¹ Cresswell, Amos and Tow, Maxwell, Dr Franz Hildebrandt: Mr Valiant-for-the-truth, Macon, Ga 2000Google Scholar; Roggelin, Holger, Franz Hildebrandt: ein lutherischer Dissenter im Kirchenkampf und Exil, Göttingen 1999CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Strauss, Herbert and Röder, Werner (eds), International biographical dictionary of central European emigrés, 1933–1945, New York 1983, 508Google Scholar; Webster, Ronald, ‘German “non-Aryan” clergymen and the anguish of exile after 1933’, Journal of Religious History xxii/1 (1998), 83–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

² As far as I am aware, these thirteen sermons were all the sermons that he preached with the BBC. The texts of all but one of these are collected at the National Library of Scotland. One sermon, dated July 26, 1944, is in Hildebrandt's personal file in the BBC archives. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate broadcast recordings of these sermons, and they may not exist at all.

³ See, for example, Kershaw, Ian, Popular opinion and political dissent in the Third Reich: Bavaria, 1933–1945, New York 1991Google Scholar, and Peukert, Detlev, Inside Nazi Germany: conformity, opposition and racism in everyday life, New Haven, Ct 1987Google Scholar.

⁴ See my previous articles ‘Protests from the pulpit: the Confessing Church and the sermons of World War II’, Sermon Studies i/1 (2017), 1–23, and ‘Spying in God's house: the Nazi secret police and sermons of opposition’, Church History and Religious Culture xcviii/3–4 (2018), 425–47. Compare also Gerlach, Wolfgang, And the witnesses were silent: the Confessing Church and the persecution of the Jews, ed. and trans. Barnett, Victoria, Lincoln, Ne 1993Google Scholar.

⁵ William Skiles, ‘Preaching to Nazi Germany: the Confessing Church on National Socialism, the Jews, and the question of opposition’, unpubl. PhD diss. San Diego, Ca 2016, 403–8.

⁶ The most important studies on this subject include Berghahn, Marion, German-Jewish refugees in England, London 1984CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crane, Cynthia, Divided lives: the untold stories of Jewish-Christian women in Nazi Germany, New York 2000CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Genizi, Haim, American apathy: the plight of Christian refugees from Nazism, Ramat-Gan 1983Google Scholar; Lindemann, Gerhard, ‘Typisch jüdisch’: die Stellung der Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Hannovers zu Antijudaismus, Judenfeindschaft und Antisemitismus, 1919–1949, Berlin 1998CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lutherhaus Eisenach, Wider Das Vergessen: Schicksale judenchristlicher Pfarrer in der Zeit von 1933–1945 (Herausgegeben vom Evangelischen Pfarrhausarchiv, 1989); Tent, James F., In the shadow of the Holocaust: Nazi persecution of Jewish-Christian Germans, Lawrence, Ks 2003Google Scholar; and Webster, ‘German “non-Aryan” clergymen’.

⁷ Skiles, ‘Preaching to Nazi Germany’, 403–8. For the total number of Protestant pastors see Doris Bergen, Twisted cross: the German Christian movement in the Third Reich, Chapel Hill, NC 1996, 178.

⁸ See Bergen, Doris, War and genocide: a concise history of the Holocaust, New York 2003, 60Google Scholar. Karl Schleunes reports the 1925 German census record of 568,000 Jews, ‘less than one percent of the total German population’. By 1933 the number had dropped to 503,000. See Schleunes, Karl, The twisted road to Auschwitz: Nazi policy toward German Jews, 1933–1939, Chicago 1990, 37Google Scholar.

⁹ Tent, In the shadow of the Holocaust, 2. See also Noakes, Jeremy, ‘The development of Nazi policy towards the German-Jewish “Mischlinge”, 1933–1945’, in Leo Baeck Institute yearbook xxxiv, New York 1989, 293CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Noakes argues for the slightly higher numbers of 52,005 first degree and 32,669 second degree ‘Mischlinge’.

¹⁰ Quoted in Crane, Divided lives, 26.

¹¹ See Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 57–62.

¹² James P. Kelley, ‘Oral history interview with Franz Hildebrandt’, 1985, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, RG–50.423.0008.

¹³ Webster, ‘German “non-Aryan” clergymen’, 91.

¹⁴ Cresswell and Tow, Dr Franz Hildebrandt, 85–7.

¹⁵ Ibid. 102.

¹⁶ G. W. Welch, internal memo, 9 Jan. 1943, Hildebrandt personal file, BBC. Welch was trying to gain approval for Hildebrandt to extend his broadcast schedule.

¹⁷ Webster, ‘German “non-Aryan” clergymen’, 92.

¹⁸ Sheer Ganor has argued that Jewish refugees’ experiences in Nazi Germany made them particularly valuable to the BBC: ‘Forbidden words, banished voices: Jewish refugees at the service of BBC propaganda to wartime Germany’, Journal of Contemporary History lv/1 (2020), 97–119. While Ganor discusses the work of journalists, authors, actors and various other professions with the BBC, she does not treat the German pastors of Jewish descent who broadcast sermons into Nazi Germany.

¹⁹ Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 218. Hildebrandt met church leaders and BBC representatives in July 1939 about conducting religious services in German, but the outbreak of war put the plans on hold until after his release.

²⁰ Balfour, Michael, Propaganda in war, 1939–1945: organizations, policies and publics in Britain and Germany, London 1979, 97Google Scholar.

²¹ Ibid. 96–9.

²² Alternatively, ‘grey’ propaganda does not provide information about its sources.

²³ Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 226–7.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Franz Hildebrandt to R. H. Miall, 18 Jan. 1941, Hildebrandt personal file.

²⁶ On at least one occasion, during a Christmas service in 1941, Bishop Bell wrote the sermon and Hildebrandt translated it and delivered it in German over the BBC: Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 229.

²⁷ Hugh Martin to J. W. Welch, 13 Jan. 1942, Hildebrandt personal file.

²⁸ Martin's concern did not alter Hildebrandt's scheduled broadcasts. Indeed, he broadcast just days after Martin sent Welch the letter.

²⁹ Richard Rempel has argued that because Nazi aggression in the Second World War ‘made many pacifist convictions untenable’, especially after the invasion of France, the majority of remaining pacifists were Christians who espoused non-violent resistance: ‘The dilemmas of British pacifists during World War II’, Journal of Modern History l/4 (1978), D1213. In addition, Balfour noted one case in which the BBC banned a conductor in 1940 because he was a pacifist. A member of parliament attempted to discuss this matter on the floor of parliament but was refused because he had ‘no responsibility for ordinary programmes’: Propaganda in war, 1939–1945, 83.

³⁰ J. W. Welch, internal BBC memo to the European news editor, London, 13 Nov. 1941, BBC, GRAC.

³¹ Ibid.

³² Welch to N. F. Newsom, 13 Nov. 1941, and to William Paton, 14 Nov. 1941, BBC, GRAC.

³³ Welch to Paton, 14 Nov. 1941, and Paton to Welch, 20 Nov. 1941, ibid. Tillich would go on to work with the US organisation, ‘Voice of America’, and broadcast 112 addresses in German into the Third Reich from March 1942 to May 1944. Fifty-five of these addresses are collected and translated in Against the Third Reich: Paul Tillich's wartime addresses to Nazi Germany, ed. Ronald H. Stone and Matthew Lon Weaver, trans. Matthew Lon Weaver, Louisville, Ky 1998.

³⁴ Welch to Paton, 14 Nov. 1941, BBC, GRAC. It should be noted that the WCC was not formally instituted until 1948. Paton's letterhead reads ‘World Council of Churches’, in large block letters, and just below the title is a statement in much smaller font ‘(In process of formation)’.

³⁵ Paton to Welch, 20 Nov. 1941, BBC, GRAC.

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ The list includes pastors Ludwig Horlbog, Willi Oelsner, Ernst Gordon, Wolfgang Büsing and Hans Ehrenberg, among others. Two of the pastors were English: W. A. Whitehouse and C. H. Dodd. There was also a Swedish pastor on the roster, Carl Söderberg. See also Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 231. I have compiled this list by comparing the names listed in Hildebrandt's BBC personal file (as a member of GRAC that set the broadcast schedules) to a list of German pastors of Jewish descent that I compiled for ‘Preaching to Nazi Germany’, 403–8.

³⁸ Francis House to Hildebrandt, 3 Jan. 1943 (recte 1944), Hildebrandt personal file.

³⁹ Hildebrandt to House, 23 June 1944, ibid.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ For example, see Hildebrandt to House, 1 May 1944, ibid., in which he had to cancel a broadcast and find a replacement because he had a talk in Cheltenham on 6 June and could not travel to London in time for a broadcast. Hildebrandt humorously told House, ‘I shall make up for my sins in July’, when he was scheduled to deliver sermons again.

⁴² Services could also be cut short due to breaking news. See Welch to Hildebrandt, 12 Jan. 1942, ibid. See also Cresswell and Tow, Dr Franz Hildebrandt, 105.

⁴³ See A. C. F. Beales, ‘Order of Service’, 22, 24 Dec. 1944, Hildebrandt personal file.

⁴⁴ While the name of the scripture translation is not provided in the sermon notes, Hildebrandt's scripture quotations are consistently from the Luther Bible translation of 1912, the most commonly used version in German Protestant churches at the time. The Scripture for the day could be determined by the liturgical reading for that particular week or it could be based on the pastor's choice of sermon topic.

⁴⁵ Presumably the creed referred to is the Apostles’ Creed or possibly the Nicene Creed. Which creed was not stated in the order of service records. See, for example, Beales, ‘Order of Service,’ 22, 24 Dec. 1944, Hildebrandt personal file.

⁴⁶ See ibid.

⁴⁷ See, for example, E. M. Punchard's ‘Record of Service’, 7 Apr.1943, ibid.

⁴⁸ The figures are approximate, gathered from the British National Archives website: Currency Converter: 1270–2017, <https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result>, accessed 6 October 2021.

⁴⁹ Cresswell and Tow argue that Hildebrandt delivered these sermons anonymously, yet Hildebrandt responded to Welch's offer of anonymity for himself and the other pastors, saying, ‘I cannot speak for them [the other pastors] as regards anonymity; I certainly do not mind my name being mentioned’: Dr Franz Hildebrandt, 105. Moreover, the BBC correspondence on recruiting pastors indicates that it was important that they bring well-known Germans to influence the German people more effectively: Welch to Hildebrandt, 12 Jan. 1942, and Hildebrandt to Welch, 14 Jan. 1942, Hildebrandt personal file.

⁵⁰ See Hildebrandt personal file.

⁵¹ Evans, Richard, The Third Reich at war, New York 2009, 576–7Google Scholar.

⁵² Robert Gellately argues that Germans listened to the BBC and later Radio Moscow to learn of the progress of the war and hear the names of captured soldiers: Backing Hitler: consent and coercion in Nazi Germany, Oxford–New York 2001, 186–96.

⁵³ On Nazi control of radio broadcasts see Birdsall, Carolyn, Nazi soundscapes: sound, technology and urban space in Germany, 1933–1945, Amsterdam 2012, 54–9Google Scholar, 75–82, 135–6. See also Horst J. P. Bergmeier and Rainer E. Lotz, Hitler's airwaves: the inside story of Nazi radio broadcasting and propaganda swing, New Haven, Ct 1997, 4–9, and Roger Tidy, Hitler's radio war, London 2011.

⁵⁴ Balfour, Propaganda in war, 1939–1945, 96.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Carolyn Birdwell argues that the Nazi regime used various forms of sound, including radio, to unite the ‘Volk community’: Nazi soundscapes, 136. Hildebrandt's sermons over the BBC contributed to ‘hardening divisions’ between the wartime ‘Volk community’ and ‘community aliens’.

⁵⁷ Skiles, ‘Spying in God's house’.

⁵⁸ Hildebrandt, sermon on Acts ii.1–13, 24 May 1942, papers of Franz Hildebrandt, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁵⁹ While the original German was from the Luther Bible translation of 1912, this English translation is from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). All Bible translations are from the NRSV unless otherwise indicated.

⁶⁰ ‘Es ist das genaue Gegenstück zur Szene von Babel: was der Menschengeist in seiner Űberhebung entzweit hat, hat Gottes Geist, der zu uns herabsteig, vereinigt und versöhnt … Wir denken an unsere Brüder in den verfolgten Kirchen, in Deutschland, Holland und Norwegen, die nicht geschwiegen, sondern ihren Mund aufgetan haben, und wir wissen, wie schwer die Tatsache wiegt, dass sie anfingen zu predigen, nachdem der Geist ihnen gab auszusprechen’: Franz Hildebrandt, sermon on Acts ii.1–13, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁶¹ See Hughes Oliphant Old, The reading and preaching of the Scriptures in the worship of the Christian Church, Grand Rapids, Mi 2010, vi. 759.

⁶² ‘Wir geben Euch die Botschaft zurueck, wir staerken Euch mit unserm Gebet, wir rufen Euch zu: Predigt das Wort, halte an, es sei zu rechter Zeit oder zur Unzeit! Das ist die Absicht bei den kurzen Gottesdiensten, die wir von heute ab jede Woche zu dieser Stunde ueber das Radio halten werden, und die ein Band herstellen wollen zwischen allen evangelischen Christen deutscher Spracher, wo immer in der Welt sie sind … Aber das aendert nichts daran, dass wo immer wir stehen und wer immer wir sind, Prediger oder Hoerer, Deutsche oder Englaender, uns alle als Christen die gleiche Mahnung und Verheissung bindet: predige das Wort, halte an, es sei zu rechter Zeit oder zur Unzeit. Amen’: Hildebrandt, sermon on 2 Timothy iii.10–iv.2, NLS, 9251.53/54. It should be mentioned that the BBC gave equal air time to Catholic and Protestant German-language services. Thus, Hildebrandt's concern here is to foster a bond between Protestants specifically. Note the Anglicisation of the umlauts in the original German.

⁶³ See Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi dictatorship: problems and perspectives of interpretation, 3rd edn, New York 1999, 170Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ ‘Vom Verrat des Christus durch die Kirchen handelt ein Buch eines zeitgenössischen Schriftstellers; keiner unter uns ist an diesem Verrat schuldlos, keiner, der nicht hundertmal, wissend oder unwissend, den Sohn Gottes wiederum gekreuzigt und zum Spott gehalten hat’: Hildebrandt, sermon on Hebrews vi.6, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁶⁵ It is possible that Hildebrandt is referring to his own book on the Nazi persecution of his friend and colleague Martin Niemöller, published anonymously, and entitled, Martin Niemöller und sein Bekenntnis (Zollikon 1938), which was translated and published in English as Pastor Niemoeller and his creed, London 1939. He could also be referring to a book he himself published in January 1944, This is the message: a continental reply to Charles Raven (London 1944), which examines the problems of the German Protestant Churches.

⁶⁶ The new Oxford annotated Bible, 3rd edn, Oxford 2001, New Testament, 395.

⁶⁷ ‘In der Tat gibt es ein Element im Evangelium, das dem ungebübten Ohr als nichts den blosse Arroganz klingt; und darum ist es notwendig, sofort das Missverständnis abzuwehren, als handele es sich heir um eine neue Form des alten Mythus vom Herrenvolk, von einer Rasse, Kaste oder Sekte, die hochmütig sich selbst als die Krone der Schöpfung ausgibt … Nein—wir sind Steine im Gebäude Gottes und nicht Baumeister … Das ist, wenn man das Wort gebrauchen darf, das spezifische Gewicht der Kirche: ein Volk zu bilden nicht aus der Einheit von Rasse und Blut, Geschichte und Kulture, und auch nicht aus dem Gegensatz gegen einen gemeinsamen Feind, sondern aus der Wahl und Gnade Gottes’: Hildebrandt, sermon on 1 Peter ii.6–10, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁶⁸ ‘[Z]u opfern geistliche Opfer, die Gott angenehm sind durch Jesum Christum’: Hildebrandt, sermon on 1 Peter ii. 6–10, ibid.

⁶⁹ Burleigh, The Third Reich, 253–5. See also Emilio Gentile, ‘Fascism, totalitarianism and political religion: definitions and critical reflections on criticism of an interpretation’, trans. Natalia Belozentseva, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions v/3 (Winter 2004), 362.

⁷⁰ Littell, Franklin H., The German phoenix: men and movements in the Church in Germany, Lanham, Md 1960, 3Google Scholar; John S. Conway, ‘The German church struggle: its making and meaning’, in Hubert Locke (ed.), The Church confronts the Nazis: Barmen then and now, New York 1984, 135; Siegfried Hermle, ‘Predigt an der Front: zur Tätigkeit der Kriegspfarrer im Zweiten Weltkrieg’, in Blätter für württembergische Kirchegeschichte, Stuttgart 2002, 145, 155; Robertson, Christians against Hitler, 118.

⁷¹ ‘Wir können es kund machen, wer unser König ist. Wir können seinen Namen anrufen und ausrufen, wir können ihn bekennen vor den Menschen’: Hildebrandt, sermon on 1 Peter ii.6–10, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁷² ‘In Deutschland weiss man es besser als irgendwoanders in der Welt, was das heute bedeutet. Und wenn das freie Wort gesperrt wird, wenn Redeverbote ergehen, wenn das Bekenntnis mit dem Mund unmöglich wird, dann muss doch das Schweigen, die Verbannung, das Gefängnis noch Zeugnis ablegen von den Tugenden des, der uns berufen hat aus der Finsternis zu seinem wunderbaren Licht’: ibid.

⁷³ ‘Fürchtet Gott, ehret den König—und nicht etwa umgekehrt!’: Hildebrandt, sermon on 1 Peter ii.11–17, ibid.

⁷⁴ ‘Die Gefahr ist in der Tat riesengross und die Erfahrung bestätigt es mit jede Tag, dass dieser Text in Vergessenheit gerät und dass wir im Ernstfall immer die himmlische Berufung hintansetzen und den weltlichen Bindungen erliegen; dass wir zuerst Deutsche, Engländer, Franzosen und dann Christen sein wollen’ (complete sentence), ibid.

⁷⁵ Gutteridge., Richard The German Evangelical Church and the Jews, 1879–1950, New York 1976, 129Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ ‘Die Zeit ist erfüllt: hier wird der Schlusstrich unter das Alte Testament gezogen und der Unruhe des Wartens für immer ein Ende gesetzt. Der so redet, Weiss, was er sagt; er stellt sich selbst in den Mittelpunkt er gibt sich aus für den, auf den alle Verheissungen Gottes gemünzt sind; er schlägt, wie bei Lukas, die Bibel in der Synogoge auf und erklärt: “heute ist diese Schrift erfüllt vor euren Ohren” … Er trifft die Vorbereitung, nicht wir, und das ganze Alte Testament besehreibt seinen göttlichen Plan wir können nichts mehr tun für die Neuordnung der Welt, als sein Reich und seinen Messias anerkennen’: Hildebrandt, sermon on Mark i.14–20, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁷⁷ Borg, Marcus, The heart of Christianity: rediscovering a life of faith, New York 2003, 132Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ See Kershaw, Ian, Hitler: 1889–1936, hubris, New York 1998, 483–6Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ See the notes for these verses in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 1369.

⁸⁰ See John Goldingay's article ‘Israel’ in Sinclair Ferguson, David Wright and J. I. Packer (eds), New dictionary of theology, Downers Grove, Il 1988, 345.

⁸¹ ‘Die Zeiten sind vorbei, da wir das Alte Testament mit einer Handbewegung meinten bei seite legen zu können. Von neuem sind duns die Ohren geöffnet, dass wir seine Botschaft nicht mehr überhören, und die Prophezeiung Sacharjas muss uns klingen, als sei sie eben in diesen Tagen geschreiben: “Es soll geschehen in dem ganzen Lande, spricht der Herr, dass zwei Teile darin sollen ausgerottet warden und untergehen, und der dritte Teil soll darin überbleiben.” Ausrottung—das Wort ist keine Phantasie mehr und keine umlaut Übertreibung; es ereignet sich täglich vor unsern Augen und in nie geträumtem Ausmass. Millionen sterben dahin, und ganze Länder liegen verwüstet: so hat es der Prophet gesprochen, und so hat es sich erfüllt’: Hildebrandt, sermon on Zachariah xiii.7–10, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁸² Walter Laqueur, The terrible secret: an investigation into the suppression of information about Hitler's ‘final solution’, London 1980; Hans Mommsen, ‘What did the Germans know about the genocide of the Jews?’, in Walter H. Pehle (ed.), November 1938: from ‘Kristallnacht’ to genocide, New York 1991, 187–221; David Bankier, The Germans and the final solution: public opinion under Nazism, London 1992; Mommsen, Hans and Ullrich, Volker, ‘“Wir haben nichts gewusst”: ein deutsches Trauma’, 1999: Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21 Jahrhunderts vi (1991), 11–46Google Scholar; Eric A. Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband, What we knew: terror, mass murder, and everyday life in Nazi Germany, an oral history, Cambridge, Ma 2005; Frank Bajohr and Dieter Pohl, Der Holocaust als offenes Geheimnis: die Deutschen, die NS–Führung und die Allierten, München 2006.

⁸³ See J. Harris, ‘Broadcasting the massacres: an analysis of the BBC's contemporary coverage of the Holocaust’, in D. Cesarani (ed.), Holocaust: critical concepts in historical studies, v, New York 2004.

⁸⁴ W. Buesing, W. Deutschhausen, H. Ehrenberg, F. Hildebrandt, H. Kramm, J. Rieger and C. Schweitzer, ‘Letter to the Editor’, The Times, 2 Jan. 1943; Cresswell and Tow, Dr Franz Hildebrandt, 109–10.

⁸⁵ ‘Dort, unter Feuer, wird ein Neues geboren … Unter dem Kreuz ihres Hirten wird sie von neuem gesammelt’: Hildebrandt, sermon on Zachariah xiii.7–10, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁸⁶ Skiles, ‘Spying in God's house’.

⁸⁷ Roggelin, Franz Hildebrandt, 231.

⁸⁸ Ibid. 230.

⁸⁹ Quoted ibid. 231.

⁹⁰ Quoted ibid.

⁹¹ It is unclear whether he produced or read from manuscripts when delivering sermons in regular worship services. Yet for the BBC he was required to produce and read from the manuscripts.

⁹² Skiles, ‘Preaching to Nazi Germany’.

⁹³ W. Skiles, “‘The bearers of unholy potential”: Confessing Church sermons on the Jews and Judaism’, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations xi/1 (2016), <https://doi.org/10.6017/scjr.v11i1.9498>.

⁹⁴ See, for example, Léon Poliakov, The history of anti-semitism, I: From the time of Christ to the court of the Jews, trans. Richard Howard, New York 1965; Gavin Langmuir, History, religion, and antisemitism, Berkeley, Ca 1990; Robert Michael, Holy hatred: Christianity, antisemitism, and the Holocaust, New York 2006; and Dan Cohn-Sherbok, The crucified Jew: twenty centuries of Christian anti-semitism, Grand Rapids, Mi 1997.

⁹⁵ Skiles, W., ‘Reforming the Church's theology of the Jews: Christian responses to the Holocaust’, in Brown, Sara and Smith, Stephen (eds), Routledge handbook of religion, mass atrocity, and genocide, New York 2021Google Scholar.

⁹⁶ Berghan, German Jewish refugees in England, 17.

⁹⁷ Gerlach, And the witnesses were silent, pp. vii–viii.

⁹⁸ See Hildebrandt, sermon on 1 Peter ii.6–10, and sermon on 1 Peter ii. 18–25, NLS, 9251.53/54.

⁹⁹ See Hildebrandt, sermon on Luke x.25–37, ibid.