An overview of the two faces of the church in German Holocaust literature : passivity and opposition

This thesis presents an analysis of the activities of the Church during the Third Reich as depicted in representative works of German Holocaust literature, including Alfred Andersch's Sansibar; oder, der letzte Grund, Ulla Berkéwicz's Engel sind schwarz und weiβ, Heinrich Böll's Billard um halbzehn, Bertolt Brecht's Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui and Furcht und Elend des dritten Reiches, Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stellvertreter, Ruth Klüger's weiter leben, and Ruth Rehmann's Der Mann auf der Kanzel. This thesis discusses both the Church's passivity to or collaboration with the Third Reich as well as the opposition and resistance it mounted against the Hitler regime in both historical accounts and literary treatments.

The thesis contains three chapters. The first presents an historical discussion of the Church's passivity and an opposition. The second chapter discusses the Church's passivity or collaboration as it is depicted by the aforementioned literary works. The focus of the third chapter involves the literary portrayal of the Church's resistance/opposition to the Nazis. This thesis treats both the Protestant and Catholic Church, comparing the literary portrayals with historical accounts.

Overall, the literary works accurately reflect historical fact. However, the authors' intentions vary from work to work, and this variation affects how the individual author incorporates history into his or her work. Few works of Holocaust literature focus exclusively on the Church. Most works that contain a portrayal of the Church present a rather negative one, depicting a Church that has "sold out" to the Nazis. However, some authors are mindful of the opposition some Church leaders and organizations effected; they include facts about it in their works to present a contrast to the passivity and thus give their works some balance.