The Grey Book

The Grey Book

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Title: The Grey Book
Author: Johan M. Snoek
Release Date: January 23, 2005 [EBook #14764]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREY
BOOK ***
Copyright (C) 1969 Johan M. Snoek.

Produced by the nephew of the author.

Transcriber's Note: (Gutenberg preparation by Ge J. Snoek 2004:
[email protected] The original printed paper book pages are marked
as right aligned, (because lots of pages are referenced: omitting
page nrs troubles comfortable searching, while footnotes are
marked/numbered between square [123] hooks.)

JOHAN M. SNOEK
THE GREY BOOK
A COLLECTION OF PROTESTS AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM AND
PERSECUTION OF JEWS ISSUED BY NON-ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCHES AND CHURCH LEADERS DURING HITLERS RULE
INTRODUCTION BY URIEL TAL
Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V. dr. H.J. Prakke & H.M.G. Prakke--Assen,
1969
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION (by Uriel Tal)

Part I
1 PROBLEMS OF EVALUATION
2 FACTORS LEADING TO PUBLIC PROTESTS 3 RESULTS 4
HELP TO CHRISTIANS OF JEWISH ORIGIN 5
"MERCY-BAPTISMS"

Part II

6 HISTORICAL EVENTS
7 GERMANY 8 THE NETHERLANDS 9 BELGIUM 10 FRANCE 11
SWITZERLAND 12 DENMARK 13 SWEDEN 14 HUNGARY 15
RUMANIA 16 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 17 THE UNITED
STATES 18 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF
CHURCHES

Part III
19 HISTORICAL EVENTS, 1939-1945
20 GERMANY 21 NORWAY 22 THE NETHERLANDS 23 FRANCE
24 YUGOSLAVIA 25 GREECE 26 DENMARK 27 SLOVAKIA 28
RUMANIA 29 BULGARIA 30 HUNGARY 31 SWITZERLAND 32
SWEDEN 33 GREAT BRITAIN 34 THE UNITED STATES 35 THE
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES 36 TERRITORIES IN WHICH
THE CHURCHES REMAINED SILENT 37 IN CONCLUSION
APPENDIX I APPENDIX II BIBLIOGRAPHY PERIODICALS AND
REPORTS
INTRODUCTION (by Uriel Tal)
The protests of the non-Roman Catholic Churches against the
persecution and extermination of the Jews during the Nazi period,
carefully compiled and amply documented in this volume, possess a
significance that is not confined to the history of Christian-Jewish
relations. They constitute an important chapter in the history of
Christianity itself in that they reveal the deeper aspects of the Church's
antagonism to the anti-religious and hence anti-Christian character of
Nazi anti-semitism. The well-attested facts presented to us in this
volume are a clear confirmation of the Church's reputation of Nazi
doctrines, not only when these doctrines were directed against the Jews
but, first and foremost, when they threatened the very existence of the
Church itself, both as a system of theological doctrines and beliefs and

as an historical institution. The Church regarded freedom, freedom of
man as well as its own, as an inalienable right rooted in the nature of
man as a rational being created in God's image. Hence, when the
Church was deprived at the right of self-determination, it felt its very
existence endangered, and it was then that it recognized the full
symbolic import of Jewish persecution. This view was plainly set forth
at the beginning of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazi-regime in
Holland, by D. J. Slotemaker de Bruine, Protestant pastor and Minister
of State, who declared:
"...Freedom of the spirit is our life-blood. By that I mean freedom in
questions of the spirit, freedom of conscience, freedom of the Church,
freedom of instruction, freedom of the Word of God, freedom to bear
witness..." [1] In the light of this statement it is obvious that the
Church was provoked to raise its voice in protest chiefly because the
Nazis appropriated the messianic structure of religion which they
exploited to their own ideological and political ends. This was made
clear already in the early days of the Third Reich by "Die Geistlichen
Mitglieder der Vorlaufigen Leitung der Evangelischen Kirche" who, in
a memorandum (Denkschrift) addressed to the Fuehrer (May 1936),
accuse Hitler of pursuing a policy that is not only directed against the
Church but which is designed "to de-Christianize the German people"
(das deutsche Volk zu entchristlichen), quoting, among other things,
the words of Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley:
"The Party lays total claim to the soul of the German people...and
hence we demand the last German, whether Protestant or Catholic..."
[2]
To those Church circles that raised their voices in protest this
totalitarian structure of the Nazi regime presented a double threat to the
very existence of the Church. First, the pseudo-religious and
pseudomessianic character of Nazism was calculated to weaken the
Church from within and to mislead the Christian community, especially