Germany: Church sued over Nazi bells in Thuringia

The Evangelical Church in central Germany has been accused of violating a ban on the use of Nazi symbols by continuing to use church bells emblazoned with Nazi inscriptions, public prosecutors in the central state of Thuringia have said.

The criminal complaint accuses the church of using six bells in five churches throughout Thuringia, including on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The unidentified plaintiff says he repeatedly asked the church to stop using the bells, but was ignored.

The criminal complaint was filed on February 2, Chief Public Prosecutor Hannes Grünseisen said, adding that his office was examining whether to investigate the allegations.

Read more: Germany’s confusing rules on swastikas and Nazi symbols

‘Historical amnesia’

A church spokesman told the KNA news agency that regional leaders had written to churches using the bells and organized a meeting in April to discuss the issue.

The Nazi symbols and inscriptions could be removed, but such a move would need to be reconciled with rules on the preservation of historical monuments, spokesman Friedemann Kahl added.

“The bells concerned are not publicly accessible,” he said. “We are confident that we’ll find a good solution.”

Read more: Berlin orders barracks to be searched after Nazi-era symbols discovery

The state’s Jewish congregation had complained about the six Nazi bells in late January. In an interview with Thüringer Allgemeine, Chairman Reinhard Scramm said their continued use was “painful” for local Jews and bordered on “historical amnesia.”

The state’s finance minister and vice premier, Heike Taubert, said the state could help finance the installation of replacement bells if churches decided to do away with their Nazi ones.

“Nazi bells belong to the dark side of our history,” she said. “I don’t make much of concealing their location or altering them.”

‘Everything for the Fatherland’

The plaintiff told KNA that he had also filed a criminal complaint against the town of Herxheim am Berg in western Germany after it allowed a local church to continue using a Nazi bell.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)

  As Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, the virulently anti-Semitic Goebbels was responsible for making sure a single, iron-clad Nazi message reached every citizen of the Third Reich. He strangled freedom of the press, controlled all media, arts, and information, and pushed Hitler to declare “Total War.” He and his wife committed suicide in 1945, after poisoning their six children.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

  The leader of the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (Nazi) developed his anti-Semitic, anti-communist and racist ideology well before coming to power as Chancellor in 1933. He undermined political institutions to transform Germany into a totalitarian state. From 1939 to 1945, he led Germany in World War II while overseeing the Holocaust. He committed suicide in April 1945.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)

  As leader of the Nazi paramilitary SS (“Schutzstaffel”), Himmler was one of the Nazi party members most directly responsible for the Holocaust. He also served as Chief of Police and Minister of the Interior, thereby controlling all of the Third Reich’s security forces. He oversaw the construction and operations of all extermination camps, in which more than 6 million Jews were murdered.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Rudolf Hess (1894-1987)

  Hess joined the Nazi party in 1920 and took part in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to gain power. While in prison, he helped Hitler write “Mein Kampf.” Hess flew to Scotland in 1941 to attempt a peace negotiation, where he was arrested and held until the war’s end. In 1946, he stood trial in Nuremberg and was sentenced to life in prison, where he died.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962)

  Alongside Himmler, Eichmann was one of the chief organizers of the Holocaust. As an SS Lieutenant colonel, he managed the mass deportations of Jews to Nazi extermination camps in Eastern Europe. After Germany’s defeat, Eichmann fled to Austria and then to Argentina, where he was captured by the Israeli Mossad in 1960. Tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity, he was executed in 1962.

• 
  

  The men who led Nazi Germany

  Hermann Göring (1893-1946)

  A participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Göring became the second-most powerful man in Germany once the Nazis took power. He founded the Gestapo, the Secret State Police, and served as Luftwaffe commander until just before the war’s end, though he increasingly lost favor with Hitler. Göring was sentenced to death at Nuremberg but committed suicide the night before it was enacted.

  Author: Cristina Burack

The town council said the bell — which features a Swastika and the inscription “Everything for the Fatherland – Adolf Hitler” — acted as “a memorial to violence and injustice.”

The plaintiff, a relative of Nazi victims, said the decision amounted to a “mockery of the victims of Hitler’s terror.”

A regional court ruled two weeks ago that the church could continue using the bell.

At least 23 Nazi bells were still hanging in churches throughout Germany last year, according to a survey by Der Spiegel magazine.

amp/rc (epd, KNA)

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