" Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are.... Let us call it for once the great defiance which turns us again and again into the enemies of God and of our fellowmen, even of our own selves .." Karl Barth, Call of God

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Karl Barth, born in 1886, was a Swiss Christian Theologian. While he greatly influenced modern Christian thought, his contributions during the Shoah were particularly significant. Barth was a strong Christian advocate against the policies of Hitler and the Nazis, and is best known for his decree against the "National Socialists" in which in the style of Martin Luther he decried Christian Participation in Nazi Ideals and efforts. Called the"Barmen Declaration" the six theses outlined expressed Christian opposition to Nazi Regime ideals. Due to his stand, even though he was already a theologian of reknown, Barth was ousted from Germany the year following the purge of many of his Jewish colleagues, as Hitler's henchmen swept through the universities expelling all 'degenerate bolshevism'. (The term he gave to scholars and artists opposed to his regime). In 1934, Barth expatriated to his native Switzerland remaining an outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime during the war.

Barth's doctrine, while not pristinely fundamental, was set apart from most of the Social Gospel prevalent at the time. At its heart was a strong faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as the complete expression of God among men. He did not however, take the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, he wrote instead that it was man's expression of God's revelation; and that God was only known to man through revelation. Like the Jewish Theologian Buber, he held to the concepts of Man knowing God through surrender and believed that man could achieve communion with God; he did not hold traditional biblical views to this end, however.

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