In Harms Way.Indd

Chemnitz Center Branch Willy Uhlig b. Reif- 13. Kurt Wagner to Primary leaders of Annaberg-Buchholz, Decem- land, Chemnitz, Sachsen ber 21, 1941; trans. the author. Used with the kind permission 1 Dec 1905; son of Ernst of Alice Wagner Flade. Albin Uhlig and Hulda 14. Christa Glauche Schlünz, interview by the author in German, Minna Schaarschmidt; Rostock, Germany, June 13, 2007. bp. 18 Jul 1914; m.; d. 15. Georg Karl Richter, telephone interview with Judith Sartowski Russia 31 Jul 1949 (A. in German, March 3, 2008. Wagner Flade; IGI, AF) Johannes Kurt Wagner b. Geiersdorf, Chemnitz, Sachsen CheMnitz Center 31 Oct 1920; son of Paul Martin Wagner BranCh and Martha Elisabeth Hilbert; bp. 28 Jun 1929; ord. deacon; cor- Fig. 8. Kurt Wagner. (J. Flade) n 1939, the population of the Chemnitz poral; MIA Stalingrad, Center Branch was 469, making it officially Russia end of 1942 I (A. Langheinrich; A. Wagner Flade; FHL Microfilm the largest branch of The Church of Jesus 245291, 1930/35 Census; IGI) Christ of Latter-day Saints in all of Germany. Herbert Emil Zimmermann b. Buchholz, The city itself had about 375,000 inhabitants. Chemnitz, Sachsen 16 Aug 1912; son of Karl Emil Zimmermann and Anna Martha Hermann; bp. Chemnitz Center Branch1 1939 20 Sep 1924; ord. deacon; m. Buchholz 14 Oct 1939, Anna Marga Wolf; staff corporal; k. in battle south of Elders 18 Annenieki, Russia 4 Dec 1944; bur. south of Annenieki Priests 12 (A. Wagner Flade; FHL Microfilm 245307, 1930/35 Teachers 12 Census; IGI; www.volksbund.de) Deacons 24 Other Adult Males 80 Notes Adult Females 282 1. Presiding Bishopric, “Financial, Statistical, and Historical Reports Male Children 16 of Wards, Stakes, and Missions, 1884–1955,” CR 4 12, 257. Female Children 25 2. East German Mission Quarterly Reports, 1938, no. 31, East Total 469 German Mission History. 3. Ibid. The Center Branch rented two floors of a 4. Ibid., no. 35. 5. Ibid., no. 43. building at Schadestrasse 12, a few blocks south 6. Ibid., 1939, no. 53. of the city’s center. The rooms were located in 7. Ibid., no. 55. the first Hinterhaus, and there were quite a few, 8. Ruth Schramm Langheinrich, interview by the author, Salt Lake according to Ilse Franke (born 1915): “The City, December 15, 2006. 9. Erhard Wagner, interview by the author, Sandy, Utah, April 6, chapel was a long room and we could divide it 2007. into classrooms. There was a class in the choir 10. Alice Wagner Flade, interview by the author in German, South seats on the stand.”2 Henry Burkhardt (born Jordan, Utah, February 10, 2006; unless otherwise noted, sum- 1930) remembered a phrase painted above the marized in English by Judith Sartowski. 3 11. Helga Martin Scharschmidt, telephone interview with the au- podium: “The Glory of God Is Intelligence.” thor in German, February 15, 2008. A sign on the outside of the building indicated 12. Wolfgang Werner Scharschmidt, telephone interview with the the presence of the Church there. author in German, February 15, 2008. Herbert Heidler (born 1929) remembered seeing a very large number of children (eigh- teen years and under) in the Sunday School 165 In Harm’s Way “because the first ten rows were filled with Latter-day Saint temple was in faraway Utah. children.”4 Ilse recalled the event: Following the standard Sunday meeting We had no honeymoon. He had leave for five format in Germany, Sunday School was held days, but it took two days to get to Chemnitz in the morning and sacrament meeting in from Poland and two days to get back. My the evening. At least one hundred forty per- mother and my father would not let us sleep sons attended meetings on a typical Sunday together the first night. The dinner included beef tongue—a delicacy in Germany, but my in 1939. Auxiliary meetings were held dur- husband didn’t like it. ing the week—Relief Society and priesthood meetings on Monday at 7:00 p.m. and MIA on Heinz Bonitz recalled hearing the news that Wednesday, with choir practice on Thursday.5 Germany had attacked Poland on September 1, Ilse Franke fondly recalled her choir experience: 1939: We always had a choir, and I was in every one— I listened to the radio when we heard that the children’s choir, youth choir. I have sung all my Germans had gone into Poland. That is what I re- life. My mother was the director. She always member vividly. Nobody supported the idea of a said, “You don’t have a solo voice, but you are a war. My father had already served in World War I wonderful head.” She used the word head with and my mother also. They knew what to expect.6 the choir members. We had fifty voices one time, and sometimes we had a little orchestra— When the war began, Alfred Schulz (born five pieces. 1899) prayed that as a husband and father, he would be spared military service. He was Because all of the Church programs were trained as an office worker and was pleased to functioning in the branch, leadership meetings be assigned to work at city hall. On several oc- were also held. As Henry Burkhardt recalled, casions, he was to accompany military units there was an advanced training class for the to the front, but his orders were changed each clerks before Sunday School on fast Sunday time, and he stayed home.7 and a teacher improvement class every other Being a member of the Church caused Sunday from 9:00 to 9:45 a.m. problems in school for Brunhilde Falkner (born Just before World War II began, Ilse Franke 1929) and her elder sister. The principal did was engaged to Hans Böttcher of the Berlin not like Latter-day Saints, so Brunhilde’s par- Center Branch. She had met him at the 1936 ents found it better to transfer their daughters Olympic Games in Berlin, and then she waited while he served as a full-time missionary in and near Chemnitz. However, he was drafted into the German army soon after returning home in 1939, and their wedding was postponed. They finally married on December 8, 1939. The official ceremony took place in the civil registry office at city hall in Chemnitz, and the next day a Church service was performed in the chapel of the Center Branch, conducted by district president Karl Göckeritz. The Church service was informal because it had no legal va- lidity in Germany in those days. The nearest Fig. 1. Young people of the Chemnitz Center Branch in 1938. (R. Schumann Hinton) 166 Chemnitz Center Branch to another school rather than to subject them my own boy?” When a Hitler Youth leader an- to the principal’s harassment. Unfortunately, swered in the negative, she shouted, “You lousy a five-minute walk to school then became a jerk!” Only a statement from her physician ex- twenty-minute walk.8 plaining her nervous condition saved her from The Nazi Party’s attempts to raise a gen- incarceration, as Siegfried explained.9 eration of loyal youth involved the young Thanks to his job of delivering about two people of the Chemnitz Center Branch as well. hundred newspapers every day, Hyrum Cieslak Reactions among Latter-day Saint youth var- (born 1930) was able to skip Jungvolk meet- ied, as is clear from the stories of several eye- ings. His father also saw to it that Hyrum witnesses. Just after the war began, Siegfried never missed a Sunday church meeting due to Donner (born 1930) turned ten and was in- Jungvolk activities. Fortunately, Hyrum did ducted into the Jungvolk organization. “I liked not suffer any consequences because of his ab- it because of the uniform. I was plain, and sence.10 Such passive resistance to Hitler’s pro- it made me feel kind of powerful. I was into gram of recruiting young people for his politi- music, and I played a horn in the marching cal purposes was common among LDS parents band. But my mother was against it, because who sought similar excuses for their children. I sometimes had duty on Sundays.” However, Herbert Heidler was a member of the things turned sour because Siegfried had long Hitler Youth but had an understanding with hair, and he was sent to work on a pig farm as his adult leader regarding Sundays. He told the a punishment. His mother, who suffered from man that if there were Hitler Youth meetings a nervous condition, protested his treatment on Sundays, he would not be in attendance. with the demand, “Don’t I have any rights for Herbert recalled that there was no training in Fig. 2. Members of the Chemnitz Center and Schloss branches shortly before the war. 167 In Harm’s Way weapons, but some of the songs they sang had give up my nice apartment in Chemnitz and words suggesting violence. move my beautiful new furniture to that huge, Some boys recognized the subtle goals of scary city,” she explained. Hans was still in the Hitler Youth. Henry Burkhardt explained Berlin when their first son, Hans, was born in that he “could see the problems. As part of the Chemnitz on April 15, 1941. Hitler Youth, I came to understand the mean- On November 16, 1941, Henry Burk hardt’s ing and purposes of the Third Reich more and father, Richard, wrote one of many letters to his more. I promised myself that I would never be son Alfred (“Fred,” born 1922) on the Eastern a member of the party.” Front.

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