Hitler and Jesus get chummy in painting

Parishioners of a church in the town of Hof, Germany, have been caught up in a kerfuffle over a painting in their church which appears to feature Adolf Hitler standing next to Jesus, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported this week.

The Daily Mail reported that the likeness to the Nazi leader was discovered after the painting, one of dozens in the church, was recently cleaned.

The church was inaugurated in November 1939 and is seen by some as a Nazi relic, but pastor Martin Goelkel disputed this assertion and told Süddeutsche Zeitung he did not feel the painting was a tribute to Hitler, but rather a subversive work.

“It was designed and inaugurated in a difficult time for Germany, no question,” he admitted, but added that “the individual is made aware that his life is finite no matter how powerful he might feel — there is another power over him, a stronger power.”

Goelkel noted that Jesus in the painting is preoccupied by a man who seeks assistance and does not give the Nazi leader his attention, while the fuhrer “stands despotically at the side; he’s the only one wearing boots… Haughty and arrogant.”

“This image is a central challenge to Nazism: Christ is in the middle. The powerful can stand idle as much as they want,” he surmised.

Goelkel, who recently left the church after eight years, added that during his time in there he had never met any protest by worshipers against the painting.

But that may be changing.

According to the Mail, there is a growing unease with the painting among parishioners, with one telling local radio recently that “it is not right under any circumstances that the biggest mass killer in history should be featured in a painting in a house of Christian worship.”