The Anglican Understanding of Nazism 1933-1945: Placing the Church of England's Response to the Holocaust in Context

This article seeks to revise the understanding of the Church of England's response to the Holocaust by placing it in the context of the Anglican understanding of the Nazi state as a whole. Exploring these perceptions from 1933, it is argued that the Anglican community consistently understood Nazism as primarily an anti‐Christian force, which in turn prevented the church from understanding the import of Nazi anti‐semitism. In doing so, this article illuminates both the understanding of European politics within the Church of England up to and including the Second World War and, as a contribution to the study of bystanders to the Holocaust, further explains British reactions to the murder of the European Jews.