Historian compares Cruise to Goebbels

A German historian has compared a speech by actor Tom Cruise about Scientology to a call to war by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Guido Knopp, an expert on Second World War history, told Bild newspaper that Cruise's address to his fellow Scientologists "inevitably" recalled Goebbels.

Mr Knopp was referring to a video recording of a sermon Cruise delivered to Scientology members four years ago that surfaced on the YouTube website this week.

The Mission Impossible star asks fellow members of the church: "Should we clean this place up?"
Mr Knopp said it was bound to remind Germans of Goebbels' notorious speech in Berlin on February 18 1943 when he asked the audience: "Do you want total war?".

Mr Knopp said: "It may be the case that Cruise's delivery style is not uncommon in certain religious movements in the US.

"But for Germans with an interest in history, that scene where he asks whether the Scientologists should clean up the world and everyone shouts 'yes' is inevitably reminiscent of Goebbels' notorious speech."

Cruise's portrayal of Nazi resistance hero Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, an aristocrat who led a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, caused unhappiness in Germany because of the actor's links to Scientology.

The movement is often described in Germany as a sect that exploits its members financially. In December, regional ministers agreed to investigate the possibility of banning it.

Cruise's film, titled Valkyrie after the code-name of the plot, is due for release later this year.

His role in the Church of Scientology is examined in an unauthorised biography of the actor by Andrew Morton which was released in the US earlier this month.

The publication of the book has received wide coverage in the German media. It was described by the Church of Scientology as "replete with lies".