Trial & Demonstration

The four-year-old struggle between Dictator Hitler and the Confessional Synod, Germany's anti-Nazi Protestant Church, has been a clash between ruthlessness and spunky defiance. Last week, however, the Third Reich tried a Confessional leader in a way that would have brought credit to any Government.

Up before an emergency court in Berlin was Rev. Dr. Friedrich Otto Dibelius. eminent theologian and general superintendent of the Confessional Synod. He was charged by Nazi Church-Minister Hans Kerrl with publishing a letter last winter falsely accusing Minister Kerrl of mocking, in a public speech, that ABC of Christian doctrine--that Jesus is the Son of God. Three competent attorneys appeared for Dr. Dibelius; the public was admitted except when Minister Kerrl was present; the press was admitted throughout the trial.

The Church Minister, supported by two chief assistants, mumbled and blustered. He could not remember exactly what he had said in his speech but how could Dr. Dibelius know--he was not there. Six witnesses, however, backed the defendant: two stated emphatically that the speech had been an anti-Christian attack; one produced painstaking notes that he had taken down at the time. Dr. Dibelius won another point by revealing that he had sent a copy of the accusing letter, before its publication, to Adolf Hitler and other Cabinet members, had received no replies forbidding or otherwise. For eight hours the debate surged back & forth. Finally, the court, hinting that Dr. Dibelius had come "pretty near the truth," acquitted him.

This acquittal sharpened interest in the trial scheduled for this week, of the Rev. Dr. Martin Niemoeller, fiery ex-U-boat commander arrested last March on "still more serious charges." Since Dr. Niemoller has long been the spearhead of the Confessional movement many Churchmen regarded the unexceptionable handling of Dr. Dibelius' trial as disingenuous window-dressing, wherein the Nazis deliberately threw a small fish back into the pond, while they went right ahead with their plans to land a whale.

This seemed to be the opinion of several hundred of Niemoller parishioners in tree-lined Dahlem, a Berlin suburb. When they met for Sunday morning service they heard delivered from the pulpit an announcement that enraged them--the special prayer meeting they had planned to hold that evening for their imprisoned leader had been banned by police.

Quickly organizing a march of protest, the parishioners streamed into the street. Police were soon on the spot, ordered them to disperse. When the marchers refused, 75 women, 40 men at the head of the procession were dragged off to police headquarters where their names were recorded, after which, according to police reports, they were released. Because this was the first mass demonstration on record against a Reich decree. Nazi bigwigs grew panicky. Fearing that there might be an even bigger demonstration outside the Court House while Pastor Niemoeller was on the stand they discreetly postponed the trial.

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