![]() In their place, references to pagan figures and mystical themes appeared. Lyrics to traditional Christmas songs were amended to remove references to God, Jesus, or familiar Christian themes. Discussions of the true meaning of Christmas disappeared from official German media. With careful and conscious efforts, the Nazis attempted to change everything about the celebration of Christmas. Unable to kill Christmas, the Nazis then sought to appropriate it for their own use. While attempts to transform a celebration of Jesus’s birth into a celebration of the Winter Solstice ( Julfest) gained some traction–especially among the most committed Nazis–most Germans continued to celebrate Christmas and churches were allowed to perform traditional Christmas services. The population would need to be indoctrinated to accept the Fuhrer as the ultimate authority, and old Christian practices would need to be erased. A nation that had embraced Christianity for centuries would not abandon faith in God and Christ on orders from the State. Early actions to eliminate Christmas proved the pragmatists right, as many wives and sweethearts resisted efforts to change their traditional Christmas practices. ![]() While many in the Nazi leadership circle wished to destroy Christianity quickly and outright, pragmatists knew that a direct assault on organized religion would cost the regime dearly in public support. Beyond the inconvenience of Jesus’s Jewish origins, a population that maintained an allegiance to God and Christ could not wholly give itself over to the Nazi State-first ideology. Christmas, the preeminent Christian holiday, posed a number of challenges for the Reich. Haag talked about how religions posed a problem for the Nazi authorities since they taught that God was the ultimate authority and that the State and everything else was subordinate to Him. Those discussions touched on how Nazi Leadership consciously sought to transform German society and how it indoctrinated the population to accept the State as the preeminent moral authority, with citizens as subordinate pieces. John Haag about how the Nazi government monitored public support for its initiatives, and how it cultivated support for programs and positions that, today, we find to be completely antithetical to human decency. Seeing these creepy Christmas ornaments took me back to graduate school and memories of conversations I had with Dr. A feeling of sadness and bewilderment hit me. My immediate reaction was strong and emotional. While I had seen a few photos of relics like these, I had never seen any of the actual pieces. Unlike ornaments that evoke joy and happiness, these ornaments bore–of all things–a swastika. Hidden away in a dimly-lit cabinet and packed in a musty old box were a tree topper and six glass ornaments. In a small antique store, I recently came across a little collection of some of the creepiest pieces of history I’ve ever seen. ![]() To demonstrate this, I offer this article regarding Christmas in Hitler’s Third Reich. History is often ugly, and physical pieces of history are sometimes very creepy. ![]()
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