During the Second World War, Christian chaplains accompanied the German army wherever they went, from Poland to France, Greece, North Africa, and the Soviet Union.

They were witnesses to atrocity and also helped normalize violence. Military chaplains played a key role in creating a narrative of righteousness that erased Germany’s victims and transformed perpetrators into noble figures who suffered but triumphed over their foes. Dr. Bergen will show us how Christian clergy served the cause of genocide- sometimes eagerly, sometimes reluctantly, even unknowingly, but always loyally.

Please join us for Dr. Bergen’s talk, light refreshments will be served.

This event is co-sponsored by the UAB Department of History and supported by the Rita and Sol Kimerling Public History Endowment at UAB.

Doris L. Bergen is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on issues of religion, gender, and ethnicity in the Holocaust and World War II. A recipient of numerous research fellowships, including the German Marshall Fund of the United States, she is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Her books include Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (1996); War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (2003); The Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains from the First to the Twenty-First Centuries (edited, 2004); and Lessons and Legacies VIII (edited, 2008).

Photo credits:

The Online Chaplain Museum

Michael Rajzman