Recently, I said that the Nazis "had about as much to do with Christianity as Timothy McVeigh". My syntax wasn't exactly clear there, but I think most people understood that I was saying that the Nazis were definitely not a Christian sect. They were a bunch of thugs who bullied the church in Germany into submission, and put their own people in charge. Hitler had the goal of eliminating Christianity from Germany, or failing that, making it a tool of the state.
I recently replied to a reader asking for some historical information on this subject. My main reference is the book "Christianity on Trial", by Vincent Carroll and Dave Shiflett. The following is copied from my reply.
About the Nazis and the church, I highly recommend the book "Christianity on Trial", for which I link to the Amazon.com site in my blog entry. I'm looking at the book now, and according to what I read, Hitler and the Nazis were not acting in the name of Christianity, but actually wanted to destroy it. The church in Germany was silent because it was being oppressed by the Nazis. Carroll and Shiflett say,
"The Catholic German Center Party was extinguished; Christian trade unions were undermined; religious youth groups were bullied and vilified, and their sporting events, camps, parades and uniforms banned. Monks and nuns by the hundreds were brought up on bogus charges of currency violations and sexual perversion."
A few pages later, they say,
They close the chapter with details of several Christian theologians, both German, and from Rome, who condemned the actions of the Nazis. Details are given of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who voted for the National Socialists in 1933, but who opposed attempts by so-called "German Christians" to seize control of Protestant churches. Niemoller responded to the following policy, the "Aryan paragraph":
"It is easy for those who do not live under a totalitarian regime to expect heroism from those who do, but it is an expectation that will often be disappointed. Christians in Germany did not fall over one another defying the Nazi state. That is a fact, and a melancholy one for sure. A significant number welcomed the advent of Hitler. Yet it is equally true that the price of defiance could be very high, involving death or deportation. In such a context it should be less surprising that the mass of Christians were silent than that some believed strongly enough to pay for their faith with their lives."
"Anyone who is not of Aryan descent or who is married to a person of non-Aryan descent may not be appointed as a pastor or official. Pastors or officials of Aryan descent who marry non-Aryans are to be dismissed. The only exceoptions are those laid down in the state law."
Regarding Niemoller's response, Carroll and Shiflett say,
" Niemoller bolted into action, inviting fellow pastors throughout Germany to join a Pastors' Emergency League to resist the Aryan paragraph and all other attacks on church doctrine. Within a few months, more than two thousand pastors had signed the pledge -- and that was still before one of the most revealing spectacles of the first year of Nazi rule."
There is much more, but the point of the chapter is that there was much more oppostion to the Nazis from the church than is commonly believed today. I hope you can find time to research this issue further. Again, I recommend "Christianity on Trial" for a good starting point.