Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Scholl siblings, or Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, they are regarded as leading figures of Christian resistance, as fearless fighters against the Nazi madness, which sought to replace faith in God with the cult of the Führer. However, they are not representative of the behavior of the two major German churches: This is evidenced by the exhibition "And forgive us our debts? Churches and monasteries in National Socialism" at today's LWL State Museum for Monastic Culture (District of Paderborn), which demonstrates how deeply Catholics and Protestants were entangled in the Nazi regime's oppression and extermination policies. A notable example of this is the antisemitic "German Christians," an extremist current in Protestantism that preached the "species-appropriate faith in Christ".

Even the Catholic Church, which initially maintained a predominantly distant stance towards National Socialism, reconciled with the brown tyranny when the Vatican signed the Reich Concordat. In this context, the presentation also addresses the accusation against Pope Pius XII. of having remained silent in the face of the mass murder of the Jews.

The museum team, led by Director Ingo Grabowsky and scientific project leader Carolin Mischer, has gathered around 200 exhibits and structured them around ten guiding questions. For instance, posters, photographs, everyday objects, letters, diaries, and memoirs are displayed. The spectrum of Christians, ranging from "ordinary" believers to religious orders and bishops, up to the Pope, who demonstrated courage and faith strength or incurred guilt between 1933 and 1945, is presented.