Fire and Steel, Volume 2

by Gerald N. Lund

  JOURNAL OF

  MITCHELL ARTHUR WESTLAND. 1919

  July 3, 1919. Basel. I arrived in Basel, Switzerland, after a seven-day ocean voyage from New York City to Marseilles, France, and an eleven-hour train ride from Marseilles to Basel. I am in company with Jacob K. Reissner. We have come at the request of the Church and as official emissaries of the US government to assess the needs and the circumstances facing members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany.

  Prior to our departure, we were told that we had pre-approved visas issued by the German government, which would allow us to travel immediately into Germany with Angus J. Cannon, president of the Swiss-German Mission. However, our visas will not be ready until tomorrow. Because of the urgency of our task, President Cannon left yesterday for Hamburg. We will catch up with him as soon as possible.

  July 5. Hamburg. Arrived late last night in Hamburg. Great news on our arrival. President Cannon has been in meetings with US Army personnel. Judge Parker, US Liquidation Commissioner, knows of our mission and has been fully cooperative. The best news is that the army is already moving trainloads of commodities from France to Koblenz, which is near Cologne. This will greatly facilitate the distribution of those commodities once final negotiations are completed.

  July 7. Hamburg. Meetings with the Hamburg District. Attendance was astounding considering the distances some traveled and the meagerness of their resources. Some walked for two or three hours. A spirit of jubilation and thanksgiving prevailed. The members were ecstatic to know that Salt Lake City has not forgotten them. We met with several families I knew while laboring here before. NOTE TO EDIE: Your suspicions that I was born without any emotions are now proven false. I have shed many tears already.

  Tonight we blocked out a tentative schedule for the rest of the trip. The plan is to visit as many districts as possible. Smaller branches will be visited as time and conditions permit.

  July 11. Hannover. We continue to be humbled and amazed at the remarkable faith of our Saints here. In some cases the numbers attending require us to secure larger halls. Our format is simple. Jacob and I speak briefly, and then President Cannon takes the rest of the meeting. He is continually filled with the Spirit, and all are edified. Before and after meetings, he meets with the district and branch presidents and interviews them about their needs and the conditions their members are facing. Jacob and I visit with individual members and families, and where possible we visit them in their homes.

  This has been a very humbling experience. And most gratifying. While the people’s faces are gaunt and their bodies ravaged by years of food shortages, their spirits burn as brightly as the sun. And their faith in their Savior is unshakable. Reissner and I were able to purchase two loaves of bread from a bakery before visiting one family—a war widow and her four children. When we broke the bread into equal portions and gave it to the children, the oldest boy, who is thirteen, quietly broke his portion into four parts and gave three of them to his younger brothers and sister. I wept at such a tender act of pure love.

  July 13. Berlin. We are deeply sobered by signs of the violence and revolution that wracked this great city up until just a few months ago. Many buildings are boarded up. Rubble still blocks some streets. Wilted wreaths mark sites where citizens or soldiers were killed. And still a heavy pall of fear hangs over the city. There is great concern that the bloody struggles with the Communists and Bolsheviks are not over yet.

  It is just over two weeks ago now that Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, and now the whole nation is in shock. The Allied Forces have set very harsh terms in the treaty in order to punish Germany for their part in the Great War. There is a strong belief here that the Allies are deliberately trying to crush the German spirit and make the nation so weak that they can never again be a threat to Europe.

  I am only reporting the feelings we are hearing here in Germany. I’m sure if we were in France or England, we would be hearing a very different story. Yet the reports are that there is much prejudice and anger toward Germany throughout Europe and that they are determined to make Germany pay and to have their pound of flesh, as Shakespeare put it.

  According to the members here, the treaty conditions are so harsh, and the way they have been treated as a nation is so humiliating, that a sense of deep outrage is rapidly becoming a festering sore that has to be lanced or it will burst. The German people are a proud people with a strong heritage. In the last fifty years, they have led Europe in many ways with their cultural, scientific, and industrial accomplishments. But basically, the Allies gave Germany two options: sign the treaty or be invaded and destroyed completely. And so they signed.

  Local priesthood leaders express two grave concerns. First, under the terms of the treaty, Germany has been forced to give up vast tracts of land. Some of these areas are rich in resources or manufacturing and are critical to Germany’s economy. These leaders fear that this, along with the war reparations set by the treaty, will make it impossible for Germany’s economy to ever recover. For a people already teetering on the edge of total economic collapse, that is a great concern to them.

  Their second and even greater concern is that this growing sense of disillusionment with the government, whom they blame for the whole mess, has already started to encourage the left-wing factions here to regroup and try again. This may lead to a resurgence of the revolutionary chaos that nearly tore Germany apart in the last eight or nine months. They believe that without a strong Germany, Russia and the Eastern Communist bloc countries will spread their influence westward until it engulfs all of Western Europe. That would be a disaster of unthinkable proportions, for the light of freedom in Western Europe would be extinguished. This has enormous implications for us as a church and for our members here.

  I’m sorry to have included such a tedious and depressing report on the current political climate here, but these are the forces that are currently shaping Germany’s destiny.

  July 16. Dresden It is a huge relief to be out of Berlin. It is a beautiful city and the Church is strong there, but the atmosphere there weighed us down even more than we thought.

  The German people are amazing. Here in Dresden, when the members learned of our coming, word spread throughout the city, and many non-members joined our meetings. When we arrived at the meeting place, dozens of children were lined up to greet us. They had fresh flowers for us and sang songs.

  The spirit here is one of hope, in spite of the challenges mentioned above. There is a great sense of self-reliance among our members. Many of our families have planted small gardens and are growing fresh vegetables, which is a huge blessing. Children in small villages scour the forests for mushrooms and other edible plants. I have learned that dandelion greens provide an edible supplement to a salad. At first I found them quite bitter, but now I think I am acquiring a taste for them. (Tell Frank that I may take over dealing with those pesky dandelions in our lawn when I return.)

  It is astonishing how frequently we are invited to eat with the Saints, though their meals are often not even sufficient to meet their own needs. We would refuse, but they are so honored to have us in their homes that we cannot do it. They ply us with food even when there is so little on their tables and even when we protest that we have had enough.

  July 23. Mannheim. I am losing weight. In the train station I found a scale—the first that I have seen. I have lost about seventeen pounds since leaving Monticello. I had to cut a new hole in my belt to hold my trousers up. This may cause you dismay, but I am actually quite happy. First of all, as our Abby has so frequently said, “Daddy, you’re fat.” But secondly, and much more important to me, ever since my arrival I’ve had this faint sense of guilt. I see these people who are so thin and so gaunt, and I’m an American version of Santa Claus. I am still nowhere near where they are, but I know now more what they are suffering.

  We often go without meals, either because we are on the road or because the meals we take with the Saints are so meager
. I actually accompanied one of our families a few days ago to stand in line for the distribution of food from the city government. We stood in line for over three hours and got only a few potatoes, two very thin slices of bacon—the first meat the family had seen in three weeks—two pounds of rice, and one cup of milk. This was for a family of four. So I am happy that I am sacrificing with them to some extent. How blessed we are in America, and especially in our red rock country, to have food on our table in abundance each day.

  It was not far from Mannheim that Edie’s grandmother and grandfather, Franz and Renate Zimmer, lived before meeting the missionaries and coming to America. When I saw that we were coming here, I had hoped to get time enough to go to the little village where they lived, but that did not materialize. We have a full schedule of meetings and appointments, and then we leave for Nuremberg by train this afternoon. Sorry, Oma Zimmer. When our family comes back, we shall return here. Down four more pounds!

  August 9. Nuremberg. Word of our coming has spread, and our reception grows even warmer and more welcoming as we continue. Nuremberg has been especially hospitable, and we have stayed here for nearly three weeks, using this as our base as we go out and visit with people. Every day is filled with touching, humbling, heartbreaking, joyful, wonderful experiences, but there is little time to write of them. We leave early each morning and fall into bed late each night. We are now six weeks into our tour.

  Brother Reissner is very excited, as Munich is where he served over a year of his mission. President Cannon has given us permission to stay in Munich while he goes on to Basel and writes up a report for Salt Lake City and gets further instruction from them.

  There is a member here in Nuremberg who is a banker. He is traveling to Zurich in a few days on business and has offered to take this journal and mail it from there. So this is my last entry. I will buy another journal as soon as possible and continue recording my feelings.

  I have written often here of the faith demonstrated by our Church members during the war. It has been truly inspiring. However, recently in some of the branches we visited, we discovered a slight problem that reminds us not all has been in perfect order during these years of isolation from Salt Lake City.

  These problems do not stem from wickedness or a contrary spirit on the part of the members, but rather, I think they arose when the American missionaries had to be withdrawn and branches and districts were turned over to local leaders. Most have done remarkably well, even better than we could do. But occasionally, less experienced priesthood leaders, some of whom were new in the Church, brought with them some of the traditions and customs from their previous churches.

  One branch president, whose name I will not mention here, decided that the members of his branch who were not paying a full tithing could no longer partake of the sacrament. He said that tithing was the higher law, and therefore they could not partake of the sacrament until they kept it. He also prophesied that after the war, the British would repent of their sins and go to Utah to offer sacrifices on Mt. Zion.

  In another case, a branch president who had been converted only about a year before started to introduce new elaborations into the sacrament service. We were quite surprised to find lighted candles on the sacrament table, which was covered with a gilded cloth. Very expensive crystal glassware and silver plates were used for the sacrament. And they had a violinist accompany the passing of the sacrament. The branch president was mortified when President Cannon explained that our sacramental services are to be kept simple and unadorned. He promised to correct it immediately. It was a reminder to us all how important it is to have living apostles and prophets at the head of the Church to keep us from drifting off the track, even when our intentions may be good.

  I close with a reaffirmation of my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of this Church. But more important to me right now, I know that His sustaining power has blessed the faithful Saints in Germany and has lifted them up in these times of sorrow, suffering, sacrifice, and tribulation. This witness of the richness of His love is such that my testimony shall never again be the same.

  Chapter Notes

  One of the best sources on the impact the Treaty of Versailles had on post-war Germany is given by Shirer (see Rise and Fall, 57–60. See also www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_Versailles.htm).

  Examples of “doctrinal drift” that occurred during the war years were rare but did occur in a few places. The two noted here are actual examples (see Mormons and Germany, 53–54).

  September 6, 1919, 2:55 p.m.—Albertstrasse 72, Milbertshofen District, Munich

  “Inga?”

  Inga’s eyes fluttered open and she looked around for a moment, not sure where she was. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and then she remembered. She was in Munich, in the flat of her sister and brother-in-law. And she had been taking a nap on Gretl’s bed—Gretl having moved in with Bruno during her stay here.

  “Inga? Are you awake?” There was a soft knock on the door.

  “Yes. Come in. I’m awake.”

  Paula stepped into the room, beaming happily. “We have company.”

  “Oh?” Inga sat up quickly. “Are Hans and Emilee here?” She glanced at her watch. “I didn’t think they were coming until five.”

  Paula, obviously enjoying this, shook her head. “It’s not Hans. It’s not Emilee.”

  As Inga stood up, Paula gestured toward Gretl’s dressing stand with the mirror. “You may want to run a brush through your hair.”

  Inga stared at her for a moment. “Who is it?”

  Backing out of the door, she said, “I’ll wait for you downstairs. But do brush your hair.”

  When Inga came out of the bedroom a minute later, Paula was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Again, Inga shot her a questioning look. Again, Paula just smiled and then took her sister’s hand, clasped it tightly, and said, “Are you ready for a real surprise?” And without waiting for an answer, Paula opened the door and stepped into the sitting room, pulling Inga behind her.

  The first thing Inga saw was Gretl and Bruno sitting on the two side chairs, and they were grinning like it was Christmas morning. Then she saw that there were two men sitting on the sofa, both dressed in business suits. On seeing her, they both stood up, and then the taller one stepped in front of the other. He was a stranger to her, older, maybe in his fifties, she guessed. He was tall, almost a foot taller than her short little frame. He had thick, dark brown hair that was just starting to grey at the temples. Dark eyebrows emphasized the wide-set blue-green eyes. His face was bronzed by the sun, and his smile was warm and pleasant. He extended his hand. “Schwester Eckhardt. What a delight it is to finally get to meet you.” He gripped her hand firmly in both of his as he smiled down at her. “I am Bruder Mitch Westland.”

  “I . . . How do you do, Brother Westland?” She was still confused. It was as if he already knew her. “I am pleased to meet you too.”

  He let go of her hand and stepped aside. The second man was right behind him, and he was smiling even more broadly than the first. He was younger, around thirty she guessed, and—Suddenly Inga’s jaw dropped open. “Kirchenältester Reissner!”

  “Guten Tag, Schwester Eckhardt.” He didn’t extend his hand. Instead, he opened his arms wide. Inga was too shocked to move. Laughing, he stepped forward and swept her up in a huge bear hug. “Oh, Schwester Eckhardt,” he murmured as he kissed her on both cheeks. “I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see you again.”

  When he stepped back she was still speechless, though now her eyes were filled with tears. “But . . . What are you doing here?”

  “Inga,” Paula said, laughing. “It’s him. Just accept that.”

  “But they said we wouldn’t get American missionaries for another year or two. How. . . .”

  He took her by the hand and led her back to the sofa. Paula followed and sat beside her sister. Mitch took the other chair and sat down. Once they were settled, Reissner gave her a brief explanat
ion of what he and Mitch were doing there.

  She started to nod. “So you’re here for the meeting with President Cannon on Monday?”

  “We are,” Reissner said. “And I was so happy when Paula told me that you had come up for it.”

  Paula spoke up. “They’ve actually been traveling with President Cannon for the last two months, Inga. But he said they could stay here in Munich while he went to Basel, because he was coming back to speak to our branch Monday night.”

  “But when did you get here?”

  “In Germany? Almost two months ago. Right here? About ten minutes ago.” Before Inga could respond, he went on. “Actually, I tried to call you about two months ago.”

  “You did?”

  “I did. I’m not even sure it was the right number. Brother Westland and I were coming up from Basel, and we had a three-hour layover in Munich. We decided to use that time to come and say hello to Paula and Wolfie. But when we got here, we were shocked to find the house had been abandoned and was in shambles. Hateful things were painted on the walls. I was sick to my stomach, thinking something terrible had happened to them and their family.”

  Inga looked to Paula. “Did you tell them what happened?”

  Paula nodded.

  “We asked the neighbors about you, but they didn’t know. They said you all just disappeared one day. They feared the worst too.”

  “We didn’t tell anyone where we were, in case those men came back looking for Wolfie.”

  “Anyway,” Reissner went on, “by the time we got back to the station, our train was leaving. Knowing we were coming back, I decided I would just ask President Schindler what had happened to you. I called him when we got here, and he gave us your new address.”