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Nazi Kirchenpolitik and Polish Catholicism in the Reichsgau Wartheland, 1939–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2014

Jonathan Huener
Jonathan Huener*
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
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Extract

With the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, National Socialist Germany aimed to destroy the Polish nation and Polish national consciousness. The Nazi regime attempted to accomplish this in a variety of ways, including the destruction of Polish cultural institutions, forced resettlement, forced labor, incarceration in prisons and camps, random and systematic roundups of prisoners, and mass murder. To the German authorities in occupied Poland and to many Poles, it was obvious that the occupation would target the Polish Catholic Church with vigor and brutality. Catholicism was the religion of approximately 65 percent of interwar Poland's population: it dominated religious life, held tremendous wealth and political power, and its clergy were widely respected as members of the intelligentsia. More importantly for the Germans, the Catholic Church was a locus and symbol of Polish national identity.

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Central European History , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 105 - 137
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Copyright © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association 2014 

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References

1 “Działalność władz okupacyjnych na terytorium rzeczypospolitej za okres od 1.IX.39. do 1.XI.40 r.,” Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London, syg. A.9.III.1/1; “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 105–111, Polish Underground Movement Study Trust, London (hereafter PUMST).

2 The term “Gau” refers to a geographic district of the National Socialist German Workers Party. After German occupation of Polish territory in 1939, the Nazi government, in an attempt to streamline party and administrative control, established the Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreußen and the Reichsgau Posen (later renamed Reichsgau Wartheland) in which the office of Nazi Party leader (Gauleiter) and government administrator or Reich Lieutenant (Reichsstatthalter) were combined. Hence, Arthur Greiser simultaneously held the posts of Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter in the Reichsgau Wartheland. The region was also frequently referred to simply as the “Warthegau,” and its capital was Posen, or present-day Poznań. The Warthegau had an area of approximately 44,000 square kilometers and a population, overhelmingly Polish and Roman Catholic, of more than 4.5 million. See “Wstęp,” in Położenie ludności polskiej w tzw. Kraju Warty w okresie hitlerowskiej okupacji, Documenta Occupationis, vol.13, ed. Olszewski, Marian (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 1990)Google Scholar, viii. On the population figures, which fluctuated over the course of the occupation, see Epstein, Catherine, Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 135; and Madajczyk, Czesław, Die Okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939–1945 (Köln: Pahl-Rügenstein Verlag, 1988)Google Scholar, 36.

3 See, for example, the extensive work of historians Czesław Łuczak, Jerzy Marczewski, Stanisław Nawrocki, and Edward Serwański, as well as the journal Przegląd Zachodni, published since 1945 by Poznań's Instytut Zachodni.

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7 The Gau was described as such by Gauleiter Greiser as reported in the Posener Tageblatt of September 22, 1939: “Unser Fernziel, das [sic] wir jedoch von vornherein bei allen unseren Handlungen stets im Auge behalten werden, soll sein, ein Mustergau des Großdeutschen Reiches zu werden.” Quoted in Madajczyk, Okkupationspolitik, 26. On the notion of the “Mustergau,” see Epstein's recent biography, op. cit.; Rutherford, 68; and Alberti, “Exerzierplatz.”

8 Stasiewski, Bernhard, “Die Kirchenpolitik der Nationalsozialisten im Warthegau 1939–1945,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 7, no. 1 (1959): 46–74Google Scholar.

9 Gürtler, Paul, Nationalsozialismus und evangelische Kirchen im Warthegau: Trennung von Staat und Kirche im nationalsozialistischen Weltanschauungsstaat (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1958)Google Scholar.

10 Madajczyk, Czesław, Politika III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce, 2 vols. (Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1970)Google Scholar. In German translation: Okkupationspolitik, op. cit., chapter 15, 356–364.

11 Madajczyk, Okkupationspolitik, 360.

12 Broszat, Martin, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939–1945 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Bücherei, 1965), 147–157Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., 148.

14 Ibid., 154–156.

15 Ibid., 152.

16 Conway, John S., The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–1945 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1968), 291–327Google Scholar, here 292.

17 Śmigiel, Kazimierz, Kościół katolicki w tzw. Okręgu warty 1939–1945 (Lublin: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski, 1979)Google Scholar. German translation: Die katholische Kirche im Reichsgau Wartheland 1939–1945. Veröffentlichung der Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa an der Universität Dortmund, Reihe A, Nr. 40 (Dortmund: Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa, 1984)Google Scholar.

18 In addition to many articles appearing in local diocesan periodicals, prominent among works of this type are Jacewicz, Wiktor and Woś, Jan, eds., Martyrologium polskiego duchowieństwa rzymskokatolickiego pod okupacją hitlerowską w latach 1939–1945, 5 vols. (Warszawa: Akademia Teologii Katolickiej, 1977–1981)Google Scholar; Domagała, Jan, Ci, którzy przeszli przez Dachau: duchowni w Dachau (Warszawa: Pax, 1957)Google Scholar; and essays in Zieliński, Zygmunt, ed., Życie religijne w Polsce pod okupacją hitlerowską 1939–1945 (Warszawa: Ośrodek Dokumentacji i Studiów Społecznych, 1982)Google Scholar. On the “martyrological” idiom in Polish scholarship, see Libionka, Daruisz, “Antisemitism, Anti-Judaism, and the Polish Catholic Clergy during the Second World War, 1939–1945,” in Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland, ed. Blobaum, Robert (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)Google Scholar, 234; and Huener, Jonathan, Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945–1979 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003)Google Scholar, especially 47–58.

19 Sziling, Jan, Polityka okupanta hitlerowskiego wobec kościoła katolickiego 1939–1945: tzw. okręgi Rzeszy: Gdańsk-Prusy Zachodnie, kraj Warty i rejencja Katowicka (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 1970)Google Scholar.

20 Fijałkowski, Zenon, Kościól katolicki na ziemiach polskich w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza, 1983)Google Scholar.

21 See, for example, Friedrich, Klaus-Peter, “Collaboration in a ‘Land without a Quisling’: Patterns of Cooperation with the Nazi German Occupation Regime in Poland during World War II,” Slavic Review 64, no. 4 (Winter 2005): 711–746CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pollmann, Viktoria, Untermieter im christlichen Haus: die Kirche und die ‘jüdische Frage’ in Polen anhand der Bistumspresse der Metropolie Krakau 1926–1939 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar; Modras, Ronald, The Catholic Church and Antisemitism: Poland, 1933–1939 (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000)Google Scholar; Szymon Rudnicki, “Anti-Jewish Legislation in Interwar Poland,” in Blobaum, 148–170; Konrad Sadkowski, “Clerical Nationalism and Antisemitism: Catholic Priests, Jews, and Orthodox Christians in the Lublin Region, 1918–1939” in Blobaum, 171–188; Libionka, Dariusz, “Die Kirche in Polen und der Mord an den Juden im Licht der polnischen Publizistik und Historiographie nach 1945,” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung 51, no. 2 (2002): 188–215Google Scholar; idem., “The Catholic Church in Poland and the Holocaust, 1939–1945” in The Holocaust in the Christian World: Reflections on the Past, Challenges for the Future, ed. Rittner, Carol et al. (New York, NY: Continuum, 2000), 74–78Google Scholar; idem., “Duchowieństwo diecezji łomżyńskiej wobec antysemityzmu i zagłady Żydów” in Wokół Jedwabnego, ed. Paweł Machcewicz and Krzysztof Persak, vol. 1, 63–82; and idem.,“Antisemitism,” op.cit. Of special significance in this regard is volume 5 (2009) of the journal published by Warsaw's Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, Zagłada Żydów–Studia i Materiały, which contains articles on the Roman Catholic Church, its hierarchy, the Vatican, and their responses to the annihilation of Jews in the Polish lands. Worthy of note here is also Jastrząb, Łukasz, Archidiecezja Poznańska w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939–1945. Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Wydział Teologiczny, Studia i Materiały, no. 153 (Poznań: Wydział Teologiczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, 2012)Google Scholar, which came to the author's attention only as the present article was going to press. Although not addressed here, it will be considered in the author's subsequent work on the subject.

22 On this claim see, for example, Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 154; Kloczowski, Jerzy, A History of Polish Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)Google Scholar, 298; Śmigiel, Kazimierz, “Die apostolischen Administratoren Walenty Dymek und Hilarius Breitinger” in Katholische Kirche unter nationalsozialistischer und kommunistischer Diktatur: Deutschland und Polen 1939–1989, eds. Karp, Hans-Jürgen und Köhler, Joachim (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar, 259; and Stasiewski, 74. The claim that the German authorities aimed at the Polish church's destruction was, not surprisingly, also put forth by wartime and early postwar documentation provided by the Polish underground, as well as Catholic parishes and clergy in the Warthegau. See “Raport Sytuacyjny okupacji niemieckiej za czas od 1.I. do 1.VII.1941 r.” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 49, PUMST. Similarly, a postwar June 1946 accounting of human and material losses under Greiser's regime in the Poznań archdiocese states: “From the commencement of the Hitlerite invasion of Poland it was evident that German party authorities aimed at the total destruction of the Catholic Church, its property, and its activities.” “Wykaz szkód wyrządzonych Archidiecezji Poznańskiej przez okupację niemiecką za rządów namiestnika Greisera 1939–1945,” Instytut Pamięci Narodowej–Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, Warsaw (hereafter IPN), GK 196/19, 139.

23 Martin Broszat, “Verfolgung polnischer katholischer Geistlicher 1939–1945,” Gutachten des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte, München (hereafter IfZ). Unpublished manuscript. 1959.

24 “Der deutsche Botschafter in Warschau an das Auswärtige Amt, Bericht vom 1. August 1939,” document no. 444 in Germany, Amt, Auswärtiges, Dokumente zur Vorgeschichte des Krieges, 1939, no. 2 (Berlin: Reichsdruckerei, 1939)Google Scholar, 20; “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 105–111, PUMST.

25 Epstein, 222.

26 Brochure, “Deutscher aus den luftgefährdeten Gebieten,” NSDAP Gauleitung Wartheland, Gauamt für Volkstumsfragen, n.d., IPN, GK 196/12/CD, 69.

27 German: “jungfräuliches Land” and “Exerzierplatz,” described by Greiser as such in a September 14, 1941, speech to the Posen Gauschulungsamt. IPN, GK 196/37, 87–98, here 95, 97. See also Greiser, “Aufbau im Warthegau,” Der Schulungsbrief 8, no. 5/6 (1941), 71Google Scholar; Alberti, Verfolgung, 85. Greiser appears to have been remarkably consistent in his view of the Warthegau as “parade ground,” using this reference as late as November 1944 in an article: “Gedanken zur nationalsozialistischen Volkstumspolitik,” Archive, Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem (hereafter YV), TR.17, file 12309, item 4068282.

28 Epstein, 7.

29 “Bericht über die Tagung der Reichstreuhänder der Arbeit der Ostgebiete in Posen,” October 9, 1941, IPN, GK 196/37, 41–50, here 46. Jäger's words here are paraphrased by the recorder of the meeting's minutes and are not a direct quotation.

30 Often referred to as “Stab Heß” or the “Hess Staff,” the office was renamed the Party Chancellery in May 1941, and Martin Bormann was placed at its head.

31 Bormann to Forster, December 29, 1939, Archive, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (hereafter USHMM), RG 15.007M, reel 38.

32 Kerrl to Reichsminister des Innern, October 11, 1939, Bundesarchiv Berlin (hereafter BAB), R 5101/22185, 14.

33 August Hlond, “First Report of Cardinal Hlond, Primate of Poland, to Pope Pius XII,” January 6, 1940, in Hlond, August, The Persecution of the Catholic Church in German-Occupied Poland. Reports Presented by H. E. Cardinal Hlond, Vatican Broadcasts and Other Reliable Evidence (New York, NY: Longmans Green & Co., 1941), 1–24Google Scholar; Cardinal Luigi Maglione to Ribbentrop, March 2, 1934, document 480 in Secrétairerie D'État de Sa Sainteté, Actes et Documents du Saint-Siège Relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, III: 2 (Città del Vaticano: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 1967), 742–752Google Scholar, here 744; Der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in Posen to Chef der Sicherheitspolizei Berlin, November 9, 1939, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 38; “Aufstellung Priester und Kirchen in der Erzdiözese Posen,” October 10, 1941, BAB, R 5101/22437; “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 105–111, PUMST; “A Note of His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Reich about the religious situation in the ‘Warthegau’ and in the other Polish provinces subject to Germany,” March 2, 1943, document 3264-PS in International Military Tribunal (hereafter IMT), Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, vol. 32 (Nuremberg: International Military Tribunal, 1945–1947 ), 93–105Google Scholar; “Wiadomość o prześladowaniu koscioła katolickiego przez okupanta niemieckiego na terenie parafii Farnej w Gnieznie,” July 10, 1945, Archiwum Archidiecezjalne w Gnieźnie (hereafter AAG), AKM I, syg. 2171; Kuria Metropolitalna w Gnieźnie, “Statystyka. Szkód wojennych osobowych i kościelnych w Archidiecezji Gnieźnieńskiej,” IPN, GK 196/19, 163; “Spis księży zamordowanych przez Niemców poza obozami koncentracyjnymi,” Archiwum Archidiecezjalne w Poznaniu (herafter AAP), zespół 133, syg. OK 121.

34 Der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in Posen to Chef der Sicherheitspolizei Berlin, November 9, 1939, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 38; Heydrich to Reichsminister für die kirchlichen Angelegenheiten, February 13, 1940, BAB, R 5101/22185, 111–112.

35 Anordnung, Der Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer, Posen [Rapp], November 12, 1939, IPN, GK 196/28, 151.

36 Bischoff, Geheime Staatspolizei Posen, June 4, 1940, Abschrift, YV, TR.17, 72.

37 The designation Kreis referred to an administrative subdistrict that was part of one of the Warthegau's large administrative districts or Regierungsbezirke, of which there were three: Posen, Hohensalza (Inowrocław), and Kalisch (Kalisz), later redesignated as Regierungsbezirk Litzmannstadt (Łódź).

38 “Bericht über die Entwicklung der kirchlichen Lage im Reichsgau Wartheland (Abschnittsbereich Hohensalza),” n.d., USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47. Although the report is not dated, its content makes clear that it postdates June 1940.

39 Heydrich to Reichsminister für die Kirchlichen Angelegenheiten, February 13, 1940, BAB, R 5101/22185, 111–112; “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 105–111, PUMST; Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, SD-Leitabschnitt Posen, to Reichssicherheitshauptamt—Amt II B/32, Berlin, December 10, 1940, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 38.

40 For accounts of the persecution of Carmelite nuns in the Warthegau see Kempner, Benedicta Maria, Nonnen unter dem Hakenkreuz (Würzburg: Naumann-Verlag, 1979), 106–111Google Scholar.

41 Vermerk, Wilborn to Barthels, May 23, 1942, Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu (hereafter APP), zespół 301, syg. 285, 80–81; Duda, Henryk, Nonnenlager Schmückert: obóz sióstr zakonnych w Bojanowie (Bojanowo: Urząd Miasta i Gminy w Bojanowie, 1999), 8–9Google Scholar. Documentation of the Schmückert/Bojanowo camp is sparse. “Raport Sytuacyjny okupacji niemieckiej za czas od 1.I. do 1.VII.1941 r.” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 49–53, PUMST reports of its existence. German documentation of the development and operation of the camp can be found in the Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu, zespół 301, and indicates that the camp was open from February 1941 until its liberation in January 1945. A 1973 report in the Poznań Archdiocesan Archive submitted by Father Józef Kubów provides the numbers of internees cited here: Józef Kubów, “Parafia Gołaszyn - Bojanowo w latach okupacji,” AAP, zespół 133, OK 128. In his memoir, German Protestant pastor Arthur Rhode noted the existence of a “work house” in Bojanowo to which Carmelite sisters from Posen-Lazarus were deported: Rhode, Arthur, Die Evangelische Kirche in Posen und Pommerellen: Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse in drei Jahrzehnten 1914–1945 (Lüneburg: Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Posener, e.V., 1984)Google Scholar, 2: 173. In addition to the Duda monograph, op.cit., see Prawdzić, Alicja, “Hitlerowski obóz dla sióstr zakonnych w Bojanowie 1941–1943,” Chrześcijanin w świecie 10 (1978), no. 66, 21–40Google Scholar, which erroneously claims that the Schmückert camp was liquidated in July 1943.

42 Gauselbstverwaltung Posen to Gauarbeitsanstalt Schmückert, May 12, 1942, APP, zespół 301, syg. 273, microfilm 0-69955.

43 “A Note of His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Reich about the religious situation in the ‘Warthegau’ and in the other Polish provinces subject to Germany,” March 2, 1943, document 3264-PS in IMT, 32: 93–105.

44 Vermerk, Posen Gestapo [Stossberg] to Reichstatthalter [Birk], March 21, 1942, IPN, GK 196/19, 96; Questionnaire on material losses in the parish Odalanów, August 19, 1945, AAP, zespół 133, syg. OK 214. This questionnaire is but one example of such reports submitted in the first postwar months by Catholic parishes from across Poland.

45 Quoted and translated in Conway, 319.

46 Generalvikar Edward van Blericq to katholische Pfarrämter der Erzdiözese Gnesen, December 3, 1940, Archiwum Instytutu Zachodniego, Poznań (hereafter IZ), syg. I-129, dok. 1.

47 Mehlhorn to Regierungspräsidenten Posen, Hohensalza, Litzmannstadt; to Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer, Posen, June 26, 1941, APP, zespół 299, syg. 1176, microfilm 60028.

48 Amtskommissar des Amtsbezirks Seenbrück to polnische katholische Kirche in Mühlengrund, August 18, 1941, IPN, GK 196/34, 196; Dymek to rządców kościoła, August 9, 1941, IPN, GK 196/34, 197.

49 “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 105–111, PUMST.

50 Bischoff to Reichsstatthalter [Birk], October 9, 1941, IPN, GK 196/19, 79.

51 Reichstatthalter [Jäger] to Regierunspräsidenten in Posen, Hohensalza, Litzmannstadt, May 27, 1941, APP, zespół 299, syg. 1176, microfilm 60028.

52 Greiser to “alle Dienststellen der Partei und des Staates,” April 24, 1941, APP, zespół 299, syg. 1176, microfilm 60028.

53 In the context of the Warthegau, the term Nationalitätenprinzip or “nationality principle” referred to the strict separation of Poles and Germans in public, and therefore confessional life.

54 Meldungen aus dem Abschnittsgebiet, Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, SD-Abschnitt Litzmannstadt, August 25, 1941, IPN, GK 196/16/CD, 146–62.

55 Bericht über die Entwicklung der kirchlichen Lage im Reichsgau Wartheland (Abschnittsbereich Hohensalza), n.d., USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47. Greiser was apparrently convinced that priests were undertaking this sort of anti-German propaganda. See “Bericht über die Tagung der Reichstreuhänder der Arbeit der Ostgebiete in Posen am 9. Oktober 1941,” IPN, GK 196/37, tom IV, 41–50.

56 Reichstatthalter [Jäger] to Regierungspräsidenten Hohensalza, Litzmannstadt, Posen, September 10, 1941, IPN, GK 196/16/CD, 11; Breitinger, Hilarius, Als Deutschenseelsorger in Posen und im Warthegau 1934–1945: Erinnerungen (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1984), 46–47Google Scholar; “A Note of His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Reich about the religious situation in the ‘Warthegau’ and in the other Polish provinces subject to Germany,” March 2, 1943, document 3264-PS in IMT, 32: 98.

57 Reichsstatthalter, Vermerk, I/50, December 10, 1942, IPN, GK 196/16/CD, 22.

58 The most thorough treatment of Protestant bodies in the Warthegau is Gürtler's Nationalsozialismus und Evangelische Kirchen im Warthegau, op. cit.

59 “Verordnung über die Erhebung von Beiträgen durch religiöse Vereinigungen und Religionsgesellschaften vom 14. März 1940,” in Wartheland, Reichsgau, Verordnungsblatt des Reichsstatthalters im Reichsgau Wartheland, no. 13 (16 März 1940)Google Scholar, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

60 Mehlhorn to van Blericq, February 6, 1941, AAP, zespół 133, syg. OK 122.

61 Stab der Stellvertreter des Führers [Krüger] to SS-Stürmbannführer Hartl, June 17, 1940, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

62 Dierker, Wolfgang, Himmlers Glaubenskrieger: der Sicherheitsdienst der SS und seine Religionspolitik, 1933–1941. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, Reihe B, Band 92 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2003)Google Scholar, 510.

63 Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 71–2; Conway, 317–18; Gürtler, 48–50.

64 The “Thirteen Points” are reproduced in Gürtler's appendix, 200–201. On Nehring see Breitinger, 61, note 12. For copies of Nehring's summary of the meeting and commentary on the Thirteen Points, dated July 10, 1940, as well as what appear to be his “talking points” for subsequent deliberations see USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 15.

65 Frühwirth and Hartl, “Vermerk über die Besprechung [of July 20, 1940] mit Gauleiter Greiser über die konfessionellen Maßnahmen im Reichsgau Wartheland,” August 13–14, 1940, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

66 Gürtler claims: “Die Herkunft der ‘13 Punkte’ läßt sich z.Zt. nicht belegen, doch kann mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit angenommen werden, daß sie der Parteikanzlei entstammen.” Gürtler, 47, note 11. See also Stasiewski, 53; Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 70; Breitinger, 51; Conway, 316–317; Epstein, 224. Although not contesting this view, Dierker, p. 519, describes the “Thirteen Points” as “nothing other than the well-known church-political program of the Security Service and Staff of the Deputy Führer.”

67 The memorandum on the July 20, 1940 meeting between Greiser, Krüger, and others points in several places to the engagement of Bormann's office in these issues. Frühwirth and Hartl, “Vermerk über die Besprechung [of July 20, 1940] mit Gauleiter Greiser über die konfessionellen Maßnahmen im Reichsgau Wartheland,” August 13–14, 1940, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

68 Rosenberg, Alfred, Das politische Tagebuch Alfred Rosenbergs, 1934/35 und 1939/40 (München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1964)Google Scholar, 148.

69 Hitler refers here to the 1933 Reichsconcordat between the Holy See and Nazi Germany.

70 Adolf Hitler, entry 248, July 4, 1942, in Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944: His Private Conversations (New York, NY: Enigma Books, 2000)Google Scholar, 416. Following this comment, Hitler noted his admiration for the regulation of church-state relations in the United States.

71 Epstein, 224.

72 Ibid.

73 Frühwirth and Hartl, “Vermerk über die Besprechung [of July 20, 1940] mit Gauleiter Greiser über die konfessionellen Maßnahmen im Reichsgau Wartheland,” August 13-14, 1940, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47. See also Dierker, 519.

74 “Verordnung über die Erhebung von Beiträgen durch religiöse Vereinigungen und Religionsgesellschaften vom 14 März 1940,” in Wartheland, Reichsgau, Verordnungsblatt des Reichsstatthalters im Reichsgau Wartheland, no. 13 (16 März 1940)Google Scholar, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

75 Frühwirth and Hartl, “Vermerk über die Besprechung [of July 20, 1940] mit Gauleiter Greiser über die konfessionellen Maßnahmen im Reichsgau Wartheland,” August 13–14, 1940, Abschrift, USHMM, RG-15.007M, reel 47.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Dierker refers to the period as a “phase of stagnation” resulting in part from the SD's preoccupation with affairs in the recently conquered areas of Western Europe. Dierker, 520.

79 Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 76.

80 Epstein notes, however, that the decree was issued without the consent of relevant government ministries. Epstein, 224. See also Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 153.

81 “Verordnung Nr. 246 über die religiöse Vereinigungen und Religionsgesellschaften im Reichsgau Wartheland vom 13. September 1941,” Verordnungsblatt des Reichsstatthalters im Warthegau, BAB, R 5101/22437, 3. Both Martin Broszat and Catherine Epstein refer to Reich Chancellery chief Hans Lammers's concern over the bases of Greiser's authority to issue such a far-reaching decree, and the vagaries of Greiser's claim to have promulgated it with Hitler's approval. The matter was then resolved when Lammers raised the issue with Hitler in early November 1941. See Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 153–154; Epstein, 225.

82 Epstein, 225.

83 “Verordnung Nr. 246 über die religiöse Vereinigungen und Religionsgesellschaften im Reichsgau Wartheland vom 13. September 1941,” Verordnungsblatt des Reichsstatthalters im Warthegau, BAB, R 5101/22437, 3.

84 Conway, 320. See also Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 154.

85 Greiser, speech at the Arbeitstagung des Gauschulungsamtes, September 14, 1941, IPN, GK 196/37, 87–98.

86 Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 154.

87 On the “Action” see Breitinger, 68–70; Breitinger to Greiser, October 1, 1943, document 890a in Akten deutscher Bischöfe über die Lage der Kirche 1933–1945, vol. 6, 1943–1945Google Scholar, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Zeitgeschichte, Reihe A: Quellen, Band 38, ed. Ludwig Volk (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1985), 241–252; Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 154–55; Broszat, “Verfolgung,” 76–79; and “Lagebericht des Regierungspräsidenten Hohensalza” [Burkhardt], October 20, 1941, IfZ, Fb 125, 383.

88 “Aufstellung für Diözese Litzmannstadt,” n.d., BAB, R 5101/22437. The content of the document reveals that it postdates October 6, 1941.

89 “Aufstellung Priester und Kirchen in der Erzdiözese Posen,” October 10, 1941, BAB, R 5101/22437; “Aufstellung Breitingers über die Lage der Erzdiözese Posen,” document 706 in Volk, 568–569.

90 “Pro Memoria o sytuacji w kraju w okresie 1 listopada—15 grudnia 1941,” in “Materiały o sytuacji kraju w okresie od 1 listopada 1941 roku do 15. I. 1942 roku” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju,” tom II, Nr. 1-2-2-4-5-6, 1941-1942, 1-4, PUMST.

91 “Aufstellung Priester und Kirchen in der Erzdiözese Posen,” October 10, 1941, BAB, R 5101/22437; Breitinger, 69.

92 Uebelhoer, report of October 1941, Połoźenie ludności polskiej w tzw. Kraju Warty w okresie hitlerowskiej okupacji. Documenta Occupationis, vol. 13, ed. Olszewski, Marian (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 1990)Google Scholar, 346.

93 “Lagebericht des Regierungspräsidenten Hohensalza [Burkhardt],” October 20, 1941, IfZ, Fb 125, 383.

94 Conway, 320. See also Kloczowski, 298.

95 Sziling, Jan, “Hitlerowska polityka eksterminacji duchowieństwa katolickiego w Kraju Warty” in Akcje okupanta hitlerowskiego wobec Kościoła katolickeigo w Kraju Warty, ed. Galiński, Antoni and Budziarek, Marek (Lódź: Okręgowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Łodzi-Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej/Muzeum Historii Miasta Łodzi, 1997)Google Scholar, 23; Stasiewski, 74.

96 “Raport Sytuacyjny okupacji niemieckiej za czas od 1.I. do 1.VII.1941 r.” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 49–53, PUMST; “Sprawozdaniae delegata Rządu za czas od 15 sierpnia do 15 listopada 1941 r.” in “Sprawzdanie sytuacyjne z kraju,” tom II, Nr. 1-2-3-4-5-6, 1941-1942, 36, PUMST; “Sytuacja w Kraju w okresie 16 grudnia 1941. - 15. stycznia 1942” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju” tom II, Nr. 1-2-3-4-5-6, 1941-1942, 44, PUMST. See also “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 4 (do 1.III.1943 r.)” in Raporty z ziem wcielonych do III Rzeszy (1942–1944), ed. Mazur, Zbigniew, Pietrowicz, Aleksandra, Rukowska, Maria (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 2004)Google Scholar, 84, which notes that as late as the winter of 1943 the Hohensalza Gestapo was sentencing priests for undertaking political work, the evidence for the accusation being simply that hordes of Polish worshippers were attending mass.

97 Gestapo Posen to Landräte des Bezirks, October 16, 1941, IfZ, Fb 95/39; “Lagebericht des Regierungspräsidenten Hohensalza [Burkhardt],” October 20, 1941, IfZ, Fb 125, 383; Uebelhoer, report of October 1941, Połoźenie ludności polskiej w tzw. Kraju Warty w okresie hitlerowskiej okupacji. Documenta Occupationis, vol. 13, ed. Olszewski, Marian (Poznań: Instytut Zachodni, 1990)Google Scholar, 346; Amtskommissar Kalisch-Land to SD-Außenstelle Kalisch, March 24, 1943, YV, TR.17, file JM 12083, 412–413; “Volkspolitischer Lagebericht des Regierungspräsidenten in Hohensalza nach dem Stande vom 15.4.1943,” April 15, 1943, IPN, GK 196/18/CD, 68–69; Viktor Böttcher, “Minderheitspolitischer Lagebericht,” Posen, May 18, 1943, IPN, GK 196/16/CD, 199–209.

98 A case in point is that of Father Marian Frankiewicz, a priest at one of the two Catholic churches remaining open for Poles in Posen, who in a postwar account recalled multiple interrogations at the hands of the Gestapo, described distributing Holy Communion to thousands on Sundays, and explained how his work in the parish, which was to serve approximately one-half of Poznań's Polish Catholic population, continued under improvised and often clandestine conditions. Ks. Marian Frankiewicz, Ankeita, January 19, 1974, AAP, zespół 133, syg. OK 217.

99 “Niederschrift über die Besprechung der Leiter der Staatspolizei(leit)stellen Posen, Hohensalza und Litzmannstadt mit dem Sachbearbeiter für kirchliche Fragen beim Reichsstatthalter im Warthegau am 19.11.1942 in Hohensalza,” November 19, 1942, IPN, GK 196/19, 116-118. Father Józef Nowacki, professor at the Poznań seminary and director of the Poznań archdiocesan archive, also referred, in his June 24, 1946 testimony at the trial of Arthur Greiser, to the November 19 meeting: IPN GK 196/38/CD1, 60. See also Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 75–76.

100 “Darlegung betr. die Rechtslage der katholische Kirche im Reichsgau Wartheland,” BAB R5101/22437, 28–33, here 30.

101 Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 112.

102 Ibid., 111–114.

103 The phrase “final solution of the religious question” appears to have originated with Albert Hartl. See Dierker, 528.

104 Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 316.

105 Greiser, speech, “Arbeitstagung des Gauamtes für Volkstumspolitik am 20. u. 21.3.1943 in Posen,” IPN, GK 196/37, 104.

106 Fijałkowski, 376; Gürtler, 142; Stasiewski, 60.

107 Breitinger, 142;

108 “Aufzeichnung des Leiters der Politischen Abteilung im Auswärtigen Amt, Unterstaatssekretär Ernst Woermann,” April 21, 1942, document 238 in Katholische Kirche und Nationalsozialismus 1930–1945: Ein Bericht in Quellen, ed. Gruber, Hubert (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2006), 472–474Google Scholar, here 474.

109 See Phayer, Michael, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000)Google Scholar, 29, where, citing Sziling, Jan, “Die Kirchen im Generalgouvernement,” Miscellanea Historiae Ecclesiasticae IX (1984), 282Google Scholar, he makes the argument for a post-Stalingrad shift in German policy. Phayer's claim that the shift in German policy was related to the advent of the “final solution” and annihilation of Polish Jewry is advanced in chapter two of Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008), 16–41Google Scholar.

110 On the use of Jewish and Polish labor in German-occupied Poland see chapter 3 of Browning, Christopher R., Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 58–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

111 On Nazi church policy in the General Government, see Sziling, “Die Kirchen im Generalgouvernement,” 277–288; Madajczyk, 362–64; and the numerous essays in Zieliński.

112 “Niederschrift über die Besprechung der Leiter der Staatspolizei(leit)stellen Posen, Hohensalza und Litzmannstadt mit dem Sachbearbeiter für kirchliche Fragen beim Reichsstatthalter im Warthegau am 19.11.1942 in Hohensalza,” November 19, 1942, IPN, GK 196/19, 117. See also Śmigiel, Die katholische Kirche, 75–76.

113 Reichsstatthalter to alle Behörden, June 3, 1943, Abschrift, IPN, GK 196/37, 36.

114 “Auszug aus dem Schreiben des Vorstandes der röm.kath.Kirche deutscher Nationalität im Reichsgau Wartheland [Breitinger] an den Herrn Reichsstatthalter v.1.10.43,” Abschrift, IZ, syg. I-358, 8; Breitinger to Greiser, October 1, 1943, document 890a in Volk, 241–252.

115 Relevant reports of the Sekcja Zachodnia (Western Section) of the Departamentu Informacji i Prasy Delgatury Rządu (Information and Press Department of the Delegation of the Government) include: “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich. Nr. 1/30.IX.42,” in Raporty, 9; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 2 (do 10.XII.1942),” in Raporty, 27–28; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 3 (do 31 grudnia 1942 r.),” in Raporty, 64–65; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 4 (do 1.III.1943 r.),” in Raporty, 84; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 5 (do 15.V.1943),” in Raporty, 101; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr. 6 (do 15.VIII.1943),” in Raporty, 149; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich Nr 8 (do 31.X.1943),” in Raporty, 287–289; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich (Nr. 9) (do dn. 15. XI. 1943),” in Raporty, 379–380; “Raport o sytuacji na Ziemiach Zachodnich (nr. 10) Grudzień 1943-styczeń 1944,” in Raporty, 462–464.

116 “Sprawozdanie oficera polskiego o sytuacji w Polsce,” January 1, 1944, YV, O.25, file 118, 1–2.

117 Breitinger to Himmler, August 5, 1944, document 938a in Volk, 397.

118 Vermerk, Dr. Meyer-Eckhardt, Reichstatthalter im Warthegau, December 22, 1944, IPN, GK 196/19, 58–61.

119 Among the most vocal wartime critics of papal reticence regarding the treatment of the Polish church was Karol Radoński, the exiled bishop of the Włocławek diocese.

120 “Raport Sytuacyjny okupacji niemieckiej za czas od 1.I. do 1.VII.1941 r.” in “Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z kraju 1939–1941,” tom I, 51–52, PUMST; “Sprawozdaniae delegata Rządu za czas od 15 sierpnia do 15 listopada 1941 r.” in Sprawzdanie sytuacyjne z kraju tom II, Nr. 1-2-3-4-5-6, 1941–1942, 36, PUMST; “Sprawozdanie oficera polskiego o sytuacji w Polsce,” January 1, 1944, YV, O.25, file 118, 1.

121 Phayer, Catholic Church, 29–30.