The American Catholic press as an instrument of social education in the emergence of Nazism
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Abstract
The dissertation analyzed the response of the American Catholic diocesan and national press to the emergence of Nazism. Specifically, eight weeklies representing dioceses from Boston to San Francisco (The Catholic Herald, The Catholic Telegraph, The Catholic Transcript, The Catholic
Universe Bulletin, The Michigan Catholic, The Monitor, The Pilot and The True Voice) and two national journals (America and The Commonweal) were studied from December 1932-January
1934. Also, the two checkpoint months of July 1934 (Roehm Purge) and January 1935 (Saar Plebiscite) were included to assess possible shifts in the Catholic press' initial response to Hitlerism. Diocesan papers divided into three discernible categories (least, moderately, most concerned)
based upon their level of interest and degree of
perceptivity in interpreting Nazi actions.
During the crucial first year of the Third Reich,
totalitarian controls were fastened upon Germany with harsh consequences for many Germans, particularly Jews.
Essentially, the Catholic press initially underestimated the "moderate" Hitler while it viewed Nazism as an effective, if imperfect but largely welcome, counterforce to the graver
threat, in its view, of atheistic Communism. The Jewish pogrom was viewed as less severe than the persecution of Catholics, at this time, by leftist and anti-clerical regimes in Mexico, Spain and Russia. The failure of Catholics to arouse public opinion against these leftist governments was repeatedly contrasted with the success of Jewry in focusing attention upon Nazi anti-Semitism.
Considerable faith was placed in the ability of the Catholic Center Party, the Catholic hierarchy and later the Concordat negotiated between the Third Reich and the Vatican, to protect Catholic interests in Germany.
Other aspects of the study examined the role of the
Catholic press as an instrument of social education, the historical background of the Nazi ascendancy, the Catholic press' concern for the institutional Church, the effect of German/Austrian immigrant populations upon the reporting of German news and the efficacy of historical research for classroom instruction in social education.
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