I have met Adolf Hitler exactly three times in my life. I met him for the first time in January, 1931, at the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin, where seventy Protestant clergymen had gathered to be addressed by him in explanation of his Church program. He was quite late, but upon his arrival he was apologetic and particularly polite.

He nodded to all of us and said: "I have asked you to come here because I want to persuade you that I — just as much as you — am working for a moral reconstruction of the German people. Since the last war, Germany has been in need of more and better Christianity, more churches; and a stop must be put to the spread of atheism. What we need is a more profound inner faith in order to preserve ourselves as a people. I am a Catholic, but I am asking you to help me in my great task."

Hitler then asked us to propose ways and means of co-operating with him. He promised us that as soon as he obtained power, the Church would not only retain all its rights but would be entitled to greater support from the state, and would have control of the schools. In brief, there would be a better understanding between the government and the Church than had been the case in the Weimar Republic.

I must admit that we all had a very favourable impression from the modest way in which Hitler spoke, and I knew that from that time on he could count on the support of the majority of the Protestant clergy in Germany.

Immediately after his speech. Hitler walked up to me and said. "I am pleased to see you here. Herr Kapitänlieutnant." "I am no longer an officer." I said. "I am a pastor now." "People like you." he exclaimed. "who went straight from the U-boat to the pulpit, are exactly what the new Germany needs!. Christianity needs its heroes of the last war."

I was proud of his appreciation and really pinned all my hope on him. In the spring of 1932 I had my second conversation with him. At that time we were certain that he would be the ruling power in Germany. I was charged by the United Protestant Church Association to ask Hitler certain definite questions in order to secure definite commitments. Present with him were Göring. Hess, and Rosenberg.

"I have come to you," I said, "because the Church frequently finds attacks directed against it in the Nazi papers, and because it is not always the Christian spirit that is found in the Hitler Youth and in the Storm Troopers. Furthermore, we find it hard to understand the many murders committed by these Storm Troopers."

"Murders?" Hitler shot back. "How can you say murders? What the Storm Troopers are doing is to purge Germany of the Communists and Marxists, of Jews and Liberals. This has nothing to do with murder. This is self-defense.'

"I shall never permit a member of my church to be molested," I said indignantly.

Hitler suddenly became soft and placating. "Please, won't you see to it that they understand me? I have such an enormous task ahead the work of my life. The masses cannot always be fed with bread and sugar; they also need the whip. I have to toil and work, to struggle and organize, to crush this republic which has nothing in store for Christianity because it's a Jew republic. When I am Chancellor and Führer, the Church will live again, and live freely. I shall re-establish the co-operation between the government and the Church, just as it used to be in the old Prussian state.

"The Church will play the major role in the educational school system. I am not yet in a position to conclude any contracts. However, to you, as an officer. I give my solemn word of honor that I shall carry out all my promises. These are election times. Propaganda may be excessive, shootings may occur; but I promise that the Church will be re-established with its rights."

I reported the results of my conversation to the Church Council, which considered everything satisfactory. But later events proved that we were as naïve as we were blind. Like the late Neville Chamberlain. I trusted Hitler, and he betrayed me just as he did the rest of the world which listened to his peace utterances.

At the time of the last conversation I had with him before I was arrested, persecution of the Church was at its peak. Crosses on the church towers had been replaced by golden swastikas: the Hitler Youth was educated in the spirit that not Jesus but Adolf Hitler was the true son of God. In the schools the Old Testament was decried as Jewish. Pogroms against the Jews were sweeping the country and our clergymen were being thrown into concentration camps. Gestapo officials were writing down our every speech and priests were arrested even in their pulpits.

In this, our hour of greatest despair. I asked for an audience with Hitler, and it was on January 5, 1934, that I had my memorable talk with him.

This time he was entirely different. I had to wait more than four hours at the Reich's Chancellery, and when he greeted me his manner was icy. "You desire to talk with me?" he began, standing like Napoleon with his arms crossed.

Two secretaries were sitting at a desk, taking down every word that was spoken.

"Yes, Mr. Chancellor," I replied: "I have come to you because I am worrying about the Church."

"What's the matter with your Church? Didn't I keep all my promises? Didn't I put the Reichsbishop Mueller in charge? What are you complaining about?"

"Never before." I said. "did we have Protestant bishops. Never was there any need for Church Ministries. You promised us equal rights, but you have made us only an instrument of the Party."

"Why are you causing me such difficulties with this Confessional Church?" Hitler was becoming enraged and gesticulating. "Formerly the Prussian kings were the highest masters of the Church. Today I am a Prussian king for the people and for the Church, and you will have to accept that as a fact."

I felt a bit dizzy. He really had said, this former house painter's assistant, "Today I am a Prussian king."

"We don't want to cause you any difficulties, Mr. Chancellor," I explained, "but I am here as a representative of the Protestant faith. Your government has ordered measures that sooner or later will destroy our Church and the fundamentals of our faith. We can't stand by idly while the government gives such orders. Didn't you promise us freedom of the Church instead of its suppression?"

Now Hitler grew wild. He cried out like a madman, "You, as an officer, have learned to obey! You have to obey! I alone determine what is and what is not Christian. I determine what the Church has to do. I and I alone am the Führer of this nation. The Lord has chosen me for this office and my people have called me."

"Not you, Herr. Hitler, but the Lord is my leader," I replied. Only later did I learn that these words were responsible for his ordering my arrest. But at the moment I tried to be a bit conciliatory.

"It is also my concern about the Third Reich that made me come to you," I said.

He was still shouting. "You are concerned about the Third Reich? You had better leave that to me!"

"Then," I replied, "I'm very sorry I came to you."

This made him so furious that what he now uttered betrayed his whole hatred and his true intentions:

"I thought of making the German Church the most powerful in the world. I wanted to name German bishops in all the countries that I am going to conquer. I wanted a powerful Church. I wanted to unite all religions and churches under the spirit of National Socialism. I thought of putting officers like you in charge. But you are all Jew-infested. Your Christianity, after all, is nothing but a stepchild of Jewry grown soft and infested with these stupid humanitarian illusions.

"If the Christian Church wants to fight me, I shall annihilate it as I have crushed and will crush all my other enemies. I don't mind walking over corpses as long as I reach my goal. I need no Christianity. Whoever won't obey will be destroyed, and that goes for you too. You are a deserter, and you know that for desertion there is only one punishment — death."

"I have only deserted to Christianity," I said vigorously — "to my faith; and I am willing to take upon myself all the suffering it involves."

"You will regret it." These were Hitler's last words to me.

During the last four years of my imprisonment I have never had any cause for regret. As long as I have my cell where I can pray, I am still happier than Hitler, the promise-breaker and incorrigible liar, who hardly dares to go out alone for fear that a bullet might hit him from behind.

To the people the world over I send this message: Keep the Faith.

Publication Date: September 20, 1941