Over 15,000 Mormons living in Hitler’s highly nationalistic Germany gave their allegiance to the Church with its strong American image, and most maintained that allegiance even during the difficult war years. How did they manage to remain both German and Mormon in such an environment? What happened to them because of their religious convictions? Did they go to concentration camps, as did the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Did they have to modify their traditional Mormon beliefs to survive?

There are a number of myths about Mormons in Nazi Germany, and while some are grounded in truth, others border on the ridiculous. Rumors abound about Mormons serving as officers in the Party and holding high military rank. Allegedly, Adolf Hitler so admired the Mormon hierarchical structure that he patterned his party after it. Thus the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Associations supposedly corresponded to the Nazi Jugend and Bund der deutschen Madel, and the Relief Society to the Frauen schaft. Some believe the Nazi practice of eating a single course meal on particular days (Eintopftag) originated in the Mormon fast day. Contrary to, but coexistent with these myths, are tales of Nazi-Mormon incompatability, including severe persecution. What are we to believe?

Coming to terms with these myths requires an examination of existing records. Although virtually all Church property in Germany was destroyed in bombing raids, most written records were preserved because they were sent regularly to Salt Lake City. These records are only of limited value, however, since the record keepers of necessity avoided allusion to political events. Written communications between mission authorities and missionaries are difficult to find. Practically all such material was destroyed lest it fall into the hands of the police. It was therefore necessary to supplement these records with information gleaned from questionnaires sent to Mormons currently living in Germany and from interviews with mission presidents, missionaries, and members who lived in Hitler’s Reich. Many of the German converts who immigrated to this country after the War provided valuable information, although some were reluctant or even hostile to questions about their experience.

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Was it possible to be both a good Mormon and a good Nazi? Roy A. Welker, president of the German-Austrian mission from 1934 to 1937, remembered one member who was a party official and also a great help to the Church. But other than that single reference, I found nothing which indicates that any Mormon held a leadership position within the Nazi party, rumor to the contrary. Exact statistics do not exist, but the records mention no Mormons who were prominent in either the district (Gau) or national party circles. Usually those Mormons who joined the Nazi party became inactive in the Church or severed their relationship with it entirely. In Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, and other cities, several Mormons, including a few Church leaders, openly sympathized with the Nazi cause and on occasion used the Church as a vehicle to promote party and personal interests. Most sermons, tracts and communications, however, dealt with gospel, not political, topics.

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Perhaps the basic explanation of the Church’s ability to survive during the Nazi years lay in the Mormon teaching of the fundamental separation of church and state. Mormons have always considered the support of civil law and authority a basic tenet of their faith. If civil laws conflict with religious beliefs most Mormons take the attitude that they are to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” . . . Many Mormons in Nazi Germany undoubtedly used this rationale to avoid facing the issue of opposing an immoral regime and to extricate themselves from the collective shame and guilt placed upon the German population by the Nazi government.

This is not to imply that Mormons were untouched by political developments. Problems did not arise if local party officials were favorably disposed toward the Church, but members lived in constant fear of somehow incurring the wrath of even minor party functionaries. M. Douglas Wood, the last prewar president of the West German Mission, stated that members of the Church were “petrified” with fear and reported to him that Gestapo agents had been spying on Church services. Local members particularly feared that politically naive American missionaries would cause problems. When one young missionary from the United States discussed the causes of World War I during a speech in district conference, the mission president stopped him; he then extolled the German government in order to calm the members’ fears. Two other indiscreet missionaries had their pictures taken draped in a Nazi flag and gave the film to one of their friends for processing. Delighted with the photographs, they had extra copies made. This time, unfortunately, they sent the film to another processor who immediately turned them over to the Gestapo. The mission president transferred the two out of Germany before they were arrested, but their friend who first processed their film was sent to a concentration camp.

As the Nazis consolidated their power, the Mormons suffered increasing pressures. One frustrating regulation followed another. One by one, freedoms were removed, activities hampered or forbidden. Scouting, a major part of the Church’s youth activity, had to be eliminated in favor of the Hitler Youth Movement. Missionaries found their funds cut off when the government refused to allow the Church to send money through the German postal system, although this right was restored after an appeal to the courts. Even Mormon hymns were censored.

By early 1939, missionaries were not allowed to distribute certain tracts, and various books could no longer be sold or even read. Talmage’s Articles of Faith was forbidden because its many references to Zion and Israel were unpalatable to the Nazis. Local party officials sometimes prohibited street meetings and outlawed tracting.

Small branches continued to operate even under the growing list of prohibitions, but by August, 1939, Church leaders, fearing for the safety of American missionaries, ordered their evacuation.[18] In a matter of days all the missionaries from Germany and Czechoslovakia crossed into Denmark and Holland.

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Did the Germans change any of the Church doctrines during their isolation from the outside? Otto Berndt, named acting mission president of the West German Mission after the war, traveled through that mission and reported that little extraneous ritual or doctrine had crept into the services. Some local Church authorities had instructed the members to rise whenever Church officers came into the services, a practice generally reserved to show respect for the president of the Church. In meetings, however, the members continued to ‘ testify to the divinity of the Mormon Church and did not repudiate the divine ‘ call of the General Authorities in the United States.

In spite of superficial similarities between the Church organization and the Nazi Party structure, no connection existed between the two. The Nazis on their own were careful to keep traditional Christian forms intact. Nazi speakers often used familiar Christian imagery. Hitler’s closest companions were called his “apostles,” while he himself was often referred to as the “savior.” Mormons could easily see such similarities, but any parallels which existed between the Church and the Party resulted from circumstance rather than plan. Hitler may have known of the Church’s organization, but the Russian Communist Party or any other political party could just as easily have served as a model for his master plan. A few members stretched a point to show the leadership principle manifest in both Mormonism and Nazism, with the president as undisputed leader of the Church, and the Führer occupying the same position in the party. The SA and the SS could, they said, have been the equivalents of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods, but such reasoning shows an incomplete understanding of both Church and party organization and particularly of the functions of each.

The Church’s stand on the Jewish question could have seriously damaged its position in Germany during the Third Reich. Mormon literature refers to the Jews as a “chosen people” and speaks of their return to their homeland. Solomon Schwarz, a deacon in the Barmbeck Branch and one of a few members with some Jewish blood, was not afraid to admit it. The Gestapo forced him to wear the Star of David on his arm and later sent him to Theresienstadt concentration camp where presumably he died, his Mormon membership notwithstanding.

Evidently a few German Mormons harbored anti-Semitic feelings. In the Altona Branch chapel, someone placed a sign on the door stating that Jews were not allowed to visit the meetings. This was common practice on public buildings throughout Germany but shockingly out of place on a Mormon meeting house. Rudolf Kaufmann was denied baptism by his branch president in Hamburg in 1941 because he was partly Jewish. The district president, however, overrode his decision and performed the baptism.

Church members have reported that they knew of the horrors to which the Jews were subjected. One Mormon, an expert mechanic, described his task of installing specialized machinery at Auschwitz concentration camp. The atrocities he witnessed so horrified him that he eventually suffered a mental collapse. The majority of Mormons, however, avoided the Jewish problem if at all possible and were terrified if missionaries attempted to convert people with Jewish blood to the Church.

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While many individual cases of persecution occurred, the Nazi government never attempted systematically to destroy the Mormons as it did the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Those Mormons who served sentences in concentration camps were not interned because of their religious beliefs but because of politically motivated statements or acts. Heinrich Worbs, a Mormon residing in Hamburg, spent six months in a camp for disparaging remarks he made at the unveiling of a statue honoring a Nazi war hero. He died soon after his release from the tortures he had suffered.

Thus, while the Church operated on a greatly limited scale in Germany during the Third Reich, and especially during the chaotic war years, its growth was hindered more by fear and general pressures than by organized Nazi persecution. While some Mormons actively supported the Nazi regime and a few tried to undermine it, the majority simply accommodated themselves to it, outwardly at least.

A terribly difficult question, however, lies behind this historical record: the proper position of the Church toward the Nazi regime. Was it enough to keep the Church organization running smoothly with the hope that it could eventually ride out the peril, or should the Church have actively resisted the Nazis? Church members who followed the teachings of the Church to obey the government of their country found that their religious beliefs did not cause them any particular trouble. Those who opposed the regime generally died for that opposition.

In an interview after the American performance of his play The Deputy, the German playwright Rolk Hochhuth said: “To me, Pius (Pope Pius XII) is a symbol, not only for all leaders, but for all men—Christians, Atheists, Jews. For all men who are passive when their brother is deported to death. Pius was at the top of the hierarchy and, therefore, he had the greatest duty to speak. But every man—Protestants, the Jews .. . all had the duty to speak.”

Some young, idealistic German Mormons agree with Hochhuth’s position and criticize their Church’s policy of noninterference in political affairs. To condemn, however, comes easily, particularly with hindsight. To be caught opposing the Nazi regime meant imprisonment or death. Few Mormons today can comprehend the force of living under such fear. While acknowledging the nobility of dying to oppose Hitler, many argue that living for a greater cause, the Church, is even more noble.