Nazis in the 1930’s and 1940’s tried very hard to convert Christmas to a pride in Germany holiday. They were so bound up in the anti-Jewish attitude, and Jesus was a Jew, they tried both underhandedly and blatantly to eliminate Christmas celebrations as we know them or as Germans knew them then.
Historian Gerry Bowle states that Nazis simply tried to take over Christmas as a party ritual. They inserted Nazi imagery and even Nazi party officials into things like nativity scenes.
Nazis emphasized Aryan heritage – giants and pagan characters were brought in side by side with Christian celebrations involving St. Nicholas and the Christmas story. Since the celebration of the winter solstice had been large in pagan times, the Nazis attempted to move the date of Christmas to the solstice instead and mounted big public performances and community bonfires that supposedly drew on pre-Christian rituals. They also tried to redefine St. Nicholas as Wotan, the ancient Germanic deity.
Some of the things they did was:
Rewrite Silent Night to take out all religious or Christ references
Encourage mothers to bake swastika shaped cookies
Hand out Advent calendars with Nazi propaganda.
Eventually, singing a Christmas carol or baking a cookie could be considered a crime against the state.
Be thankful we can still say Merry Christmas. Sadly, the Texas legislature had to pass a law so that teachers could say Merry Christmas in schools.
Leave a Reply