Hitler referred to religion a great deal. He used it to rally the German people against supposed threats from non-Christian Jews and godless Communists. Every German soldier in the Wehrmacht wore a belt buckled that said "God is with us" (translated). Nazis were under the impression that they were fighting on behalf of Christian civilization. (Hitler was secretly into some very odd occult stuff, but he did not make that very apparent to the average German. He praised Jesus Christ in Mein Kampf, as having been not a peacemaker, but a "fighter"...presumably for all that was right and good in Hitler's view of things.)

Stalin used organized Christian religion as something to fight against...the "opiate of the masses". In fact, Stalin was in charge of a new organized religion...one that idolized HIM and the Communist Party. It was one of the strictest and most vicious religions of all time, and its only real god was Stalin himself...and the barrel of a gun.

Accordingly, they both used religion as a motivating factor, but in opposite manners.

Nevertheless, Blissfully Ignorant's point is spot on:

"Fear is the most effective method of controlling the masses."

Exactly right. One can choose to enlist religion in stirring up fear...or not...but the key is Fear. Make people afraid, and they will give their willing assent to all manner of destructive policies on the part of their rulers.

Fear is the key that opens Pandora's box. We need to eliminate Fear, not religion.