TIME magazine has re-released an article from 1940 that reports on “German Martyrs” during Hitler’s regime. Among the more interesting items in this essay is an extended quote from Albert Einstein:
“Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. . . .
“Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.” –Albert Einstein
Read the rest here: “German Martyrs,” Time (December 23, 1940).
(HT: Tim Challies)
Pictured Above: Nuremberg Rally for Unity and Strength. Hitler Greets Protestant Reich Bishop Ludwig Müller (at right) and Catholic Abbott Albanus Schachleitner on the Tribune of Honor (September 1934). [Source]
One Comment
Don Johnson
A lesson of Nazi Germany is not that Germans were bad, but that anyone can be corrupted.
I wonder how many in the US would be part of the confessing church if this happened here?