Circular letter to reichsleiter and gaulieter, with guidelines that the Reich Labor Service (Reicharbeitsdientes) would not perform or participate in religious activities

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS PARTY Munich 17 June 1938 The Brown House Deputy of the Fuehrer Staff Leader .
CIRCULAR LETTER NR. 72/38 To all Reichsleiter and Regional Directors [Gauleiter]
Enclosed please find, for your information, a copy directions for participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienstes in religious celebrations.
Signed: M. BORMANN Rosenberg Chancellory In Nr. 226601 on 21 June 38 Certified true copy M
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Directions for the participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienstes in religious celebrations.
The Reichsarbeitsdienst is a training school in which the German youth should be educated to national unity in the spirit of National Socialism.
This problem can only be solved, if all the ideas which at one time were directed to the breaking up of national unity, are subdued in Reichsarbeitsdienst. Therefore it is forbidden to have any class, professional and religious barriers in the Reichsarbeitsdienst.
What religious beliefs a person has is not a decisive factor, but it is decisive that he first of all feels himself a German.
Every religious practice is forbidden in the Reichsarbeitsdienst because it disturbs the comrade-like harmony of all working men and women.
On this basis every participation of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in churchly, that is religious, arrangements and celebrations is not possible.
A religious creed will strive within the German people for predominance. The Reichsarbeitsdienst in all its male and female leaders, working men and women strive for the indissoluble binding of the whole people.
Therefore not only allowing the members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst to attend church in a body, but also participation by the members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in religious celebrations for example, weddings or funerals, violates the educational task which is facing the organization.
As little as it is the affair of the Reichsarbeitsdienst to forbid its individual members to have a church wedding or funeral, so definitely must the Reichsarbeitsdienst avoid taking part as an organization in a festival which is strictly religious, that is, which excludes Germans of other beliefs.
It is therefore, in any case, necessary to execute a clear temporal separation between the churchly celebration and the debut of the Reichsarbeitsdienst.
The Reichsarbeitsdienst does not participate in religious celebrations, but rather turns her support to the marriage or burial of a member before or after the churchly celebration.
The participation of the musical band of the Reichsarbeitsdienst m classical churchly concerts (for example, production of the "Schoepfung" by Haydn) is not to be regarded as a partaking in
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a religous celebration, and is always to be decided according to the local conditions.
Signed: HIERL
Authenticated:
REISMEIR