The Salvation Army from Imperial Germany to Nazism

When the Nazis came to power, the Salvation Army in Germany did something unexpected. Rather than resist, this British-founded outsider organization reshaped its public identity until it was accepted into the Volksgemeinschaft, then reclaimed its international ties after the war and bypassed denazification entirely. Rebecca Carter-Chand uses that history to challenge a common assumption. We expect religious minorities, knowing exclusion firsthand, to extend empathy to other persecuted groups. In Nazi Germany, many did the opposite, seeking the state’s acceptance as a means of self-preservation. Rebecca Carter-Chand directs the Programs on Religion and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her book, Christian Internationalism and German Belonging: The Salvation Army from Imperial Germany to Nazism , won the George L. Mosse First Book Prize. Part of the Kennedy Center's fall 2026 lecture series, "Religion, Identity, and Public Life."