Christian Response to Nazism and the Holocaust

August 31, 2006

How should Christians live out their faith when the culture of their time is at odds with their beliefs? What kind of responsibility do Christians have for the Jewish people?

Duke Divinity School will explore these and other questions throughout the fall semester with the film series “Christian Responses to Nazism and the Holocaust.”

“During the 1930s and 40s most Christians in Germany and France accommodated themselves to Nazi ideology in a shocking manner,” says Stephen Chapman, assistant professor of Old Testament and the organizer of the film series. “For this reason, the Holocaust represents a specifically Christian failure. Why did so many Christians ignore the contradiction between Nazism and the Gospel? How did a few Christians manage to view Nazism accurately and oppose it at great personal risk?”

The series will include four films, each with a faculty host from the divinity school who will make remarks before the screening and take questions from the audience afterward. Each film begins at 7 p.m. in either Room 0014 or Room 0016 in the school’s Westbrook Building.

The dates of the four showings are Sept. 20, Oct. 18, Nov. 8 and Nov. 29. Admission is free and open to the public.

“There is no expiration date on the question of what it means to live out the Christian faith within a particular time and place,” Chapman says. “We can all be instructed by previous examples of how Christians have answered that question poorly and be inspired by cases in which they have responded to that question well.”

The schedule for the film series follows:

• Sept. 20: “Bonhoeffer,” hosted by Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who resisted the Nazis, even to the point of compromising his own pacifism. While a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Bonhoeffer was exposed to the American civil rights movement and the strength of the black church tradition. He later was imprisoned in Germany after participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler and was executed just before the end of the war.
• Oct. 18: “Theologians under Hitler,” hosted by J. Kameron Carter, assistant professor of theology and black church studies. Based upon a book of the same title by Robert Erickson, this film explores the lives and work of three highly regarded German theologians who gave approval and support to the Nazi party: Paul Althaus, Emmanuel Hirsch and Gerhard Kittel. The documentary points out how these Nazi theologians provided the means for German nationalism to subsume Christianity and underwrite violence against Jews.
• Nov. 8: “Weapons of the Spirit,” hosted by Samuel Wells, dean of Duke Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics. This documentary tells the story of the French Protestant village of Le Chambon, which not only resisted the Nazis and their French sympathizers, but also successfully sheltered thousands of Jewish children during the war. The film was made by Pierre Sauvage, who was one of the children rescued in Le Chambon.
• Nov. 29: “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” hosted by Teresa Berger, professor of ecumenical theology. Hans and Sophie Scholl, students at the University of Munich, gathered a resistance group called “The White Rose” and for a time maintained an underground publication critical of Nazi ideas and policies. The documentary focuses on the trial and execution of Sophie Scholl at the hands of the Nazis, raising contemporary questions about the nature of justice and the relationship between church and state.

For details about the film series, contact Chapman at 919-660-3408.