Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)

The Mormons also had close connections with the United States, but they numbered only 11,306 in Germany in 1930. The U.S. ambassador noted in his diary on July 31, 1934: "Hitler has not dissolved their organizations or expelled their active preachers. There are other than religious aspects to Hitler's let-up on the Mormons." American-born Mormon missionaries' skill at basketball brought them favor in Nazi eyes, and four of them were asked to referee basketball games at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The Mormon ardor for genealogy also gave them a certain standing with Nazis. In 1938 the editors of the Volkischer Beobachter drew a parallel between the ejection of the Mormons from Missouri and Illinois and the Jewish problem in Germany, thinking it might help enlighten opinion in the United States as to what Germany was up against. With the start of the war, the Mormon headquarters in the United States withdrew al I its missionaries from Europe. Some of the missionaries in Germany were to leave via Denmark and others via Holland, but where the latter country refused to receive them they all went through Denmark. Thomas E. McKay, European president of the Latter-Day Saints, was among the last of the 697 missionaries to return. On landing in New York in March, 1940, he expressed his regret at leaving Europe and stated: "The Mormons have never been molested in Germany. We could not ask for better treatment. The only way the Nazis have affected our work is that our Boy Scout movement has been curtailed by the Hitler Youth movement." The withdrawal of the missionaries from Europe, however, saved the Mormons from many wartime difficulties. In Germany they were among the few small sects which were not banned and dissolved, being accorded a treatment similar to that enjoyed by the Methodists and Baptists.

The Mormons, like most Germans, supported the war effort, and some of their leaders were strong supporters of the Nazi party. One deacon of Jewish descent was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp; other partly Jewish members in Hamburg were left unmolested. Three Mormon youths were arrested for printing and distributing anti-Hitler leaflets during thf war. One of them was executed, and the worried Hamburg Mormon church officials excommunicated him after his death. (In 1948 church officials in Salt Lake City posthumously reinstated him.) On the whole, Mormons suffered no special discrimination and persecution; they simply suffered war casualties and property losses as did all other Germans.

After the war, German Mormons received special help from their brethren in the United States and other countries. The lure of sharing in this welfare aid led some Germans to convert to Mormonism, but most of these were later excommunicated when they neglected their church memberships. The Mormons achieved the status of a "registered association" (Eingetragener Verein) in December, 1951, and two years later the much sought-after recognition as a corporation under public law. Their church property was thus made exempt from taxation, and they have since enjoyed the benefits accorded to such legally recognized church bodies in Germany. Membership underwent a rapid postwar growth, but began to slow down in the late 1960s. The increase was in no small part due to the numerous missionaries sent from abroad. While before World War II Mormonism was confined almost entirely to the largest cities, its work today has spread to small cities as well. The church has undergone administrative reorganization, and higher church bodies peculiar to the structure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have been established. Today the church in Germany ranks ninth among the Mormon churches in the countries of the world but still has a membership of only about 25,000.