FAQ: Did Masons suffer at the hands of the Nazis?

[Larry the Mason from Holbrook]

The Freemasonry FAQ

Version 1.0
August 2006

This Frequently Asked Question comes from the weekly USENET MASONRY FAQ, posted to alt.freemasonry every Friday at 08:00 Pacific. Please refer to the weekly FAQ for other resource and contact information.

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Did Masons suffer at the hands of the Nazis?

Yes. The exact numbers are unknown. Lt. Col. David Boyd wrote that
85,000 German Masons were killed by the Nazis, though other research
has found that this number may be off by as much as a third. This
figure does not include any of the nations the Nazis occupied.

Regardless of the actual number killed, it is clear that Hitler viewed
Masonry, which exalts truth, toleration, brotherly love, and free
thought, to be dangerous and a threat to his regime. Ironically, in
his last days in his bunker in Berlin, Hitler had a painting of
Frederick the Great in his chambers. Frederick the Great was a Mason.

[Aaron]

On 27 Nov 2009 18:00:15 GMT, Larry the Mason from Holbrook
<larry.the.maso...@gmail.com> wrote:

The total number, as can best be estimated, is 85,000-200,000. A
closer estimate is difficult because Masons could also be Jews or
Christians of a denomination that was being persecuted as well as
being Masons.

We know from Hitler's life that he was jealous of Jews, and that his
jealousy and feelings of inferiority were the basis for his hatred of
Jews. Of the non-Jewish groups persecuted by the Nazis, only the
Masons were persecuted for attempted to defend others from the Nazis.
Freemasonry in general, and specifically the lodges in Germany,
opposed the persecution of minorities. It was the German lodges'
opposition to bigotry that first caught the Nazi's attention, and the
lodges' refusal to simply shut up and pretend that nothing was wrong
with murdering people for being Jewish that made them a target for the
Nazis. This being the case, I do not find Masons suffering at the
hands of the Nazis to be as significant as the fact that German Masons
opposed the Nazis to the death. If more people had that kind of
integrity, fewer atrocities would occur.

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