At the time of the outbreak of war in Europe, the Church had a strong presence in Germany. By the end of the 1930s the Church population in Germany ranked third in total membership, behind the United States and Canada. Against the growing evidence that war loomed on the horizon, Church President Heber J. Grant and several other leaders toured Germany and key European nations during the summer of 1937. At each stop President Grant assessed the progress of the Church and warned members of the need to rely less on the American missionaries.

In September 1938 indications that the outbreak of war might be imminent prompted Church leaders in Salt Lake City to evacuate American and other missionaries from Germany. However, the immediate threat of hostilities soon dissipated, and the missionaries were allowed to return. This evacuation served as a dress rehearsal of the actual evacuation ordered by the First Presidency one year later. Beginning on 25 August 1939 and continuing through the next week, approximately 150 full-time missionaries were safely withdrawn from Germany. The last missionaries arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 1 September 1939, the day of the German invasion of Poland.

. . .

During the early period of the war, Germany's successes were many and conditions of the Church in Germany remained fairly stable. While food and other commodities became increasingly scarce, Church programs generally operated without significant interruption. In 1942, for example, the Hamburg District sponsored a joyful centennial celebration of the founding of the Church's Relief Society. Ironically, general Church and stake celebrations of the same event in the United States were canceled, while the event in Hamburg drew over five hundred Saints, making it one of the largest commemorations in the Church.

In stark contrast to these joyful celebrations, just one month earlier, seventeen-year-old Latter-day Saint Helmuth Hübener and close friends Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe were arrested by German authorities for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. While Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Rudi Wobbe were given lengthy prison terms, Helmuth Hübener was eventually beheaded at Plotzensee Prison, near Berlin, on 27 October 1942. Hübener died a marryr's death and in the years after the war was revered as a hero.

Another Latter-day Saint civilian who suffered under the Third Reich was Jewish member Salomon Schwartz, an active member of the Hamburg-Barmeck Branch who was incarcerated in a concentration camp at Theresienstadt. The experience of Salomon Schwartz was particularly lamentable because leaders of the Hamburg-Barmbeck Branch had posted a sign over the entrance to the branch building that read "Jews Are Not Allowed." Although typical of other churches and businesses during that period, the message provided a sad commentary on the circumstances of the time.

The Feverish War at the Battlefront

While exact numbers are not available, hundreds of German Saints wore the uniform of the Third Reich during the war. For those engaged in the fighting, the experiences were often too difficult to describe. By the end of the war, nearly five hundred German Latter-day Saint soldiers died in battle and many more were injured. Whenever news of the death of a Latter-day Saint soldier was received by family and branch members at home, special memorial services were convened. In March 1943 Friedrich Biehl, former president of the West German Mission, became one of the first of several key leaders who died during the war.

. . .

The Awful War Concludes

By the end of the war, 482 Latter-day Saint German soldiers and 111 civilians had died including German Mission presidents Friedrich Biehl and Christian Heck as well as district presidents Martin Hoppe, Carl Goeckeritz, and Erich Behrndt. Despite such heavy losses, the total number of Latter-day Saints in Germany was approximately 12,000, only a slight decrease from the beginning of the war. Approximately 85 percent of the members were left homeless, and many were unaccounted for. In spite of the sorrow and grief the members experienced over their own fallen family and friends, they took time to convene a memorial service for President Heber J. Grant, who died on 14 May 1945. On 19 August, 300 German Latter-day Saints overfilled a hall in Berlin designed to hold 170 to remember their leader. A number of American servicemen also participated in the meeting.