Today in History—March 15: The Nazi Seizure of Church Bells

On this day in 1940, the Nazi Party—by way of Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command—issued a decree: “Reclaiming all Bells for War Purposes.” The order called for the seizure of church bells across the land.

By 1944 the policy had spread across a lot of land: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia. Even the Vatican was not exempt.

Most bells were made of bronze: four parts copper to one part tin, both vital for manufacturing armaments. Confiscated bells were shipped to Glockenfriedhöfe—“bell cemeteries”—where they waited to be sorted. Most were eventually sent to smelting factories and melted.

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The loss was measured in more than metal. For centuries, bells had rung to celebrate, mourn, mark time, warn of emergencies, and call to worship. The sudden, forced silence caused an uproar across occupied Europe. Politicians and church leaders argued that bells were protected under the Hague Convention.

After that argument failed, resistance took shape.

Some parishioners and clergy hid or buried bells to keep them safe—even enormous ones. (A 450-pound bell unexpectedly turned up in Estonia in 1994.)

In Belgium a priest guarding a church’s 15th-century bell barred the doors and rang the bell defiantly when the Nazis came. He was arrested, and the bell was taken. Workers in Antwerp refused to assist at a smelting plant.

In the Netherlands a resistance group eventually surrendered their bells, but not before inscribing a message on one: “He who tries to shoot with bells won’t win the war.”

The Nazis cataloged their plunder: Bells were scored A through D. A bells, cast in the last century, were considered replaceable and quickly melted. B and C bells followed. D bells, predating 1740, were generally spared but still taken as trophies. Bells cast before 1450 were supposed to be left alone, but exceptions were common, especially in Eastern Europe: Poland’s churches were particularly hard hit.

After the war, the seizure and destruction of church bells were counted among the crimes at the Nuremberg trials in 1945.

Allied officials undertook the daunting task of returning surviving bells to their owners. The work continues today. Hidden bells still surface from time to time—one as recently as 2021 in Poland.

After restoration, it will ring again from its church tower.

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