MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Publication Date: October 21, 2014 Contact: Megan Grajeda Cave Henricks Communications 512-904-9258 or [email protected] MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich By Dietrich von Hildebrand Translated and Edited by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby “Dietrich von Hildebrand, unlike so many European Christians of his time, was an early and vigorous critic of National Socialism; a man of brilliant intellect and articulate pen who spoke out forcefully against Nazi hatred of the Jews; a scholar who defended the Christian understanding of society and the human person at immense personal cost. This wonderful collection of his writings acquaints us intimately with an extraordinary man of faith. It’s mandatory reading for anyone interested in a fuller understanding of a profoundly important era.” – Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia “Dietrich von Hildebrand’s memoirs give us an inroad into the soul of another Germany, a Germany thoroughly different from that of Adolf Hitler and of the Nazis. In the years just after the First World War, he warned against the danger of exaggerated nationalism and pleaded for the reconciliation between European nations. Later he would defend the common Christian and Jewish roots of European civilization. His example warms the hearts of all those who love freedom and are willing to defend the values of our civilization.” – Rocco Buttiglione, Italian statesman and close collaborator with St. John Paul II Seventy-five years ago, German troops marched through occupied Warsaw, Poland marking the outbreak of one of the biggest wars in history. While we remember the monstrosity and violence of Nazism and the world war it produced, there is one powerful story that has remained largely unknown for nearly eighty years. It is a story of a soldier who fought a different kind of war – one of argument, faith, and conscience. MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich (Image Books; hardcover; October 21, 2014) is a glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the 20th century’s most important Catholic thinkers – and the Nazi’s public “enemy number one” in Vienna. Within the book’s pages are the extraordinary memoirs and writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand and his battle against National Socialism, published in English for the first time. “It is rare today that an important new story full of vivid detail should come to light from the already much- documented Nazi period,” notes John Henry Crosby, translator, compiler, and editor of MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER. “His story might well have been lost to us were it not for a memoir, penned near the end of his life at the request of his wife, the renowned philosopher, Alice von Hildebrand.” 1 A German-Catholic philosopher and theologian, von Hildebrand was among the earliest and most vocal opponents of Hitler from the very onset of the Nazi political movement in the early 1920s. At a time when many still viewed Hitler as a positive and inevitable force, von Hildebrand endured scorn and ridicule for sounding the alarm among his contemporaries. His unreserved solidarity with the persecuted Jews was a radical act of defiance, not just against the Nazi racism but even against the widespread disdain for Jews that was common at the time – and marked him as a person of interest to Hitler’s Nazis, who ultimately sentenced him to death in absentia. Penned in his own hand, von Hildebrand’s memoirs chronicle such acts of solidarity and peril as: Identifying himself as non-Aryan when he could have done otherwise, resulting in his dismissal from his fourteen-year position as professor of philosophy at the University of Munich. Defiantly challenging Nazism through his weekly journal, prompting the German ambassador in Vienna, Franz von Papen, to describe him to Hitler as “the architect of the intellectual resistance in Austria.” Continuing his work amidst dangerous consequences such as von Papen’s plot to assassinate him, schemed directly with Hitler in a dispatch marked “top secret” on April 30, 1937. Upon Hitler's rise to power in 1933, von Hildebrand fled from Germany to Vienna, Austria so he could devote himself entirely to the intellectual and cultural battle against the Nazi ideology. This departure was for him an immense personal sacrifice, yet he was convinced that he was called to “raise his voice.” As an intellectual soldier, he was sustained by a deep inner faith in providence and spurred on by extraordinary courage in the face of evil, using his lectures, writing, and debates to counter the deadly blend of allure and terror embodied in the National Socialism spreading around him. With the support of Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, he founded and edited the most widely read German- language anti-Nazi paper in Vienna, Der Christliche Ständestaat (The Christian Corporative State). This was the main instrument by which von Hildebrand fought against Nazism and for the independence of Austria, and it gained him international attention and acclaim from the Vatican to Washington, D.C., where Herbert Hoover’s FBI was following his activities. Von Hildebrand’s philosophical brilliance, Christian witness, and bravery in the battle against Nazism have inspired words of reverence from eminent figures like Former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger), and Otto von Habsburg, son of the last Austrian Emperor. Though he was one of the great heroes of a dark era, von Hildebrand never sought to call attention to his exploits, and so his story remains largely undiscovered, even in his native Germany. “I am honored to present this book to a global audience,” writes Crosby, “first as one of the great overlooked dramas of the Nazi era, and second as a gripping story of one man’s readiness to risk everything to follow his conscience and stand in defiance of tyranny.” Accompanying the memoirs of Dietrich von Hildebrand in MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER are over a dozen of his writings originally published in Der Christliche Ständestaat and elsewhere, presenting readers with a breathtaking story of one man’s valor, uncompromising convictions, and faith amidst the harrowing contagion of National Socialism. MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich Author: Dietrich von Hildebrand; Translated and Edited by John Henry Crosby with John F. Crosby Publisher: Image Books Publication Date: October 21, 2014 Hardcover ISBN: 9780385347518 Price: $28.00 2 About Dietrich von Hildebrand Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), born in Florence, was the son of renowned German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand. A leading student of the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Max Scheler, he took up the “great questions” – about truth, freedom, conscience, community, love, beauty – with a freshness that allowed him to break new ground, especially in ethics, but also in epistemology, social philosophy, and aesthetics. His conversion to Catholicism in 1914 was the decisive turning point of his life and the impetus for important religious works. His opposition to Hitler and Nazism was so outspoken that he was forced to flee Germany in 1933, and later across Europe, finally settling in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Fordham University until 1960. He was the author of dozens of books, both in German and English. He was a major forerunner of Vatican II through his seminal writings on marriage, on Christian philosophy, and on the evil of anti-Semitism. Photo courtesy of HildebrandLegacy.org About John Henry Crosby John Henry Crosby is a translator, writer, musician, and cultural entrepreneur. He is founder and director of the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project, which fosters deep cultural renewal through publications, events, fellowships, and online resources that draw on the continuing vitality of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s thought and witness. About the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project The Hildebrand Project is the world’s leading organization dedicated to the presentation and exploration of the thought and witness of Dietrich von Hildebrand. An original philosopher, ardent Christian, fierce foe of Nazism, and fervent champion of beauty, von Hildebrand defends the timeless truths of our Western patrimony while at the same time eagerly receiving and enriching the insights of modernity. At the heart of our mission is the promotion of the religious, political, and especially the philosophical writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand and other personalist thinkers, such as Karol Wojtyla and Max Scheler. We believe that these authors offer fresh insights into perennial questions about human flourishing and the moral life, the nature of love, the demands of moral witness, Christian faith and practice, and the transformative power of beauty. We seek to bring these ideas into dialogue with contemporary currents of thought, infusing them into the intellectual, artistic, and spiritual bloodstream of our culture. We fulfill our mission through a portfolio of distinct but complimentary initiatives: (1) we translate and publish the works of Dietrich von Hildebrand; (2) we introduce new students and teachers to his writings through educational events and student fellowships; (3) we support and promote new and established scholars working on Hildebrand and personalist philosophy; (4) we invite our audience to become collaborators in our work through our unique Partner Grants program; (5) and we maintain a dynamic website that serves as the international locus for the study of Dietrich von Hildebrand and personalist philosophy. For more information, visit: www.hildebrandlegacy.org 3 Praise for Dietrich von Hildebrand and MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER “I knew Dietrich von Hildebrand personally. His courage, his message, his willingness to risk everything and don the mantle of David against Goliath, won him contempt and scorn among the Nazis, including Hitler, yet won him the undying admiration and gratitude of those opposed to National Socialism.