[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]

We'd like to get started this evening. I'd like to welcome you to the Church History Library's Men and Women of Faith lecture series. Tonight's lecture is entitled "My Mother was Always Praying: Latter-day Saint women in East Germany during World War II." And it's presented this evening by Jay A. Parry. I'm April Williamsen. I'm in charge of public programming in the Church History Library. And we'd like to welcome you all here this evening. Our upcoming lectures are on July 11, Benjamin Pykles will be speaking on Iosepa, Utah's Pacific Islander Pioneers Through an Archaeologists' Eyes. And on August 8, David Hall will be speaking on Amy Brown Lyman's Mission in Europe-- Ministering to the Saints Amid the Gathering Storm. And again, these are-- I've listened to portions of these, and they are going to be just some really interesting lectures. We're excited about that. We are pleased this year to be able to meet here in this historic assembly hall. Tonight I would like to draw your attention to a few more things about the organ that will complete a picture surrounding the symbolism of this beautiful instrument. Now, if you'll notice the insets between the towers of the main case, each have a symbol in its center. Looking from left to right, you will see what looks like an A, the Greek symbol for alpha. And then next there are rolled scrolls, the Star of David, an open book, and the Greek symbol for omega. The Greek letters for alpha and omega come from the scriptures. These words are used for the Savior, indicating that He is the beginning and the end. These symbols are also found on the east and west facades of the Salt Lake Temple. The rolled scrolls are used to indicate the stick of Judah, or the Holy Bible. And the open book represents the stick of Joseph, or the Book of Mormon. In the center, the Star of David symbolizes that we are of the House of David through Ephraim. Along the bottom of the insets there appears a stylized C-clef with a mirror image. This emphasizes the importance of music in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the lower, or smaller case, which is very difficult to see because they have surrounded it so that it won't be disturbed, there is the hive of Deseret, as well as the honeybee. And these represent the industry of the Saints. Now, one last thing about this organ. As you are aware, piano and organ keyboards have traditionally been made from ivory for the naturals keys and ebony for the sharps and flats keys. The keyboard is white and black, as comprised with those two keys. But on this organ, it is just the opposite. The naturals keys are a dark-brown wood, and the sharps and flats keys are white. I have been unable to find any specific reason why the keys on the organ appear this way. But I have learned that well into the 18th and 19th century, most keyboards on musical instruments were made with dark naturals keys and white sharps and flats keys. When this building was remodeled in the 1980s, the intent was to keep it as close to the original as possible. So my supposition is that perhaps the first organ in this building was made with the keys the opposite of what we are normally used to. Now, this is just another piece of history that we're going to have to research.

I'd like to introduce Jay Parry this evening. Jay is an editor and writer for the Church History Department. He previously worked as an editor for The Ensign magazine and Deseret Book Company. He has authored more than two dozen books in both the national and LDS markets. Some of his titles include Symbols and Shadows-- Unlocking a Deeper Understanding of the Atonement, co-written with his brother Donald; The 12 Purposes of Life-- a Down-to-Earth Guide for the Mortal Traveler; and The Real George Washington. In addition, Jay is one of the creators and compilers of Best Love Stories of LDS People, which ran three volumes, and LDS Women's Treasury. His latest book is Back to First Principles-- a Conversation with George Washington. He also has contributed chapters to the first three volumes of LDS Women of Faith. Now, if that isn't enough, he has also taught classes at BYU Education Week for more than a decade. He and his wife, Vicki, are the parents of seven children, and they have nine grandchildren. We are pleased to have Jay with us this evening. Jay? [APPLAUSE]

Thank you, April. It is wonderful to be here with all of you tonight. It's a very pleasant evening, and it's just a great occasion. I love this building. I appreciated what April had to say about the organ. I was glad I turned around and looked because it was just very interesting. We're going to talk about some experiences of LDS women in East Germany during and right after World War II. When I was growing up, I had an image of Germany as an enemy nation. This was in the '60s-- '50s and '60s. And I didn't have any clue that there were so many faithful Saints in Germany during the war. The Church was quite strong in Germany before the war. And it's sad and instructive to see what happened to the Church during the war. But it's also interesting to see the wonderful faith of the Saints who bore with impossible trials and to see their incredible faith as they went through those things that they had to deal with. I'm not going to talk very much by way of statistics or generalities. We're going to be looking primarily at specific people. And again, I thought about maybe doing some close-up portraits of people. But rather than that, we're going to do a series of snapshots. Rather than looking at a few people, we'll be able to look at many. I'm very grateful for the opportunity I've had to get more acquainted with some of the people in Germany and to learn more about their faith and to understand more about their hearts. I'd like to start by giving a little bit of credit, this book, In Harm's Way, published by BYU Religious Studies Center and authored by Roger Minert, an excellent book, a great resource on this topic. It was the source of a number of the stories I'll be telling and also a number of the photographs that I'll be showing. And I want to thank the people at BYU Religious Studies Center for their goodness in letting us use their material tonight. I'd like to start by telling you a story about-- I'm going to start near the end of the war. Then we'll go back to the beginning and cover a number of topics. Near the end of the war, many of the Saints in the Eastern part of Germany were fleeing as the Soviets invaded. And one of the people who fled was Sister Margarete Hellwig, who went with her daughter Gudrun. And they went toward the Baltic Sea, and they ended up in a big line of people in very cold weather, trying to get onto a ship. And there was more than one ship that they could go on. And the one that they were able to get onto is this huge ship called the Wilhelm Gustloff. And they felt very grateful to get on to it. And they found a place. They had been so cold. They found a place down below near the engine room, and they got nice and warm. And as they were sitting there waiting for the ship to depart, all of a sudden, Sister Hellwig had this terrible feeling in her heart. And she said to Gudrun, "we've got to get off this ship." And Gudrun said, "Mother, I don't want to get off the ship. We've been waiting for so long. It's been so cold. We're finally comfortable." And Sister Hellwig said, "we've got to get off the ship now." And they got off the ship before it departed port. They caught another ship. Several hours later, Sister Hellwig was on this other ship, was unable to sleep. And she went up on deck, and she was looking out across the Baltic Sea. And she could see the Wilhelm Gustloff. And as she was watching, it was hit by torpedoes from a Soviet submarine. And it sank in 90 minutes. It had 10,000 people on board. Almost 9,000 of them were drowned. And Sister Hellwig was quite confident that she likely would have suffered death with her daughter if she hadn't followed the Spirit, a great lesson about following the feelings that we have, even if they don't make sense. Let's talk about some of the conditions in general in Germany and in the Church. I'm just going to quickly tick down some of these just to give us some context. During the war, in Germany, they had strict rationing of food, clothing, and fuel. Nearly all of the men were gone. Either they had been drafted into the army, or they were required to go on government service. And so most of the men were gone. And because of that, the women and the children were on their own. All of the youth were required to spend one year in service that was determined by the government. So the government decided what they were going to do during that year. And often they were gone from their homes during the year. Imagine the effect that this has on the programs in the branches. They didn't have any wards, no stakes, all branches. But their programs were greatly hurt by the war and by the conditions that were required by the war. The devastation and the suffering in Germany was incredible. Some 600,000 German civilians died from Allied bombing during the war. And I felt pretty bad when I read that. When the Soviets invaded in 1945, things got even worse. More than 10 million East Germans became refugees. They left their homes, leaving the east part of the country and going toward the west to keep ahead of the Soviet armies. A million of those died. After the Soviets came, there was also a great shortage of food. And the Soviet soldiers became very notorious for molesting the women is a delicate way to say it. Also in the Church, during the war the Church struggled. After Pearl Harbor, the United States and Germany became enemies. And so Germany would not allow communications from a United States organization to come into their country. So the Church could no longer give direction to the German Saints. You may have heard the story about how the German Saints, at least in some of the branches, set up candles on the sacrament table. And I had heard in years past that they had-- these German Saints-- had, in just a short amount of time, entered into apostasy. And they had begun to revert back to the religious traditions of their past. That's not correct. They did have candles on the sacrament tables. Guess why? Because of bombing, the windows in their buildings had been blown out. And to protect themselves from the weather, they had boarded them up. And it was dark inside the buildings. And so to provide light for the sacrament and also for singing the hymns, they set up candles on the sacrament table, a practical reason not an apostate reason. The German government prohibited the Saints from singing certain hymns. Some hymns I really like mention Zion or Israel. They could not sing those songs during World War II in Germany because they tied in with the Jews. Much of the East German Church was devastated during the war. More than a third of the branches ceased to exist. A third of the districts ceased to exist because of death and because of people being forced to move. Nearly half of the branch meeting houses were destroyed. In 1945, 60% of the East German members were homeless. The local leaders established three colonies in safe places where the Saints could go. And the mission home set up a registry so that members who were missing family members could go to the registry and see if the family members had checked in and see if they could find them. Let's talk for a moment more about the mission. In 1939, all foreign missionaries were evacuated from Europe, including Germany. And so the German men stepped in to fill the needs of the mission. And then as the war got underway, as I mentioned, the men were drafted or required to go into government service. And so there was no longer men who could serve in the mission. So they called women. And they had five sister missionaries they called to work in the mission office. You can see there three of the sister missionaries standing in front of the mission home in front of the mission presidency. You can also see them working in this ill-lit room because electricity was at a premium during many parts of the war. Not only did they work in the office, but they traveled to district conferences and gave talks and helped do training for Relief Society leaders and primary leaders and young women leaders. But they were not allowed to tract.

It wasn't all work and no play. Here we have two sister missionaries who are playing around on the roof of the mission home. And somebody was there obviously taking their picture. But they also had to sacrifice. You see their picture there of Fritz Ebert and Ilse Reimer, who were almost engaged when she was called to go on a mission. She accepted the mission call, and she left and was gone for 25 months. And when that was over, then she went home, and they were able to get married, finally. During the early part of the war, things continued somewhat as normal. So you see here a Mother's Day celebration in the Berlin East Branch in 1939. There was a branch outing in the early part of the war. Note, however, that there are hardly any men there. You have the man who's standing there leading them I guess in singing. I'm not sure there any other-- yes, I see another man there. But most of the men were gone. And you had gleaners and beehives in 1941. You'll notice that at that time in Germany, the gleaners and beehives were a little bit older than they are now. The beehives were the younger group. And the gleaners were the older group. And I'll let you decide which is which. [LAUGHTER]

Here's a photo of Jutta Larisch, a sweet-looking girl. She remembered the influence of the women's leaders in her branch. And she spoke about the primary president. She said when the primary president walked down the narrow sidewalks, there was never enough room for all the children who wanted to walk with her.

Here's a photo of Kurt Wagner. He was fighting in the Soviet Union in 1941. And he received a letter and a photograph from a young girl in his branch. And the photograph was a picture of the primary in the branch.

He wrote this in response, "dear sisters of the primary, today I received a letter from little Hanna Scharschmidt. I have looked at the photograph for a long time." Now, here's a photo of that branch. And you see all those beautiful children in the photo. This probably isn't the same photo. I get the idea the photo he had was just the children. But this has the children in it. So this is like the photo he looked at for a long time while he's away at war in the Soviet Union. And then he continued, "my most fervent wish is to be among you again soon. But that may not be for a long time. My Father in Heaven has guided me and will continue to do so. Of this I am convinced." Well, Kurt Wagner died a year later in the Soviet Union, never came home to that branch he loved. Now, this presentation is primarily about the women. But there are so many remarkable men. I wanted to just quickly mention a few examples of how remarkable some of these men were. In 1941, a sister in one of the branches hung up a photo of Adolf Hitler in one of the branch meeting rooms. And the branch president saw her doing it, and he went up to her, and he said very kindly, "sister, this man has no place in Heavenly Father's house unless he repents and is baptized." [LAUGHTER] Later, this same branch president was encouraged to join the Nazi party. And he responded boldly, "I have chosen whom I will serve, and his name is Jesus Christ not Adolf Hitler." Now, he knew in saying those things that he could be arrested. For some reason, he wasn't. But he was forced to go into the service and serve this man that he did not want to serve. In another branch, the branch president was sent to jail when a member of his branch denounced him to the authorities. And she said he was a communist. It was a lie. So why did she denounce him? Because this branch president, exercising his authority righteously, as far as I know, had refused to give the woman's husband the priesthood because he was not worthy or not ready. And the woman was so upset she denounced this branch president, and he did serve many months in jail. In some of the branches, the ward teachers were given a new assignment during the war. And it was this. After an air raid, they were to go around and check on and locate every member they were responsible for. And I think it's just wonderful that we had that kind of caretaking going on in those terrible circumstances. Once a member of the mission president was called in and interrogated by the Gestapo. They wanted to know about this church he belonged to and just what it stood for and how the Church felt about the Nazi government. And here's what the member of the mission president said, "Heavenly Father put words into my mouth so that I knew how to answer their questions." One LDS soldier enrolled in officer candidate school. But he was denied a promotion and sent back to his unit when they found out he was a Mormon and he refused to deny his faith. Later he found out that this notation was put in his file: "religious fanatic, belongs to the Mormon sect, not trustworthy politically." Well, he was probably glad to be accused of those things. Let's talk about some of the trials these Saints had to go through. This photo is representative of those trials. This shows the youth of the TLC Branch on a wintry Sunday in 1941. The reason why this is an important photo is four years later, four of these beautiful young people, nearly half, were dead.

This is a photo of Eleanor Gangien. She recalled the frightening late-night air raids when she was little. She said, "your mother dressed you and took you down to the cellar. You're half asleep. And you sit there, and you hope the bombs don't fall on your house." Years later, having become an invulnerable teenager, she was on her way to an air raid shelter when this photo was taken by her sister Maria, who's shown in another setting. As we talk about trials, let's look at what this war did to families and what wars in general do to families.

Elsa Radeke had four small children when her husband, Paul, was called into the service. During the following year, she sent him at least 53 letters and 7 postcards. And she talked about how hard it was to find a safe, affordable apartment when she had to move. She wanted to know if he was well and doing all right. And she wanted to assure him that they were doing well. But in 1945, while her husband was a POW in Poland, their baby boy died. There were no coffins. And he was buried in an old army fuse box.

Ilse Jeske married Gerhard Pagel while he was home on leave in December 1943. They were together only a short time, and then he had to go back to war. They didn't see each other again for six years. He spent 3 and 1/2 of those years as a POW. While he was gone, she had to evacuate their home. She pretended her little brother was her son so that the Soviets wouldn't molest her. And then she filled a small handcart and hauled it over ice-covered roads to the next town. She finally reached safety, but she was nearly starved.

Ruth Freimann, one of the older daughters here, either on the right or left-- I'm not sure which one. She met a man during the war who had been a Catholic priest. He was familiar with the Book of Mormon, and he had attended their branch meeting. That's where she met him. And he said to her, "would you ever consider marrying a man from another religion?" She was the daughter of a district president. She said, "no." Well, he investigated the Church. He was baptized. They were married.

Very shortly after that, he had to go back to war. Two months later, he was dead. She was a widow at age 21 or 22. The trials of these people are heartbreaking. Elsa Suss was arrested for treasonous comments in 1942. Her offense? She complained that the store had no milk. And she was overheard and was arrested.

Her husband, Helmut, was off at war. So when she was arrested, their children, their five children, had to go somewhere. The authorities divided them between an orphanage and a local farm family. Helmut was killed in battle in France. Elsa died in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Little Hannah, the youngest daughter of this couple, later recalled the day that her mother was taken away. She said, "my mother was arrested when we were home on my birthday in 1942. We did not even have a chance to say goodbye."

During the last few months of the war, the Lessing family was forced to go three different directions. The father was sent by the government one direction. Ursula was sent in another direction. And the family, the rest of the family, was where they started. But then as the war progressed, Ursula's mother and her little sister and two brothers all had to leave. And so they fled to another town, and then they fled again. And when they fled the second time, they were on a train toward the Baltic Sea. The train pulled into the station. As it pulled in, there was an air raid warning. Everybody scrambled to get under the seats. And then her little sister Inge wrote, "then the bombs began to fall. The next thing I knew," she said, "a Red Cross worker was holding me by the hand and taking me through the train station." She learned that the attack had killed her mother and her two brothers, along with 23,000 other Germans. They were buried in a mass grave. Inge, who was six years old, was unharmed. As the months passed, Ursula desperately tried to locate her parents and her siblings. Eventually, she learned that her father was a prisoner of war in Soviet captivity. But she still didn't know where the rest of her family was. She finally, two years later, found Inge. She'd been sent to Denmark and then back to Germany. And she was living with an aunt. So Ursula and Inge were finally reunited. And it was at that point that Ursula learned that her mother and two brothers had been killed. But they knew their father was a Soviet POW in Leningrad. He passed away in 1948 still a prisoner of war-- the trials. I'd like to tell you about the Fischer family who lived in Chemnitz. In March 1945, the city of Chemnitz was devastated by several massive air raids. Bruno and Johanna Fischer, stalwart Church members, they were being visited by two daughters who are shown there. These daughters were both widows because of the war. They were also being visited by two grandsons and by two elderly sisters from the branch. Air raid sirens went off. They went down into the basement. Meanwhile, 12 miles, away a third daughter, Hildegard Fischer Gockeritz, watched in horror as she saw the bombing of her parents' city 12 miles away. Nine days went by. Refugees were streaming from that city past her city. She had no word about what had happened to her family. And then finally, after nine days, she recorded in her diary, "a sad day for me. My loved ones are all dead."

Some of the Saints-- many of the Saints were absolutely faithful during these trials. I want to tell you a couple of examples. In this first one, sister Donna and her son Siegfried, who may actually be in this photo. We're not sure. But he was in this primary group. They were mostly on their own because the father had been called away into the service. And Siegfried wrote, "my mother and I lived from whatever we could get. She even chopped up mice to feed the chickens. The people probably wouldn't have purchased the eggs if they'd known." And then he said, "she always faithfully paid her tithing." In the Konigsberg Branch, in the neighborhood of Theodor and Maria Berger, they also were hit by an air raid. Maria and her daughter were the only ones home at the time. They sought shelter in the basement. Later, Maria described what they saw when they emerged. She said, "we stood in total shock by the smoldering ruins of our house. In the rubble, we found a small engraved plate from our piano, the only sign that we had once lived there." And then she concluded her reminiscence with these very impressive words. She said, "we cleaned up and went to Church." Now, they had lost everything. And a fellow family in the branch took them in that day. And then here's an example of someone who nearly lost her faith and then regained it. Anni Bauer, again during an air raid in August 1944, she ran down to the basement. And her building took a direct hit. And the devastation was so great she knew she was going to die down there. There were fires. It was taking all the oxygen. She found a barrel of water, and she doused herself in that barrel and ran through the flames back out to the surface. And she saw everything in flames. Well, through this and through some other very difficult trials, her faith was shaken. But eventually she recovered her spiritual bearings. And here's what she said, "after an inner struggle, I regained my testimony of the love of my Heavenly Father. It gave me strength to keep on going through those trying years." Now, these German people understood the power of prayer, as we saw from this first story I told about the Wilhelm Gustloff. I'd like to share with you some other examples of the prayerfullness and the answered prayers of the German people during the war years. Maria Hilbert was in charge of her household when her husband and her oldest son were drafted. One morning at 4:00 AM-- and she told her daughters, note the time. One morning at 4:00 AM, she woke up, and she was impressed to start praying for her son Horst who was fighting in the Soviet Union. She prayed for two hours fervently with all her heart. And during that time she just knew she couldn't quit praying. A couple of weeks later, she got a letter from her son Horst. And he said, "dear Mother, I want to tell you about an interesting experience I had." He said, "I had-- a couple of weeks ago, at 4:00 AM, a comrade and I were pinned down by enemy fire, and the bullets were going all around us. And I was more frightened than I had ever been in my life. And I was certain I was going to be killed. But then," he said, "I had a feeling, and I turned to my companion," his fellow soldier, and he said that he was weeping when he said it, he said, "I think my mother is praying for me." When he turned, a bullet whizzed right past where he had been. And he saw where that bullet lodged in a pole right behind him. And he knew that he would have been killed if he hadn't turned. Sister Hilbert knew that she had to pray for her son. And thank goodness the son knew that that prayer was happening and that he turned to tell his companion about it. In February 1945, a day not quite as pleasant as is shown in this picture, four isolated families in the Forst Branch, mostly women and children, were starving. They didn't have food. They didn't have a good way to get out and get food. And they prayed with all their hearts that the Lord would help them to have food.

Shortly thereafter, a Soviet artillery shell hit a food warehouse nearby and destroyed the building. But the food was left intact. The German soldiers said, "what are we going to do with all this food? It's going to be wasted." And they took it around to the populace, including the members of the Forst Branch. Well, the children were watching their parents, and they saw the answer to the prayer that the parents had experienced. And they, of their own accord, gathered and prayed for something they wanted that they hadn't had for a long time: chocolate.

Well, there was a young man serving in the army, a local man from this Forst Branch. And he was defending his home community. He did not know about the prayer of the children. And one day he was in town, and he saw a bombed-out, abandoned store. And he went in there and found a supply of chocolate. And he took it home to the children in his branch. And of course, their prayer was answered by a man who didn't know about the prayer.

Another story about the Konigsberg branch. Inge Grünberg recalled that when the air raids came, six of the families in her apartment house would consistently go down to the basement. That was the pattern for safety. And they'd always do it. And one day, this air raid came, and the parents said, we just feel we don't have to go down this time, and they didn't. And so the air raid came. And after a little while they opened the door to their apartment. And there, sitting outside on the landing and lining the stairs, was everybody else who lived in that apartment building. And they-- and they said, "what are you doing here?" And the people said, "well, we saw you didn't come down, and we figured it would be safer up here with you because you pray."

Karola Hilbert, she was out in the countryside collecting food for her family that's struggling so much. There was one way to get back to the train depot at which she would catch a train to Berlin taking her home with the food she had. As she went down this road, she saw a bunch of Russian soldiers congregated right there on the road. And there was no way around them. And she was frightened to death. She knew, for sure, that they would either kill her or rape her. And she didn't know what to do except the one thing her mother taught her. And she backtracked a little ways and found a private place, and she prayed. And she said, "Heavenly Father, I need to get home. This is the only way I can go home. And the soldiers are in the way. And if I don't get there at a certain time, I'll miss the train, and I'll be out in the countryside all night, which is very unsafe." And then in her prayer she said, "will you please make me invisible to these soldiers?" And then in faith-- think of the faith this took. In faith, she walked right up to where the soldiers were. She walked right through them. They were so close to one another she brushed their shoulders. And it was as though she wasn't there. Heavenly Father answered her prayer. Elsa Klein had somewhat of a similar experience. Elsa was in a hiding place. She and her mother had agreed on certain hiding places if the Russian soldiers came by. And she was in this hiding place. And the Russian soldier came into her hiding place, which was dark. And there was no way to turn on a light. He had a lighter with him, a cigarette lighter. And he clicked on that lighter. And he walked around that room, looking at every corner. Now, Elsa was standing against the wall as close as she could. But she knew she was visible. And she could see her own shadow by the lighter. And she was praying that he wouldn't see her. And he went around that room three times and never saw her and finally left.

Here's a photo of Dresden in ruins. It was nearly destroyed by the war. Some 25,000 people were killed in a three-day blitz. Amazingly, not one member of the Dresden Neustadt Branch was killed. And Margot Burde testified, "our Heavenly Father saved us from that and blessed us. Our prayers became more intense. And our faith became unshakable." In addition to answered prayers, members of the Church were blessed with vital inspiration. So let's look at some examples of that. Ruth Krakow, who lived in the Stettin Branch, once traveled with her grandmother by train to visit Ruth's uncle who was one of the grandmother's sons. On the way, suddenly the grandmother grabbed her granddaughter by the hand. They were in the front car, front passenger car on the train, which had some empty seats. And the grandmother grabbed her by the hand, and they left that car and went all the way back to the back of the train where it was crowded and there were no seats. And the grandmother said, "I just have a feeling." Shortly after that, that train and another train collided. And the people in the front car were all killed. And these good Saints' lives were spared because the grandmother was paying attention to the Spirit.

Eva Schulzke and her parents were in the habit of hiding in their basement, again, when the air raid alarms went off. But one particular night when they went down to the basement, the mother said-- or the daughter said of the mother, "my mother had a feeling"-- you see this recurring thing, the feeling-- "My mother had a feeling. We cannot stay here." That same night their building was bombed out. That building didn't exist any longer. "If we'd stayed home that night," Eva said, "we would have been killed." In late 1840-- 1845! I do a lot of work in the 1800s. But none of this tonight happened in the 1800s. So if I ever say 18, just translate it, OK? In late April 1945, about 30 members of the Church had taken refuge in one of these colonies, refugee colonies that I mentioned that were in abandoned apartments adjacent to the mission home. They were pinned down by enemy fire. They couldn't go out to find food. And they were out of food. Meanwhile, three miles away, Ingrid Bendler had discovered an abandoned food warehouse full of food that had been opened to the public. And she felt the urge to deliver food to the mission home three miles on her bike, with her mother saying, "no, I'm worried about your safety." And she said, "I've got to do it, Mom." And so she loaded her bike down so full it was really hard to ride it. And off she went. And she drove down those streets of Berlin. She said, I could hear shooting everywhere. I could see fires everywhere. I had no idea which streets were safe. So what did she do? She said, "listening to that still, small voice that I'd heard before, I would go right into those burning streets, make a correct turn, and I was safe. I remember turning at the most unusual places and finding my way over broken bridges. To my great surprise, I found the mission home real easy."

And then she said, "without divine guidance, 30 hungry people would have gone without food in the mission home." Hedwig Biereichel-- Sister Gosche, who helped me with the pronunciation, to which I'm probably embarrassing her with, said that the translation of this woman's last name in English is "beer," like the drink, "beer acorn." So this is Sister Beer Acorn. She was inspired to name her son Iwan. Now, it's spelled correctly on the slide. It looks odd maybe to our English background eyes. But that's how it was spelled. Her husband strongly objected, "Don't name our son Iwan." Why? It was a Russian name. And they didn't like the Russians. They were fighting the Russians. The civil registrar of her town tried to talk her out of it. And she said, "no, his name is Iwan." Later, when the Soviets invaded their city and took over, they saw this woman with a son named Iwan. And they said, she must like us. She must be a communist sympathizer, which she wasn't. But she didn't disagree with them because they provided her with food for her and her family-- following inspiration. The members received other spiritual blessings. The young adults of the Chemnitz Center Branch--

the young man I'm going to talk about might be in this photo. We don't know for sure. In April 1945, just two weeks before the German surrender, Hans Heidler of this branch was reported killed in action. But the family was uncertain. They got official word that he'd been killed. But they were also told by an eyewitness who'd been a friend and who was present that the German Army had abandoned Hans in the battlefield after he was shot because the Russians were coming at them so fast they had to retreat. And so there was no proof that he had been killed. Well, his dear mother, Hans's mother, couldn't find peace. She didn't know if her son was in a prisoner-of-war camp somewhere or if he really was dead. She was just very upset. She wanted to know the truth. Was he alive or was he dead? And she prayed, and she pondered, and she struggled. And then Hans's brother recorded, "one morning, my mother was very happy and at peace. She told us she had seen Hans in her bedroom. He was dressed in white, and he smiled at me. And he was happy, and it's OK." So she had her prayers answered. Emma Birth was informed that her husband, that good man holding the child on his lap-- big family, as you can see. Her husband, Fritz, had been killed in battle. She did not feel that was correct. She refused to believe it. She began to fast every Friday that he would be safe. Months passed. The family moved twice. One day, their daughter Margarete, who was very sick in bed with typhoid fever, said to her brother, Werner, "go downstairs and open the gate. Father is there." And he said, "you can't see the gate from here. You're sick. You're delirious. No way am I going down there." And she said, "Father's down at the gate. Please go down and open it for him." And he wouldn't do it. And the third time she said, "Father is outside at the gate. Please open the door for him. Open the gate for him." Finally, they went down. And there was Father down by the gate. He was missing one arm. He was very thin unlike how he is in this photo. But he was alive.

Rosa Eichler said, "we were completely in their power. They could take everything from us. They could hurt us. They could beat us. They could even kill us. But there was one thing they couldn't touch, and that was our faith."

Frederick Babbel told a touching story about a woman from East Prussia who was a refugee. Her husband had died. She had traveled alone with her four children-- one was a babe in arms-- pulling a cart 1,000 miles into the winter, freezing temperature. And one by one, her children died. She had a tablespoon with which she dug their graves. Finally, when the last child died, the spoon was broken and gone. She dug the grave of the last child with her hands, her fingers, in the frozen earth. And then as she stood up from that, she thought, 'I have lost everything. I've lost my husband. I've lost my children. I've lost my home. Everything I've lost.' Many of the people were killing themselves. And she said, "I think I'll do just that." And she thought how easy it would be to jump off a nearby bridge or throw herself in front of a train. And as she was thinking about that, she heard a voice inside of her head. And it said, "get down on your knees and pray." And she knelt down, and she prayed harder than she had ever prayed in her life. And as she prayed, a peace came upon her. And she knew that Heavenly Father was near and that all would be well. And she bore testimony to Brother Babbel, "I'm the happiest woman in Germany because I know. I know God lives. And I know that He will help my family to be together again." Many of the Saints experienced divine protection. Some quick examples. Little Renate Mudrow was sitting out in her stroller or lying out in her stroller in the sun. Her mother was working in the kitchen. The mother heard some low-flying airplanes coming, and she, fearing for her daughter, ran outside to bring her daughter inside. And just as she did, she heard the bullets go right through the courtyard and right across that baby stroller. And Renate tumbled out onto the ground unhurt-- divine protection. I'm going to tell you a quick story about the mother of this little girl whose name was Anni. She wanted to work in her garden, but she couldn't find the key to the gate. And she looked and looked all around, couldn't find it. An air raid sounded. They ran to the basement. That air raid killed 8,000 people in her city. When she came back up, she saw that six bombs had fallen between her garden and her house. And she was so grateful she had not been out in the garden when the air raid came. And then she saw her garden key in plain sight on the kitchen table.

This staircase at the mission home, one sister remembered how she was out on a balcony with some other sister missionaries. And some Russian men, soldiers, came up and saw them there. And the sisters hurried and ran into the-- inside the building. And then they heard the soldiers come up the staircase. And they could somehow see what the soldiers were doing. And they looked, the soldiers did. There were several doors that the soldiers could choose from once they get to the top of the case. And they went to the top of the staircase, and they kind of walked around confusedly and went back down. They couldn't see the doors.

After her wartime experiences, including the death of both parents, sister Valtra Maya of this branch testified, "the Lord had His hand in my life and guided me. Other people around me had terrible things happen to them. But I felt that a protecting hand was over me. I did not have only one angel who protected me but at least 100." But with all of this counter position of protection and destruction, some people became confused. And one family said, we asked ourselves, when they were bombed out, "were we not faithful enough for the Lord to protect us? We prayed long and hard to know why our home had been destroyed." And then not too long after that, the home of the branch president shown here was destroyed. And they said, "he's as faithful as can be. His family is faithful. So it wasn't because of their lack of faithfulness. Why?" And they decided, "it just happened." It's part of this mortal experience to suffer trials. And that helped them to put the trials and tragedies into perspective. There were thousands of Mormon refugees during the war. Many of them used this conveyance called the bollerwagen. With the men absent, often the women would pull these little wagons. And they would pile the few possessions they could fit on the wagons, and they walked and walked and walked, like handcart pioneers. And some of them drew a direct connection between themselves and the handcart pioneers. And they said, "we are like them." This one family, the Kremullat family, packed all their belongings into a bollerwagen and took the last train out of Konigsberg. And the train was supposed to take them to Austria. But instead it went into Czechoslovakia. And it took them to Prague and then 60 miles beyond. And then it was hit by a bomb, couldn't go any further. The family was unhurt. Their bollerwagen was unhurt. They pulled it out of the train. They hiked 60 miles back to Prague, where they caught another train.

When the Allied Army invaded in early 1945, Frida Popel and her four children fled from their home. The train was so packed she put her little children on the luggage racks above them where they slept, as did other women who were traveling. So many members of the branch left at that time that the branch ceased to exist. They had no idea where Frida's husband was. He was off at war, and they didn't even know if he was alive. After three years, he finally tracked them down. And the family was reunited. The Jenchewskis fled Konigsberg. When they fled, neither the father nor the 16-year-old son was supposed to go. They were required to stay and defend the city. It was called Fortress Konigsberg. And they were supposed to defend it against the Soviets. But Marie, the mother, was very concerned that her son would not survive the battle, her 16-year-old son. So she and a daughter dressed him up as a girl to disguise him. And the daughter said, "we put a dress on him, and he had a scarf around his neck. And he looked very cute." [LAUGHTER] And they were able to escape safely. And the father later was able to be reunited with his family. But it took three years before he got back to them.

There was a refugee colony in Cottbus. And one family tried to get to it, 150 miles. They finally got there. It was full. And they said, you've got to go to this other colony 150 miles away. And looking back on that experience, the mother said, "we never doubted God. That was our salvation, our faith. He protected us. I just kept hoping that we would survive. And He saved us." These women had incredible courage. Let's talk about that for just a moment. Wilma Voge-- that's how you say that. She was with her husband Emil. And a Russian soldier came up and was threatening the husband, had a rifle pointed at him and said he was going to shoot him. And Wilma jumped in front, or jumped between the rifle and her husband. And she, said you'll have to shoot me first. The soldier was flustered, and he left because of the courage of this woman.

Horst Schwermer was incarcerated in a Soviet POW camp. And his wife, Helga, didn't even know if he was alive. And then she finally found out he was alive and that his leg had been amputated. She was very anxious to see him and to make sure that he was all right. With her mother, they made a 100-mile journey through Soviet-occupied territory, in fear every step. They finally got to the prison camp. They had brought with them some bribes, and they stood outside the wire and attracted the attention of the guards. And they bribed the guards with bacon, milk, and cigarettes. And the guards helped Helga to have a nurse's uniform. And she put on the nurse's uniform and entered the camp as though she was medical personnel so she could check on her husband. She said she was shaking with fear, certain that she would be caught at any moment. But she was safe. And she was able to reassure her husband, who, in time, was reunited with her. As a group of the Saints led by the women, women leading teenagers and children, they were going cross-country to try to get to the Cottbus colony. One night they didn't want to travel at night, fearing attack. They decided they would hole up in the cemetery chapel. And inside, the adults found corpses that were covered in blankets that had not yet been buried. They didn't let the children know. But the children felt tension, they were afraid. And the adults said, no sounds. Don't make a sound. They did not want anybody to know they were in that building. And a little boy named Peter said, "I wanted to cry. But a spirit came into my heart that made me feel wonderful. It said to me, Peter, you don't have to cry. Just go to sleep, and it'll be OK." He said he felt that all the children there were feeling that same peaceful, calming spirit because no one cried. Now, you remember this woman who named her son Iwan? Another story-- she was approached by two of the men, leaders in her area. There were 20 surviving people in her town, Saints. And they wanted to get them out, and they needed her help. And they said, here's a woman that the Russians might trust because she has a son named Iwan. And they had her-- she consented. She went to the authorities, and she pretended-- I said 20. It was 22. She pretended that 22 people were members of her family. And she vouched for them as members of her family so they could all get passes out of the area. And she was scared to death. But in her courage she did it, and it worked.

In March 1945, this sister missionary was on a train. And she's with a bunch of soldiers. The train, again, suffered from it-- there was bombing around it. The train stopped. All the people hurried out of the train, tried to hide. And she said, while they were in that setting, "I preached the gospel to those soldiers. And they didn't want to listen. Some of them were literally trembling with fear. I asked if I could pray. And they said yes. I prayed loudly enough to be heard, and not one bomb hit the train. When we got back in the train, I continued to preach the gospel. This time nobody protested." And who could reject that sweet face, anyway? There's a story about Erich Stank, he and his mother. There were four families and no men around. And they were surrounded by Russian soldiers who then pointed their rifles at this group of Saints. And these are a couple of, I think, probably uncles of this boy. And he said, "in this dangerous situation, my mother stood in front of the soldiers. And she said, children, join hands, which they did. And then she sang, 'abide with me, fast falls the eventide' to everybody there. The soldiers backed off." And he said, "during this whole time, I was praying with all my heart. And I committed my whole life to God. If He would preserve me, I would live His commandments." And he said that had continued to be a motivating force throughout his whole life, the blessing of the courage of his mother. Let's conclude with some stories about how these Saints shared with one another in their times of destitution. We've mentioned the Hilbert family. They had food at one point. Sometimes they were starving. This time they had food. And the mother said, we have enough food for ourselves and others. But we don't dare go out. Let's pray and ask Heavenly Father if He will help us share our food. 30 minutes later, a knock came at their door. They opened. It was a member of the branch presidency. They learned that members of the branch were starving. They said, here, brother, take some of this food. They gave him bag after bag after bag. And he went and shared it with others in the branch. Meanwhile, the Hilberts had shared so much that they began to go hungry again themselves. But they didn't regret their sacrifice in sharing. President Benson visited Germany after the war, along with some other countries. And he mentioned two things that are very important. The first one is that he had found many places where the Saints had been in destitute circumstances, and they had pooled their resources and given everything they had to the branch president to distribute back to the branch according to need, the law of consecration. The other thing he mentioned was, "I have spoken to congregations as large as 1,000 people, where 80% of them were wearing clothing sent from the welfare program of the Church." There's a touching story about Wilhelm Werner who was a POW in Russia from Berlin. He was held there as a POW until November 1949, well after the war was over. Finally, he was released. He was transported back to Germany. And there the government gave him three things. They gave him a medical exam. They gave him some money. And they gave him some canned goods. And when he saw the label on the canned goods, he was overcome, Deseret. And he knew it had come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah to the government in Germany and was being distributed to the people there. The story of Rosa Schaler-- she had invited Dutch and Polish workers who were essentially prisoners, and they were being forced to work in Germany. And one day, one Sunday, she had these Polish and Dutch workers in her home eating Sunday dinner and again, a knock. And this wasn't a good knock. It was a member of the Gestapo. And he stood there in a long leather coat. And he said, "ma'am, I understand there are some foreign people here. Why are foreign people gathering in your home?" And she said, "sir, we are Christians. And we believe in treating others with Christian kindness. And I have brought these people in to eat a meal." And he said, "is that all?" She said, "yes." And he went in. He inspected the house. He looked at what was going on and was satisfied and didn't bother them again. Marta Schade and her children lived in Dresden. And they were getting ready to flee. You remember the destruction I told you about. This is before that. They were getting ready to flee. And they were all packed and ready. And the mother just felt unsettled and not right about it. And she said, "children, let's pray about this one more time." And they prayed about it again. And after they did, she said, "I feel we're supposed to stay here and make our home a refuge for others." In the weeks that followed, the refugees began to pour in from the east, and they found a refuge in their home. And then, of course, after a time came that destruction, and the family had to flee. But in the meantime, there had been a great blessing to the people who had come through. I'd like to share one final story. During and after the war, Germany occupied Holland for five terrible years. More than 200,000 Dutch people died because of the war. Much of their farmland was destroyed. Many of their natural resources were destroyed. By the end of the war, many of the Dutch people were destitute. Many were starving. And because of this, the Dutch hated the Germans. In their great need, they received welfare relief from the United States. And to help themselves, they began to plant potatoes. And the Church encouraged Church members to plant potatoes. And they planted them everywhere they could find a little plot, even in the medians between roads. And they would take care of their potato plots on the way to and from work. And then one day, this president-- this is the mission President Cornelius Zappey. He learned that however bad, however poorly the Dutch were doing, the Germans were doing much worse. And he went to his people, and he said, can you please feel good about sharing your entire potato harvest with the German Saints? Well, I suspect there was some resistance. But then they agreed.

The mission president expected a harvest of maybe 15 tons of potatoes. They receive five times that amount, and they gave it all to the Germans. It took a lot of fasting and prayer to get permission from the Dutch government to let the food go out. There was a policy against exporting food in those conditions, especially to Germany. But through fasting and prayer and divine help, the food was allowed out. The Germans, of course, were overjoyed, but they didn't eat all the food, all the potatoes. They saved some of it and planted it. And then they had an abundant harvest the next year. The following year, the Dutch said, "our German brothers and sisters still need help." And so they sent 90 more tons of potatoes. And they sent 80 barrels of salted herring to bless the Germans, truly learning to love your enemy. Now, I have been so impressed with the goodness of these Saints in East Germany. We could have told equal stories about Saints in West Germany. But you have to narrow down your topic. But I've been so grateful to become acquainted with them, and they have reinforced in my heart that the Lord is mindful of us. He may not always remove our trials. But He will bless us and help us as we go through our trials. And in the end, if we are in tune, we can say, as Anni Bauer did, "I felt the love of the Lord, and I knew He was near me." And we can feel that. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Now, if you have any questions, we remind you to go to where the microphone-- or wait till the microphone is brought to you. So if you have a question, raise your hand. And our microphone bearers will come to you. Just don't ask me anything too hard. I'd be curious to see how many people here lived through this. Thank you for asking that. Maybe stand? Would that be possible to stand? I think that's a great question. I appreciate you asking that. [APPLAUSE]

Thank you very much. I have a question. You've given a nice profile of the active people. Do you have figures on the percent went inactive during that time, death toll of members, and apostacy level of members? Those are excellent questions. I don't have all of it in my brain right now. However, I will say that as with any group of church members in any church, there were quite a few who couldn't stand the fire and went inactive. A lot of people ended up missing. They started out on the rolls of a given branch, and then they disappeared. And that doesn't mean they died. That means they just didn't know where they ended up. But I don't know percentages. But there was great faith among those who were inclined to exercise faith, and then there was dicouragement and maybe some bitterness among some others. And I told you the story about the sister who almost took her life. There were Latter-day Saints, even active ones, who did take their lives because the circumstances were so terrible. And they couldn't stand it anymore. Thank you for that question. We have one right down here. I do not have a question. But I just wanted to say my sister and I, we were children. But I wanted to pay tribute to my mother. She was the bravest. And three years before she died, I am so happy that she's buried here in this great city. And I came here in 1956. And I usually say 1856 because we always related to the pioneers. And you showed this wagon. And that's what I pulled when I was a child. And my sister and I-- Oh, I'm so glad you would share that. But my mother was the bravest person. And whatever I am, I learned from my mother. Thank you. Thank you. I was just-- [APPLAUSE] Thank you. It's right over here. I was just so impressed by the courage. I focused on the women. The men also, but the courage of these women-- the men are gone, and the women have to fend for themselves and take care of their families, often in the worst of circumstances. And it was just so impressive. Thank you. Yes? The grandmother that you talked about that was holding hands and sang the song, that is my grandmother. Oh. And I know there are a lot of books that are combined-- Hold it a little closer to your mouth. --that talk about Poland, like In Harm's Way and On Wings of Faith and German Saints at War. Is there any book that's a single book that is combined just about the Saints and the Zabon Branch where I grew up and lived in communist Poland for 14 years? If there is, I'm not aware of it. She mentioned some great books. In Wings of Faith was the Frederick Babbel account. And In Harm's Way was the book I showed at the beginning. There's another book about Western Germany pulled together by Roger Minert called Under the Gun, another great book. But I don't know about just about your branch. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Is there anything that you'd like to add about that experience of when those soldiers were threatening and she sang the song? You know? I don't know. I have a lot of experiences, but not about this one. I know that the Lord answered our prayers and were finally reunited. My mom and dad were separated for 19 years. Oh, my. And my sister and I didn't see our dad until we were 14. He saw me when I was three months old. And then I saw him when I was 14 years old. Oh, thank you for sharing that. Her husband is prompting her. Oh, he said my dad fought in the German Army, and then he was captured as a prisoner of war in France. And he was a prisoner of war in Scotland and in the United States. Then, of course, he came back to West Germany. And he was unable to come to what then was Poland when the boundary lines were changed. So we had the wonderful experience of living in Zabon and feeling the hand of the Lord in our lives every day and having miracles performed-- Thank you for that testimony. --for us. Mm-hmm. She-- [APPLAUSE]

There were so many of the soldiers who became prisoners of war because the Russians just invaded in hordes from the east. And the Germans were trying to get out. But many of the soldiers were forced to stand and face them. And many of them were killed, and many of them were imprisoned. And as we told earlier, they were kept until long after the war. When was your father released? My father fought four years. And he was a prisoner of war for another three years. That's just so hard. This brother who asked about activity levels, I just remembered a story about a man who was inactive. He was fighting in the army. He was captured. He was sent to France as a prisoner of war. And while he was there, he began to have a change of heart. And he wrote to his home and said to his parents who were active in the Latter-day Saint Church, "will you send me a Book of Mormon?" And they rejoiced that their son was interested. And he read the Book of Mormon and was converted as a young adult. I'd like to say something for the Historical Department because I know they're anxious to collect these stories. And original records were-- how I know is because we were working with them to collect some letters that my uncle had sent home when he was there as a mission president in the '60s. Well, he'd have to go through Checkpoint Charlie and that. And they said, oh, we're so anxious to have these original records we can preserve here at the library so that everybody can have access to them. And then some of these stories that are just kept in the families can be made available to others to read and compile. What is the process? What should they do? Go to the library, and they'll lead you right through it. All right. So go to the Church History Library. Let's do just a couple more. I was just thinking if there's some way there could be a clearinghouse where persons who have ancestry that goes to these specific branches could be able to communicate with one another through the auspices of the Church and the history of the Church. And they have some records perhaps of the names of those persons. And then you could somehow try to get in touch with people of that ancestry that were there, perhaps. That was just an idea. Very good. Thank you, Liz.

I was twelve years old, and we are not members of the Church to the time. But I remember when the Russians came in. And it was absolutely horrible.

They raped, and they did-- it was terrible. And then the Polish came in, and the Polish threw us out. Then my father, we had a factory to the time. And we had a house. And we had to live from one day to another. Then my father did not want to become Polish. And they put us in the cattle car, 32 people in the cattle car. And we went to the West German. [CRYING] I'm sorry. I know. And then my father became a heart attack right in that cattle car. And we came to West Germany, and they put us in big halls, with at least 1,000 people. And we stayed there like herrings for almost a half a year. And we had another house in West Germany. But we could not get into that house then. The government had put people into it. And we had to live in cellars. And it took almost two years before we could get into our own house. Just amazing. Yes. But I am now-- for 30 years, I'm a member of the Church. And I'm very, very, very proud to be a member. And I know Heavenly Father lives. Thank you so much. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Let's have time for one more comment or question, if we have one. Do you know what the primary religion was during that time in Germany? One of the Germans can tell me. I would guess Lutheranism. Lutheran? [INAUDIBLE] Lutheranism in the north, Catholic in the south. Thank you. This has been so wonderful. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE]

This has truly been a wonderful evening. I'm sure you've all been as uplifted as I have been. And we're grateful for Jay and for his taking the time to share these stories with us. And thank you for those that were there and had to experience that firsthand. Thank you for being here this evening. Let's give Jay another show of our appreciation. [APPLAUSE]