Religious beliefs
Main article: Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs
Hitler was raised by Roman Catholic parents, but after he left home, he never attended Mass or received the sacraments.[273] In private Hitler made at least one attack against Catholicism that "resonated Streicher's contention that the Catholic establishment was allying itself with the Jews."[274] However, as Richard Steigmann-Gall points out when explaining the institutional particularities of religion in Nazi Germany, in a country in which the Catholic and the Protestant church are largely financed through a church tax collected by the state, Hitler (like Goebbels) never "actually left his church or refused to pay church taxes. In a nominal sense therefore [he] can be classified as Catholic."[275]
According to some, Hitler had a general plan, even before the rise of the Nazis to power, to destroy Christianity within the Reich.[276][277][278] The leader of the Hitler Youth stated "the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist movement" from the start, but "considerations of expedience made it impossible" publicly to express this extreme position.[279]
In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage, German Christian culture, and professed a belief in an Aryan Jesus Christ, a Jesus who fought against the Jews.[280] In his speeches and publications Hitler spoke of his interpretation of Christianity as a central motivation for his antisemitism, stating that "As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."[281][282] His private statements, as reported by his intimates, are more mixed, showing Hitler as a religious man but critical of traditional Christianity.[283] However, in contrast to early Nazi ideologues, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas, occultism, or Ariosophy,[283] and ridiculed such beliefs in Mein Kampf.[284][285] Hitler advocated a form of the Christian faith he called "Positive Christianity",[284][286] a belief system purged of what he objected to in orthodox Christianity. Hitler maintained that the "terrorism in religion is, to put it briefly, of a Jewish dogma, which Christianity has universalized and whose effect is to sow trouble and confusion in men's minds."[287]
Hitler, despite his native Catholicism, favored aspects of Protestantism if they were more amenable to his own objectives. At the same time, he adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organization, liturgy and phraseology in his politics.[288][289]
Hitler expressed admiration for the Muslim military tradition and directed Himmler to initiate Muslim SS Divisions as a matter of policy.[290] According to one confidant, Hitler stated in private, "The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness..."[291]