A groundbreaking history that illuminates Catholic sisters at the center of the Catholic Church's encounter with Nazism. Faith under Fascism: Catholic Sisters in Nazi Germany reveals the vital role women religious played in confronting, navigating, and ultimately outlasting the Third Reich. Focusing on the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Martina Cucchiara restores nearly 92,000 Catholic sisters-long overshadowed by priests-to the history of Catholicism under Nazism. As teachers, the sisters encountered the Nazi regime daily in classrooms that became contested sites where Catholic faith, Nazi ideology, and the futures of Catholic and Jewish children intersected. Far from passive victims, the sisters engaged Nazi ideas selectively, creating temporary sanctuaries for Jewish students while also easing Catholic girls' participation in the Nazi state. Their experiences complicate simple narratives of resistance and collaboration, revealing a history marked by endurance, adaptation, and moral tension. By tracing the regime's sustained campaign within and against Catholic schools and religious communities, Cucchiara also intervenes in debates about Nazi intentions toward the churches. Drawing on rich archival sources and the sisters' lived experience, Faith under Fascism demonstrates that the regime sought not coexistence but the gradual destruction of religious life. Highlighting the sisters' tenacious perseverance and the ways their everyday actions frustrated the regime's efforts to suppress Catholic institutions, the book reshapes our understanding of Catholicism and German society under Nazism.
Martina Cucchiara is a professor of history at Bluffton University. She is the author and co-editor of a number of publications on the topic of women, religion, and modern Germany, including The Evil That Surrounds Us: The WWII Memoir of Erna Becker-Kohen and Women, Religion, and Emotions in Modern Germany and Beyond.
Acknowledgements A Note on Names Abbreviations Introduction 1. Athletes of God: The School Sisters in the Long Nineteenth Century 2. Between Accommodation and Conviction: Teaching in Nazi Germany 3. Under Siege: The Battle for Catholic Schools 4. Escalation: The Foreign Currency Trials Against the Catholic Church 5. Under Orders: The School Sisters at Work and at War 6. Sisters in Arms: The Last Years of the War and Collapse Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
"Underpinned by exemplary archival research, and guided by an original focus on female religious orders, Faith under Fascism represents a splendid addition to the historiography of Catholicism in Nazi Germany. This is an important and beautifully written work, which deserves a wide readership." -Thomas Brodie, author of German Catholicism at War, 1939-1945 "In Faith under Fascism, Cucchiara fills a gaping void in the history of Nazi Germany: what was happening among women religious. In a well-researched and engagingly written account, readers will have the opportunity to meet the School Sisters and see how they reacted, adapted, and generally were able to withstand the onslaught of the Nazis." -Beth A. Griech-Polelle, author of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust "Faith under Fascism uncovers a wealth of new material that investigates the ways Nazism transformed Catholic schools run by women religious. Martina Cucchiara highlights the significance of local initiatives undertaken by Catholic sisters, emphasizing the complicated interplay of obedience, deference and agency." -Carmen Mangion, author of Contested Identities "This is an innovative study that significantly expands our understanding of what constitutes 'church' to include women religious as independent actors and is a model for future scholars in the field. Thus, this work opens a new avenue for future research and sets a standard against which future works will be measured." -Martin Menke, author of "The Center Party 2020" in Weimar 2020
