What I found after examining a number of sources was that the American missionaries had mixed feelings about Hitler. They received certain favors, but they also were limited in their work. They saw virtues in some of Hitler’s arguments, but they also recognized weaknesses. But I also found that these responses were not limited to Latter-day Saints; most churches had mixed feelings about Hitler, and Hitler gave confused messages to religious organizations. This paper will explore Hitler’s relationships with churches and then focus on the missionaries’ views of the relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Nazi government.

. . .

For Latter-day Saints, survival in Nazi Germany took a variety of twists and turns. The missionaries were allowed to teach the gospel up until they were withdrawn in 1939 at the beginning of the war in Europe. In fact, during the Hitler regime the Church received some favorable press. After some discussion with American governmental leaders, missionaries were allowed to purchase registered deutsche marks, which they received at a better exchange rate. At the same time, though, missionary work was limited, some tracts could not be distributed because of their comments about Zion and Jews, some songs about Zion could not be sung in meetings, and the Church youth program was essentially eliminated since all young Germans were required to be part of Hitler Youth. Because they had both successes and failures with Nazis, the missionaries’ views of Hitler and the National Socialist party were both positive and negative.

Missionaries’ Positive Views of Hitler

Elmer Stettler, the son of Swiss immigrants to Logan, Utah, who served a mission in Germany during the 1930s, summarized some of the positive views that missionaries had of Hitler. He recalled: “When we came home [from our missions], we loved the German people. We didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing. We liked Hitler. We would just eat up articles where some of his news people were showing how the pioneers were organized into groups. They were tying our LDS history into kicking the Germans out of their colonies in Africa. We used it for material to disseminate the gospel.” . . . Sanford Bingham, a missionary at the same time as my father, felt the same way. After listening to one of Hitler’s speeches after Germany took over Austria, Bingham concluded, “I’m afraid if I stayed here a few more years I would become completely Nazified myself.” John M. Russon, who was also on a mission in Germany, recalled the positive press that the Church received during the Hitler regime. He explained, “So we missionaries didn’t have all that harsh a feeling toward Hitler except, of course, for the dictatorship, which was opposed to our basic principle of free agency.”

Roy Welker and his wife, Elizabeth, were especially persuaded by Hitler because he seemed to like the Church. Roy Welker recalled in an oral history interview, “My personal opinion was that Hitler was very much impressed with the LDS faith and Church and its practices.” He recalled that when he went to Germany in 1934 Hitler was just coming to power and that he and his wife didn’t know what would happen. He added: “As things unfolded, we saw ourselves more favorably situated than we had anticipated and we were happily surprised. Then when Mother [Roy’s wife, Elizabeth] got in with this national women’s organization and was indirectly associated with Hitler, it was a great relief to us. . . . Things went along well; we didn’t have any trouble to speak of.”

. . .

Missionaries’ Negative Views of Hitler

Not all of the missionaries’ comments about Hitler were positive. Fred Duersch Sr. recalled watching the Nazis take a family away: “We still don’t know why. Apparently from the reports we got, they were doing something against Hitler. That was one of the first bad experiences that I had. It sort of turned me against Hitler.”

. . .

Conclusion

The American missionaries’ views of Hitler varied during the 1930s. Ralph Sanford Kelly wrote in his journal in 1933 that he saw Hitler drive by and then commented, “I had seen Germany’s god.” But Sanford Bingham wrote in his journal after attending a lecture in Basel, Switzerland, that “the speaker’s main point was probably the fact that National Socialism is forcing the people to worship Hitler instead of God.” Bingham recorded, “It was just a lot of bunk to me.” He added in the oral history interview, “You see, at that time I thought that's really an exaggeration that Hitler was forcing the people to believe that he’s a god.” With a more complete picture of history, we can see that those who thought negatively of Hitler were probably right. Yet for those missionaries who grew to love the German people and wanted to share the gospel with them, tolerating Hitler seemed the best course of action at that time.