This is how Hitler tried to eliminate Christmas … and failed

Since the rise of the Nazi Party and the assumption of office of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazis have tended to rely on the propaganda machine to advance the national spirit of the Germans and eliminate many symbols they described as foreign to Germany. After the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 and their discourse on the Aryan race and the book Holocaust in which they destroyed a large number of books by doctors, writers and novelists such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Doblin, Karl Marx, Henrich Mann and Stefan Zwig, the Nazis set their sights on Christmas and tended to cancel it after talking about the possession of Christ. Jewish.

Hitler receiving a gift from Santa Claus

A Nazi Christmas

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis tried to change the traditions of celebrating Christmas to make it a Nazi celebration. At first, they persuaded people, using the propaganda machine, of the importance of decorating their homes with Nazi Party slogans and photos of Adolf Hitler to brighten up Christmas. They also deliberately changed the decorations of the celebration by creating new decorations, which spread widely in gift shops and spaces. The large one, dominated by the Nazi character, was often worn with the logo of the swastika known as the Swastika, which was a symbol of the Nazi Party.

Hitler during Christmas time

On the other hand, Adolf Hitler tried to create a link between the Nazi Party and Christmas by ordering the organization of huge annual celebrations, dominated by the Nazi figure, during which fireworks were used during the period. winter, and he also called on members of the Hitler Youth Organization to take to the streets during these cold months to collect donations and help. Present it to the poor with the aim of creating a Nazi Christmas based on the foundations of cooperation and solidarity among Germans.

Changing religious songs and personalities

In addition, the Nazis did not hesitate to change the character of Saint Nicholas, known to distribute gifts and borrow the character of Santa Claus from him. Instead of Saint Nicholas, the Nazis preferred to adopt the character of the Nordic goddess Odin and also reformulated the Christmas hymn “Silent Night” composed in 1818 by the Austrian composer Franz Xaver Gruber and omitted anything that could symbolize it. Christ. .

Portrait of the composer Franz Xavier Gruber

In addition, the Nazis deliberately rewrote the hymn of Christ by the famous composer Handel (Händel) and invited German women to make candy in the form of the swastika symbol adopted by the Nazi Party, and distributed to children new calendar documents from which the Christian holidays were omitted, and filled in return with photos of the German army.

Hitler is gone and Christmas is coming back

For a decade, the Nazis tried to root out Christmas and replace it with a Nazi nationalist celebration. For this reason, the process of celebrating Christmas evolved into a normal process of opposition to the Nazi regime in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler.

With the fall of the Nazi regime after the defeat of World War II, the Germans abandoned the Nazi celebration at Christmas and gradually returned to celebrate Christmas as usual.

Hitler Youth as they collect donations