church institutions.(Libionka,
2013).
Reference: Libionka, D.,
2013. The Catholic Church
in Poland and the
Holocaust, 1939–
1945. PDF). The Reaction
of the Churches in Nazi
Occupied Europe. Yad
Vashem. Retrieved, 26.
5. Inquiry Question: Did the Germans support Hitler’s plan for the persecution of
the Jews?
Answer: There was not agreement in the laws and with the
Hitler’s persecution of the Jews and there were Germans who
opposed Hitler and aided the Jews to escape and hide from the
Nazis. The Germans defied the boycott of the Jewish stores.
Even the German clergy, Dompropst Bernhard Lichtenberg
prayed for the Jews who were sent to the concentration camp.
(Finkel, 2015).
Reference: Finkel, E.,
2015. The phoenix effect of
state repression: Jewish
resistance during the
Holocaust. American
Political Science
Review, 109(2), pp.339-
353.
6.Inquiry Question: Did the Jews in Europe realize what was going to happen to
tehm?
Answer: There was no publicity of the “Final Solution” of the
Nazis. There was every attempt to fool the victims of the victims
Reference: Laqueur, W.,
2017. The terrible secret:
suppression of the truth

so that there could have been least amount of resistance
(Laqueur, 2017).
about Hitler's" final
solution". Routledge.
In the year 1933, during the World War II, the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race
and soon they gained the power, the Nazis adopted measures that involved the exclusion of the Jews
from the German social, cultural and economic life (Cole, 2013).. Thus the Holocaust was a systematic
persecution and murder of millions of Jews which was sponsored by the state.
Source: www.capitolmuseum.ca.gov, 2019
During the Holocaust, the Roman Catholic Church had played a very important role in saving
and rescuing the Jews from being murdered in the hands of the Nazis. The members of the Church
with the help of the false documents and by hiding the Jewish people from the Nazis in different
monasteries and convents saved thousands of Jews. Also the Confessing Church assisted them to
escape from Germany and tried to encourage the Jews to convert into Christianity (Libionka, 2013).

Source: www.bbc.co.uk (2019).
The Christians in 1941, were living under the Nazi rule and the extermination of the Jews had to
be supported by the Christians as they could not participate in the politics. The main reason that the
Church did not acted as it had to because the Jews and the Christians were enemies in history. Also the
protests against the anti-Jewish policies could bring in vengeance against the Catholics.

Bibliography
Cole, T., 2013. Holocaust city: The making of a Jewish ghetto. Routledge.
Deák, I., 2018. Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution During World
War II. Routledge.
Finkel, E., 2015. The phoenix effect of state repression: Jewish resistance during the
Holocaust. American Political Science Review, 109(2), pp.339-353.
Laqueur, W., 2017. The terrible secret: suppression of the truth about Hitler's" final solution".
Routledge.
Libionka, D., 2013. The Catholic Church in Poland and the Holocaust, 1939–1945. PDF). The
Reaction of the Churches in Nazi Occupied Europe. Yad Vashem. Retrieved, 26.
www.bbc.co.uk (2019). What was the Holocaust? - CBBC Newsround. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available
at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16690175 [Accessed 22 Aug. 2019].
www.capitolmuseum.ca.gov (2019). The Holocaust. [online] Capitolmuseum.ca.gov. Available at:
http://capitolmuseum.ca.gov/special/ww2/social-justice/the-holocaust [Accessed 22 Aug. 2019].
Zweig, R.W., 2014. German reparations and the Jewish world: A history of the claims conference.
Routledge.

Running head: RELIGION AND ETHICS