During the war, most of the German branches of the Church were located in larger cities where most of the physical damage was inflicted by the enemies of Germany. The Saints in those branches must have been in a percarious situation. If the Church members adhered to the belief that they were to obey the laws of their countries, LDS men would have responded to draft notices, and several would likely have been in the heat of battle.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany and Austria in 1939

In 1939 the East and West German Missions of the Church were the largest LDS missions in the world in population. The 13,402 members living in a Germany approximately the size of the state of Texas, were organized into twenty-six districts composed of 144 branches and groups. The office of the East German mission was located in a villa at Händelallee 6, in an upscale neighborhood in Berlin. The West German Mission administration was situated in a fine office building at Schaumainkai 41 on the south bank of the Main River in Frankfurt. There were no LDS high priests, bishops, stake presidents, or patriarchs in Germany at the time. The closest LDS temple was in Utah. The country of Austria had been added to the West German Mission in November 1938 (see Table 1). The three largest branches of the Church in Germany were in Chemnitz, Saxony (469 members); in Königsberg, East Prussia (465); and in the Hamburg neighborhood known as St. Georg (465). The 2,359 priesthood holders in Germany and Austria represented fifty-two percent of the male members of the appropriate age. Adult females (over twelve years of age) dominated in essentially every branch of the Church—fifty-six percent of the total Church population and nearly two-thirds of the membership in specific branches (see Table 2).

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An enlightening view of the Church in Germany during World War II has emerged from the study of interviews, documents, and photographs. Essentially all my research questions were answered. The hundreds of interviewees corroborated each others’ experiences in many regards (and coincide with the accounts of literally millions of other Germans), but individual experiences add remarkable and faith-promoting aspects to the description of Latter-day Saints in peril at home and abroad—living under and compelled to serve a government that many could not support in their hearts.

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The young people of the LDS Church (ages ten to seventeen) were required to participate in the activities of the Hitler Youth, though some found legitimate excuses to avoid the programs (and many parents provided such excuses). At age seventeen, all young men and most young women were required to render service in the national labor force—which for young men was simply the precursor to military service. The absence of these young people from their hometowns meant the increasing curtailment of Mutual Improvement Association activities in the branches.

Latter-day Saints died in battle in distant countries and in air raids at home. Many who survived the fighting attributed their good fortune to God’s protection. Thousands of LDS civilians lost their homes and became refugees. Nearly one hundred Saints are still missing after more than six decades. Church meetinghouses all over the country were damaged, destroyed, or confiscated for government use. Meetings and programs were discontinued due to the absence of branch members, or because members remaining in town could not make the trip through the rubble to the meeting rooms.

Through it all, the will of the German and Austrian Saints to survive the trials appears to have been a result of the common bond of LDS Church membership. During the war years, Saints told their friends of their faith, and several baptisms of adult converts were the results. Branch and district conferences were held until the war ended in May 1945. Many eyewitnesses told of being driven from their homes during or after the war, but remaining on the lookout for the closest LDS branch in their new location.

Despite the loss of husbands, fathers, and brothers, LDS women attempted to raise up a righteous and faithful generation while continuing to serve in the Relief Society and maintaining meeting schedules wherever possible—all this while protecting their children during air raids, and standing in seemingly endless lines hoping to purchase food with ration coupons.

How many Latter-day Saints in Germany and Austria lost their lives due to World War II?

Determining the exact number of Latter-day Saints who lost their lives as a direct result of World War II and its aftermath (lasting until 1950 for some Church members) is not possible. Nevertheless, from surviving records and eyewitness accounts a fairly reliable number can be calculated (Table 3). The 996 deaths directly attributable to causes of war (Kriegseinwirkung in German) is certainly not the actual total. It is very possible that some members of record were not known well enough in their branches to be remembered because in some cases they did not attend Church meetings or participate in branch activities. Many members moved from their 1939 branches for a variety of reasons and may not have established connections with other branches, thus becoming lost. During the final year of the war (1944–1945), the keeping of vital records among Germans was subject to considerable breakdowns. Allied forces invading from the east made little or no effort to record the names of German soldiers killed or captured. Under the air attacks in Germany, LDS members were either killed in the basements of their homes, or driven from cities to distant points of refuge where no connection to the Church existed. Refugees perished on the roadsides and were buried as strangers. Membership records of many LDS branches in the East German Mission were lost, but most records of branches in the West German Mission survived and usually include lists of persons who had not been located by 1948.

At least 322 members of the Church died of causes apparently not directly related to the conflict. Their numbers are included in this study because in some cases the cause of death cannot be determined. Several causes of death appear to be incidental, but may indeed have been related to wartime conditions. For example, one elderly man suffered a heart attack and died as he hurried down the street to an air raid shelter while sirens wailed and approaching enemy aircraft could already be heard. In other cases, Saints may have needed medical treatments or medications that were not available due to wartime shortages and succumbed to curable conditions.

The 996 LDS Church members who died as victims of the war represent 7.4 percent of the 1939 Church membership. Most studies involving Germans show deaths at about 6.7 percent (approximately 5.3 million of a national prewar population of 78 million).

Divine intervention did not protect all the German Saints or LDS leaders during the war (see Table 3). The first two supervisors of the West German Mission were killed as soldiers, and the first supervisor of the East German Mission died in a Soviet prison camp. Two district presidents were killed in battle, another in the siege on the city of Königsberg, and a fourth in an air raid on the factory in which he worked.

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Did LDS Church members join the Nazi Party?

This question has been asked more frequently than any other. Because Latter-day Saints believe in supporting governments in general, there arises for some a confl ict if the government in question appears to espouse non-Christian philosophies or programs. The findings of this study suggest that only three to five percent of adult males in the Church joined the National Socialist German Worker’s [Nazi] Party. Because membership in the party was required of state employees, several Church members were compelled to either join or lose their employment.

The Nazi Party registration of Kurt Schneider has been located and serves as a fitting example. Schneider (born 1909) was the manager of a large steel manufacturing facility in Strasbourg (German-occupied France from 1940 to 1944). He joined the Party with member number 8847219, but his record shows that he never participated in organized functions or leadership. Apparently he chose to offer the appearance of cooperation, but his Nazi Party affiliation never hindered his enthusiastic service as the president of the Strasbourg District, and after 1943, as a counselor to the supervisor of the West German Mission.

Several eyewitnesses in the West German Mission recalled distinct impressions regarding the enthusiastic Party membership of at least one branch president and one mission supervisor. The president of the Hamburg-St. Georg Branch reportedly posted a “Jews Not Permitted” sign at the meetinghouse door; and one mission leader in Frankfurt told members in several branches that Hitler’s programs were sanctioned by God and that Germany would be victorious in the war. Despite these exceptions, there is no evidence that involvement in the Nazi Party caused anything but sporadic dissension among the Saints. Several members of the Church wore Nazi Party uniforms to church due to events taking place before or after meetings, but they were never denied the opportunity to pray, preach, or participate in priesthood ordinances.

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Was the Church persecuted by Hitler’s government?

There is no evidence that the Third Reich ever instituted any ill-treatment of the Church or its members. In a country of 78 million inhabitants, the peaceful activities of a mere 13,402 (a ratio of one in 5,820 Germans) were apparently of no interest to the state. LDS men answered the call to arms and thus deported themselves as loyal citizens. Speakers in church meetings avoided any statements that cast a negative light on the government or emphasized the Saints’ relationship with the Church in the United States (Germany’s enemy after December 1941).

Paul Ranglack of the East German Mission leadership was interviewed mid-war by government officials in Berlin and instructed to have the Saints refrain from preaching about such “Jewish” (and thus anti-German) concepts as “Zion” and “Israel.” Instruction was given through President Ranglack to the Church membership in both missions that hymns which included such words were not to be sung.

Several branches saw their meeting rooms confiscated for the use of the military (as storage facilities) or the city government (for refugee housing), but such actions were not punitive in nature. Closures were usually temporary and the Saints were allowed in each case to remove branch equipment and private property. No attempts were ever made to permanently shut down a branch, though arrogant Nazis and angry neighbors were at times heard to make threats regarding what the state should do to Mormons—all Christians for that matter—once Germany won the war.

Did the secret state police investigate Church units or members?

Many eyewitnesses recalled visits made in Sunday meetings by men in long dark coats who inevitably sat on the back row of the meeting hall. Those men were assumed to be agents of the Gestapo (Gemeine Staatspolizei, or secret state police) and were most likely in attendance to determine whether neighbors filing reports of un-German activities were correct. Not one Latter-day Saint eyewitness indicated that those men ever spoke or involved themselves in any way in the proceedings. No sanctions against the Church ever resulted from such visits.

German government archives include a Gestapo record for Christian Heck, the supervisor of the West German Mission. The record was made on January 1, 1940, in his first month in that assignment (he served until mid-1943). The record states that Heck was a traveling salesman who had attended Church district conferences in various cities around the country. All details in the record were apparently provided by him and not collected by the Gestapo or provided by a third person. All information was typed, and nothing was added to the card.

Friedrich Vielstich, born 1886, was a member of the Frankfurt/Oder Branch of the East German Mission. Because he had declined on several occasions the invitation to join the Nazi Party—citing personal reasons—Party leaders requested that the Gestapo investigate the Church. It was felt that Vielstich should not be promoted as an employee of the national railway system until he relinquished his membership in what the documents called a Sekte. No other documents regarding the case of Friedrich Vielstich have survived, but he maintained his membership in the Church while three of his sons died in the service of their country.

Did Latter-day Saints oppose the German government?

Many eyewitnesses recalled how they or their parents secretly rejected Hitler, Nazism, and the Third Reich, but such opinions had to be carefully guarded. The only instance in which Church members offered active resistance to the German government occurred in Hamburg in 1941–1942, when teenagers Helmut Huebener, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and Ruddi Wobbe decided to print and distribute anti-Hitler literature. As a result of their capture and prosecution, Helmut was executed and the other two imprisoned. After it was proved that local Church leaders were totally unaware of the youths’ activities, the investigation was concluded and the Church suffered no lasting damage.

The concept of “conscientious objector” did not exist in Germany’s Third Reich. Only one LDS man is known to have refused to serve in the army—Helmut Radack of the Kiel Branch (West German Mission) did so, was arrested and died in a concentration camp a year later.

Many Saints perhaps believed that Hitler and his ruthless government would not last long in Germany. Some felt that it would be better to simply go along (despite the loss of life and property) and thus not bring upon the Church the wrath of the government. Many LDS soldiers were fortunate to serve in noncombat roles, while those in battle often sought assignments as medics or communication specialists where they would not be required to carry a weapon. Many eyewitnesses confessed to having had “a very poor aim” when firing at enemy soldiers. Acts of passive resistance were common among German and Austrian Latter-day Saints.

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Conclusion

Historians estimate that fifty-five million people died worldwide as a result of World War II. Included among those were Latter-day Saints from many lands. However, it is likely that the only LDS Church members who learned the horrors of war on both the battlefield and the home front lived in Europe. LDS membership in Germany and Austria suffered the loss of at least one thousand members, 425 of them adult men. When the smoke cleared, the Church needed to function despite the permanent loss of approximately ten percent of the priesthood holders. Losses among other demographic groups were far fewer; women and children had died, but mathematical losses were quite tolerable in comparison to those of the men.