Ron, well, I semi-agree with you about the Nazis (in regards to religion) and I semi-don't. ;-)

Hitler and the Nazis were very mystical, and that in itself is a form of religion. Hitler's mysticism was an odd blend of old Nordic mythical glories, mixed with Christianity, mixed with bizarre racial theories about "Aryans" and the Nordic people. Hitler wrote about Jesus in "Mein Kampf" and he said that Jesus was not the way people saw him at all, but that he was "a fighter". He meant that Jesus was one who would fight actively and use force to oppose what Hitler saw as "the bad people" and the bad forces in society. In invoking Jesus in that way, he was saying that Jesus was his ally and the ally of the Nazi movement! I suppose his conclusion that Jesus was such a fighter was based upon passages such as those concerning him driving the moneylenders out of the temple, and some of the more dramatic stuff in Revelations, most likely. Like many other people, Hitler must have read the Bible quite selectively, I would figure, cherry-picking out of it whatever suited him and conveniently overlooking the rest.

Of course some church people opposed the Nazis (and were harshly dealt with for it) while others cooperated fully with the Nazi New Order, and still others kept their heads low and their mouths shut.

Yes, the "Gott Mitt Uns" slogan of the German army may have predated Naziism, but it certainly was taken on seamlessly by the Nazi armed forces, regardless, so I would say that they took considerable advantage of conventional religion in motivating their troops. This was specially true on the Eastern Front where German troops were frequently reminded that they were fighting "godless Communism", and you had alluded to that yourself.

(The SS, however, had a different slogan: I believe it was "My Blood is My Honor".)

I regard the Nazis not as a non-religious group at all, but as an intensely mystical and religious group...although what they were really doing was building a brand new religion: one that elevated the German people to the status of "God's Chosen" (the Master Race) and Hitler to the status of God's Instrument on Earth, so to speak. They were divinizing "the Leader". It was a new and radical form of religion, in my opinion. Nazis were most certainly NOT instructed to deny the existence of God, they were under the impression that God was quite wholeheartedly in favor of what they were doing.

I think that a lot of people simply label the Nazis as "godless", because they figure that anyone who is doing really such evil things as that must be godless... ;-) (in their opinion) It's not careful thought to arrive at that conclusion, it's just a snap judgement.

But how about Pol Pot? A perfect example of your original point.