“Did you know that the Church has said that because of the Depression they recognize that many families cannot support a full-time missionary, and young men should not feel obligated to go?”
“No, I didn’t hear that, but it’s not a surprise.”
“So. . . .” Noah picked up a pebble and flicked it away.
“So what? Don’t stop there.”
“So Liesel and I talked with both of our parents the night before we left to come camping. They agree that a mission is not likely. So. . . .” This time a huge smile broke out. “Liesel and I plan to get engaged at Christmas and married next June.”
“You old dog, you!” Benji cried, slapping him on the shoulder. “Congratulations! Liesel is a jewel. You’re lucky she’ll have you. That’s great, Noah! I really mean it. I’m so pleased for you both. For years we’ve all said that you two were meant for each other.”
“Thanks, Benj. That means a lot.”
August 10, 1933, 9:30 p.m.—Irish Canyons Camp
Emilee carefully slipped out through the tent flaps, stopped and listened for a moment, and then walked over to the campfire and sat down in an empty camp chair beside Edie.
“Are they asleep?” Edie asked, in German.
“Finally.” Emilee smiled. “Mitch and Edie, how can we ever thank you for creating such a wonderful experience for all of us?”
“Amen to that,” Jacob said. “It’s been a fantastic few days.”
Adelia nodded vigorously. “My children are saying this is one of the best trips ever.”
“We’re glad,” Edie said. “It helps a lot when everyone pitches in and helps out so cheerfully. And I love how the kids have bonded, from the oldest to the youngest.”
Mitch turned to Emilee and Inga. “I know it’s getting late, but since this is our last time together without interruption, I have a request. Would you be willing to share with us what’s been happening in Germany since Hitler became chancellor? And what impact all of these changes are having on your family?”
“Also on the Church and its members,” Edie added.
Emilee turned to Inga and they exchanged glances. The two women conferred together quietly for a moment and agreed that Emilee would take the lead. With that, she began. “Let us first talk about what is happening in our government. We have written in previous letters about how the Führer came to power. And the role of the Reichstag fire in all of that. Is that clear to you?”
“Pretty much,” Edie said. “We still are amazed at how quickly things changed. Change in our government comes much more slowly.”
The others nodded too, so Emilee continued. “On the day after the fire, President Hindenburg signed the presidential decree that gave full power to Hitler. After that, things moved very swiftly. In a matter of weeks, we had new laws, new government departments, new restrictions on our freedoms, and much more government intrusion into our lives than ever before.”
“Did those laws directly affect the Church?” Edie asked.
“Yes and no. They weren’t aimed at the Church, but they affected us along with everyone else. For example, the government passed an edict stating that any time the Nazi Party has a large political rally in a city, all other programs, meetings, or events have to be canceled. That directly affected our Sunday meetings in some cities, since most rallies are held on Sundays.”
Inga spoke quietly. “In April, the new government passed what was known as the Civil Service Law. It said that no Jew could hold any position in the government, including judgeships. Also, Jewish professors at national or state-owned universities were dismissed. Dozens of Brown Shirts suddenly swarmed the campuses, going from class to class, office to office. All who were Jewish—even tenured professors—were given only a few minutes to pack their things and then were escorted off campus and told never to come back.”
“Can they do that?” Edie cried. Then instantly she realized what a foolish question that was. They were doing it.
Mitch spoke up. “There have always been strong anti-Semitic feelings among many of the German people. And that’s not unique to them. Most other European countries, including France and England, have large numbers who hold deep prejudices against the Jews. This dates clear back to the Crusades, when many Jews were killed before the Christian armies ever left Europe. But under the constitution of the Weimar Republic, which was set up right after the war, minority rights were protected by law. Now, obviously, those laws are being overturned.”
“Ja, ja,” Inga said. “A recent decree demands that all citizens boycott Jewish shops or businesses. The Jews are now required to post a sign or a Star of David on the outside of their shop to show that it is owned or run by Jews. It is so sad. If you do dare to enter such shops, passersby will stop and scream at you, even threaten to call the police and report you. So most people just stay away now.”
“But it’s not just the Jews,” Emilee added. “Another law called the Law Against Diseased Offspring created what they are calling a ‘Genetic Health Court.’ They have come up with a whole list of genetic disorders that can be passed on to children. People with these disorders are subject to mandatory sterilization.”
Adelia turned to Jacob and whispered something. She could understand most German, but didn’t know these last two words. When Jacob translated those for her, she was deeply shocked. “Sterilization?”
Emilee responded. “The law includes congenital defects such as mental deficiencies—manic-depressive disorders, disease, schizophrenia, hereditary blindness or deafness, epilepsy. Also those suffering from severe alcoholism.”
Edie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re saying that a person who was born blind can be sterilized without his or her permission?”
Inga nodded. “Those deemed as carrying bad genes are asked to voluntarily submit to sterilization. But if they refuse, the state can make it mandatory. This is done so that the so-called Aryan gene pool is not contaminated by this inferior stock.”
Emilee suddenly leaned forward. “Oh, and we must say this. When you write to us, or call us on the phone, please do not talk about any of this with us. Don’t even mention it. One of the powers granted to Hitler after the Reichstag fire was the suspension of our privacy rights, including mail, telegrams, and telephone privacy. We don’t think they are listening yet, or opening our mail, but we can’t be sure. So we must be very careful.”
Jacob spoke up again. “What we have to remember is that, strange as it seems in our form of government, Hitler did all of this legally. Once he was chancellor, he manipulated the Reichstag and they gave him everything he demanded with hardly any opposition. And so virtually overnight, Germany went from a parliamentary democracy to a total dictatorship.”
Emilee was nodding somberly. “Some of the new laws are good, others are petty and mostly an annoyance, but some have enormous consequences. For example, less than a month after the sterilization law, they passed a bill called the Law for Removing Distress of the People and the Reich. Sounds like a good thing to do. Who would not like distress removed, ja? More commonly, the law was called ‘the Enabling Act,’ because it enabled Hitler and his government to consolidate and combine all power into one head. For example, our courts no longer have juries. Instead, they have three judges, all of whom must be approved by the Nazi Party.”
“And that’s not all,” Inga went on. “Even the defense attorneys for the accused have to be preapproved by the government. So the entire court is stacked against people.”
“Wow, there goes any hope of a fair trial,” Mitch murmured. “So tell us how the Church is being affected by all this.”
“Well, let me first say how our families are being affected, though here again, this isn’t coming from laws directly aimed at our Church but at the nation in general. Hitler is going after the youth. He has a favorite saying: ‘He who owns the youth, owns the future.’ In the Hitler Youth Camp
s, the youth are thoroughly indoctrinated in National Socialist thinking and philosophy. Mein Kampf, Hitler’s autobiography, is required reading now in all of the schools. And all of the school textbooks have been or are being rewritten by Nazi authors.”
Mitch gave a low whistle. “That can’t be cheap. You’ve got to be talking about millions of books.”
Inga nodded. “And as part of that indoctrination, children are encouraged to report their parents if they are doing or saying anything subversive, which now includes even making jokes that are critical of the Nazis.”
“And they actually do it?” Edie asked in astonishment. “Children actually turn against their own parents?”
“Not all, but a lot do,” Emilee said. “You know children. They’re always clashing with their parents over this or that. It’s a powerful weapon in the hands of babes.”
“Ja, ja,” Inga said. “One of my granddaughters reported her father. Edie, you and Mitch met him when you came to Oberammergau. Klaus. He had criticized the Gauleiter, the local head of the Nazi Party in our area, because he was taking public funds to build himself a chalet in the Alps. Everyone knew that the man was stealing money from the town coffers. But after Klaus said that, one of his children reported him to her schoolteacher, who then told the local officials.”
“Was this Miki?” Jacob asked in astonishment.
“No, it was her sister, Monika, who is twelve. Twelve, if you can believe it! But Miki urged her to do it.”
Edie was gaping at her. “And what happened?”
“Fortunately, Klaus is a very loyal party member, so he got off with a sharp reprimand and a warning to keep his mouth shut.”
“And they did nothing about the crooked politician?” Adelia asked.
“Nein. If anything, it made him all the more powerful. Now no one dares to criticize him.”
Jacob spoke up again. “It’s easy for us to be critical, but we have to remember what has been happening in Germany the last twenty years. The German people have been through hell for two decades now. First it was the Great War, where they lost two million of their sons in war and millions of civilians died from widespread starvation and lack of fuel. Then came the devastating and humiliating loss of the war and the draconian armistice imposed on them by the conquerors. This was followed by widespread Communist and Bolshevik revolutions, crushing monetary inflation, and now the Great Depression. As someone once noted, the people will almost always choose a dictatorship over anarchy, because the dictatorship at least brings a measure of stability.”
“And the Führer has brought stability,” Mitch said. “Their rate of unemployment is lower now than here in America.”
A long silence fell over the group as the Americans retreated into their own thoughts. Inga’s words had chilled them to the bone, and each one was trying to picture what such conditions would mean in their own lives.
“And where does Hans stand in all of this?” Mitch finally asked. “You said that he is disenchanted with the party too, right?”
“He was. And is. But, thanks be to the Lord, he’s distancing himself from the Nazis.” Emilee then briefly told them about Alemann Zeidner and how they were working on seeing if the university would hire Hans on as a teacher.
Jacob clapped his hands and laughed aloud. “Hans! A university professor? Wunderbar! That’s incredible.”
Adelia, who had been silent for a time, stirred. “I know it’s getting late, and that we have a big day tomorrow, but I would really like to hear more about the Church over there. How are the members and missionaries being affected by all of this?”
Inga responded. “For the most part, the constitution of the Weimar Republic guarantees religious freedom. So there is not any ‘state’ persecution of missionaries that I know of, like there was many years ago when they were often thrown in jail. But there are isolated incidents where missionaries have been harassed and even arrested for preaching the gospel. But these are almost always a local problem.”
“Local in what way?” Edie asked.
Emilee replied. “Well, usually a pastor or a priest in one of the smaller towns or villages gets angry when our missionaries start to ‘steal their sheep,’ as they put it. So they complain to the local constable, often making false accusations about them. Things like saying that the missionaries are being highly critical of the government. So the local police arrest them and interrogate them. Sometimes they put them in jail overnight and then expel them from the town or village and tell them to never come back. Even though that is not legal.”
“Here’s another example of what she’s talking about,” Inga said. “Our district president in Hamburg was arrested and charged with spying for the United States.”
Jacob jerked forward. “Really? That’s a capital offense, right?”
“It is. As it turned out, he had been collecting the names of members from the Hamburg District who were serving in the military at that time so that he could send them copies of our Church magazine and other literature. But the officials believed he was gathering data on the army that he planned to turn over to American intelligence.”
“Now that’s scary,” Mitch murmured.
“Yes. Once he convinced them that the materials were not subversive in any way, they let him go. But the harassment continued. For months, the Gestapo and local police monitored their meetings. They demanded that the president stop all youth gatherings or activities of any kind. The district president later reported that some members stopped coming to church out of fear.”
Inga went on. “There are a few cases where there is distinct bias against us by government agencies, including the Gestapo, but according to what our leaders have ascertained, this is not being orchestrated from Berlin. For example, in Karlsruhe, our members are treated very well and have a positive working relationship with the local Gestapo and the constabulary. But our branches in Breslau, Dresden, and Hamburg have suffered intense and consistent harassment. The state of Saxony recently banned our missionaries altogether.”
Then Emilee spoke up. “We did have one tragic incident in April of this year. Two of our missionaries in Hindenburg were stopped by one of the Brown Shirts, who asked to see their papers and demanded to know what they were doing. When they tried to explain who they were, the trooper flew into a rage. He removed his belt and savagely beat one elder with his belt buckle, making several deep lacerations on his head. They took the elder to a local hospital for treatment. But this attack was not initiated by the Gestapo. In fact, the local Gestapo office reprimanded the Brown Shirt and apologized to the elders. But they still recommended that, for their own safety, the missionaries leave town and not come back.”
“Reprimanded?” Edie cried. “That’s all the Gestapo did to the Brown Shirt? The elders should have pressed charges.”
Emilee blanched. “You don’t press charges against the Brown Shirts. Not ever! You just shut your mouth and move on.” She took a quick breath. “Sometimes the missionaries have been less than wise and created problems for themselves. A missionary in Dusseldorf, I think it was, was savagely beaten by a crowd when he refused to salute the Nazi flag as it passed by in a parade.”
“Surely that instruction didn’t come from the mission president,” Mitch snorted.
“No,” Emilee agreed. “It’s what Hans calls the stupid factor. I don’t like the word ‘stupid,’ but sometimes the missionaries are quite naive. You’d think anyone would know that when you are a guest in a foreign country that it’s not acceptable to insult their flag. To further compound the problem, when the missionary was questioned by the Gestapo about it afterward, he got very huffy and said that he refused to honor the flag of a country that was led by an evil dictator.”
Mitch groaned. “He’s lucky he’s not still in prison.”
“The mission president had to promise the Gestapo that the missionary would be sent to another mission and woul
d never set foot in Germany again.”
“I know they’re just boys in a way,” Inga said, “but they really can be pretty naive. In our mission, down near the Swiss-Austrian border, two American missionaries were passing through a town when they saw a large Nazi flag hanging on the side of a public building. They took a few pictures, then, seeing that there was no one else around, they decided to take the flag down and wrap themselves in it as if it were a blanket. They did so, taking pictures of one another to send back to America.”
“And they got caught?” Adelia cried.
“Actually no, not then. After taking their photos, they hung the flag back up and went on their way. But when they had the photos developed, the owner of the store called the Gestapo. Fortunately, the Gestapo officer concluded that it was the stupid factor in this case and let them off on condition they be sent out of Germany too.”
Adelia decided to move on to something else and whispered something to Jacob. He nodded and translated for her. “We read about the book burnings last May. That made all the papers here. People were shocked and highly incensed, especially when they read some of the titles that were being burned. But the papers here said that a lot of students were involved. Did Lisa and Jo have to participate in that, Emilee?”
Emilee was staring at the fire. “Ja, and they hated it,” she finally said. “It made Jo physically sick. And Lisa, who loves books and loves to read, was so angry, we finally had to warn her quite pointedly that if she let her emotions show, she could get all of us arrested.”
“Hans told me that you were right up in the front row when the books were set on fire,” Jacob said.
“That’s right. Because of Hans’s position in the party, we were treated as VIPs. They seated us on the front row, just a few yards from this massive stack of books.” Emilee looked up, and her expression was grave. “It was awful. For all of us. And what made it even worse was how the people cheered and shouted and stomped their feet when they set the stack on fire.”
Fire and Steel, Volume 6 Page 5