Mission at Nuremberg

by Tim Townsend

  298 calling Gerecke a “Nazi lover”: Hank Gerecke interview, 4 January 2008.

  299 Gerecke preached at St. John’s: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  299 the Menard penitentiary: Gerecke, “Agreement of Worker.”

  299 a maximum-security facility: “A Reel of Celluloid.”

  300 Gerecke’s work paid him little: Gerecke, “Agreement of Worker.”

  300 the chaplain tapped into television: “A Reel of Celluloid.”

  300 showing inmates 16 mm film: Hodge, “Aid to a Prison Chaplain.”

  300 The warden gave Gerecke permission: “A Reel of Celluloid.”

  301 tables bolted to the concrete floor: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  301 “ . . . assurance of God’s forgiveness”: Ibid.

  301 Ross Randolph, was a Christian man: Hodge, “Aid to a Prison Chaplain.”

  301 whom he considered “troubled”: Henry F. Gerecke, “Otto—No. 25,281,” The Lutheran Witness.

  302 pleaded guilty to embezzling: “Orville Hodge, Auditor Who Robbed State.”

  302 $13 million today: CPI.

  303 take charge of the politician: Hodge, “Aid to a Prison Chaplain.”

  303 piped Christian programming: Ibid.

  305 preached during Lent: Henry F. Gerecke, “Seven Words for Lent.”

  305 “This was not the first mistake . . .”: O. P. Kretzmann, The Pilgrim, p. 44.

  305 when he had a heart attack: Hank Gerecke interview, 13 July 2011.

  306 remember where they were: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  306 His official death announcement: “In Memory of Rev. Henry F. Gerecke,” Death Notice.

  306 “How quickly God can change your plans”: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  306 Gerecke’s body lay in state: Blumenkamp, “Chaplain Henry F. Gerecke.”

  306 The Boy Scouts set up chairs: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  306 more than a thousand: Blumenkamp, “Chaplain Henry F. Gerecke.”

  306 “No matter how many . . .”: Gordon, “Heritage Sunday.”

  306 “For I was hungry . . .”: Matthew 25: 34–40, NRSV.

  307 “pens of the multitudes”: Blumenkamp, “Chaplain Henry F. Gerecke.”

  307 Warden Ross Randolph called Alma: “800 Menard Convicts.”

  EPILOGUE

  309 the narrowest point between: “A Bit of a Chester History Lesson.”

  309 they hoped to help furnish: “800 Menard Convicts.”

  Bibliography

  BOOKS

  Alford, Kenneth D. Nazi Plunder: Great Treasure Stories of World War II. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008.

  Andrus, Burton C., and Desmond Zwar. I Was the Nuremberg Jailer. New York: Tower Publications, 1969.

  Army and Navy Chaplains Ordinariate. United States Catholic Chaplains in the World War. New York: ANCO, 1924.

  Atrocities at Camp Mauthausen: A Visual Documentation of the Holocaust. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2003.

  Barrett, John Q. “Raphael Lemkin and ‘Genocide’ at Nuremberg, 1945–1946.” In The Genocide Convention Sixty Years After Its Adoption, eds. Christoph Safferling and Eckart Conze. The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2010.

  Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics, Vol. IV.1. London: T&T Clark, 1956.

  Bewley, Charles. Hermann Göring and the Third Reich. New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1962.

  Bird, Keith W. Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third Reich. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2006.

  Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. 1937. Trans. R. H. Fuller. New York: Macmillan, 1959. New York: Touchstone, 1995.

  Brockmann, Stephen. Nuremberg: The Imaginary Capital. Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2006.

  Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982.

  Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.

  Church of St. Sebald, Nuremberg. Nuremberg: Verlag Hans Carl GmbH, 2005.

  Collins, David J. Reforming Saints: Saints’ Lives and Their Authors in Germany, 1470–1530. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1984.

  Craig, Berry. 11th Armored Division: Thunderbolt. Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1988.

  Cross, Christopher. In collaboration with William R. Arnold. Soldiers of God: The True Story of the U.S. Army Chaplains. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1945.

  Davidson, Eugene. The Trial of the Germans. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1966.

  DeBellis, Steven J. 100 Years of Reel Entertainment: How Wehrenberg Theaters Became the Longest-Running Picture Show in America. St. Louis: Fred Wehrenberg Circuit of Theaters, Inc., 2006.

  Drazin, Israel, and Cecil B. Currey. For God and Country: The History of a Constitutional Challenge to the Army Chaplaincy. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1995.

  Erasmus. Enchiridon. Trans. John P. Dolan. The Essential Erasmus. New York: Penguin Books USA (Meridian), 1964.

  Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War. New York: The Penguin Press, 2009.

  Folktales of Israel. Ed. Dov Noy. Trans. Gene Baharav. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.

  Frank, Niklas. In the Shadow of the Reich. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

  Fritzsche, Hans. The Sword in the Scales, as Told to Hildegard Springer. Trans. Diana Pyke and Heinrich Fraenkel. London: Allan Wingate, 1953

  Gaskin, Hilary. Eyewitnesses at Nuremberg. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1990.

  Gerecke, Henry F. “Sickbed Sidelights.” In Marching Side by Side: Stories from Lutheran Chaplains on the Far-Flung Battlefronts, ed. Frederick C. Proehl. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1945.

  Gilbert, G. M. Nuremberg Diary. Toronto: Signette/New American Library, 1947.

  Goebel, Gert. Länger Als Ein Menschenleben in Missouri. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1877. Trans. Martin W. Heinrichsmeyer, 1956.

  Goering, Emmy. My Life with Goering. London: David Bruce & Watson, 1972.

  Goldensohn, Leon. The Nuremberg Interviews. Ed. Robert Gellately. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

  Grossmith, F. T. The Cross and the Swastika. Boise, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1984.

  Harris, Whitney R. Murder by the Millions: Rudolf Hoess at Auschwitz. Jamestown, NY: The Robert H. Jackson Center, Inc., 2005.

  . Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg. 2nd ed. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1995.

  Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

  Hsia, R. Po-chia. The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

  Keitel, Wilhelm. The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel. Ed. Walter Gorlitz. Trans. David Irving. New York: Stein and Day, 1966.

  Kelley, Douglas M. 22 Cells at Nuremberg: A Psychiatrist Examines the Nazi Criminals. New York: Greenberg, 1947.

  Kershaw, Ian. Hitler, 1936–45: Nemesis. New York: Norton & Company, 2000.

  Kootz, Wolfgang. Revised and expanded by Karin Ecker. Nürnberg. 3rd ed. Lübeck, Germany: Schöning Verlag, 2006.

  Kretzmann, O. P. The Pilgrim. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1944.

  Lapide, Pinchas. Von Kain bis Judas: Ungewohnte Einsichten zu Sünde und Schuld. Munich: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1994.

  Lindberg, Carter. The European Reformations. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1996.

  Luther, Martin. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Trans. A. T. W. Steinhäuser. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959.

  . “The Freedom of a Christian.” Trans. W. A. Lambert. Three Treatises. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1957.

  Marsálek, Hans, and Kurt Hacker. Concentration Camp Mauthausen: National Socialist Concentration Camps Mauthausen, Gusen, Ebensee und Melk. Trans. Paul Catty. Vienna: Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Mauthausen, 1995.

  McLaughlin, William G., Jr. Billy Sunday Was
His Real Name. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955.

  McCloskey, H. J. God and Evil. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974.

  Meyer, Carl S. Log Cabin to Luther Tower. Madison, WI: Concordia Publishing House, 1965.

  Miller, J. Maxwell, and John H. Hayes. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1986.

  Miller, Stephen R. The New American Commentary—Daniel, Vol. 18. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1994.

  Mosely, Leonard. The Reich Marshal: A Biography of Hermann Goering. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1974.

  Neave, Airey. On Trial at Nuremberg. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.

  Overy, Richard. “The Nuremberg Trials: International Law in the Making.” In Nuremberg to the Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice, ed. Philippe Sands, 1–29. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

  Pernoud, Régine. Martin of Tours: Soldier, Bishop, and Saint. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006.

  Persico, Joseph E. Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.

  Pike, David Wingeate. Spaniards in the Holocaust: Mauthausen, The Horror on the Danube. London: Routledge, 2000.

  Placher, William C. Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol. 2: From the Reformation to the Present. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1988.

  Posner, Gerald L. Hitler’s Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers Themselves. New York: Random House, 1991.

  Price, Jay M. El Dorado: Legacy of an Oil Boom. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.

  Raeder, Erich. My Life. Trans. Henry W. Drexel. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1960.

  Remley, Paul G. Old English Biblical Verse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

  Schacht, Hjalmar. Confessions of “The Old Wizard.” Trans. Diana Pyke. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1956.

  Schieber, Martin. Nuremberg: The Medieval City. Nuremberg: Geschichte Für Alle e.V., 2009.

  Schirach, Henriette von. The Price of Glory. Trans. Willi Frischauer. London: Frederick Muller, Ltd., 1960.

  Smith, Bradley F. Reaching Judgment at Nuremberg. New York: Basic Books, 1977.

  Speer, Albert. Spandau: The Secret Diaries. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1976.

  Steigmann-Gall, Richard. The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1914–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

  Steinmetz, David C. Luther in Context. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.

  Stelmachowicz, M. J. Johnnie Heritage, 1893–1976. Winfield, KS: St. John’s College, 1976.

  Steward, Hal D. Thunderbolt: The History of the 11th Armored Division. Nashville: The Battery Press, 1948.

  Strickland, Debra Higgs. Saracens, Demons & Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

  Swearingen, Ben E. The Mystery of Hermann Goering’s Suicide. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1985.

  Taylor, Telford. The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

  “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Commonly Called the Didache.” In Early Christian Fathers. Ed. Cyril C. Richardson. New York: Touchstone, 1996.

  Tilles, Stanley. By the Neck Until Dead: The Gallows of Nuremberg, with Jeffrey Denhart. Bedford, IN: JoNa Books, 1999.

  Tusa, Ann, and John Tusa. The Nuremberg Trial. New York: Atheneum, 1984. Ed. Notable Trials Library, 1990.

  Venzke, Roger R. Confidence in Battle, Inspiration in Peace: The United States Army Chaplaincy, 1945–1975. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Chaplains, Department of the Army, 1977.

  Vetlesen, Arne Johan. Evil and Human Agency: Understanding Collective Evildoing. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

  Volf, Miroslav. The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006.

  . Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

  . Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.

  Volz, Carl A. The Medieval Church: From the Dawn of the Middle Ages to the Eve of the Reformation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997.

  Waller, James. Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

  West, Rebecca. “Greenhouse with Cyclamens I (1946).” A Train of Powder. New York: The Viking Press, 1955.

  Westermann, Claus. Genesis 1–11: A Commentary. Trans. John J. Scullion, S.J. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984.

  Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. Symposium Ed. Harry James Cargas and Bonny V. Fetterman. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1997.

  Wistrich, Robert. Who’s Who in Nazi Germany. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.

  Wray, T. J., and Gregory Mobley. The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

  ARTICLES, COLLECTIONS, DISSERTATIONS, DOCUMENTS, AND LETTERS

  Aachen’s Wanted Nazis. n.d. Record of the Office of the United States Commissioner, U.N. War Crimes Commission. NM–66. Entry 52K. File 153: United Nations War Crimes Commission, Research Officer. General Correspondence (Red Files). National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records (RG238). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  “A Bit of a Chester History Lesson.” City of Chester. www.chesterill.com/index.php?id=23.

  “Alphabetical List of Graduates, 1898–1955.” St. John’s College & Academy, Winfield, Kansas.

  Andrus, B.C. Letter to Chaplain Miller. Chaplains Reports and “201” Files. Entry 484. File: Gerecke, Henry F. Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains (RG247). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  Andrus, Burton C. Letter to the Recorder, San Diego Commandery No. 25. 15 March 1945. Burton C. Andrus Collection. Box 3. Folder 29. U.S. Army Military History Institute. United States Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

  . Letter to Katherine Andrus. 18 May 1945. Burton C. Andrus Collection. Box 7. Folder 9. U.S. Army Military History Institute. United States Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

  . Letter to Katherine Andrus. 5 April 1945. Burton C. Andrus Collection. Box 7. Folder 9. U.S. Army Military History Institute. United States Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

  . “Prisoner Routine, Nurnberg Jail.” Memo. Burton C. Andrus Collection. Box 33. Folder 74. U.S. Army Military History Institute. United States Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

  Andrus, Burton C. Untitled manuscript draft “Gerecke.” n.d. Burton C. Andrus Collection. Box 52. Folder 34. U.S. Army Military History Institute. United States Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

  Armstrong, Warren Bruce. “The Organization, Function and Contribution of the Chaplaincy in the United States Army, 1861–1865.” Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan, 1964.

  Army and Navy Commission of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States. Chaplain Endorsement Application, 8 April 1943. Gerecke Collection. Concordia Historical Institute.

  “Army Issues Call for 859 Chaplains.” New York Times. 9 September 1943.

  “Army Takes Bodies of Nazis from Jail.” New York Times. 16 October 1946.

  Arnold, William R. “Memorandum For: The Adjutant General.” 24 August 1943. Chaplains Reports and “201” Files. Entry 484. File: Gerecke, Henry F. Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains (RG247). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  . “My dear Chaplain.” Letter. 19 August 1943. Chaplains Reports and “201” Files. Entry 484. File: Gerecke, Henry F. Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains (RG247). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  “Baptism, Confirmation and Death Records.” Zion Lutheran Church, Gordonville, Missouri. Cape Girardeau County Archive Center.


  Barrett, John Q. “Civilization Opens Its Case at Nuremberg.” The Jackson List: http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/faculty/profiles/Barrett/Jackson List.sju. November 21, 2010.

  . “Thanksgiving in Nuremberg (1945).” The Jackson List: http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/faculty/profiles/Barrett/JacksonList.sju. November 25, 2008.

  Bender, Alma. Death Certificate. 7 January 1921. File No. 355742. Missouri State Board of Health.

  Bender, Jacob. Death Certificate. DOD 5 February 1922. File No. 6296. Missouri State Board of Health.

  Bender, Jacob, and Margaretha Bucher. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805–2002. 27 August 1870. St. Louis, Missouri, 139.

  “Bishop Arnold, 83, Aide to Spellman.” New York Times. 8 January 1965.

  Blumenkamp, Edwin. “Chaplain Henry F. Gerecke.” Der Lutheraner. 7 November 1961.

  Brauer, Oscar P. Letter to Army and Navy Commission. 1 June 1943. Henry F. Gerecke Collection. Concordia Historical Institute. St. Louis, Missouri.

  Brinsfield, John W., Jr., Tierian Cash, and Thomas Malek-Jones. “U.S. Military Chaplains.” In A Companion to American Military History, Vol. II, ed. James C. Bradford, 722–732. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2010.

  Bulletin: Academic Year 1917–1918. Winfield, KS: St. John’s Lutheran College, 1917.

  Butch. Letter to Henry F. Gerecke. 10 May 1947. Private collection of Henry H. Gerecke.

  Callahan, Adalbert, O.F.M., ed. The Provincial Annals, Vol. IV, No. 3. New York: Province of the Most Holy Name, July 1943.

  Cape Girardeau County probate abstracts, 1808–1919. Box 78, No. 1445. Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, Jackson, Missouri.

  Casey, A. J. “Report of Entry on Active Duty.” 18 August 1943. Chaplains Reports and “201” Files. Entry 484. File: Gerecke, Henry F. Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains (RG247). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  . “Report of Entry on Active Duty.” 13 June 1943. Chaplains Reports and “201” Files. Entry 484. File: O’Connor, Sixtus Richard. Records of the Office of the Chief of Chaplains (RG247). National Archives II, College Park, Maryland.

  “The Chaplain as Counselor.” Pamphlet No. 16–60. Department of the Army, 1958.

  “Chaplain Gerecke Urges Aid to Europe.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 9 January 1947.