Galen was the Archbishop of Munster and one of the few Germans who openly criticized the Nazi regime. Galen’s opposition to the Nazis had grown after 1934 when he began to refer to it as ‘the new heathenism.’ In 1941 he delivered three sermons which criticized both the Nazi administration in the occupied countries and the practice of euthanasia. News of his protest spread but the Gestapo dared not arrest such a prominent member of the Catholic Church. However many priests were sent to concentration camps and Church property was seized. This provoked Galen to deliver more anti-Nazi sermons but he was never arrested.