Madam, - As a sixth-year student studying Hitler and the Nazis as part of my course work, I am concerned that Derek Rafter ("Reville on Religion", October 17th) takes his references to Hitler's Christian associations out of context.
Hitler and the Nazis were happy to support what they termed "positive Christianity", which was a twisting of Protestant and Catholic ideals to endorse Nazi racism and the myth of an Aryan people.
In 1933 Hitler confided in private to Nazi Party members his intentions of stamping out Christianity in Germany, root and branch. Hitler is quoted as saying on the same occasion that one can either be a Christian or a German, but not both.
The Nazi fabrication of a master race is derived from a twisting of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The form of Christianity supported by the Nazis is a similar perversion of the original ideal.
- Yours, etc,
EOIN MORRISON, Blanchardstown, Co Dublin.