English Translation

T0Q Ministerial Councillor Dr.Heckel Prague, 1 August 1943 Mr. Ministerial Councillor Kurt K r e g e r in München 33 Führerbau Dear party comrade K r a g e g r ! When we spoke in Innsbruck about the payments to the churches and about the cessation of payments, which are not based on legal obligation, you explained that the head of the party chancellery had not been made of these things. I have made the following statement from the files: by letter dated 4.9.1994l State Secretary Frank wrote to Reichsleiter Bormann personally. I attach a copy of this letter. An answer to this letter did not seem to have been received by the Secretary of State. In any case, the files before me do not contain any of these. In the autumn of 1994 the State Secretary gave the order that all payments not based on legal obligation should be made to the churches. I found this condition when I came to Prague in the summer of 19942. The existing order was repeated with the decree of the Ministry of Education of 27 June 1942, of which there is also a copy. At the time of the execution it was immediately apparent that this annoyance would have affected practically only the smaller churches, but not the Catholic church. In the unsecured financial situation of the sects and smaller churches this would have resulted in the financial collapse of these denominational communities. This would have meant a strengthening and enlargement of the Catholic Church. In order to avoid this, I was asked by the Secretary of State to give my opinion in the summer of 1983.