by Tim Townsend
Thanks to Mark Silk of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and the faculty of the Religion Department at Trinity College in Hartford for reading and critiquing an early chapter of the book. And to Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office for a thoughtful conversation at a hectic time. To Miroslav Volf and his sons, Nathaniel and Aaron Volf, and to Peter Kuzmic. Thank you, Miroslav, for letting me tag along on Memory Lane, and for the insights of a truly great teacher. Speaking of good teachers, thanks to Sam Freedman at Columbia University for the early encouragement that the right good idea really can, and should, become a book, and to my mentor and champion at Columbia, Michael Janeway. To Steve Hayes and Brent Cunningham, for their friendship and guidance as we all became authors.
Special thanks to Professor Michael C. Rea and Professor Samuel Newlands of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Philosophy of Religion. The center’s generous grant toward my reporting, through its “The Problem of Evil in Modern and Contemporary Thought” initiative, supported by the John Templeton Foundation, helped fill a number of holes in my research.
For the time each took out of their lives to read various sections of the manuscript for accuracy, thank you to Rabbi Hyim Shafner, Rabbi Mark Shook, Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman, the Reverend Travis Scholl, and John Q. Barrett.
Thanks to my former colleagues at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who gave me advice, moral support, and—most important—their friendship as I wrote this book. I discovered Henry Gerecke’s name while writing a story for the Post-Dispatch. And it was also in the P-D newsroom that I discovered, over nearly a decade of journalism’s darkest days, that great reporters and editors do inspiring and important work regardless of obstacles. They can’t help it.
Thank you to my editor at William Morrow, Henry Ferris, for his patience and direction, and to Cole Hager, Danny Goldstein, and Laurie McGee.
My agent, Eric Simonoff, was the calm pool I dove for each time I felt overwhelmed or unsure or like I might die. Thank you, Eric, for your friendship, and for not letting me die.
Thank you to the Michauds for their love, their wine, and their beautiful daughters, Alabama and Hattie, who offered the best title suggestions. Thank you to Ingrid and George Gustin, the generous codirectors of the Yellow Cave Foundation for Nonfiction Immersion. The YCFNI was the only writers’ colony that would have me, and I wouldn’t have wanted to write the first draft of this book anywhere else. To my parents, Patty and Ted Townsend, who allowed their children to be anything they wanted to be, and celebrated them even when those choices were weird along the way. Thank you. I love you.
Finally, Georgina—as Toots said—it is you.
Source Notes
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The examination of the Third Reich at the Nuremberg trials is among the most written-about events of the twentieth century. In writing this book, I read dozens of others about the Trial of Major War Criminals and the horrific events that made it necessary. But I relied most heavily on some of the classics of the genre. Especially: Eugene Davidson’s The Trial of the Germans, Ann and John Tusa’s The Nuremberg Trial, Telford Taylor’s The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, and Joseph Persico’s Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial. Richard Overy’s work on the legal mechanics of the run-up to the trials was essential. Robert Wistrich’s Who’s Who in Nazi Germany helped me keep the bad guys straight, and Hilary Gaskin’s oral history of the trial, Eyewitness at Nuremberg, was invaluable in helping me set the Nuremberg scene outside the Palace of Justice (as were Taylor, and Rebecca West’s A Train of Powder). Finally, The Third Reich at War by Richard J. Evans kept everything I was writing about in context.
CHAPTER 1
1 “There had been men . . .”: West, “Greenhouse with Cyclamens I (1946),” p. 21.
1 His voice was high pitched: Persico, Nuremberg, p. 49.
2 Andrus felt the weight: Andrus and Zwar, I Was the Nuremberg Jailer, p. 158.
2 they were treated: Gerecke and Sinclair, “I Walked the Gallows.”
2 “I will go anywhere . . .”: Persico, Nuremberg, p. 50.
3 their last meal: “Night Without Dawn.”
3 asked for a brush and duster: Tusa and Tusa, Nuremberg Trial, p. 484.
3 He’d told Keitel: Davidson, Trial of the Germans, p. 353.
3 the general nodded curtly: Persico, Nuremberg, p. 403.
3 “Defendant Wilhelm Keitel, . . .”: Conot, Justice at Nuremberg, p. 505, and Harris, Tyranny on Trial, p. 479.
4 he’d chosen Boston: Powers, “A Friar’s Recollection.”
4 Gerecke was the first: Gerecke and Sinclair, “I Walked the Gallows.”
4 then sobbed uncontrollably: See Andrus and Zwar, I Was the Nuremberg Jailer, p. 158; Conot, Justice at Nuremberg, p. 505; and Gerecke and Sinclair, “I Walked the Gallows.”
4 gave the general a final benediction: Andrus and Zwar, I Was the Nuremberg Jailer, p. 158.
4 Martin Luther’s favorite: Hank Gerecke interview, 13 July 2011.
4 The Lord bless you: Numbers 6:24–26, American King James Version.
5 Henry Gerecke was late for dinner: Henry F. Gerecke, Toastmasters speech.
5 The eldest, twenty-two-year-old Hank: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 June 2011.
5 “I heard you,” Alma said: Henry F. Gerecke, Toastmasters speech.
6 He urged church organizations: “Army Issues Call for 859 Chaplains.”
6 there wasn’t much she could do: Hank Gerecke interview, various.
7 most important year of his life: Hank Gerecke interview, 2 February 2008.
7 “one of the most singular . . .”: Hourihan, “U.S. Army Chaplain Ministry to German War Criminals.”
7 For the first time in history: Overy, “The Nuremberg Trials,” p. 2.
7 “a bench mark in international law . . .”: Taylor, Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, p. 4.
8 “made scarcely any impression on us”: Fritzsche, Sword in the Scales, p. 55.
8 “Pastor Gerecke’s view was . . .”: Ibid., pp. 55–56.
9 They walked out the door: Gerecke and Sinclair, “I Walked the Gallows.”
9 Near the city’s ancient: “Night Without Dawn.”
9 Looming ahead of them: Tilles, By the Neck Until Dead, pp. 131–312.
9 One of the walls had a single poster: Tusa and Tusa, Nuremberg Trial, p. 482.
10 Left of the main gallows: Henry F. Gerecke, “My Assignment with the International Military Tribunal at Nuernberg, Germany.” [hereafter Gerecke, “My Assignment”]
10 Two MPs took Keitel: Tilles, By the Neck Until Dead, pp. 130–131.
10 He then turned on the heels: See ibid. and “Night Without Dawn.”
10 The chaplain knew Keitel’s mother: Gerecke and Sinclair, “I Walked the Gallows.”
10 He found the field marshal penitent: Gerecke, “My Assignment.”
11 “On his knees and under . . .”: Ibid.
12 “Gerecke had made friends . . .”: Schirach, Price of Glory, p. 88.
12 then “thanked the priest . . .”: “Defiant to the Last.”
CHAPTER 2
13 “God our Father . . .”: Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian,” p. 283.
13 the Benders were living: See Gould’s Street and Avenue Directory of St. Louis, Red-Blue Book. Bender, Jacob.
13 Jacob Bender’s own father: Jacob Bender and Margaretha Bucher. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805–2002.
13 in an apartment next to: See Gould’s Directory and 1900 U.S. Census. City of St. Louis, Missouri. Ward 11. District 162. Sheet 3.
13 Henry moved in with his in-laws: Gould’s Directory, Henry F. Gerecke.
14 did not allow its students: Meyer, Log Cabin, p. 129.
14 he had to go to work: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 June 2011.
14 New World Commercial C
o.: Gould’s Directory, Henry F. Gerecke.
14 Henry feared he would never: Henry F. Gerecke, “Here’s a Little Background.”
14 There was an ornately carved: DeBellis, 100 Years of Reel Entertainment, p. 6.
15 Wehrenberg “saw how the crowds . . .”: Ibid., pp. 9–10.
15 little sister, Nora, died: Leonora Gerecke, Death Certificate.
15 doctors cost too much: Hank Gerecke interview, 23 March 2011.
15 Henry was furious: Ibid.
16 “the beginning of my comeback”: Gerecke, “Here’s a Little Background.”
16 died of a stomach hemorrhage: See Gould’s Directory, Henry F. Gerecke and Death Certificate for Jacob Bender.
16 His trombone playing: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 June 2011.
17 Gerecke, at age thirty-two, was ordained: Army and Navy Commission of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States. Chaplain Endorsement Application, 8 April 1943.
18 the congregation threw him: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 June 2011.
18 often attending the wakes: Ibid.
18 He dragged them back: Ibid.
19 Preaching was perhaps: Hank Gerecke interview, 2 February 2008.
19 “ . . . Don’t kiss her back”: Ibid.
20 Grandma Bender had died: Alma Bender, Death Certificate.
20 She spoke only about her dead son: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 June 2011.
20 Alma was shocked: Ibid.
20 Gerecke “followed a call”: Gerecke, “Here’s a Little Background.”
21 the growing divide: Lindberg, European Reformations, pp. 236–240.
22 they signed the original constitution: History of Jackson, Missouri and Surrounding Counties.
22 When Wilhelm Gerecke arrived: Gruhne, Auswandererlisten des ehemaligen Herzogtums Braunschweig; ohne Stadt Braunschweig und Landkreis Holzminden, 1846–1871, p. 124.
22 bought 150 acres of land: 1860 United States Federal Census. Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County.
22 Wilhelm had become an American citizen: Naturalization Records of Cape Girardeau County, 1813–1928, Vol. I.
22 He was a small-time farmer: 1860 United States Federal Census. Schedule 4, Production of Agriculture in Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County, p. 15.
22 corn was king: Goebel, Länger Als Ein Menschenleben in Missouri, Chapter 10, p. 2.
23 Families grew potatoes: Ibid., p. 3.
23 William enlisted in the Union Army: Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863–1865.
23 Caroline Luecke, two years his junior: 1900 United States Federal Census. Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County.
23 and from Hanover, Germany: 1880 United States Federal Census. Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County, Schedule 1, p. 13.
23 He was born on December 27, 1863: Herman Gerecke, Death Certificate.
23 William died at age twenty-nine: Probate Court Records. Box 078, bundle 1445. Cape Girardeau County Archive Center. Jackson, Missouri.
23 became the boys’ guardian: 1880 United States Federal Census. Schedule I. Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County, p. 13.
23 Caroline gave birth to her third son: Ibid.
23 received from their $693.14 inheritance: Cape Girardeau County probate abstracts.
24 Caroline Kelpe from Hanover, Germany: Missouri Marriage Records, 1805–2002. Missouri State Archives.
24 He was twenty-nine, she was twenty: Missouri Division of Health, Standard Death Certificate. State File No. 25665. Filed Aug. 17, 1848, and Herman W. Gerecke, Marriage Certificate.
24 was introduced to the Christian world: Baptism, Confirmation and Death Records, Zion Lutheran Church, Gordonville, Missouri.
24 Leonora Gerecke was born April 13, 1903: Leonora Gerecke, Death Certificate.
24 Gereckes adopted a second cousin: 1910 U.S. Census. Hubble Township, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
24 six years younger than Henry: World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–19. Cape Girardeau County. FHL Roll No. 1683155.
24 Henry and Fred worked as farm laborers: Ibid., and 1900 U.S. Census record for Dovey Halderman. Byrd Township, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Roll T623_845. Page 11A. Enumeration District 23.
24 He’d seen a man named Billy Sunday: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 October 2010.
24 a former center fielder: McLaughlin, Billy Sunday Was His Real Name, p. 6.
24 to devote himself full time to ministry: The Papers of William and Helen Sunday, 1882 -[1888–1957] 1975, A Guide to the Microfilm Edition. Ed. Robert Shuster, p. 1.
25 “the baseball evangelist”: McLaughlin, Billy Sunday, p. xvii.
25 a “gymnast for Jesus”: Ibid., p. 155.
25 or grab for the hand: Ibid., p. 158.
25 The towns where he set up: The Papers of William and Helen Sunday, pp. 21–22.
25 “ . . . the banality of his message”: McLaughlin, Billy Sunday, p. xvii.
25 “ . . . the greatest since the days of the apostles”: Ibid.
25 “the greatest preacher since John the Baptist”: Face to Face with Satan, p. 5.
26 Lena didn’t have much of a say: Hank Gerecke interview, 2 February 2008.
26 so he landed a succession of jobs: Henry F. Gerecke, CV.
26 the town had no “railroad shops— . . .”: Bulletin: Academic Year 1917–1918, p. 3.
26 connected to downtown by streetcar: Ibid., p. 4.
26 “ . . . a modern vacuum-cleaning apparatus”: Ibid., p. 5.
26 was “considered self-evident”: Ibid., p. 7.
27 “a truly Christian character”: Ibid., p. 6.
27 “This includes all attentions . . .”: Ibid., p. 7.
27 Pastors and congregations who wanted to join: Todd Zittlow, Concordia Historical Institute.
28 The core group that formed: Todd Hertz, “Benke Suspended for ‘Syncretism’ after 9/11,” Christianity Today.
28 new synod members had to agree: Zittlow, Concordia Historical Institute.
28 On the denomination’s centennial: “History of the LCMS.”
28 were given Reformation Day off: Stelmachowicz, Johnnie Heritage, p. 63.
28 Young women could enroll: Bulletin: Academic Year 1917–1918, p. 11.
28 “best sent home by parcel post”: Ibid., p. 10.
28 Wichita Natural Gas Co. struck oil: Kansas Oil Museum.
29 “ . . . able to use also the German fluently . . .”: Bulletin: Academic Year 1917–1918, p. 11.
29 He got mostly Bs in English: Henry F. Gerecke, Transcript.
29 though he hated it: Hank Gerecke interview, 30 October 2010.
29 “There is no feeling, except . . .”: The Saint, p. 80.
29 The orchestra bought five pianos: Ibid., p. 78.
30 the ultimate purpose of Chrysostomos: Ibid., p. 58.
30 grew a beard and began smoking: Hank Gerecke interview, 23 March 2011.
30 He placed fourth of four: Stelmachowicz, Johnnie Heritage, p. 63.
30 “May she hold firm . . .”: The Saint, p. 58.
30 the El Dorado field was producing: Kansas Oil Museum.
30 were among the most productive: Price, El Dorado, p. 27.
31 “You can’t go to war”: Hank Gerecke interview, 26 June 2010.
31 “Dad’s Waterloo”: Hank Gerecke interview, 2 February 2008.
31 the Baltimore-born son: “Short History of the St. Louis Lutheran City Mission (40th Anniversary).”
32 “He had a genuine sympathy . . .”: H. Holls, “Rev. F. W. Herzberger: Pioneer City Missionary of the Lutheran Church.”
32 “I was naked . . .”: Matthew 25:36, New Revised Standard Version.
32 Herzberger died in August 1930: Holls, “Rev. F. W. Herzberger.”
32 By 1938, he was running: Henry F. Gerecke, City Mission Notes, 4 April 1938.
32 When Gerecke took over: Ibid., June 1940.
33 “The large neon cross lights . . .”: Ibid., July 1941.
33 The City Mission
office moved: “Short History.”
33 Gerecke designed: Gerecke, City Mission Notes, December 1937.
33 Gerecke managed about eighty-five: Ibid., February 1939.
33 “Ours is the busiest . . .”: Ibid., October 1941.
33 “Your City Mission business . . .”: Ibid., November, 1940.
34 he registered Lutheran Mission Industries: “Short History.”
34 magazines, rags, old clothing: Gerecke, City Mission Notes, March 1938.
34 He borrowed a broken-down Chevrolet: Hank Gerecke interview, 8 January 2008.
34 Lutheran Mission Industries had three trucks: Gerecke, City Mission Notes, October 1941.
34 with two men each: Hank Gerecke interview, 1 September 2011.
34 south and southwest on Tuesdays: Gerecke, City Mission Notes, December 1940.
34 average of twenty-five stops a day: Hank Gerecke interview, 1 September 2011.
34 “Whatever the business brings in . . .”: “Short History.”
34 Poor families at the two mission congregations: Ibid.
34 several St. Louis stores donated clothes: Hank Gerecke interview, 1 September 2011.
35 “Since the first of November . . .”: Gerecke, City Mission Notes, March 1938.
35 “We can’t keep up with the calls . . .”: Ibid., 7 April 1937.
35 “Without boasting . . .”: Ibid., March 1938.
36 Gerecke was “much excited . . .”: Ibid., December 1940.
36 “They seemed visibly touched . . .”: Ibid., June 1940.
36 about $175,000 in today’s dollars: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator.