Under the Gun: West German and Austrian Latter-Day Saints in World War II

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Roger P. Minert. Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University in cooperation with Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011. Hardbound, 8.5x11", 528 pages.

As World War II raged across Europe, thousands of German Latter-day Saints found themselves embroiled in the conflict. Hundreds served in the German military as their loved ones at home struggled to keep their families and the Church alive. Many were evicted from their homes and never allowed to return. The collective stories of how they lived - and died - under those conditions have never been told. This volume brings together the accounts of hundreds of Church members who survived the war, preserved in hundreds of personal interviews, journals, letters, and photographs. Their stories of joy and suffering are presented in this book against the background of the rise and the collapse of the Third Reich. Readers will be amazed at the faith and dedication demonstrated by these Saints, young and old, military and civilian. Here are just a few of the many accounts included in this volume:

Church members became very, very close. Everybody helped each other. It was a great time of togetherness. Also, after losing it all, those who had formerly been deemed wealthy were just like all the rest. Now we were all equal. No one had any more than anyone else. War is a great equalizer.
—Lydia Ruf Wright, Stuttgart Branch

With a broken heart, I knelt before the wreckage of my home and prayed to my Father in Heaven to help me recover the body of my wife from the ruins intact. I wanted to find and identify her among the sixteen persons killed in that building. A great effort was made and my purpose achieved. Along with many others, she was buried in a mass grave at the Freiburg cemetery. From that time on, I have endeavored to preach the gospel with greater energy.
—Karl Becker, Freiburg Branch

My father has been outside watching things. Then he came into the basement and said, "We all have to get out right now! The house is on fire!" We had felt something hit the house, but in all of the commotion, we didn't know what it was. So we ran out into the street and saw that our house was on fire. There was no fire department to help. Then my father and some neighbor men went back in to save some stuff. They brought our piano out too. The house burned to the ground, but we had our piano out in the street. I played the piano, and then my sister played the song "Freut Euch des Lebens" (Let's All Be Happy).
—Liesellotte Pruess Schmidt, St. Georg Branch

Contents

Acknowledgments

Gedenkbuch (Memorial Book)
Major Events of World War II
West German Mission
Bielefeld District
Bielefeld Branch
Herford Branch
Minden Branch
Munchehagen Branch
Stadthagen Branch
Bremen District
Bremen Branch
Wesermunde-Lehe Branch
Wilhelmshaven Branch
Frankfurt District
Bad Homburg Branch
Darmstadt Branch
Frankfurt Branch
Mainz Branch
Michelstadt Branch
Offenbach Branch
Hamburg District
Altona Branch
Barmbek Branch
Gluckstadt Branch
Lubeck Branch
St. Georg ranch
Stade Branch
Hanover District
Braunschweig Branch
Celle Branch
Gottingen Branch
Goslar Group
Hanover Branch
Kassel Branch
Uelzen Branch
Karlsruhe District
Durlach Branch
Karlsruhe Branch
Mannheim Branch
Pforzheim Branch
Saarbrucken Branch
Worms Branch
Munich District
Augsburg Branch
Frankenburg Branch
Haag am Hausruck Branch
Munich Branch
Salzburg Branch
Nuremberg District
Coburg Branch
Furth Branch
Nuremberg Branch
Ruhr District
Benrath Branch
Bochum Branch
Buer Branch
Cologne Branch
Dortmund Branch
Dusseldorf Branch
Essen Branch
Herne Brance
Oberhausen Branch
Wuppertal Branch
Schleswig-Holstein District
Flensburg Branch
Friedrichstadt Branch
Kiel Branch
Rendsburg Branch
Strasbourg District
Buhl Branch
Freiburg Branch
Strasbourg Branch
Stuttgart District
Esslingen Branch
Feuerbach Branch
Goppingen Branch
Heilbronn Branch
Reutlingen Branch
Stuttgart Branch
Vienna District
Linz Branch
Vienna Branch
Weimar District
Erfurt Branch
Gera Branch
Gotha Branch
Nordhausen Branch
Weimar Branch