Religion in the Red Army and Wermacht...

[Jack Carr]

I sincerely doubt the Soviets had anything akin to the US Chaplain. Does anyone know if the Germans used them? I think they did (Movie Stalingrad?). If so, were they assigned to specific units? Were they combatants first and religious second?

[MikeyD]

Oh jeez, I don't know about the 'assigned chaplains' question. I believe as the war progressed Stalin switched his propaganda from Communist doctrine to 'Motherland' rhetoric and including Orthodox clergy would suit his needs just fine in that regard. Hitler had this weird 'Germanic peoples' cult thing going on and transnational religious institutions didn't fit in with his scheme of things.

It would be interesting to hear if SS clergy existed or not.

[Sergei]

Originally posted by Jack Carr:

I sincerely doubt the Soviets had anything akin to the US Chaplain.

I don't know what the US chaplains actually did, but they did have political officers who had similar duties to field priests (keeping up the morale).

[JasonC]

The German army had a chaplain service, both protestant and catholic. The priests were called "heerespfarrer" and the bishops "feldbischofe". They were not combatants - they wore red cross armbands with tags to distinguish them from medics, and obviously the red cross itself identified them as non-combatants. The clergy were appointed by the relevant religious hierarchy from among candidates acceptable to the state. While many individual clergy opposed the Nazi regime and not a few were persecuted by it, others collaborated.

In Russia, religion had been systematically suppressed prior to the war. There were 500 orthodox parishes still operating, down from 54,000 before WW I. After the invasion Stalin made a deal with the Russian orthodox patriarch of the day to tolerate Russian orthodoxy (only) in return for church support of the war effort. This led to a signficant religious revival, with the number of parishes operating rebounding into the tens of thousands by the time of Stalin's death in 1953.

But the state did not provide anything like a chaplain service. It just stopped looting monasteries and discriminating against anyone showing religious belief, and the like. Russian orthodoxy was tolerated as a private affair. Other churches remained suppressed (e.g. the Ukrainian orthodox church, Ukrainian catholics, catholics and protestants in the Baltic states).

Russian political officers were in charge of propaganda, morale, indoctrination, and to a lesser extent policing against political offenses. They represented the party hierarchy inside the army, with parallel appointments subordinate to each commander. They sent memos. Basically they were informers (to party superiors) in broad daylight.

Their duties did not include enforcement, as some occasionally seem to think. Commissars and the NKVD (political police) were two different things - the former might accuse or denounce to the latter, but it was the latter that enforced or punished. The NKVD were organized as a separate state body outside of the army; they had entire divisions, mostly with guard duty missions.

[Jack Carr]

Originally posted by JasonC:

The German army had a chaplain service, both protestant and catholic. The priests were called "heerespfarrer" and the bishops "feldbischofe". They were not combatants - they wore red cross armbands with tags to distinguish them from medics, and obviously the red cross itself identified them as non-combatants. The clergy were appointed by the relevant religious hierarchy from among candidates acceptable to the state. While many individual clergy opposed the Nazi regime and not a few were persecuted by it, others collaborated.

In Russia, religion had been systematically suppressed prior to the war. There were 500 orthodox parishes still operating, down from 54,000 before WW I. After the invasion Stalin made a deal with the Russian orthodox patriarch of the day to tolerate Russian orthodoxy (only) in return for church support of the war effort. This led to a signficant religious revival, with the number of parishes operating rebounding into the tens of thousands by the time of Stalin's death in 1953.

But the state did not provide anything like a chaplain service. It just stopped looting monasteries and discriminating against anyone showing religious belief, and the like. Russian orthodoxy was tolerated as a private affair. Other churches remained suppressed (e.g. the Ukrainian orthodox church, Ukrainian catholics, catholics and protestants in the Baltic states).

Russian political officers were in charge of propaganda, morale, indoctrination, and to a lesser extent policing against political offenses. They represented the party hierarchy inside the army, with parallel appointments subordinate to each commander. They sent memos. Basically they were informers (to party superiors) in broad daylight.

Their duties did not include enforcement, as some occasionally seem to think. Commissars and the NKVD (political police) were two different things - the former might accuse or denounce to the latter, but it was the latter that enforced or punished. The NKVD were organized as a separate state body outside of the army; they had entire divisions, mostly with guard duty missions.

Thanks for all of the good information.

[AndrewTF]

Originally posted by MikeyD:

It would be interesting to hear if SS clergy existed or not.

AFAIK only the German army (and possibly navy?) had chaplains, the Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe being too tied Nazi ideology which was officially atheistic.

[JasonC]

Army and navy certainly did have official chaplains, the *German* SS did not. But a number of the associate formations within the SS did. The Bosnia Muslim formations had official imams at the battalion level. The Galacian division (really Ukrainians) had Ukrainian orthodox chaplains, again one per battalion - having specifically demanded and been granted them. Some within the SS certainly did have clergy (as individuals I mean), inside Germany e.g., but not as officials assigned in their units, in the field, etc.

The number serving in the Heer was not high, typically one protestant and one catholic chaplain per division, a thousand or so all told. Attendance at services was generally voluntary, but when a particular commander always went himself it was regarded as nearly compulsory in some units. The state required parts of the service, expressing loyalty to the Fuhrer etc. There was also regional variation (German units were drawn from specific localities, so some units were made up of Bavarians, others Austrians, etc).

There were also occasional anti-religious edicts handed down, but widely ignored - like not to use or repair Russian churchs, or attend services with civilians (or vice versa) in the east. The regime was not friendly to religion. It was deeply enough rooted in the people and in institutions older than the regime, though, that it was tolerated and made use of.

[ December 05, 2003, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: JasonC ]

[Michael Dorosh]

The Grossdeutschland Regiment was forbidden from having clergy (and I suppose the Division as well, later) after a service in Notre Dame in 1940. The high command was shocked that this bearer of the name of the nation would be seen, hatless, heads bowed in prayer - which was rather against the National Socialist philosophy that the state and the Fuhrer were to be worshipped instead...or somefink. And so GD, like the SS, was forbidden from having a padre.

The regimental history by Spaeter mentions this, at any rate, and may be apocryphal given the nature of Spaeter's writing.

Chaplains in the German Army did not wear shoulder straps, and had a cross emblem on their headdress, as well as a metal cross suspended on a chain (as seen in the movie Jack cites). Also, they wore a red cross armband in the field, with purple stripes on it, and in Russia carried sidearms for personal protection.

I suppose the lack of shoulder straps (they did wear collar tabs with purple waffenfarbe, however) showed their status as Honourary.

The Canadian and British Army chaplains all held honourary rank only, also. Their official rank designations would read "Honourary Captain", "Honourary Major", etc.

[ December 05, 2003, 09:25 PM: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]

[General Bolt]

Originally posted by Sergei:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Jack Carr:

I sincerely doubt the Soviets had anything akin to the US Chaplain.

I don't know what the US chaplains actually did, but they did have political officers who had similar duties to field priests (keeping up the morale). </font>

[JasonC]

Myth. Enemy at the gates is hollywood, not history. The Germans helped. Actual soviet propaganda featured ("socialist realism" style and billboard size) scared looking women sheltering kids as uniformed Germans glared at them, with captions like "soldiers of the Red Army - save us!" Which is rather more effective motivation.

[White Phosphorus]

I read that the first batch of T-34/85s was paid for by the Russian orthodox church.