Jesus the anti-Semite: an overview on the de-Judaization of
Jesus during Nazism.
Álvaro Camacho Polo
In the recent history of western culture, the dark shadow of Nazism casts a long and
chilling specter, forever associated with heinous atrocities and ideological extremism.
While much has been written about the political aspects of the Nazi regime, an often
overlooked dimension is the sinister attempt by some German theologians to create a
distorted version of Christianity that could fit inside their racially driven Aryan ideology.
This effort to mix religion and racial theories resulted in a perverted reinterpretation of
Jesus Christ—one that sought to align his central figure inside Christianity with the Nazis'
warped vision of a superior Aryan race and with their leader Adolf Hitler.
Also, the idea that Bolshevism was created and financed by Jews spread throughout
Europe and had lethal consequences for Jews, especially in Germany, where the Nazis
would define the Bolsheviks, socialists and democrats as agents of the "Jewish
revolution" that led to the Weimar Republic1. This myth of Judeo-Bolshevism, central for
the Nazi discourse, must be understood within a long tradition of anti-Semitism that goes
back to the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1906, through the 19th century, when the
legend of a global Jewish government spread, the Middle Ages or even to the time of the
Gospels, when Jews were perceived as evil and hostile to Christianity. The latter idea will
be widely developed, also in its inverted form, by sections of German Protestantism and
will find great support during Nazi Germany.
The concept of Judeo-Bolshevism rested on three important foundations of anti-Jewish
thought: First, as mentioned above, the concept was embedded in a long tradition
associating Jews with heresy and social disorder in historical contexts as varied as the
Spanish Inquisition, Reformation Germany or revolutionary France. Second, the idea of
a Jewish-led international conspiracy had been around for some time, now fuelled by the
fear of communist revolution spreading across Europe. Finally, the centuries-long belief
in the practice of perverse and fanatical rituals within Judaism found its secular
1 Hanebrink, 2018, p. 13.
manifestation in the idea of Judeo-Bolshevism. In this sense, revolutionary ideals were
understood as a secularised version of Jewish messianism, especially in Catholic
environments. For example, the French philosopher Jacques Maritain claimed that Jews
occupied a subversive role in the world, as their passion for justice and messianic hopes
made them the perfect seed of revolution. These ideas circulated unchecked through
newspapers and even emigrants across Europe after the First World War 2.
In Germany, many of the participants in the political uprisings that culminated in the
short-lived Bavarian Republic of Councils were Jewish, and at least one was Russian.
The fact that they all claimed allegiance to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia fuelled the
idea that the latter had been caused by Russian Jews 3.
On the other hand, conservative intellectuals who sought the survival of genuine German
culture in the modern world associated Jews with materialism and mass culture as
opposed to German idealism. In turn, both Catholics and Protestants saw in Judeo-
Bolshevism the dangers of a secularised society.
Once the Nazis came to power, they imposed the authority of the state over the church in
religious matters. Youth groups were disbanded, the Catholic Centre party was banned,
and priests were investigated for anti-state activities 4. In this climate of repression, the
Church found in anti-communism an element in common with the Party that it could use
to regain some influence in German society. The problem was that at that time anti-
communism and antisemitism were one and the same idea.
These tensions between the NSDAP and the German church led to the growth of the
German Christians Movement within the German Protestant church, which sought to
organise a Christianity suited to the values of the Third Reich. In this sense, the German
Christians will have a strong anti-Semitic character, adapting racial theories to
Christianity to the extent of contradicting some of its fundamental doctrines, for example,
by stating that a baptised Jew was still a Jew. Moreover, they saw themselves as the
chosen ones to complete Luther's mission, for just as he had fought against Catholicism,
they were now to fight against the Jewish infiltration of Christianity. For this task, the
Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, made
up of Protestant theologians and pastors, was established in 1939. These, led by the
2 Hanebrink, 2018, pp. 28-31.
3 Hanebrink, 2018, p. 83.
4 Hanebrink 2018, pp. 100-101.
professor of New Testament at the University of Jena, Walter Grundmann, made use of
the racial theories developed in the 19th century to create a new theology that would
clarify the boundaries between Judaism and the origins of Christianity in order to identify
the true Christian and Aryan elements that were to make up a dejudaized Christianity for
the German people.5
The theories used by Protestant theologians such as Grundmann can be traced back to
19th century racial theorists, who understood race as synonymous with culture, which
was seen as something fragile that could be altered or destroyed, especially through
miscegenation. Moreover, the philology of this century allowed the decipherment of
ancient cultures, such as Iranian or Indian, which resulted in a conception of religion as a
set of symbols that could be compared and identified with each other. Thus, the different
Volks began to be understood as defined not only by language and territory, but also by
their culture and religion.6
It was these ideas that allowed the identification of an Aryan race, a term that appears in
Hindu religious texts to refer to a legendary people who migrated to Iran and northern
India. Thus, a clear opposition was established between Aryan culture, associated with
Christianity, and Semitic culture, associated with Judaism and Islam. This fostered a long
tradition of Christian theologians who would attempt to clearly separate Jesus from
Judaism and interpret Christianity as a direct critique of Judaism. Such racialization of
Christianity can be traced back to the French philologist Ernst Renan, who claimed in
1855 that the Semitic race possessed a distinctly inferior nature to the Indo-European
(Aryan) race7. The German philologist Paul de Lagarde, on his side, claimed that Jesus
was not a Jew, but that Paul had contaminated his teachings with Jewish elements. 8
These two examples represent a broad scholarly discussion that allowed Jesus to be
separated from his Jewish identity through the direct relationship between race and
religion, laying the groundwork for a new theology that would understand Jesus as a
figure who combines the Aryan spiritual elements of the East with German racial strength
and purity. Furthermore, as the Protestant pastor Arthur Bonus argued, Jesus represents
the idea of God as immanent in the human being and not as something transcendental and
5 Heschel, 2008, p. 26.
6 Heschel, 2008, pp. 29-31.
7 Heschel, 2008, p. 35.
8 Heschel, 2008, p. 37.
incomprehensible9. All these ideas would serve as a theoretical framework for the
theologians of the German Christians movement and the Institute, laying the foundations
for a divinization of Hitler and the German people.
The most important project of the Institute was to eradicate any Jewish elements from the
Christian Bible, which was a great challenge. The Old Testament was completely
eliminated as it was considered strictly Jewish. Moreover, the fact that Jesus is
traditionally seen in Christian theology as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies is
a clear point of connection with Judaism, so this idea had to be completely eradicated. As
for the New Testament, in which Jesus is clearly shown attending the synagogue or
debating interpretations of Jewish scriptures, a new version will be published in 1940
called Die Botschaft Gottes (The Message of God) in which any trace of Jewishness will
be removed. For example, passages that speak positively about Jews will be removed and
those in which they are criticized will be retained. In relation to the Gospels, aspects such
as the strong Jewish character of the Gospel of Matthew were overcome by unifying the
four Gospels into a single narrative, emphasizing the anti-Jewish elements of the Gospel
of John and proposing the latter as the most reliable source for understanding the figure
of the historical Jesus, despite the assertion by New Testament scholars since 1820 that it
could not be considered a historical source 10.
This new version was justified as a scholarly work that sought to restore the text to its
original message by arguing, for example, that the Gospel of Matthew had distorted the
image of Jesus to place him within the messianic tradition of the Old Testament when, in
fact, the original text was clearly anti-Jewish in its message.
Thus, the New revised version was divided thematically into four sections 11:
The first was called "Jesus the Savior", where we find the life of Jesus drawn from
fragments of the four gospels, including a chapter entitled "His Struggle" ("Sein Kampf"),
a clear allusion to Hitler's famous work. The second part, "Jesus the Son of God", sets out
the theological argument of the work based on an interpretation of the Gospel of John.
The third part, "Jesus the Lord", develops religious teachings drawn from different
epistles and the fourth part recounts Paul's preaching to the Gentiles under the title "The
9 Heschel, 2008, p. 41.
10 Heschel, 2018, pp. 106-108.
11 Heschel, 2018, pp. 109.
Emergence of the Christian Community", showing Paul as a Pharisee whom the Jews
want to kill for having accepted Jesus. In all of them, references to Jewish places or names
will be retained only when they express a negative view of Judaism. Also, any reference
to the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies in the figure of Jesus will be elided, and
the latter's knowledge of the Old Testament will be accompanied by expressions such as
"hit the Scribes with their own weapons", thus showing the Old Testament as something
completely alien to Jesus in terms of identity. A year after the creation of Die Botschaft
Gottes, the Institute claimed to have distributed more than 200,000 copies of the work.
Once the project of replacing the sacred text had been completed, the members of the
Institute turned their efforts to liturgical life. The submissive, supplicatory character of
prayer did not fit the ideal of German masculinity, so it was given a celebratory and
affirming character. Of course, prayers of repentance seeking God's forgiveness were
banished. Another example would be the renaming of religious services, which would
now be called "divine celebration", since the term "service" had a Jewish character while
"celebration" was German. A new catechism was also created which described Jesus in
this way:
“ Jesus of Nazareth in the Galilee proves in his message and behavior a spirit that
is in opposition to Judaism in every way. The struggle between him and the Jew
became so bitter than it led to his deadly crucifixion. Thus Jesus cannot have been
a Jew. Until this very day the Jews persecute Jesus and all who follow him with
unreconcilable hatred. By contrast, Aryans in particular found in Jesus Christ the
answer to their ultimate and deepest questions. So he became the savior of the
Germans”12
In this way, Jesus was presented as a man who fought against Judaism and in whom
Germans could see themselves reflected in their own struggle against the Jews. A new
version of the 12 Commandments was also included, which omitted the prohibition
against killing and included others such as maintaining purity of blood and honouring the
Führer.13
By 1942, it seems, the German Christians and the Institute succeeded in fostering this
animosity to Jewish elements within Christianity and altered German religious discourse
12 Heschel, 2018, p. 126.
13 Heschel, 2018, p. 127.
to the point that no pastor dared to quote the Old Testament during the liturgy, as Pastor
Heinrich Weinmann would claim. 14
Returning to the figure of Jesus, although in 1933 Grundmann would define him in the
"Twenty Eight Theses" of the German Christian movement as superior to human
categories such as race, in later years he would attempt to promote the historical figure of
an Aryan Jesus in complete opposition to Judaism.
In a book published in 1940 under the title Jesus the Galilean, Grundmann established
the problem Jesus´s race as the central issue of the work. The title in itself, which may
seem fairly innocent to the contemporary reader, has a racial connotation, since the term
Galilean and Aryan were closely related, the former being more suited to academic
language, and his choice of the term reflects Grundmann's desire to be perceived as a
serious scholar15.
For the academic tradition that worked on the idea of the Aryan Jesus, there were three
fundamental issues:
The first was the racial and religious identity of his parents. In this context, race was
understood as synonymous with spirit and culture, since it was thought that the spirituality
of a community was determined in the race itself. The main argument that these
theologians used to question the Jewish identity of Jesus was the existence of historical
settlements of non-Jewish populations in the area of Galilee who had been partially
converted to Judaism but who did not belong to the Jewish "race". The second question
was to clarify the extent to which the teachings of Jesus assimilated to Jewish teachings
and their similarities to the Aryan spirituality found in other religious traditions. Finally,
to establish whether Jesus was perceived as a Jew or an anti-Jew in the years following
his death. Grundmann will pick up and develop these questions in his work by drawing
on materials from earlier scholars, some of whom were neither Nazis nor anti-Semites 16.
For example, based on the work of Walter Bauer, Grundmann established Galilee as a
region in cultural opposition to Judea. Thanks to the work of Assyriologists such as Paul
Haupt, he was able to assert that Galilee was populated by Aryans forced to convert to
Christianity by the Hasmoneans. The argument that the idea of "the son of man" had an
14 Heschel, 2018, p. 141.
15 Heschel, 2018, p. 152.
16 Heschel, 2018, p. 152.
Indo-Persian origin was drawn from the work of Wilhelm Bousset, and thanks to Ernst
Lohmeyer's thesis that Jesus preached a Galilean eschatology he was able to argue that
Jesus was not the messiah promised in the Old Testament but represented a new kind of
eschatology.
He also drew from a rabbinical legend the idea that the father of Jesus was not Joseph but
a Roman soldier named Pantera17.
As we can see, the central argument is based on the region of Galilee, which according to
Grundmann had not been inhabited by Jews for a century and a half before the birth of
Jesus. Neither is this an original argument, since the idea of a Gentile Galilee had long
been defended by New Testament scholars on the basis of the term "Galil HaGoyim"
(Galilee of the nations) which appears in Isaiah 8:23 and 9:1, which is also quoted in
Matthew 4:15. For Grundmann, the fact that Jesus preached his message among the
Gentiles (non-Jewish population) of Galilee and that they accepted it was a definitive
proof that he was one of them and that they were therefore able to understand his intimate
relationship with God, unlike the Jews. 18
Grundmann will also cite other contemporary literary sources as representative of Jesus'
teachings, such as the first Book of Enoch, where "the son of man" is mentioned. For
Grundmann, this text reflected Iranian and Hellenistic concepts and not Jewish, just as
the idea of the kingdom of God originated out of Zoroastrianism.
Another major problem for the Nazi theologians was the title of Jesus as the Lamb of
God, as it represented a certain degree of weakness. In this regard, they claimed that the
earliest traditions that spoke of Jesus depicted him as a warrior, an idea that was distorted
by the introduction of Jewish elements such as the suffering servant topos. 19
In this way, the image of a German Jesus was gradually created to give religious and
historical significance to Hitler's discourse of a war between Aryans and Jews, while at
the same time endowing him with attributes and origins that fit the ideal of German
masculinity, far removed from Christian compassion.
The political paranoia of a Jewish-Bolshevik revolution found its religious version in the
theology proposed by the Institute: the Jews had falsified the original meaning of
17 Heschel, 2018, p. 153.
18 Heschel, 2018, p. 154.
19 Heschel, 2018, p. 156.
Christianity and had sought the destruction of the Gentiles since antiquity, therefore, if
true Christianity was to survive, the Jews had to be exterminated.
Thus, while Germany was literally being purged of Jews (judenrein), from 1942 onwards
numerous academics attended the Institute's lectures and its leaders lectured to Wermacht
troops while plans for the mass extermination of Jews were simultaneously being
developed.
In any case, the hatred of Christianity among some sectors of Nazism did not disappear,
as it was still perceived as essentially Jewish and contrary to the German spirit, so the
Institute began to focus its attention on Teutonic traditions to demonstrate that the
teachings of Jesus were the same as those to be found in Teutonic myths in the hope of
reinforcing its thesis that Christianity was essentially Aryan and therefore German.
As we have seen, the relationship between the Nazis and Christianity is complex, as both
ideologies had to compete for influence in German society, although it was the Nazis who
controlled power in practice. In this context, the German Christian movement
appropriated Nazi discourse and symbolism to give Christianity a suitable character for
the model of society that was being constructed in the Third Reich. Both the Nazis and
the Institute's theologians identified the figure of Hitler with that of Christ, endowing the
Führer with a divine aura and in turn giving Jesus relevance in contemporary politics as
a reference figure for anti-Semitism.
The efforts of the German Christians to address the Nazi rejection of Christianity through
the projects mentioned in this article, in addition to the rejection of the authority of the
Protestant church, which they were unable to take control of, paradoxically aided the Nazi
project of undermining the influence of Christianity in German society.
Bibliography
- Paul A. Hanebrink, A specter haunting Europe: the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism,
Harvard University Press, 2018.
- Susannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus: Christian theologians and the Bible in the
Nazi Germany, Princeton University Press, 2008.
- Peter Head, Susannah Heschel´s The Aryan Jesus: A Response, Journal for the
Study of New Testament v32 n4, 2010.
- Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi conceptions of Christianity,
1919-1945, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- Henry Munson, Christianity, Antisemitism and the Holocaust, MDPI Journal of
Religions, 2018.
