Book Review: When a Nation Forgets God; 7 lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany by Erwin W. Lutzer
(Four Stars)
“The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory than man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment—or as the Nazis likes to say, ‘Of blood and soil.’ … prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.” Viktor Frankl, holocaust survivor
A distinctly Christian work. Lutzer, who has written dozens of books about Nazism and American popular culture, explores how Adolph Hitler effectively neutralized Germany’s Christians in his quest to create his Nazi paradise. Lutzer explores seven areas—such as the church itself, education, propaganda, the economy, etc.—where Hitler’s plans eviscerated opposition, leading of course to the infamous death camps.
“You said that ‘I will take care of the German people.’ But we too, as Christians and churchmen, have a responsibility toward the German people. That was given to us by God, and neither you nor anyone else in this world has the power to take it from us.” Martin Niemöller to Adolph Hitler, January 25, 1934.
Well-researched. Valuable background on both Hitler’s thinking and the Confessing Church which opposed him.
“I don’t expect that America will ever gas millions of people because they belong to the wrong race, but the same values that destroyed Germany are being taught in many of our centers of learning today. Forces of secularism lead inevitably to a totalitarian state to which everyone is expected to submit.” Erwin W. Lutzer
This is an unapologetically polemic work. Lutzer draws many parallels to modern America.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that what we are going to get is a big, popular national church whose nature cannot be reconciled with Christianity, and we must be prepared to enter upon entirely new paths which we shall have to tread.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“When God calls a man, he bids him come and die. Suffering is not an interruption, but our calling.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As a Matter of Fancy 