The Years of Victory, 1939–1940

This chapter analyses how German Catholics responded to the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, and continues its analysis until the fall of France in summer 1940. It explores how clergymen understood the conflict theologically, and the forms of patriotism embraced by laypeople and clergymen alike to justify involvement in the war. A particular focus of this chapter is on German Catholics’ responses to the Nazi regime’s treatment of Polish co-religionists—both in Poland itself, but also the Rhineland and Westphalia, where many Polish POWs and forced labourers were based as of autumn 1939. This chapter concludes by examining German Catholics’ responses to the defeat of France, and their attitudes at this height of the Nazi regime’s successes. Throughout its analysis, the chapter unpacks the diversity of Catholic perspectives, through the diaries and letters of laypeople as well as the pastoral letters and sermons of the clergy.