Resistance by Means of Church Discipline


  • 1st Picture for document
    Magnifier

Paul Schneider’s advocacy of confessional and biblical instruction of children in church and at school precipitated another confrontation with several staunch National Socialists in early 1937.


Two of them were schoolteachers who used religion class for their political and ideological agitation. In Reformed tradition, Schneider resorted to the instrument of church discipline, i.e. excommunication announced publicly at worship service. The presbytery of his congregation in Womrath passed a corresponding resolution.


As a result, Schneider was arrested again on May 31, 1937 and taken to the Gestapo prison in Koblenz. He was released in July and expelled from the Rhineland. Since he felt bound to his congregations, he ignored the expulsion order and was therefore arrested once again on October 3, 1937 and ultimately deported to Buchenwald concentration camp.


Source / title