The Rev. Charles S. MacFarland, general secretary emeritus of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, has reversed a stand in defending Hitler to charge the Reichsfuehrer with undermining Christianity, breaking a promise to do justice to the Jews and permitting the teaching of racial hatred to German children.
Dr. MacFarland’s letter to Hitler, mailed a week ago, was not made public until the original could reach the Chancellor, and was issued yesterday together with a resolution of the council attacking the Nazi regime in its relations with the church.
The letter charged Hitler with breaking a promise, made in correspondence with Dr. MacFarland, to give justice to the Jews.
“Instead of doing justice to the Jews, ” the venerable churchman declared, “you have permitted them to be harassed and despoiled. Your treatment of them has been ruthless, without the slightest appearance of mercy, even reminding one of the infamous edict of Hered in stretching the hand of violence to the littlest child.”
Dr. MacFarland, after an interview and correspondence with Hitler, wrote a book in 1934 disapproving the boycott of German goods and urging Americans to give the Reichsfuchrer the benefit of the doubt in his attitude toward the German churches.
Now he warned Hitler:
“You are isolating Germany from the rest of humanity, while, by persecution and exile, you are contributing to other peoples many of Germany’s finest minds and spirits.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
