clemens august graf von galen
one man managed to halt nazi euthanasia in an almost saint-like way
“however hard the hammer strikes, the anvil stands quietly and firmly in place”
At first, the Bishop of Münster thought that the Nazis would be able to restore Germany to its glory days of the early 1900s – Clemens August Graf von Galen had total faith in the political party. However, it didn’t last long.
Easter 1934 seems to have been Galen’s turning point when he wrote a pastoral letter criticising the “neopaganism of the National Socialist ideology”. He found their anti-catholic propaganda overbearing and he couldn’t bring himself to support the Nazis’ ardent racism but he didn’t hide his feelings. In fact, he often complained directly to the Führer himself. Somehow, he didn’t even seem to get demoted.
November 1936 saw more rebellion from Galen – when the Nazis began removing crucifixes from schools in Oldenburg, Galen started a protest that spiralled into a public demonstration. But it was his actions in 1941 that have earned him renown. From his pulpit in Münster he delivered three sermons that summer admonishing the state’s confiscation of church property and demonising a regime that carried out programmatic euthanasia. Copies of the sermons circulated around Germany and the T4 programme, which was the systematic murder of those deemed an embarrassment to the ‘Aryan race’, was formally ended.
As punishment Galen was put under house arrest – Hitler couldn’t make a martyr out of him – but documents revealed after the war showed that he was nearly hanged for his rebellion. In the end Galen lived a full life and was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2005.