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SIXTY-EIGHTH YEAR
PERTH, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20. 1941.
NO. 2,960.
Pastor Niemo ler Becomes a Catho lic
Protestant Leader Who Opposed Nazi Paganism Australian Associated Press Report Pastor Niemoller, world-famous leader and champion of German Protestants, has become a Catholic, according to a press report as yet unconfirni,:d from Catholic sources. 44 An Associated Press message states that, "according to the Swiss paper, 'Basler Nachrichten,' its Berlin correspondent announces that Pastor Niemoller, leader of the German Evangelical Church, who has been subjected to much German victimisation, has accepted Roman CathoIt was recently reported that he was sharing a licism. cell with a Roman Catholic priest at Oranienburg concentration camp." THE name of Martin Nie- FORMER U-BOAT COMMANDER. moller, leader of the Protestant Confessional opposition to the neo-paganism of the Nazi regime, has become famous throLghout the world. Like Cardinal Faulhaber, Niemoller has pressure withstood stoutly In brought to bear upon him. 1937 he was imprisoned for "misThe court use of the pulpit." freed him in February, 1938, bt.t he was immediately arrested by the Gestapo and thrown into a concentration camp. According to reports. he was placed on half rations, was sentenced to double heavy labour, solitary confinement, rock -breaking, road -building, and ditch -digging. But he remained firm. War Hero. Martin Niemoller's courage in resisting the might of the Nazi regime and his per#aral influence in Germany are due to the fact that he was one of Germany's heroes of the war of 1914-18. He was a marine officer in the German Navy, commander of a U-boat that was instrumental in sinking more then a dozen enemy vessels in the Mediterranean. The written record of his adventures in Great War I. reads like an account of the experiences of any sildier who enjoyed the excitement of the fray. When it was all over he returned home with a sound body and sound nerves. After the war he determined to become a preacher. "I have seen many examples in my life of how the message of Christianity made strong, free n -en of its hearers.... My father was a pastor, and I had seen these things happen, which I now remembered. And I felt that in this way I could best serve my people honestly and sincerely."
MARTIN NIEMOLLER. "Not you, Herr Hitler, but God is my Fuhrer." Three poverty-stricken years at the University followed. Even then polistretched 'its long arm into the theological seminaries. Niemoller went around with a group of right-wingers and was present at the formation of the German National Student Group. The numerous "putsches" and other incidents that smacked of civil war between the Government and the reactionaries weighed heavily on his soul. He saw that Germany lacked a great unifying goal and nearly all of the moral requisites for a real national will and policy. Niemoller, the student, doubted that the national ardour animating the youth and the war veterans was strong
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The A.A.P. cable message which contained this news was published in Eastern States newspapers A c n Thursday, February 6. similar item appeared in the "West Australian" of that date -with the remarkable omission ci Pastor Niemollers conversion to the Catholic faith. The mutilated report was of no significance whatever, as Father Mayer's proximity to Dr. Niemoller in the Oranienburg concontraticn camp had been reperted same months earlier.
and pure enough to give Germany a Courage new impetus for the future. was not lacking, but a strong, unifying force was. Such sentiments, then, were at the bottom of his subsequent
adherence to the Hitler movement and later of his disillusionment and break from it. Struggle Against State. At the beginning of his struggle against the encroachments and demands of an authoritarian State fanatics threw a bomb into his home. Then he began to be dogged by secret police at every step. '1 here were investigations, suppressions, vetoes; his house was searched, and he was made the victim of a regular inquisition until he was finally imprisoned. This brutal treatment only doubled his resolve and strengthened his convictions. When Hitler took over the reins of government many intellectuals as well as Government workers and industrial heads deceived themselves into thinking that the new movement would soon come to an end and that in the meantime they would assure themselves of their income and position by outward conformity at least. These people, inwardly degraded, are now victims of their own opportunism. Niemoller declared his resignation from the Nazi Party as soon as it became clear to him that their promise of "positive Christianity" was an empty gesture calculated to bring in more votes in elections at such a time as they might need th"m. Leader of Defence League. Niemoller became leader of the League of Defence of the Pastors, a group of 3,000 Protestant clergymen, who, convinced that the situation had become intolerable, decided to speak for themselves and against the new paganism. They sent an ultimatum to the
"It is Niemoller or I." newly -elected Reichbischof Muller demanding that he resign from the post to which Hitler had actually appointed him, that all those who had failed in their duty as Christians should be dismissed and that there should be free dom to preach. A declaration attacking the heathenism of the press and repudiating the Blood and Soil racialism of Rosenberg brought the forces of the Nazi State against Niemoller and seven hundred other Confessional pastors. In his last sermon, on June 27, 1937, Niemoller had said: "We have no more thought of using our own powers to escape the arm of the authorities than had the Apostles of old. No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man. . . "In this time of very special trial and struggle, we must bear in mind. that every attempt to gain security by some other means, every turning of our eyes after some other source of strength and support, works exactly in the opposite way to that which we intend. . . . The suffering of our community, the shame which we have to bear when we take our stand beside the Crucified One, that is indeed a heavy burden and hardship: we feel the weight of it, and doubt creeps into our soul.. . . But Jesus says: 'Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you and persecute .
you..
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(Continued on Back Cover.)
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