Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJonathan Huener, professor of history at the University of Vermont, has produced a definitive study of the Catholic Church in western Poland under German occupation
-- Kevin P Spicer, C.S.C., Stonehill College * Contemporary Church History Quarterly *
Jonathan Huener's careful examination of the fate of the Catholic Church in western Poland—the Nazi German "Warthegau"—during World War II triangulates an impressive variety of sources in German and Polish to assess Nazi religious policy and the experience of Polish Catholics victimized by it. . . . This is essential reading for those interested in Nazi empire, Polish nationalism, or the history of the Catholic Church.
-- Jadwiga Biskupska * H-Poland *
Huener's book is an impressive new contribution to scholarship on Nazi church policies and occupation policies and will be essential reading for all those working in these fields. Nicely complementing Catherine Epstein's biography of Arthur Greiser, it provides a meticulously researched and judicious account of Nazi rule in this pivotal German-Polish borderland.
-- Jim Bjork * Central European History *
This impeccably researched study proffers an invaluable analysis and a first Anglophone synthesis of Polish, German, and Catholic sources, while it also assimilates an important secondary literature in Polish and German, including the recent, ground-breaking Polish historiography on the Holocaust.
-- Monika Rice * Journal of Church and State *
The Polish Catholic Church under German Occupation by Jonathan Huener is an engaging study that asks important questions about the Nazi attitude towards the Catholic Church in general, and the Polish Catholic Church in particular. Interestingly, as Huener emphasizes, the Nazi policy towards the Catholic Church was neither consistent throughout the war nor uniform in all the Nazi-occupied territories. . . . The book is a fascinating addition to what we know about the way the Nazi regime operated. It is great work that will be beneficial to historians of Poland, the Second World Word, and Nazism. But it is also a great book for both undergraduate and graduate students.
-- Anna Mller * Church History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
List of Geographic Terms
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Guide to Polish Pronunciation
Introduction
1. Tannenberg: The Einsatzgruppen and the Polish Clergy, Fall 1939
2. Größte Härte: The Invasion of Poland: Ideology and Execution
3. Hetzkaplan: The Polish Church and the "Agitator Priest" in Nazi Ideology
4. Mustergau: The Reichsgau Wartheland as "Model Gau"
5. Dominselaktion: The "Cathedral Island Action"
6. Deportacja: The Deportation and Incarceration of the Clergy
7. Kult: Restrictions on Public Religious Life
8. Profanacja: Profanation and Plunder
9. Nationalitätenprinzip: National Segregation in Church Life
10. Dreizehn Punkte: From the "Thirteen Points" to the "September Decree"
11. Zerschlagung: The "Action for the Destruction of the Polish Clergy"
12. Dachau: Polish Clergy in the Concentration Camp Dachau
13. Nonnenlager: Women Religious in the Bojanowo Labor Camp
14. Späne: Kirchenpolitik in the Warthegau, 1942-1944
15. Parafia: Parish Life
16. Konspiracja: Resistance and Conspiracy
17. "Et papa tacet"? Pius XII and the Church in the Warthegau
18. Kurswechsel: A Change in Course
Conclusion
Bibliography
