https://www.mzwnews.net/geschichte/die-juedische-kriegserklaerung-vom-24-maerz-1933-im-daily-express/

MZWNEWS

Die jüdische Kriegserklärung vom 24. März 1933 im „Daily Express“

Nach der Wahl der NSDAP unter Adolf Hitler am 30. Januar 1933 erschien am 24. März 1933 in der britischen Zeitung „Daily Express” unter der Überschrift Judea declares war on Germany („Judäa erklärt Deutschland den Krieg”) ein Artikel über einen Boykottaufruf…

In other areas of life such as Christmas markets, Germans spent their holiday budgets on handcrafted and baked goods all across the nation, supporting the small German independent businesses rather than commercialised Jewish interests [12]. Here, one German would find all cultural professions displaying their talents and selling their crafts such as Jewellers, seamstresses, ironsmiths, and much more. One party member stated that the Christmas markets helped to “sell German goods to create a strong and healthy German folk in an independent German state [13].” Christmas carols were also sung from across the nation with lively spirit, except some political changes were being made to them. In his Christmas address of December 1934, Pope Pius XI, who was ironically a supporter of Mussolini and his Fascist regime, attacked the National Socialists for the Paganisation of the holiday [14]. Other Catholics and Protestants also refused to sing along with the altered changes of Christmas carols. But one newspaper called Der Allemanne published a paper stating that “hardly anyone would miss our old, beloved Christmas carols, but the same applies to many other old-time customs: we want to fill the beloved form with new content in accordance with our worldview [15].” Within the home, the traditional gender roles followed as normal and nothing drastically changed. The normal Christmas traditions followed as normal, just like they do with us today. Sometimes, the swastika was at the crest of the tree, if the family was ideologically aligned, that is. And, as part of their National Socialist identity, the children may have been making rune and sun cross winter solstice cookies [16]. Gifts were shared as normal on 24 December of each year and family came to eat and celebrate together.

In summary, the changes made by the regime were clearly ideological in accordance with the National Socialist worldview in order to purify the capitalisation and objectification of the season. This ideological purification did not favour many members of the folk (Volksgenosse) but it did restore a higher sense of tradition over commercialisation. Many organisations and party members saw it fit that the holiday season was another time to align the period with their blood, essentially becoming their own religion, a belief that their highest purpose was the existence of the racial community. It is challenging to speculate what else could have changed if Germany had won the war and what could have changed with Christmas if they did, but as for the time that they did exist in their 12-year reign, Christmas remained, successfully, to be a Christian holiday.

Bibliography:

[1] Christmas in Germany, a Cultural History - Joe Perry: Page 189.
[2] Ibid: Page 185.
[3] Ibid: Page 182
[4] Ibid: Page 192
[5] Nationalsozialistischer Weihnachtskult – Wikipedia
[6] The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi – Johann Chapoutot: Page 186.
[7] Winterhilfswerk - Wikipedia - Chapter: Operation.
[8] Christmas in Germany, a Cultural History - Joe Perry: Page 196.
[9] Ibid: Page 214.
[10] Ibid: Page 209.
[11] Ibid: Page 208.
[12] Ibid: Page 212.
[13] Ibid: Same Page.
[14] Ibid: Page 220.
[15] Ibid: Page 221.
[16] Ibid: Page 210.

Even though Hitler was viewed as a defender to many of those Germanic traditions, there is a sense of hypocrisy with what they were now being focused around. While there was an unprecedented majority of faithful believers in Germany who still devoutly remained Christian, even with those inside the party, there was a deemphasising of Christian and Pagan observances of the holiday in favour of the Germanic racial customs of it, which, in essence, traded the allegiance of the Christian faith to the belief in the People’s Community (Volksgemeinschaft) – a belief in itself as a natural force [4]. This is because National Socialism sought to unify the race over class and religious conflict which birthed in its place a more widely celebrated ‘People’s Christmas’ (Volksweihnacht) that was more ideologically applicable, and which focused on the communal struggle and practices of the race [5]. Even for Hitler, reviving these old customs did not mean entirely restoring the past such as the old gods: “It seems totally ridiculous to me to have the old cult of Wotan celebrated again. Our old mythology is outdated and it was not even able to stay alive when Christianity arrived. What is ripe for death always disappears [6].” But even then, there was also an attempt throughout the regime to alter certain words such as Christmas tree for Yule tree. As conflicting as the process of thinking was within the party, Germany remained relatively stable throughout its National Socialist era, even with the religious disputes.

The Winter Relief (Winterhilfswerk) charity organisation was an easily identifiable part of Christmas time for the Germans as it became part of their December traditions. It was operated by voluntary donations of money and gifts which would be given out to those less fortunate. One noticeable aspect of the program was the abundant involvement of all men, women and children, for the program: young boys and girls who would go out in public with their collection tins for donations and help distribute the gifts received to the organisation [7], the boys in the Hitlerjugend would also gather for home evenings to handcraft small presents for the campaign [8], the women from the National Socialist Women’s League (Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft) would organise special collections of books, household goods, and cash for foreign Germans (Auslandsdeutsche) – that is, ethnic Germans in foreign lands such as Poland, and they would also sponsor holiday exhibitions and organised Christmas markets, too, and much more [9]. On record, the Winter Relief Campaign appeared to be helping as many people as they could in the efforts to alleviate the burdens of those who could not afford food or gifts; but off record, many people were complaining and joking about the charity drive, mocking that the acronym WHW stood for “We’re Still Starving” “Wir Hungern Weiter,” and “No One Will Starve, No One Will Freeze” with “No One Will Starve Without Freezing [10].” Between 1933-1934, 358 million Reichsmarks were collected, which was 4-5 times more than what the Winter Relief of the Weimar Republic collected in its final years [11]. It was just a matter that they could not help everyone.

Christmas in National Socialist Germany:

*“Christmas is miraculous and filled with the finest streams of German being, not as a celebration of universal happiness, thankfulness, or joyfulness, rather as a day of quiet, of love. And, just as it is impossible to imagine a German holiday without the setting of its home-like natural surroundings, so the quiet beauty of the German forest in winter, with its glittering snow, scent of pine, and shining starlight has filled the celebration of human love. Ages old is the demand and desire of the German to bring the experience of nature and God into his house, to sanctify festivity and life. Thus, the tree of light made its way into every German home, as the fairy tale and reality of the winter night, with its burning candles that announce the myth of the rebirth of the light, which triumphs over death and ossification. And equally ancient and at one with the tree in our folk is the myth of blood, the holy belief in the God-willed order of eternal procreation, of the being and rebirth of the child.”

- Auguste Reber-Gruber in her German Christmas Speech, December 1936 [1].*

The season of Christmas is a wonderful time of year that brings people and families together in festivity with the practice of traditions that are rooted in our past. Today, we continue to follow in those traditions of the season by decorating our homes with ornaments, making festive foods, going to Christmas markets, seeing the ones we love, and much more. So, was Christmas any different for the Germans during the time of National Socialism and did they change any meaning to the holiday?

Christmas has been a distinctive part of German culture for centuries even before the Christianisation of the Germanic lands. During that time, the December celebrations were focused on the season of Yuletide, which started on 21 December and ended on 1 January, celebrating the Winter Solstice and the coming of the new sun. Many of our traditions of Christmas still come from these past practices: the conifer tree and its decorations, the holly and mistletoe, the wreaths and the log fires, and much more. All of these early traditions never changed but their meanings and the devotions made at the time of the year have. With the coming of Christianity, Yuletide traditions were Christianised and the old gods were discarded in favour of Jesus Christ. Many also argue that the spreading of Christianity was eased by blending Christian celebrations into indigenous traditions. With that being said, we can now delve into the National Socialist process of thought for the holiday season.

With the assumption to office of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialists as of 30 January 1933, the party began to reinvigorate the passion of Germanic culture that had been fading from existence, especially with the commercialisation of the Christmas holiday, who they blamed the Jews for, which began to overtake tradition [2]. Previously, in the Weimar Republic, many political parties were degrading holiday traditions as they caused tension on the working-class, even calling for the abolishment of the Christmas holiday altogether [3]. For Hitler, this was seen as revolutionary against the nature of the German people, whose traditions were being threatened not only by capital but also by people who could seize the power to destroy them.