This article examines the nature and frequency of comments about Jews and Judaism in sermons delivered by Confessing Church pastors in the Nazi dictatorship.  The approach of most historians has focused on the history of antisemitism in the German Protestant tradition—in the works, pronouncements, and policies of the German churches and its leading figures.  Yet historians have left unexamined the most elemental task of the pastor—that is, preaching from the pulpit to the German people.  What would the average German congregant have heard from his pastor about the Jews and Judaism on any given Sunday?  I searched German archives, libraries, and used book stores, and analyzed 910 sermon manuscripts that were produced and disseminated in the Nazi regime.  I argue that these sermons provide mixed messages about Jews and Judaism.  While on the one hand, the sermons express admiration for Judaism as a foundation for Christianity, an insistence on the usage of the Hebrew Bible in the German churches, and the conviction that the Jews are spiritual cousins of Christians.  On the other hand, the sermons express religious prejudice in the form of anti-Judaic tropes that corroborated the Nazi ideology that portrayed Jews and Judaism as inferior: for instance, that Judaism is an antiquated religion of works rather than grace; that the Jews killed Christ and have been punished throughout history as a consequence.  Furthermore, I demonstrate that Confessing Church pastors commonly expressed anti-Judaic statements in the process of criticizing the Nazi regime, its leadership, and its policies.

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This article examines the reports of the Gestapo and SD regarding pastors’ criticisms of the Nazi state and its ideology from the authority of the pulpit. My research reveals a degree of public opposition to the regime within the walls of the German churches, especially in terms of Nazi racial ideology and the persecution of Jews. While pastors did not incite resistance to the Nazi regime or conspire to overthrow its leadership, they at times sought to undermine the legitimacy of Nazi claims to truth. The sermons reveal concern among pastors that National Socialism and Christianity are at odds, or even mutually exclusive believe systems. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that pastors were often drawn into the cross-hairs of the Nazi secret police by asserting that Christianity must be the standard and measure of Nazi racial truth claims.

Among the tens of thousands of GI war brides after the Second World War, a small fraction of them were German women who left their defeated and devastated homeland behind. The war story of Gisela Kriebel explores how her circuitous move from Berlin to Los Angeles, half a world away, meant the virtual severing of family ties and cultural connections that would leave her descendants with scant information about her genealogy and the fate of her family members in the war. Barriers of distance, language, and accessibility of records have made genealogical research particularly difficult concerning this specific population of war brides of defeated nations. The article explores Gisela Kriebel’s family, and specifically how she was conscripted into service in the war, began a career as an interpreter and secretary, and was swept up in two love affairs—one tragic and the other life-long—that, in the end, brought her to Los Angeles. Throughout the article, genealogical sources will be used, such as newly available online military records, to demonstrate how researchers can discover the rich family history of war brides separated from their war-torn homelands.

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