Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

===Nazi Germany===
{{main|Nazism|Nazi Germany|Religion in Nazi Germany|Religious aspects of Nazism|Religious views of Adolf Hitler|German Christians (movement)|Positive Christianity|Kirchenkampf|Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany|Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany}}
{{Modern persecutions of the Catholic Church}}
[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] received some support from certain Christian fundamentalist communities, mainly due to their common cause against the anti-religious Communists, as well as their mutual [[Antisemitism|Judeophobia]] and [[antisemitism]]. Once in power, the Nazis moved to consolidate their power over the German churches and bring them in line with Nazi ideals. Some historians say that Hitler had a general covert plan, which some of them say existed even before the Nazis' rise to power, to destroy Christianity within the Reich, which was to be accomplished through Nazi control and subversion of the churches and it would be completed after the war.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C|title=World Fascism: A-K|isbn=9781576079409 |editor1-last=Blamires |editor1-first=Cyprian |editor2-last=Jackson |editor2-first=Paul |year=2006 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic | page= 10 | author-last= Griffin | author-first= Roger |author-link= Roger Griffin | quote = There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as they intended to eradicate any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it. }}{{Pb}}{{Cite book|last=Mosse|first=George Lachmann | author-link= George Lachmann Mosse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cyR3QyuSdIC|title=Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich|date=2003|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-19304-1|page=240 | quote= Had the Nazis won the war, their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the [[German Christians (movement)|German Christians]], to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and Catholic Churches.}}{{pb}}{{Cite book|last=Bendersky|first=Joseph W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATCXucbTYX0C|title=A Concise History of Nazi Germany|date=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5363-7| page= 147 | quote =Consequently, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated his control over his European empire. }}{{Pb}}{{Cite book|last=Fischel|first=Jack R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzBZP92xwUUC|title=Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust|date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7485-5| page= 123 | author-link= Jack Fischel | quote = The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity or turn Jesus into an [[Aryan race|Aryan]].}}{{pb}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRrGP7L9_hEC|title=Germany: A Modern History|isbn=0472071017 |last1=Dill |first1=Marshall |year=1970 |publisher=University of Michigan Press | page= 365 | quote = It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least subjugate it to their general world outlook.}}</ref> The Third Reich founded its own version of Christianity which was called [[Positive Christianity]], a Nazi version of Christianity which made major changes in the interpretation of the Bible by arguing that [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] was the son of God, but he was not a Jew, arguing that Jesus despised Jews and Judaism, and arguing that [[Jewish deicide|the Jews were the ones who were solely responsible for Jesus's death]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Outside mainstream Christianity, the [[Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany|Jehovah's Witnesses were targets of Nazi Persecution]], for their refusal to swear allegiance to the Nazi government. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s, [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] refused to renounce their political neutrality and as a result, they were imprisoned in [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option of release if they signed a document which indicated their renunciation of their faith, their submission to state authority, and their support of the German military.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.holocaust-trc.org/persecution-and-resistance-of-jehovahs-witnesses/|title=Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi-Regime 1938–1945|website=Holocaust Teacher Resource Center | date= October 2000 | author=Michael Berenbaum }}</ref> Historian Hans Hesse said, "Some five thousand Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they alone were 'voluntary prisoners', so termed because the moment they recanted their views, they could be freed. Some lost their lives in the camps, but few renounced their faith."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hesse|first=Hans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mcxD0qxHMO0C|title=Persecution and resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi regime, 1933–1945|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2001|isbn=978-3-86108-750-2|page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany: From the 1890s to 1945|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jehovahs-witnesses-in-germany-from-the-1890s-to-the-1930s|access-date=2023-01-02|website=Holocaust Encyclopedia| publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref>