I n the Gospel of Mark, Jesus drew the division be-tween secular and religious life with a single sen-tence: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that

are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s."But the precise location of that boundary has proved to bea continuing problem for members of the Mormonchurch. Whereas earlier Latter-day Saints often faced thechallenge of anarchic violence unchecked by civil au-thorities, in our own time Saints have more often facedthe opposite dilemma: how should they respond to a to-talitarian government’s demands for total, exclusive al-legiance? Nowhere has this problem been posed withgreater clarity than in Nazi Germany, where a youngman named Helmuth Hi~bener was one of many Saintswho struggled to sort out their conflicting loyalties. Hisdecisions as a devout Latter-day Saint ultimately led tohis execution for high treason against the German state.

Helmuth Htibener was born in Hamburg on January8, 1925, the illegitimate son of Anna Emma Guddat Kun-

geography, and that he showed an early interest in poli-tics.2 But Hi.ibener’s appetite for knowledge extended tomany other areas. He spoke fluent English, loved music,and even took extracurricular courses in stenographyand typing--"women’s work" in pre-war Germany.When he left school to begin an apprenticeship with theCivil Service he continued to read voraciously, relishingaccess to the administrative archives of his new office.These archives held material that Helmuth could haveseen nowhere else, including forbidden books aboutRussia, the United States, and other topics, books thatthe Nazis had banned.

Although H~ibener apparently got along well withmost people he met, his two closest friends were twoyoung Latter-day Saints, Rudolf Gustav Wobbe andKarl-Heinz Schnibbe. The three had grown up together,taking the same Sunday School classes, the same Prim-ary classes before Primary was banned, and joining thesame Scout troop before Scouting, too,. was banned in

The precise boundary between "thingsthat are Caesar’s" and the "things that

are God’s" has proved a continuingproblem ] or Mormons.

kel and a man named Vater, her co-worker at the Ham-burg Mint. Hiibener’s mother had two sons, Hans andGerhard, from a previous marriage to Johann Kunkel.H~ibener also bore the Kunkel surname during his earlylife, although a few members of the Church in Hamburgpreferred to call him Helmuth Guddat, from his mother’smaiden name. In 1940 Emma married a non-Mormonconstruction worker named Hugo Hi.ibener. HugoHubener legally adopted Helmuth, thus giving him thename by which he is remembered today. 1

But Hiibener did not live with his new stepfather forlong. Gerhard, the younger of the two Kunkel boys, wasstrongly opposed to Nazism and detested his new step-father, a Party member and a Rottenfiihrer (file leader) inthe local Storm Trooper battalion. This friction, and thefact that his mother worked long hours away from home,led Gerhard to move in with his maternal grandmother at137 Louisenweg, a few blocks from the H~bener apart-ment at 42 Sachsenstrasse. When Gerhard left Hamburgearly in 1941 to join the para-military Reichsarbeitdienst(National Work Corps), Helmuth moved to his grand-mother’s house shortly thereafter and settled intoGerhard’s old room there.

All sources agree that Hiibener was a gifted, intelli-gent student, who was promoted to the most acceleratedcourse of studies soon after he entered school. Histeachers reported that he especially loved history and

1934.3 It was through his activities with Rudi and Karl inthe St. Georg Branch that Hiibener first began to noticethe dark side of German life under Hitler. Like manyGermans, Hiibener initially welcomed the Nazis’ rise topower as a sign that Germany had recovered a sense ofnational purpose after the political chaos and economiccollapse of the Weimar years. But this early enthusiasmfaded as Hiibener and his friends began to see the racismand brutality of National Socialism. All three of them, forinstance, were disturbed when in 1938 a sign went up onthe door of their branch meeting-house reading "JUDENIST DER EINTRITT VERBOTEN!" (Jews not allowed toenter.) The boys realized that the sign had been put up byBranch President Arnold ZollneJ, known by members tobe sympathetic to Nazism. Zollner apparently wanted todiscourage visits by a Jewish convert, SalomonSchwartz, a member of the Barmbeck Branch, to thecombined monthly priesthood meetings held at St.Georg. H~ibener also had heard that Zollner had warnedSchwartz--who eventually died in the Theresienstadtconcentration camp--and his half-sister Marie to stayaway from his branch.4

Later Rudi Wobbe saw Zollner reprimand anothermember of the branch for reading a propaganda leafletdropped from a British plane. Sister Emma Hase hadfound the leaflet on her way to church, and she wasshowing it to some other members of the branch when*fictitious name

November/December 1980--21

Zollner came up to her. Tearing the leaflet from her hand,he allegedly said, "If you ever bring anything like that inhere again, I’ll personally see to it that you’re sent to aconcentration camp." Too, there was the case of HeinrichWorbs, another branch member, who had been de-nounced for making disparaging remarks about a newstatue in honor of "another Nazi butcher." Worbs wassent to a concentration camp where he suffered varioustortures. At one point Worbs was placed in the camp’soutdoor stocks while freezing water dripped onto hishands. When his hands were encased in ice, a guardpounded the ice away with a length of rubber hose,cheerfully explaining that this was done "to keep yourhands warm." Worbs returned to Hamburg emotionallyand physically ruined; he died a few months later. He de-scribed his ordeal to a few branch memberss and the restheard about his story through whispered rumors.Hubener heard these rumors as well, and he began toform his own opinion of Germany’s Nazi renaissance.

There were other irritations. It was reported that Zoll-ner brought his radio to church whenever Hitler orGoebbels were scheduled to speak. Some recall thatduring these broadcasts the chapel doors were locked sothat no one could leave. On occasion a swastika was dis-played outside the building, but the suggestion thatbranch members use the "Hitler greeting" among them-selves had been rejected by a majority vote. Whatever theprecise annoyances, it was not long before Hiibener andhis two friends found themselves united in their growingdissatisfaction with Nazism. Of the three boys it wasKarl-Heinz, the oldest and the most brash, who firstmade his dissatisfaction public. After he saw a Jewishfamily arrested with particular brutality, Karl-Heinz gothimself expelled from the Hitler Youth for "insubordina-tion.’" Wobbe also began to skip his Hitler Youth meet-ings. One day he even knocked over one of the group’sleaders with his bicycle when he was asked to stop andjoin in a demonstration, but he was never disciplined forthe action and thereafter the Hitler Youth left him alone.Hubener too, began to act; but even Karl and Rudi couldnot guess the final depth of his resolve.

In March or April of 1941~ HiJbener’s half-brother

Pliftzensee Prison (site of Hiibener’s execution), now a memorial dedicated tovictims of the Hitler dictatorship, 1933-1945

22--Sunstone

Gerhard returned from his assignment with the Reichsar-beitdienst in occupied France. He brought back a multi-band superheterodyne radio manufactured in France.Unlike the ubiquitous but purposely primitive GermanVolksempfh’nger, this instrument could easily pick up theillegal broadcasts of the BBC in both English and Ger-man. Gerhard was about to be inducted into the Army,so he locked the radio and a few other personal belong-ings into a cabinet at his grandmother’s house. Shortlyafter Gerhard left, Helmuth opened the cabinet, re-moved the radio, and listened to his first BBC broadcast.

By the summer of 1941, shortly after Hitler launchedhis Russian offensive, Hi.ibener was convinced of thewrongness of the Nazi program, and he decided that hemust actively oppose it. He invited Karl and Rudi up tohis room, where they listened at low volume to one of theBBC broadcasts. After it was over, Hiibener presentedhis plan: he would use his typing and shorthand skills totake notes on the broadcasts and work the material intohandbills. After he had typed duplicates with carbonpaper, the boys would undertake together the dangerousjob of distribution: dropping the leaflets into mail boxes,posting them on public bulletin boards (some were to bedisguised as official Party announcements by using a fakeletterhead bearing a swastika), leaving them in phonebooths, and so on.

Hiibener produced a wide variety of leaflets duringthe months that followed. Through the diligence of theGestapo twenty-nine different pamphlets6 have beenpreserved, including those the police labelled "leaflet p"and "leaflet w". These two leaflets indicate the tone ofthe rest. In the first, after discussing sarcastically theParty’s Wool Collection Program, H~ibener composedseven verses of doggerel (given here as closely as possiblein the original meter and with similarly forced rhymes)that satirize the propaganda of Josef Goebbels. "Leafletp" goes on to address "the working soldier on the homefront" as well as the military forces in the field, assuringthem that the Allies are as serious as the ancient Swiss intheir struggle against the aggressor. Next Hi,ibenerquotes six lines from the end of Act II, Scene 2 of Schil-ler’s William Tell which make up the historic oath swornby the Swiss Confederates at Rutli. The pamphlet con-cludes by denying that the attack on Pearl Harbor hasremoved America’s ability to interfere in the EuropeanTheater and predicts that Allied deeds on the battlefieldwill soon give the lie to Axis propaganda (see sidebar):

Hiibener’s own title for "Leaflet w" was "The Voice ofthe Homeland." The Gestapo regarded this pamphlet asan "attempt to involve theological issues in behalf of theenemy’s seditious efforts." The pamphlet does indeedseem to show that Hiibener saw his opposition to Nazismas a necessary consequence of his religious beliefs (seesidebar).~

Hubener drew the inspiration for his pamphlet cam-paign from his own perception of the meaning of Mor-monism, combined with a precocious interest in politicsand a child-like faith in the eventual triumph of goodover evil. All the evidence indicates that the boys wereacting entirely on their own, with no guidance or assis-tance from any adult.

But if Hiibener’s naive confidence in the basic good-ness and educability of mankind was a major factor in

motivating him to begin his pamphlet campaign, it wasalso the fatal flaw that led to his arrest and subsequentbeheading. Early in 1942, after the three boys had beendistributing leaflets for eight or nine months, Hiibenerdecided they should expand their operations. He ap-proached a few other young Mormons--which was logi-cal, if he did indeed believe that some of his own insightswere based in Mormon doctrines. Although a few cameto his room and listened to the BBC broadcastd, nonewere willing to take the risk of actually distributing theleaflets. From there he turned to his circle of friends in theCivil Service, with whom he had often discussed the warand other current events, although he never revealed tothem the source of his. "inside information." (Still, someof them must have guessed that he was involved in illegalactivities, for they called him "the man with connec-tions.")9 One apprentice, 18-year-old Gerhard Di.iwer,agreed to take a few pamphlets home and show them tosome friends. Helmuth also approached another appren-tice, Werner Kranz, and asked him to translate one of thepamphlets into French, ostensibly so that he could showit to French prisoners of war working in Hamburg. ButKranz wanted nothing to do with the idea. A few dayslater Hi,ibener tried to press a piece of paper into Kranz’hand. When Kranz refused to accept the paper and bothHi,ibener and Dtiwer left the room, supervisor HeinrichMohns questioned Kranz about the mysterious episode.Next he called in Di,iwer; when D~wer was finally per-suaded to produce a leaflet, the whole case was turnedover to the Gestapo.

On Thursday, February 5, 1942, Gestapo Commis-sioner Wangemann and Officer Mtissener arrived at theCivil Service office to question the two boys. Afterwardsthey searched their homes. D~iwer’s home naturallyyielded nothing, but Hi.ibener had had no warning. Theyfound the radio, a pile of assorted leaflets, and somenotebooks with manuscripts for handbills written out inlonghand and shorthand. The typewritermloaned toH~ibener by Branch President Zollner for the purpose oftyping letters to LDS servicemen at the frontmheld sevenhalf-finished carbon copies of Leaflet 1, "Who’s IncitingWhom?’’1° At five o’clock that afternoon D~iwer and

fellow conspirators. But at their own interrogations sev-eral weeks later, both boys admitted enough to be ar-rested. On March 25th the Attorney-General of the HighCourt of the State of Hamburg turned the files on the fourboys over to the Attorney-General of the Reich at thefeared "Blood-Court," the Volksgerich tshof in Berlin. Sucha procedure was required for serious crimes. On May28th they were formally charged with conspiracy tocommit high treason; the trial was set for Tuesday, Au-gust 11, 1942. For ten weeks the boys sat waiting in theircells.

Back in Hamburg Hiibener’s arrest set off anotherchain of events. On the Sunday after the arrest, Karl,Rudi, H6bener’s mother, and grandmother all attendedthe St. Georg branch, where they heard Brother FriedrichJakobi say: "I’m glad they caught him. If I’d known whathe was doing, I’d have shot him myself.’’13 The nextSunday, February 15th, President Zollner wrote "Ex-communicated" on Hiibener’s membership record. Hedid this with the apparent consent of Interim West Ger-man Mission President, Anton Huck, although there isno evidence that a Church court was convened. 14 Nor is itclear that external threats to the survival of the Churchnecessitated the excommunication, is (At least one otherbranch president felt that Hubener’s actions created noimmediate danger to the Church’s well-being.)16

These events, however, can only be understood in thecontext of a tense, suspicion-filled situation. Gestapo-men had been attending branch meetings, contributingto the long-standing fears of some members for the con-tinued existence of the Church as well as for their verylives. Additionally, there were no American Church au-thorities available to whom the local German leaderscould turn for counsel in this time of near-panic. Havinghad little previous experience in Church government,some now tended to see Hubener’s actions, not as thereligious and patriotic idealism he claimed, but as an al-most criminal disregard for Mormon doctrine.

Even District President Otto Berndt, considered bymost to be a liberal and therefore under close scrutiny bythe Gestapo, did not wish to compromise himself byopenly opposing or even overturning this

Nor is it clear that external threat to the

excommunication.

H~ibener were formally arrested. The same day threemore pamphlets were turned in to Cell-leader Herr Wel-tien by a Frau Bertha FliSgel, a Herr Schwedlick, and aHerr Frehse. All three leaflets were found within oneblock of Helmuth’s grandmother’s house in theLouisenweg. 11

After two days of torture Hiibener signed the first ofseveral confessions. 12 He only mentioned Rudi and Karlin passing, describing them more as curious friends than

"excommunication"--though he did refuse to activelysupport Zollner’s decision by co-signing the excom-munication statement. It wasn’t until well after the warwhen, on 11 November 1946, he and the new missionpresident, Max Zimmer, wrote "excommunication doneby mistake" on H~bener’s membership record. Later,Zimmer’s successor, Jean Wunderlich, notified the SaltLake leadership of the affair, and on 24 January, 1948, theFirst Presidency ordered a similar notation placed on the

November/December 198{)--23

membership record. (Neither Schnibbe nor Wobbe suf-fered similar excommunications, although Schnibbe as-sumed during his more than six years of Nazi and thenRussian imprisonment that he too had been cut off whenhe heard of Hiibener’s fate.)

Throughout their investigation of the case, the Ges-tapo strongly suspected that Htibener had been acting asa "front" for some mysterious agent. Hugo Hiibener, theStorm Trooper who had always distrusted the Mormons,told the police that he suspected "that liberal" OttoBerndt of corrupting his stepson. Berndt was picked upfor questioning and held for four days at Gestapo head-quarters. 17 As president of the Hamburg District, Berndtknew that the Gestapo’s judgment of him could affectevery Church member in Germany. He prayed earnestlyfor guidance and, as he reports, the Lord supplied theright words throughout his four days of detention. Fi-nally, at the end of that time, the Gestapo apparentlysatisfied, he was released. Although Berndt remembersnothing he said or did during those four days, he doesvividly recall his release, when a Gestapo officer accom-panied him from his cell to the exit. "Make no mistakeabout it, Berndt," the man told him. "When we have thiswar behind us, when we have the time to devote to it andafter we have eliminated the Jews, you Mormons arenext!"’18 The statement brought home to Berndt an ideaoften forgotten or misunderstood: the jealously religiousnature of National Socialism, and its ultimate intentions

Helmuth Hiibener, taken from a Plotzensee Memorial brochure commemoratingNazi persecution and resistance in Berlin

toward competing religious systems. Thereafter, whenChurch members hoped for victory in the war, Berndtwould reply: "You be grateful to God that we will not winit."19

National Socialism was not a simple political,economic, or social phenomenon. It was an entirely newworld-view based on an eclectic conglomeration of as-trological, gnostic, millennialist, Christian, and Teutoniccults and myths. The Nazi inner circles were steeped in

be called forth to usher in the millennial Reich. As Hitlerand his party watched, the Untersberg was bathed in abrilliant red light, which Speer later decided was a rareand remarkably vivid southern display of the AuroraBorealis. The light shone on the assembled faces like a di-vine show of approval for the historic events of that day.Speer reports that Hitler was deeply moved. Watchingthe light, he said: "It looks like this time much blood willbe shed.’’2°

this collage of mystical lore. Albert Speer, for example,writes in Inside the Third Reich that Hitler and a few col-leagues were celebrating his greatest diplomatic coup-~the signing of the non-aggression pact with Russiamonthe scenic mountain peak of the Obersalzberg, whenthey looked across to the Untersberg, a place associatedwith many Germanic legends. There, say the legends,the Emperor Charlemagne sleeps in a cave until he shall

During the months of confinement and torture beforehis trial, Hi,ibener and his friends were forced to thinkabout the implications of their actions. The boys’ re-sponses varied considerably. DiJwer flatly denied anyinvolvement with the others, while Schnibbe tried to por-tray the whole episode as a childish prank. But Hiibenerbecame steadily more convinced that he had chosen theright course. His first suspicions of the brutality that hid

behind the Nazi mask of order had been partially sup-ported by events he had seen in his community. But hisexperiences in prison confirmed Hidbener’s worst fearsabout the true nature of the Nazi state. The constant de-gradation of prison life did not make him want to recant;it merely confirmed his beliefs and strengthened his re-solve to oppose the system to the very end. During hisinterrogations, the boy told his questioners that he "hadno choice"; he "had to listen to the broadcasts," andwhen he learned the truth, he "had to disseminate it. ,,21

All the available documents seem to show thatHi.ibener understood the significance of his confronta-tion with Nazism; his appreciation of the moral andtheological context of his case appears to have out-weighed any desire to delay the end by cooperating withhis jailors. Interestingly, in their own way the Nazis ap-parently shared Hi.ibener’s estimate of the broader im-portance of his case, and they held him up as an examplebefore the country. After his death, thousands of redposters announced his execution.

At first sight, Hiibener looks like an odd choice for aNazi scapegoat. He belonged to a family officially ad-judged "Aryan" by the party; his stepfather was a lead-ing Storm Trooper; and his family members conductedthemselves "perfectly." The leadership of the HitlerYouth even appealed to the Fi.ihrer on his behalf. In manyways, Helmuth Hi.ibener would seem perfectly suited forsuccess under the Nazi regime. Ironically, the Nazis per-ceived H~bener as a danger precisely because of hismany positive qualities. Htibener was a thoroughly in-

I am very thankful to my Heavenly Father that thisagonizing life is coming to an end this evening. Icould not stand it any longer anyway! My Father inheaven knows that I have done nothing wrong. Iknow that God lives and He will be the properjudge of this matter. Until our happy reunion inthat better world, I remain,

your friend and brother in the Gospel,Helmuth23

Helmuth Hiibener was beheaded at 8:15 that evening.He was seventeen.

II

Since the war, H~ibener’s career has assumedlarger-than-life significance among those Ger-mans who have been interested in analyzing the

causes of dictatorship, particularly the "engaged" writ-ers of the German "Group of 47" such as Gtinter Grass,Paul Schalltick, Nobel laureate Heinrich BBll, and others.The character of Helmuth Hiibener has found esteemamong these writers greatly out of proportion to his ac-tual historical importance and his lack of subsequent rec-ognition among Latter-day Saints.24 For these writers,Htibener’s importance lies in the fact that he was neitheran adult intellectual nor a member of some anti-Nazi au-thoritarian group like the Communists. He was an indi-vidual, a naive young man whose response to an im-moral regime was not enthusiasm, apathy, or violent re-

doctrinated schoolboy who had little to fear and much togain by conforming to the system. Instead, he freelychose to search out the lies beneath the facade of Nazism,and to show others the truth. If Nazism could not hold aHelmuth Hiibener, it could hold no one. And so it wasnecessary that Helmuth Hiibener be tried, convicted,deprived of his citizenship, and condemned to death.

At the boys’ trial in August, after they had been sen-tenced and given the customary opportunity to have thelast word, Hi.ibener was the only one who spoke. Hestood before the judges, who sat on their high bench intheir famous blood-red robes, and told them, "Wait.Your turn will come.’’~2

On October 27, 1942, a few hours before his execution,Hidbener was allowed to write three letters. He wrote oneto his mother, one to his grandmother, and one to SisterMaria Sommerfeldt, who had always treated him like ason. Sister Sommerfeldt’s letter was the only one to sur-vive the Allied bombing raids of the following year. Inthat letter he continued to express certainty that he hadchosen the proper course:

26~Sunstone

volt; instead, he made a sincere attempt to change thingsby educating his fellow citizens. And precisely becausethese principles of nonviolent, democratic, individualpolitical initiative and a sense of personal moral respon-sibility failed before 1945, these writers believe they mustsucceed now. If Hiibeners are common in postwar Ger-man literature, it is precisely because there were so few inreal life before.

H~ibener’s significance for Latter-day Saints has beenmore ambiguous. Many German Saints who would havegiven their lives for the gospel believed that HLibener wasa heretic, for he had violated the Twelfth Article of Faith:"We believe in being subject to Kings, presidents, rulers,and magistrates, and in obeying, honoring, and up-holding the law." These people found support for theirattitude in the admonitions of the New Testament. Jesushimself had counseled: "Render therefore unto Caesarthe things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things thatare God’s." Peter exhorted his friends to "submit your-selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake." Fi-nally, Paul admonished the Romans: "Let every soul be

subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power butof God: the powers that be are ordained of God."

But the German Saints had other reasons for viewingHiibener as a traitor. For decades they had been stig-matized as members of an "American sect," the implica-tion being that someone who did not belong to the estab-lished churches was not a real German. This ostracism onthe part of the major churches persisted through theWeimar period. Indeed, when the Nazis came to power itmay not be going too far to say that some Saints enjoyed acertain amount of thoughtless Schadenfreude (maliciousenjoyment of others’ misfortune) at the treatment theymeted out to the established churches. Now the Protes-tants and Catholics were receiving the same treatmentthey had given the "sects."

Hitler enjoyed at least as much popularity amongGerman Saints as he did among the population in gen-eral. His apparent dynamism and self-confidenceseemed to show a way out of the chaos and weakness ofthe Weimar years. Moreover, as "good Germans," theMormons were acutely aware that Hitler had risen topower through legal channels. The Nazi Party had won apluralitymalthough by no means a majoritymin the lastgeneral election, and Hitler had been appointed Chan-cellor by the ancient and venerated President Paul vonHindenberg. And although the Weimar Reichstag hadvoted Hitler extraordinary powers on both February 28and March 23, 1933, Hitler never formally abrogated theWeimar Constitution. In the years before the death-camps, the terrible food shortages, and the massivecasualties of late World War II, many Germans saw theNazis as a major force for good in German society.

So, for that matter, did many Americans. The unfair-ness of the Versailles Treaty was generally recognized,and in isolationist America of the thirties few Americanswere concerned as Hitler overturned one provision of thetreaty after another. If anything, they felt a degree ofsympathy for some of the Nazis’ goals.

This sympathy was apparently shared by some mem-bers of the Church leadership. The Church’s Germanmagazine, Der Stern, reminded its readers in 1935 thatSenator Reed Smoot had long been a friend of Ger-many,2s and this attitude seemed to receive official sanc-tion during President Grant’s 1937 visit. The message tothe German Saints was clear: Stay here. Keep the Com-mandments. Try to get along the best you can, evenunder some limitations. We want to keep the Church in-tact and the missionaries working.

The German Saints were not eager for a confrontationwith their national government, and they were happy tofollow President Grant’s advice. By and large, the Mor-mons and the Nazis coexisted comfortably. Some Churchmembers even saw Hitler as God’s instrument, prepar-ing the world for the millennium. Superficial parallelswere drawn between the Church and the Nazi Party,with its emphasis on active involvement by everymember. The women’s auxiliary of the Party and theHitler Youth were regarded by some as secular equiva-lents to the Church’s Relief Society, MIA, and Scoutingprograms. The vital importance of "Aryan" ancestrygave new significance to genealogical research. And theFuhrer himself, the non-smoking, non-drinking vege-tarian who yielded to no one in his desire for absolute law

and order, seemed to embody many of the most basicLDS virtues. 26

In their eagerness to coexist with the government,American officials of the German Church resorted topublic relations efforts which suggested all of the above.Probably the clearest example of this tendency is an arti-cle by West German Mission President Alfred C. Rees en-titled "In the Land of the Mormons." The article ap-peared in a special issue of the Nazi Party organ Der V6I-kische Beobachter dated April 14, 1939.27 In the Editor’sPreface to the article, President Rees is called "the rep-resentative of the Church in Germany," who "paints forour readers a portrait of Mormonism today, a churchwhich views the New Germany with sympathy andfriendship." Whether President Rees originally wrote thearticle in German or not, the language of the pieceabounds in such loaded terms as Volk and Rasse (race);and a picture of Brigham Young bears the caption,"Fiihrer der historischen Mormonenpioniere." But thesignificance of these linguistic gaffes is magnified byhindsight. More disturbing is the way President Reesblatantly parallels Mormonism with Nazism. As Reeswarms to his topic, Mormonism begins to sound like afulfillment of Nazi teachings, providing "the practicalrealization of the German ideal: ’the common good takes

Execution room at Plotzensee Prison showing the guillotine and infamousstrangulation hooks

precedence over the individual good.’ " Rees concludedby assuring his readers that "Mormons are people whoput this healthy doctrine into action." Reading articlessuch as this, it would have b~en easy for a German Saintto mistakenly conclude that the seal of official Churchapproval had been placed on the Nazi regime.

This policy of appeasing the Nazis worked well untilthe war broke out. Despite the classification of Mor-monism as a sect "dangerous to the state..."28 accordingto Gestapo reports, the Church was not summarily dis-solved as many others were.29 The missionaries re-mained; the Church continued. Even during the war,Mormon life was disrupted more by bombing raids, sup-ply shortages, and travel restrictions than by official har-rassment.3° By and large, the German Saints livedthrough the Thousand-Year Reich much like the rest oftheir countrymen. 31

But among those Germans who recognized the truenature of Nazism were a few Latter-day Saints. Many

November/December 1980---27

were simply tired of the war (Germany’s second intwenty-five years); others, like Hiibener, began to seethrough the pervasive Nazi propaganda. RosaBiShringer, Johannes Kindt, Walter Krause, and Presi-dent Willy Deters of Bremen were among the Saints whoeither overtly opposed the regime or else dragged theirfeet while praying for German defeat in the war and theregime’s early demise,32 basing their position in part onMormon scripture. In Section 98 of the Doctrine and

principles. That every man may act.., according to themoral agency which I have given unto him, that everyman may be accountable for his own sins in the day ofjudgment. Therefore, it is not right that any man shouldbe in bondage to another. And for this purpose have I es-tablished the Constitution of this land; by the hands ofwise men whom I raised up for this very purpose.

After emphasizing "every" and "all" as key words, he of-fers a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Covenants, for example, it reads:

Anc~ now, verily I say unto you, concerning the laws ofthe land, it is my will that my people should observe to doall things whatsoever I command them. And the law ofthe land which is constitutional, supporting the principleof freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongsto all mankind, and is justifiable before me. Therefore, I,the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, inbefriending that law which is the constitutional law of theland; and as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is moreor less than this, cometh of evil. I, the Lord God, makeyou free, therefore ye are free indeed: and the law alsomaketh you free. Nevertheless, when the wicked rule,the people mourn. Wherefore, honest men and wise menshould be sought for diligently, and good men and wisemen ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoeveris less than these cometh of evil.

And in Section 34 one reads:We believe that governments were instituted of God forthe benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable fortheir acts in relation to them, both in making laws andadministering them, for the good and safety of society.We believe that no government can exist in peace, exceptsuch laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure toeach individual the free exercise of conscience, the rightand control of property, and the protection of life.

These verses clearly state the duty of Latter-day Saints todiligently seek out good and wise leaders and outlinetheir moral responsibility in the governing process.

Hugh Nibley, commenting on the universal characterof the rights of man guaranteed by the American Con-stitution, observed:

The Founding Fathers were convinced that their liberalteachings were for the benefit ofall men, not only for theirown times, but for endless generations to come, ensuringthe blessings of liberty not only to themselves but espe-cially to their posterity, and not only in this land but even-tually to the whole world.

He then continues: "Note the sweeping language of D&C101:77ff:

The laws and constitution of this people... I have suf-fered to be established, and should be maintained for therights and protection ofallflesh according to just and holy

28---Sunstone

We deem it a just principle, and it is one the force of whichwe believe ought to be considered by every individual,that all men are created equal, and that all men have theprivilege of thinking for themselves upon all matters rela-tive to conscience. Consequently, then, we are not dis-posed, had we the power, to deprive anyone of exercisingthat free independence of mind which heaven has so gra-ciously bestowed upon thehuman family as one of its choi-cest gifts. (TJS-49)Finally, Nibley offers one more observation from the

Prophet: " ’It is a love of liberty which inspires mysoul--civil and religious liberty to the whole human race. Iwill lift them up, and in their own way, too, if I cannotpersuade them that my way is better; and I will not com-pel any man to believe as I do.’ " (TJS 113. All italics areNibley’s.)33

It would be difficult for anyone who lives under a freesystem that owes its continued existence to these princi-ples to condemn Helmuth Hi.ibener for his dedication tothem. But Latter-day Saints may question whetherHidbener might not have done better--from a strictly tac-tical viewpoint--to have recognized the hopelessness ofthe German situation and waited a few years for externalforces to bring about the collapse of the Nazi regime.Some similar consideration no doubt lay behind Presi-dent Harold B. Lee’s remarks to the East German Saintsat the Munich Area Conference in 1973, when he toldthem to return quietly to their country and to refrain fromagitating against Communism.34 It does seem possiblethat from time to time, Mormons in various countriesmight face situations where the survival of individuals orof the Church as an institution would seem to dictate apolicy of close-mouthed neutrality.

But no one should conclude from this that Mormonshave abandoned their commitment to "seek for and up-hold good, honest and wise men." Members have beenconsistently counseled to guard with particular carethose principles of freedom they hold dear.

So it seems clear that if Helmuth H~ibener’s legacy isto have any meaning, it must inspire others to follow hiscourageous lead in this and other free countries of theworld before and lest the wicked rule, making such acts il-legal, hopeless, and suicidal.

Helmuth Hubener. Courtesy of the LDS Church Archives

Note~

1. See Ulrich Sander, "Helmuth Hubener Gruppe" in Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Wide-rstand 1933-1945, ed. Ursel Hochmuth and Gerhard Meyer (Frankfurt: Roderberg Verlag, 1969),pp. 325-341; Annedore Leber, Willy Brandt, and Karl Dietrich Bracher, eds., Das Gewissen stehtauf, translated into English as Revolt of Conscience (Berlin: Mosaik Verlag, 1954); StephenHermlin, Die erste Reihe (East Berlin, 1951); Franz Ahrens, Helmuth Hubener: Vorbild, Opfer, Ver-pflichtung (Hamburg: Richard Herman Verlag, 1945); Terrence Prittie, Germans Against Hitler(Boston: Little, Brown, 1964); Joseph M. Dixon, "Mormons in the Third Reich, 1933-1945,"Dialogue 7 (1972), 70-78; Gilbert Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, (Salt Lake City: Deseret BookCo., 1970); Jay M. Todd, "The Church Among the German-Speaking Peoples," Improvement Era(March 1969), 4-0.

2. Teacher August Meins. Sander, 326. See comments before the Gestapo by Hubener and hismother. Hi’~bener File, p. 34. Interview with Mary Panitsch in Hamburg, April 1974.

3. SeeDer Stern 66 (1934): 47, 142-143.

4. Such signs were not common on Mormon meeting places. There were few Jewish membersand even fewer investigators. Views of the local Church authorities and pressures on theChurch by local Nazi party officials varied. A wide spectrum of political opinion existed in theSt. Georg branch. Paul Hase, counselor in the branch presidency, was a member of the SA(Storm Troopers) and came to meetings in uniform. Some members favored the Social Democ-ratic party. Some members believed the branch was "punished" during the war for the way ithad treated its Jewish members. Hans Gurtler, Hamburger Gemeinde Geschichte, p. 33.

5. Interviews with Otto Berndt, October 1-15, 1974.

6. The Gestapo file lists twenty-nine different compositions; there may have been over sixty.Ahrens, p. 10.

7. Leaflet p, Hiibener File, p. 292-293.

8. Ibid., pp. 284, 287.

9. Hiibener File, p. 34.

10. Ibid., p. 12.

11. Ibid., pp. 14-16.

12. Hiibener File, pp. 33-42, 61-62, 322. According to Schnibbe and Wobbe, a letter of "recanta-tion" to Helmuth’s parents calling his work "a foolish mistake" was primarily a means of com-municating with his family and was extorted through torture.

13. Interviews with Wobbe, Schnibbe, Berndt, and Hans Kunkel.

14. Manuscript History of the West German Mission, LDS Historical Archives, Salt Lake City.

15. Some witnesses believe President Anton Huck was a party-member, others that he wassympathe~c to National Socialism but had not officially joined. In 1943 the Gestapo conducted athorough investigation of the West German mission home in Frankfurt/Main and found no-

, thing incriminating. Douglas Alder, "German-Speaking Immigration to Utah 1850-1950," MAthesis, University of Utah, 1959, p. 18.

16. According to Mrs. Rudolf Wobbe, whose father Alfred Schmidt was president of theBarmbech Branch.

17. Interview with Otto Berndt. Also Otto Berndt’s letter to Improvement Era (May 1969): 100-101.

18. Hitler’s professed attachment to his German Catholic heritage and the Nazi party platformpromise to support "positive Christianity" reassured many. But Hitler made his real intentionsclear on many occasions:

As far as Churches go, they’re all the same. They have no future. Not among the Ger-mans, at any rate. Italian fascism can go ahead and make its peace with the church. I’ll do ittoo. Why. not? That won’t prevent me from exterminating Christianity in Germany, with

all its roots and branches, lock, stock, and barrel. See Hermann Rauschning, Gesprache mitHitler (New York: Europa, 1940), p. 50.

19. Interviews with Otto Berndt.

20. Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (New York: Macmillan, 1970), pp. 103, 194.

21.Hiibener File, 41.

22. Wobbe received ten years, Schnibbe five, and D~wer four. Ibid. 191,192, 201,202.When asked why by the government prosecutors, Helmuth replied, "I wanted others to

know the truth." The prosecution then taunted, "Are you suggesting we are lying." Helmuthanswered, "Jawohl, ihr lugt" (using the somewhat contemptuous form of the familiar "you").Interviews with Wobbe and Schnibbe.

23. H~ibener File, p. 337.

24. Helmuth plays significant roles in G~nter Grass’s novel, i~rtlich be~ubt (Local Anaesthetic),his play Davor (Up Tight), and Paul Schall’6ck’s radio play, Helmuth Hi~bener (both plays havebeen widely performed). Hi~bener-types also occur in works by B~ll, Rolf Hochhuth, andothers. Visitors to Berlin’s Pl6tzensee prison, where Hubener was beheaded, are given a book-let which contains a picture of him and a short sketch of his life.

25. An article entitled "A Friend of Germany" chronicles Smoot’s "unremitting and energeticEwork~ for the freeing of Germany from the unjust and unfulfillable demands of the VersaillesTreaty." According to Smoot, "France was acting like the Jew, Shylock, in demanding the lastpound of flesh.., of Germany." Der Stern 67 (1935): 338-342. Just after Hitler had come topower, Der Stern had editorialized against the "slanderous news reports" from the Americanpress and reassured the German-Mormons in America that the majority of the people sup-ported the regime and traditional German "law and order." Der Stern 65 (1933): 109.

26. In addition, many Mormons believed that Hitler had read the Book of Mormon and that theNazi party local organizations derived from the Mormon block-teaching programs. There is noevidence to support such claims. Dr. Max Haenle from Ti’~bingen, a non-Mormon, visited Utahin the late twenties and became a friend of Anthony W. Ivins. In 1936 he traveled throughoutGermany speaking to District Conferences on "Utah, Land of the Mormons." Der Stern re-ported that in Dresden on 16 May 1936 Haenle made "comparisons... throughout the wholelecture between the Mormon state founded 86 years ago by Brigham Young in Utah and AdolfHitler’s Third Reich .... In its political productivity, its organization forms, and its unswervingsuccesses in the various areas of governmental, social, and communal life," he proclaimed,"Utah bears a really striking similarity to our Germany of today. Here as well as there, the un-shakable faith in and willingness to die for theirFiihrer [respective leaders] is the foundation andprerequisite fQr all further development." Der Stern 68 (1 September 1936): 172-172.

The Millennial Star also commented on Josef Goebbels’ plan announced in September 1933that the German population "fast" monthly for the poor:

It is indeed singular that a comparison of the details of the two systems of organized fast-ing shows them to be so nearly identical. Perhaps that part of the message of the RestoredGospel may have been either directly or indirectly the inspiration and the model for thenew scheme adopted by the German Government--perhaps not. But evident, at least, isthe fact that consciously or unconsciously, the people of the world are discovering theLord’s way is best. The leaven of the Gospel is spreading. "All Germany Will Fast", Mil-lennial Star, vol. 95, (Sept. 28,1933): 638-39.

The wife of mission-president Roy A. Welker had a close association with Gertrud Scholz-Klink, TheReichsfrauenfh~rerin of the National Socialist Women’s League and a personal friendof Adolf Hitler, with whom Sister Welker rode in Hitler’s car on several occasions. Richard Jen-son, Oral Interview with Roy A. Welker on February 2, 3, 1973, LDS Church Historian’s Office.

27. Alfred C. Rees, "Im Lande der Mormonen," V~l~scher Beobachter (April 14, 1939): 1-7.President Rees, who had achieved some prominence in the United States as head of the SmallBusiness Administration, undoubtedly believed he had a special "calling" to work with theNazi government on behalf of the Church.

President Heber J. Grant had visited Germany in 1937. German Saints were calmed by hisassurances. He discouraged emigration and between 1933 and 1939 only 91 members from theGerman-speaking missions did so. In the decade prior to 1933, 2683 left Europe for America,and after 1945 many more did. Alder, p. 76.

28. Sonderbericht ~ber die Lage in den Protestantischen Kirchen and in den Verschiedenen Sekten undderen staatsfeindliche Wirkung. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

29. Ibid.

30. In 1941 the Nazis tried to eliminate other groups such as the Christian Scientists and theSalvation Army.

31. The Mormon record decrying the slaughter of the Jews is, unfortunately, as disappointingas that of the Protestants and Catholics. John Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches,(London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1968), p. 265. Gunter Lewy, ~he Catholic Church and NaziGermany (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), 268ff.

32. Letter from Rosa Bohringer to Albert R. Bowen, 19 June 1948; Max Zimmer File, LDS His-torical Archives; Interviews with Johannes Kindt and Walter Krause.

33. Hugh Nibley, "The Uses and Abuses of Patriotism." Unpublished manuscript, quoted bypermission.

34. Report of First Area General Conference held in Munich, Germany, August 24, 25, 26, 1973(Salt Lake City, 1974), p. 111.

DOUGLAS F. TOBLER is a professor of history at BYU. He received aPhD in German history from the University of Kansas and is presently acounselor in his stake presidency.ALAN F. KEELE earned a PhD in Germanic language and literature atPrinceton and is a professor of German at BYU. Married to Linda KaySellers and father of six children, he presently serves as a counselor tothe high priest group leader in the Orem 44th Ward.

November/December 1980--29