Aspects of Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs have been a matter of debate. He is generally believed to have been skeptical of religion, but opportunistic and shrewdly aware of its influence on politics.[1][2][3][3] Raised by an anti-clerical father[4] and practising Catholic mother, Hitler was baptised and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church as a boy, but became hostile to Catholicism in adulthood.[5][6][7][8][9][10] In his semi-autobiographical Mein Kampf, Hitler outlines a nihilistic philosophy, makes some religious allusions, and declares himself in favour of separation of church and state.[11][12][13] In public speeches, Hitler references providence, and sometimes said he was Christian.[14] Officially, the Party endorsed what it termed "Positive Christianity" which stripped the religion of its Jewish origins and certain key doctrines such as belief in the divinity of Christ.[15][16][17][18][19] In practice Hitler's regime persecuted the churches, and worked to reduce the influence of Christianity on society.[20]
Hitler was reluctant to make public attacks on the Church for political reasons,[21] but generally permitted or encouraged his inner-circle of anti-church radicals such as Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann to perpetrate the Nazi persecutions of the churches.[22] His remarks to confidants, as described in the Goebbels Diaries, the memoirs of Albert Speer,[23] and transcripts of Hitler's private conversations recorded by Martin Bormann in Hitler's Table Talk, indicate anti-Christian beliefs. Goebbels wrote in 1941 that Hitler "hates Christianity".[24] Alan Bullock considered that Hitler's central objection to Christianity, was that its teaching was "a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest". ...