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Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany
While Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist government was persecuting Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses and driving forty-two small German religious sects underground, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued to practice unhindered. How some fourteen thousand Mormons not only survived but thrived in Nazi Germany is a story little known, rarely told, and occasionally rewritten within the confines of the Church’s history—for good reason, as we see in David Conley Nelson’s Moroni and the Swastika . A page-turning historical narrative, this book is the first full account of how Mormons avoided Nazi persecution through skilled collaboration with Hitler’s regime, and then eschewed postwar shame by constructing an alternative history of wartime suffering and resistance.
The Twelfth Article of Faith and parts of the 134th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants function as Mormonism’s equivalent of the biblical admonition to “render unto Caesar,” a charge to cooperate with civil government, no matter how onerous doing so may be. Resurrecting this often-violated doctrinal edict, ecclesiastical leaders at the time developed a strategy that protected Mormons within Nazi Germany. Furthermore, as Nelson shows, many Mormon officials strove to fit into the Third Reich by exploiting commonalities with the Nazi state. German Mormons emphasized a mutual interest in genealogy and a passion for sports. They sent husbands into the Wehrmacht and sons into the Hitler Youth, and they prayed for a German victory when the war began. They also purged Jewish references from hymnals, lesson plans, and liturgical practices. One American mission president even wrote an article for the official Nazi Party newspaper, extolling parallels between Utah Mormon and German Nazi society. Nelson documents this collaboration, as well as subsequent efforts to suppress it by fashioning a new collective memory of ordinary German Mormons’ courage and travails during the war.
Recovering this inconvenient past, Moroni and the Swastika restores a complex and difficult chapter to the history of Nazi Germany and the Mormon Church in the twentieth century—and offers new insight into the construction of historical truth.
The Twelfth Article of Faith and parts of the 134th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants function as Mormonism’s equivalent of the biblical admonition to “render unto Caesar,” a charge to cooperate with civil government, no matter how onerous doing so may be. Resurrecting this often-violated doctrinal edict, ecclesiastical leaders at the time developed a strategy that protected Mormons within Nazi Germany. Furthermore, as Nelson shows, many Mormon officials strove to fit into the Third Reich by exploiting commonalities with the Nazi state. German Mormons emphasized a mutual interest in genealogy and a passion for sports. They sent husbands into the Wehrmacht and sons into the Hitler Youth, and they prayed for a German victory when the war began. They also purged Jewish references from hymnals, lesson plans, and liturgical practices. One American mission president even wrote an article for the official Nazi Party newspaper, extolling parallels between Utah Mormon and German Nazi society. Nelson documents this collaboration, as well as subsequent efforts to suppress it by fashioning a new collective memory of ordinary German Mormons’ courage and travails during the war.
Recovering this inconvenient past, Moroni and the Swastika restores a complex and difficult chapter to the history of Nazi Germany and the Mormon Church in the twentieth century—and offers new insight into the construction of historical truth.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2015
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March 4, 2015
The author opens the book by explaining that the impetus for the research was his stepson learning about persecuted groups of the Nazis during WWII, and asking how the LDS Church fared in the circumstances. This is a question I've had since a young kid, in awe of Anne Frank and incredibly interested in this time of history. The answer to that is complex, and even the evidence put forth in this book can't definitely answer the question without a lot of caveats. A very uncomfortable narrative is put forth, of faithful members who were ardent Hitler supporters, of church leaders in Utah who ignored Jewish converts pleas for help, and a church community that as a whole was not bothered by the Nazis to cease meeting or change teachings. (Teachings were altered preemptively.) Exceptions to the rule are made, of church members who sought to help their Jewish neighbors, or quietly protested the Nazi regime by pointedly not becoming party members. Helmuth Hubener, the Mormon resister to the Nazis who was executed at 17 for his efforts, and excommunicated from his faith by a church leader who was a strong Nazi supporter***, is included near the end of the book, as well the story of how his story came to light and was repeatedly pushed aside for various reasons outlined in the book. It makes for uncomfortable and fascinating reading, and begs for long conversations outside the context of the book. Conley presents his research in a clear manner, and the chapters are divided into sections that allow the reader to move at a good clip. I definitely had trouble putting the book down, and will definitely have these stories in mind for a long time.
*** Conley mentions a previously published account of Hubener's story called Hubener vs. Hitler, and treats it rather snarkily. This made me laugh since I tried to read that book when it was first published, and found it so poorly written I had to stop, despite the compelling story. It's telling that a second edition had to be released to make corrections.
*** Conley mentions a previously published account of Hubener's story called Hubener vs. Hitler, and treats it rather snarkily. This made me laugh since I tried to read that book when it was first published, and found it so poorly written I had to stop, despite the compelling story. It's telling that a second edition had to be released to make corrections.
September 4, 2015
This book was a disappointment-
I quickly came to distrust the author's judgment. The interesting and new-to-me source material got me to finish it, but almost every pager I struggled with the authorial stance. I found him snarky and petty and small in his judgment of people in a different time and place than ours, who lacked the benefit of our hindsight about Hitler Germany.
This is a not a matter of pro- or anti- LDS Church: I can read and appreciate Fawn Brodie for example - or Dan Vogel or other historians. Nelson though is on a high horse and lacks sympathy for his characters - not a good trait in a historian.
I quickly came to distrust the author's judgment. The interesting and new-to-me source material got me to finish it, but almost every pager I struggled with the authorial stance. I found him snarky and petty and small in his judgment of people in a different time and place than ours, who lacked the benefit of our hindsight about Hitler Germany.
This is a not a matter of pro- or anti- LDS Church: I can read and appreciate Fawn Brodie for example - or Dan Vogel or other historians. Nelson though is on a high horse and lacks sympathy for his characters - not a good trait in a historian.
December 10, 2017
This is a difficult book to review, for multiple reasons.
First, it's a slog. Seriously. The book is an extension of the author's dissertation from his PhD, and it shows. I really wish he had gotten a more experienced writer to coauthor it with him to make it flow better. Yes, this is a nitpicky style-over-substance critique, but it took me two months to force my way through the whole thing (344 pages, so not exactly a doorstopper). Style matters if you want your book to be read outside of academic circles.
Second, it illustrates how frustrating it must be to write a history with limited sources to draw upon. There's a great deal of conjecture about the motives of different people discussed in the book because the author had no personal journals or diaries to work from. The same goes for his take on the LDS Church's motives and aims. Since so much is kept private (meeting notes, letters, etc.), there's a clear dearth of information to work from. A big chunk of this story is still missing, but I doubt we'll ever get the whole thing.
Third, there's an assumption of knowledge about German history on the part of the author. I don't really blame him for this, since this is a book about a very narrow slice of German history and its intersection with the LDS Church. My lack of familiarity with Germany in general gives me a lack of context to work with, particularly with the violent rise of antisemitism in the country. I'd have liked a wider understanding of how that worked in Europe as a whole, or the West in general, and how antisemitism was commonplace. But that was beyond the scope of the book, so (again) I don't really blame the author for not going out of his way to summarize the Jewish experience in Europe for the thousand years leading up to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
Fourth, the author falls victim to hindsight in critiquing the LDS Church's response to the rise of Nazi Germany and the postwar period in handling stories about rebellious Mormon Germans during World War 2 (like Helmuth Hubener). It's easy to say that there wasn't the need to accommodate the Nazis to the degree that the church did, but that's not the same as being there at the time. Many of the decisions were clearly driven by fear. In retrospect, were they the greatest calls to make? Of course not. Choices made in fear usually aren't (just take a look at the Japanese internment camps or the Patriot Act if you want examples from United States history).
Anywho.
Those points aside, this was a book worth reading. I wouldn't call it a definitive account (since it doesn't put a lot of Germany history in context to better understand the culture and societal pressures), but a worthwhile read anyway to get an idea of what Mormons experienced in Germany during the Nazi era. I learned a lot from this book and am glad I read it.
Also, I didn't quite buy the author's assertion that Germany held a particularly special place in Mormon theology, given that he was working off of a single quote from Joseph Smith about the German translation of the Bible and nothing more. It seemed like a stretch.
First, it's a slog. Seriously. The book is an extension of the author's dissertation from his PhD, and it shows. I really wish he had gotten a more experienced writer to coauthor it with him to make it flow better. Yes, this is a nitpicky style-over-substance critique, but it took me two months to force my way through the whole thing (344 pages, so not exactly a doorstopper). Style matters if you want your book to be read outside of academic circles.
Second, it illustrates how frustrating it must be to write a history with limited sources to draw upon. There's a great deal of conjecture about the motives of different people discussed in the book because the author had no personal journals or diaries to work from. The same goes for his take on the LDS Church's motives and aims. Since so much is kept private (meeting notes, letters, etc.), there's a clear dearth of information to work from. A big chunk of this story is still missing, but I doubt we'll ever get the whole thing.
Third, there's an assumption of knowledge about German history on the part of the author. I don't really blame him for this, since this is a book about a very narrow slice of German history and its intersection with the LDS Church. My lack of familiarity with Germany in general gives me a lack of context to work with, particularly with the violent rise of antisemitism in the country. I'd have liked a wider understanding of how that worked in Europe as a whole, or the West in general, and how antisemitism was commonplace. But that was beyond the scope of the book, so (again) I don't really blame the author for not going out of his way to summarize the Jewish experience in Europe for the thousand years leading up to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
Fourth, the author falls victim to hindsight in critiquing the LDS Church's response to the rise of Nazi Germany and the postwar period in handling stories about rebellious Mormon Germans during World War 2 (like Helmuth Hubener). It's easy to say that there wasn't the need to accommodate the Nazis to the degree that the church did, but that's not the same as being there at the time. Many of the decisions were clearly driven by fear. In retrospect, were they the greatest calls to make? Of course not. Choices made in fear usually aren't (just take a look at the Japanese internment camps or the Patriot Act if you want examples from United States history).
Anywho.
Those points aside, this was a book worth reading. I wouldn't call it a definitive account (since it doesn't put a lot of Germany history in context to better understand the culture and societal pressures), but a worthwhile read anyway to get an idea of what Mormons experienced in Germany during the Nazi era. I learned a lot from this book and am glad I read it.
Also, I didn't quite buy the author's assertion that Germany held a particularly special place in Mormon theology, given that he was working off of a single quote from Joseph Smith about the German translation of the Bible and nothing more. It seemed like a stretch.
September 21, 2023
I'm just going to lead with this quote, without comment.
"The recently installed president of the Central German Mission in Dusseldorf, a forty-five-year-old native German who had immigrated to the United States seventeen years before [this was in 1969], delivered the most memorable remarks. Speaking in English, Walter H. Kindt began: 'As a member of the Wehrmacht, I once proudly served my Fuhrer. Now, as a member of the church, I proudly serve another Fuhrer.'...[a few amens, but also a lot of shocked silence, in fairness to the Mormon audience]...Kindt's indelicate introduction may have been nothing more than ill-advised flippancy, or it could have represented an unsuccessful attempt at humor uttered by a recently installed Mormon leader unaccustomed to public speaking in a language that was not his native tongue. Alternatively, it could have constituted another stubborn defense of the Twelfth Article of Faith. To this day, many surviving German Mormons...cling to that justification for their church's accommodating strategy in dealing with the National Socialist government."
---
This book traces the history of the Mormon church in Germany, from its early beginnings through WW1 and the Weimar era, before settling on the titled relationship between the church and the Nazis. I do think that lead-up makes sense, b/c it gives important context into how the church deals with government generally. For my non-mormon friends, Joseph Smith was once asked to summarize church beliefs, and responded with a short pamphlet laying out thirteen "Articles of Faith", which all mormon children are required to memorize and be able to recite in order to graduate out of Primary (the Mormon children-under-12 organization). Article 12, which has major importance to this book, goes as follows :
Essentially, it's the Mormon verion of "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's", but with extra weight laid on the absolute importance of obedience to civil and legal authority. Which is a lovely sentiment, except that in practice what that has tended to mean (in Germany, specifically in this book, but one could argue in America as well) is that the 12th AOF gets used as a shield to justify the Church not resisting dictators harder, and it's not even faithfully-adhered-to doctrine. The church on many occasions disobeyed German edicts it found annoying or restrictive in their attempts to preach the gospel. I would argue that the central thesis looks more like "We believe in expanding the church. If we can do that without pissing off the government, then we would prefer to do that. If we can't, then the church comes first. If disobeying the government would hurt the church, then obey the government at all costs."
The book highlights a few cases of what he calls "beacons of memory" which are kind of cultural touchstones that people use to reinforce or uphold their beliefs in how history happened.
One Mormon smuggled some Jews to Switzerland. He was later excommunicated for adultery, and he was memory-holed b/c he wasn't a perfect Mormon.
One Mormon was in charge of a wildcat concentration camp and definitely murdered and tortured a lot of people. He got memory-holed and whitewashed.
One Mormon named Hubert Huebner led a resistance movement that printed fliers; he was executed by the Gestapo. When he was arrested, his branch president (who was way more pro-Nazi than even the church preferred to see in their leadership) excommunicated him from the church. This one is the most fascinating to me, because he's a symbol all through of how the Church handled this era of its history. First, bury him, b/c it's inconvenient, and he violated the 12th AOF. Then trot him out when it's ok to be anti-Nazi. Then bury him and ban a play written about him because it might jeopardize relationships Church HQ was trying to build with Eastern Germany (side note : in a stunning display of idiocy, the rationale was apparently that if East Germans saw someone resisting a dictatorship, they might be inspired to do the same, apparently not seeing that **COMMUNISTS** would be **SUPER PRO PEOPLE RESISTING AND TRYING TO OVERTHROW A RIGHT WING DICTATORSHIP** ... asinine). Then after the wall fell, it's ok to bring him back out as a token Mormon Hero again (look! We fought Nazis, not collaborated with them!). But let's delete any references to the fact that the Church excommunicated him, ok?
This isn't even getting into ugly doctrinal shifts that were made to appease the Nazi government -- deleting hymns that mention Zion, not allowing Jews into meetinghouses, doing absolutely nothing to protect desperate converts from Judaism (J Reuben Clark was ... a piece of work), etc etc the list goes on. It's a long book, what can I say.
Closing quote, discussing the church's non-help of converts :
"Because of xenophobia and anti-Semitism at the highest level of the Mormon Church, its leadership chose to approach this challenge neither with the wisdom of Solomon nor the charity of Jesus Christ. Instead, the Mormon tactic resembled that of Pontius Pilate. When presented with this moral dilemma, the Mormon hierarchy washed its hands of the matter."
Recommended, because when institutions try to cover things up, it usually means it would be a good idea to shine a spotlight on those things. And this guy did it. Props to you, sir.
"The recently installed president of the Central German Mission in Dusseldorf, a forty-five-year-old native German who had immigrated to the United States seventeen years before [this was in 1969], delivered the most memorable remarks. Speaking in English, Walter H. Kindt began: 'As a member of the Wehrmacht, I once proudly served my Fuhrer. Now, as a member of the church, I proudly serve another Fuhrer.'...[a few amens, but also a lot of shocked silence, in fairness to the Mormon audience]...Kindt's indelicate introduction may have been nothing more than ill-advised flippancy, or it could have represented an unsuccessful attempt at humor uttered by a recently installed Mormon leader unaccustomed to public speaking in a language that was not his native tongue. Alternatively, it could have constituted another stubborn defense of the Twelfth Article of Faith. To this day, many surviving German Mormons...cling to that justification for their church's accommodating strategy in dealing with the National Socialist government."
---
This book traces the history of the Mormon church in Germany, from its early beginnings through WW1 and the Weimar era, before settling on the titled relationship between the church and the Nazis. I do think that lead-up makes sense, b/c it gives important context into how the church deals with government generally. For my non-mormon friends, Joseph Smith was once asked to summarize church beliefs, and responded with a short pamphlet laying out thirteen "Articles of Faith", which all mormon children are required to memorize and be able to recite in order to graduate out of Primary (the Mormon children-under-12 organization). Article 12, which has major importance to this book, goes as follows :
"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."
Essentially, it's the Mormon verion of "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's", but with extra weight laid on the absolute importance of obedience to civil and legal authority. Which is a lovely sentiment, except that in practice what that has tended to mean (in Germany, specifically in this book, but one could argue in America as well) is that the 12th AOF gets used as a shield to justify the Church not resisting dictators harder, and it's not even faithfully-adhered-to doctrine. The church on many occasions disobeyed German edicts it found annoying or restrictive in their attempts to preach the gospel. I would argue that the central thesis looks more like "We believe in expanding the church. If we can do that without pissing off the government, then we would prefer to do that. If we can't, then the church comes first. If disobeying the government would hurt the church, then obey the government at all costs."
The book highlights a few cases of what he calls "beacons of memory" which are kind of cultural touchstones that people use to reinforce or uphold their beliefs in how history happened.
One Mormon smuggled some Jews to Switzerland. He was later excommunicated for adultery, and he was memory-holed b/c he wasn't a perfect Mormon.
One Mormon was in charge of a wildcat concentration camp and definitely murdered and tortured a lot of people. He got memory-holed and whitewashed.
One Mormon named Hubert Huebner led a resistance movement that printed fliers; he was executed by the Gestapo. When he was arrested, his branch president (who was way more pro-Nazi than even the church preferred to see in their leadership) excommunicated him from the church. This one is the most fascinating to me, because he's a symbol all through of how the Church handled this era of its history. First, bury him, b/c it's inconvenient, and he violated the 12th AOF. Then trot him out when it's ok to be anti-Nazi. Then bury him and ban a play written about him because it might jeopardize relationships Church HQ was trying to build with Eastern Germany (side note : in a stunning display of idiocy, the rationale was apparently that if East Germans saw someone resisting a dictatorship, they might be inspired to do the same, apparently not seeing that **COMMUNISTS** would be **SUPER PRO PEOPLE RESISTING AND TRYING TO OVERTHROW A RIGHT WING DICTATORSHIP** ... asinine). Then after the wall fell, it's ok to bring him back out as a token Mormon Hero again (look! We fought Nazis, not collaborated with them!). But let's delete any references to the fact that the Church excommunicated him, ok?
This isn't even getting into ugly doctrinal shifts that were made to appease the Nazi government -- deleting hymns that mention Zion, not allowing Jews into meetinghouses, doing absolutely nothing to protect desperate converts from Judaism (J Reuben Clark was ... a piece of work), etc etc the list goes on. It's a long book, what can I say.
Closing quote, discussing the church's non-help of converts :
"Because of xenophobia and anti-Semitism at the highest level of the Mormon Church, its leadership chose to approach this challenge neither with the wisdom of Solomon nor the charity of Jesus Christ. Instead, the Mormon tactic resembled that of Pontius Pilate. When presented with this moral dilemma, the Mormon hierarchy washed its hands of the matter."
Recommended, because when institutions try to cover things up, it usually means it would be a good idea to shine a spotlight on those things. And this guy did it. Props to you, sir.
June 11, 2015
Genuinely brilliant, and very thorough scholarship.
If you want to read things that hold no threat to your testimony of the Mormon Church, then this is NOT the book for you. For that matter, this is not the review for you, either.
For the rest of you...If you are a member or a former member of Jewish heritage, this book will especially upset you with its honest and unapologetic account of the church's Nazi sympathies, and dealings with members of Jewish parentage. And maybe worse than that, the current minimizing and whitewashing of this horrifying part of the church's legacy.
If there was any life remaining in my ever-dying testimony of the Mormon church before I picked this book up, Nelson's book gave that testimony the final formaldehyde shower.
As a former Mormon with a Jewish father, only one resonating thought popped into my head as I read, from Genesis 4:10..."What hast thou done? The blood of thy brother crieth unto me from the ground!"
And I will never look at a pair of American missionaries again, without imagining them saluting Hitler...as they did when they served in Third Reich Germany.
If you want to read things that hold no threat to your testimony of the Mormon Church, then this is NOT the book for you. For that matter, this is not the review for you, either.
For the rest of you...If you are a member or a former member of Jewish heritage, this book will especially upset you with its honest and unapologetic account of the church's Nazi sympathies, and dealings with members of Jewish parentage. And maybe worse than that, the current minimizing and whitewashing of this horrifying part of the church's legacy.
If there was any life remaining in my ever-dying testimony of the Mormon church before I picked this book up, Nelson's book gave that testimony the final formaldehyde shower.
As a former Mormon with a Jewish father, only one resonating thought popped into my head as I read, from Genesis 4:10..."What hast thou done? The blood of thy brother crieth unto me from the ground!"
And I will never look at a pair of American missionaries again, without imagining them saluting Hitler...as they did when they served in Third Reich Germany.
September 29, 2015
Being a well read ex-mormon I thought I knew just about all the DIRT on the Mormon church as was available -- however this book disclosed just how awful the church's actions were during WWII -- basically how "inspired" they were to flagrantly hop into bed with the Nazi Party. Disgusting.
Would God that all the Mormons would read this book and know how misled they've been by their "prophets, seers and revelators."
The coverage of how effectively they've covered up their own history was also very well covered.
I just love Thomas S. Monson's comment on the "revelations" that were being made in the 1980s of his church's acts during the second world war: Monson snapped "Who knows what was right or wrong then? I don't know what we accomplish by dredging these things up and trying to sort them out" -- from and article published in NYT and Los Angeles Times (p327)
To answer THE PROPHET'S question, I'd say, I've learned a whole lot of things you didn't want me to know -- that's for sure. Interesting a "prophet of god" would even have to ask: "Who knows whats right or wrong then?" -- holy cow !!!
Would God that all the Mormons would read this book and know how misled they've been by their "prophets, seers and revelators."
The coverage of how effectively they've covered up their own history was also very well covered.
I just love Thomas S. Monson's comment on the "revelations" that were being made in the 1980s of his church's acts during the second world war: Monson snapped "Who knows what was right or wrong then? I don't know what we accomplish by dredging these things up and trying to sort them out" -- from and article published in NYT and Los Angeles Times (p327)
To answer THE PROPHET'S question, I'd say, I've learned a whole lot of things you didn't want me to know -- that's for sure. Interesting a "prophet of god" would even have to ask: "Who knows whats right or wrong then?" -- holy cow !!!
November 4, 2022
Another book outlining how the Mormon church protects its interests, rather than doing the right thing. In fact they're always on the wrong side of history, to an embarrassing degree. For a church that claims to have the only access to God's revelation in the world, they sure f*ck it up a lot. You'd think they'd be able to predict a bit more than they do.
April 24, 2017
Nelson has as much or more of an anti-LDS agenda as the "faith-promoting history" he dismisses has a pro-LDS agenda. The author has made a thorough presentation of his research. And yes, there were some Mormons who agreed, collaborated with, or actively sought to advance the terrible aims of the Nazi party in Germany during the Second World War. And yes, some LDS Church leaders made mistakes concerning their reactions to National Socialism, and sometimes did nothing to combat anti-Semitism or actively worked against the needs of Jewish people. I am saddened by these things. But the "Gotcha!" tone of much of the author's reporting, the 20/20 hindsight (of course, we all know now what happened and what actions and mistakes led to tragedy), and the lack of context for many of the facts result in an unreliable presentation. The author uses sources that have been discredited by historians without agendas (e.g., Fawn Brodie's "biography" of Joseph Smith and the old stories about possible nineteenth-century sources for the Book of Mormon) as though they are reliable, or at least uncontested. Nelson's every choice of words has the most negative possible connotations when it comes to the actions of Mormons and Church leaders from the 1830 establishment of the Church onward. More important, he imputes motives even to the most well-intentioned LDS leaders and members that don't mention their possible basis in faith or revelation, which are fundamental to historical and reader understanding. It is not historically objective to suggest every possible motive for a person's actions other than the one he or she is most likely to give as his own understanding of what he did, when that is as available as a record or implication in the same way as the possible motives the author supplies. To imply that LDS leaders should have known every consequence of their statements or actions, or that individual Mormons should have been better than some of the terrible choices they made, simply because of their church affiliation, defies human nature and the nature of good and evil and of agency in LDS theology. This book should be read with the understanding that its presentation of facts, actions, and motives are undermined by the author's stylistic choices and the lack of objectivity of his interpretations of the relevant scholarship, despite the thoroughness of his research.
December 16, 2015
Prompted by a question from his teenage son--"Dad, what color triangles did the Mormons wear in the concentration camps?"--David Nelson has thoroughly investigated the position Mormons held in Nazi Germany during the Third Reich. Overall, in spite of exceptional more-touted heroes such as branch president Max Reschke who risked his life to save Jewish persons from persecution at the hands of the Nazis, the Mormon Church in Germany largely played an accommodating role in Nazi Germany. Mormons were integrated into the Nazi landscape. Examples include how they yielded their traditional Boy Scout organization in order to allow their young men to participate in Hitler's Youth Program and how Mormon Elders (missionaries) helped train German Olympians in basketball in the country's hope of securing a "Nordic victory" in the 1936 games (the host country didn't win a single game.) With images of Mormon basketball players giving the Nazi salute (part of "basketball diplomacy" and photographs from church-sponsored events capturing Nazi insignias and flags left and right, Nelson builds up a credible argument that the past Mormon complicity in Nazi Germany is a past chapter in Mormonism that the current church would be happy to forget and has attempted in many ways to do so. Members attempted to draw positive parallels between Nazism and Mormonism in the early years through shared genealogical enthusiasm, abstinence from certain vices, and emphasis on healthy recreational activities.
(Interesting thoughts about the selection of President Uchtdorf to serve as an apostle and member of the First Presidency: "And to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine." --October 5, 2013).
(Interesting thoughts about the selection of President Uchtdorf to serve as an apostle and member of the First Presidency: "And to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine." --October 5, 2013).
July 5, 2015
I have always had an interest in this time in history. I'm glad I found this well written and researched book. I was shocked to discover that most of the LDS church leaders openly supported Hitler to avoid persecution by the Nazis. The author also brings to light how these activities were often covered up by the Mormon Church. I don't think I will be able to look at the LDS church in the same away again.
November 2, 2016
Read with enthusiasm and often slack jaw. My only complaint is that it takes the author nearly a hundred pages to get to the rise of the Nazi Party. Lay readers will learn more about nineteenth-century German Mormonism than they really want to know.
February 13, 2018
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R3S2...
I am not a Mormon. I am a Catholic who has done substantial reading on the allegations of Catholic complicity with the Nazis. My interest was in seeing how other faith traditions handled their relationships with totalitarian National Socialism.
This book provided that information and more. The author, David Conley Nelson, provides a survey of Mormon history in the United States and its development of a mission program in Germany. Frankly, I know very little about Mormon history, which is an oversight inasmuch as Mormonism is one of the few religions in America which can be said to have its own cultural region, namely, as Dr. Nelson points out the "Mormon Cultural Region" surrounding Utah. Ignoring Mormon history amounts to ignoring a substantial geographic history.
I was also surprised to see how much political influence Mormons were able to wield in American politics and diplomacy. An interesting feature of Mormonism is how Mormon religious leaders move back and forth between the American secular and political world and the Mormon religious world. For example, Ezra Hart Benson was Secretary of Agriculture before he became "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator." J. Reuben Clark was a diplomat and had connections with the American diplomatic establishment while he was the second highest ranking person in the Mormon hierarchy. Dr. Nelson mentions the case of Dallin Oaks who went from BYU Dean to the Utah Supreme Court to the Mormon First Presidency.
Mormons were, therefore, able to play upon this connection with the American government in their dealings with German governments, ranging from the Second Reich to the Third Reich, in opening doors to their missionaries.
Dr. Nelson seems to want to play up a narrative of a shameful accommodation of the Mormon Church with National Socialism, but, frankly, the data points seem to be skimpy and points in all directions, exactly as one might expect when humans are involved. The Mormon population of Germany numbered around 30,000 in approximately 1930. Mormons were a suspect group that didn't fit into the dominant religious and cultural paradigms where one was either Catholic or Protestant. Presumably, Mormons learned to keep their heads down and their noses clean.
In Germany, the Mormon leadership - American mission leaders - played up their adherence to the Twelfth Article of Faith, which mandated that Mormons support the temporal government and obey its laws. Dr. Nelson points out that this mandate was often honored in the breach where Mormons felt that their mission was impeded by German laws and they could get away with a violation of those laws. In other words, Mormons were a lot like other people, although, perhaps, a little more flexible than scrupulous when compared with other religious groups.
Naturally, under the aggressively threatening Nazi regime, Mormons were not likely to be bastions of resistance to unconscionable Nazi policies. Frankly, though, the Protestant German churches may have had an even stronger tradition of obedience to the secular state. Catholicism did have a theology of tyranny and a tradition of opposition to tyranny that threatened the Church, which was a reason that there were Catholic opposition groups that plotted Hitler's assassination, such as the ring around Claus von Stauffenberg, or, as we know now, the Catholic resistance that attempted to coordinate through Pius XII to overthrow Hitler. Nonetheless, the Catholic doctrine also counseled prudence when success did not seem likely.
Dr. Nelson points out that Mormon theology began to develop doctrines of the primacy of conscience over the Twelfth Article after World War II. I suspect that all Christian traditions underwent similar developments for similar reasons and that the solution to the issue of conscience and obedience remains vexed, conditional and prudential for everyone.
Mormons had heroes and villains like everyone else. There were Mormons who saved Jews and Mormons who participated in Nazi savagery. Other faith traditions have a similar mix. Why some should be heroic and others vicious and bestial will probably remain a deep mystery until the end of time. The answer is undoubtedly grounded in the deep structure of the human soul, rather than particular religious doctrines.
However, I found myself admiring several of the "memory beacons" that Dr. Nelson presented. For example, Max Reschke, who let his anger push him to amazing acts of generosity, and who paid the price with time in concentration camps, is a fascinating character. As Dr. Nelson points out, though, Reschke was forgotten because his life was not entirely "faith promoting" because of his tendency toward infidelity. Similarly, the youthful Helmuth Hubener, who was executed at 17 for spreading anti-nazi newsletters offers an example that seems to mirror the more famous White Rose resistance group. Dr. Nelson explores the reason that Hubener was forgotten, remembered, and then deliberately reduced to non-person status by the Mormon church, perhaps for political reasons or because of perceived political reasons.
On the other hand, the actions of the Mormon Church in failing or refusing to provide succor to Jewish converts to Mormonism is less edifying. Dr. Nelson offers this example:
"The church’s response to another lifelong Austrian Mormon of Jewish linage was not as perfunctory but it contained the same refusal. Richard Siebenschein, also of Vienna, wrote two letters, dated December 25 and 28, 1938, addressed directly to Heber J. Grant, with whom Siebenschein claimed to have shared an apartment “in the boarding house of Mrs. Parker” when both served as Mormon missionaries in Tokyo in 1901. Claiming that he wanted only an “affidavit as required by the law of the USA for entry into your country.” Grant’s former missionary companion pled: “We are not in trouble through no fault of our own, except our [Jewish] descendence.” This time, J. Reuben Clark responded with a chatty letter that detailed the present circumstances of each missionary with whom Siebenschein served in Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. He said President Grant was away from the city, but that the Prophet would be pleased to know Siebenschein remember him and had written. Then, in a startling switch of tone, Clark reverted to his form-letter verbiage, asking to be “excused” from providing such assistance because the church received “so many requests of this sort.”"
Obviously, this is the kind of thing that makes one's blood boil and might incite one to make rash judgments about Mormons generally, but the fact is that it was not the Mormon Church that was responsible for this act of abandonment but one particular Mormon, namely J. Reuben Clark, who was an inveterate anti-semite, whose anti-Semitism might have been fortified by the belief that Jewish Mormons would support his political opponents. Dr. Nelson points out that by and large Mormons in the Mormon Cultural Region were not particularly antisemitic on cultural grounds and that Mormon doctrines might tend to make them philosemitic. Perhaps if Clark had not been there, then the official church's response might have lived up to Christian tenets.
Dr. Nelson also points to other unedifying instances arising, in his view, from adherence to Article Twelve:
"Without a dredged-up doctrine that mandated rendering obedience to civil authority, which the Mormons ignored earlier in their German experience, there may have been no need to appoint Arthur Zander to become St. Georg branch president or Alfred C. Rees to become the Berlin mission president. A less enthusiastic advocate of Nazism may have diffused Hübener’s rebellion and saved the lad’s life. Philemon Kelly’s patient approach to solving problems with the government at the lowest possible level would have averted the specter of a pro-Mormon article in the Völkisher Beobachter, spiritual radio broadcasts from Berlin to Utah, and a mission president who said “Heil Hitler” and attended a Nuremberg Nazi Party rally."
Perhaps, but history is often 20/20 in hindsight. When these things happened, the death camps did not exist, and may not have been imagined by the most ardent Nazis. Judging people then by what we know now is bad history. It is also unfair, something we need to keep in mind when we realize that we will be judged in the future by people who also know the outcomes of our decisions.
So, all in all, this was a fascinating book, albeit one that is too easily turned into a cudgel for easy moralizing.
History and human life are far too complicated and subtle to simply reduce to easy moralizing.
I am not a Mormon. I am a Catholic who has done substantial reading on the allegations of Catholic complicity with the Nazis. My interest was in seeing how other faith traditions handled their relationships with totalitarian National Socialism.
This book provided that information and more. The author, David Conley Nelson, provides a survey of Mormon history in the United States and its development of a mission program in Germany. Frankly, I know very little about Mormon history, which is an oversight inasmuch as Mormonism is one of the few religions in America which can be said to have its own cultural region, namely, as Dr. Nelson points out the "Mormon Cultural Region" surrounding Utah. Ignoring Mormon history amounts to ignoring a substantial geographic history.
I was also surprised to see how much political influence Mormons were able to wield in American politics and diplomacy. An interesting feature of Mormonism is how Mormon religious leaders move back and forth between the American secular and political world and the Mormon religious world. For example, Ezra Hart Benson was Secretary of Agriculture before he became "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator." J. Reuben Clark was a diplomat and had connections with the American diplomatic establishment while he was the second highest ranking person in the Mormon hierarchy. Dr. Nelson mentions the case of Dallin Oaks who went from BYU Dean to the Utah Supreme Court to the Mormon First Presidency.
Mormons were, therefore, able to play upon this connection with the American government in their dealings with German governments, ranging from the Second Reich to the Third Reich, in opening doors to their missionaries.
Dr. Nelson seems to want to play up a narrative of a shameful accommodation of the Mormon Church with National Socialism, but, frankly, the data points seem to be skimpy and points in all directions, exactly as one might expect when humans are involved. The Mormon population of Germany numbered around 30,000 in approximately 1930. Mormons were a suspect group that didn't fit into the dominant religious and cultural paradigms where one was either Catholic or Protestant. Presumably, Mormons learned to keep their heads down and their noses clean.
In Germany, the Mormon leadership - American mission leaders - played up their adherence to the Twelfth Article of Faith, which mandated that Mormons support the temporal government and obey its laws. Dr. Nelson points out that this mandate was often honored in the breach where Mormons felt that their mission was impeded by German laws and they could get away with a violation of those laws. In other words, Mormons were a lot like other people, although, perhaps, a little more flexible than scrupulous when compared with other religious groups.
Naturally, under the aggressively threatening Nazi regime, Mormons were not likely to be bastions of resistance to unconscionable Nazi policies. Frankly, though, the Protestant German churches may have had an even stronger tradition of obedience to the secular state. Catholicism did have a theology of tyranny and a tradition of opposition to tyranny that threatened the Church, which was a reason that there were Catholic opposition groups that plotted Hitler's assassination, such as the ring around Claus von Stauffenberg, or, as we know now, the Catholic resistance that attempted to coordinate through Pius XII to overthrow Hitler. Nonetheless, the Catholic doctrine also counseled prudence when success did not seem likely.
Dr. Nelson points out that Mormon theology began to develop doctrines of the primacy of conscience over the Twelfth Article after World War II. I suspect that all Christian traditions underwent similar developments for similar reasons and that the solution to the issue of conscience and obedience remains vexed, conditional and prudential for everyone.
Mormons had heroes and villains like everyone else. There were Mormons who saved Jews and Mormons who participated in Nazi savagery. Other faith traditions have a similar mix. Why some should be heroic and others vicious and bestial will probably remain a deep mystery until the end of time. The answer is undoubtedly grounded in the deep structure of the human soul, rather than particular religious doctrines.
However, I found myself admiring several of the "memory beacons" that Dr. Nelson presented. For example, Max Reschke, who let his anger push him to amazing acts of generosity, and who paid the price with time in concentration camps, is a fascinating character. As Dr. Nelson points out, though, Reschke was forgotten because his life was not entirely "faith promoting" because of his tendency toward infidelity. Similarly, the youthful Helmuth Hubener, who was executed at 17 for spreading anti-nazi newsletters offers an example that seems to mirror the more famous White Rose resistance group. Dr. Nelson explores the reason that Hubener was forgotten, remembered, and then deliberately reduced to non-person status by the Mormon church, perhaps for political reasons or because of perceived political reasons.
On the other hand, the actions of the Mormon Church in failing or refusing to provide succor to Jewish converts to Mormonism is less edifying. Dr. Nelson offers this example:
"The church’s response to another lifelong Austrian Mormon of Jewish linage was not as perfunctory but it contained the same refusal. Richard Siebenschein, also of Vienna, wrote two letters, dated December 25 and 28, 1938, addressed directly to Heber J. Grant, with whom Siebenschein claimed to have shared an apartment “in the boarding house of Mrs. Parker” when both served as Mormon missionaries in Tokyo in 1901. Claiming that he wanted only an “affidavit as required by the law of the USA for entry into your country.” Grant’s former missionary companion pled: “We are not in trouble through no fault of our own, except our [Jewish] descendence.” This time, J. Reuben Clark responded with a chatty letter that detailed the present circumstances of each missionary with whom Siebenschein served in Japan at the turn of the twentieth century. He said President Grant was away from the city, but that the Prophet would be pleased to know Siebenschein remember him and had written. Then, in a startling switch of tone, Clark reverted to his form-letter verbiage, asking to be “excused” from providing such assistance because the church received “so many requests of this sort.”"
Obviously, this is the kind of thing that makes one's blood boil and might incite one to make rash judgments about Mormons generally, but the fact is that it was not the Mormon Church that was responsible for this act of abandonment but one particular Mormon, namely J. Reuben Clark, who was an inveterate anti-semite, whose anti-Semitism might have been fortified by the belief that Jewish Mormons would support his political opponents. Dr. Nelson points out that by and large Mormons in the Mormon Cultural Region were not particularly antisemitic on cultural grounds and that Mormon doctrines might tend to make them philosemitic. Perhaps if Clark had not been there, then the official church's response might have lived up to Christian tenets.
Dr. Nelson also points to other unedifying instances arising, in his view, from adherence to Article Twelve:
"Without a dredged-up doctrine that mandated rendering obedience to civil authority, which the Mormons ignored earlier in their German experience, there may have been no need to appoint Arthur Zander to become St. Georg branch president or Alfred C. Rees to become the Berlin mission president. A less enthusiastic advocate of Nazism may have diffused Hübener’s rebellion and saved the lad’s life. Philemon Kelly’s patient approach to solving problems with the government at the lowest possible level would have averted the specter of a pro-Mormon article in the Völkisher Beobachter, spiritual radio broadcasts from Berlin to Utah, and a mission president who said “Heil Hitler” and attended a Nuremberg Nazi Party rally."
Perhaps, but history is often 20/20 in hindsight. When these things happened, the death camps did not exist, and may not have been imagined by the most ardent Nazis. Judging people then by what we know now is bad history. It is also unfair, something we need to keep in mind when we realize that we will be judged in the future by people who also know the outcomes of our decisions.
So, all in all, this was a fascinating book, albeit one that is too easily turned into a cudgel for easy moralizing.
History and human life are far too complicated and subtle to simply reduce to easy moralizing.
March 28, 2016
This was a very interesting historical account of the mormon church and it's history with Nazi Germany. It was in many ways very disturbing. As stated in the book: "Survival would demand definitive accommodationist, and in some cases collaborative, behavior that would prove to be problematic ..."
One of the most disturbing aspects was when members of the mormon church in Germany that had Jewish blood requested assistance to emigrate to the USA from the mormon church hierarchy and were denied. J. Reuben Clark of the first presidency of the church denied any request for help and was very anti-Semitic. From the book: "Because of xenophobia and anti-Semitism at the highest level of the Mormon church, its leadership chose to approach this challenge neither with the wisdom of Solomon nor the charity of Jesus Christ. Instead, the Mormon tactic resembled that of Pontius Pilate. When presented with this moral dilemma, the Mormon hierarchy washed its hands of the matter."
There are other historical accounts in the book that are very enlightening. Some are very positive and uplifting and others very disturbing. I highly recommend this book and much can be learned from this historical account.
One of the most disturbing aspects was when members of the mormon church in Germany that had Jewish blood requested assistance to emigrate to the USA from the mormon church hierarchy and were denied. J. Reuben Clark of the first presidency of the church denied any request for help and was very anti-Semitic. From the book: "Because of xenophobia and anti-Semitism at the highest level of the Mormon church, its leadership chose to approach this challenge neither with the wisdom of Solomon nor the charity of Jesus Christ. Instead, the Mormon tactic resembled that of Pontius Pilate. When presented with this moral dilemma, the Mormon hierarchy washed its hands of the matter."
There are other historical accounts in the book that are very enlightening. Some are very positive and uplifting and others very disturbing. I highly recommend this book and much can be learned from this historical account.
May 19, 2018
Impressive scholarship. Nelson demonstrates that the Mormon Church, more so than any other minority religion, chose to accommodate, and at times even support, the Nazi regime. Damning evidence.
April 6, 2021
Is it faith promoting? Well, I suppose that depends on the extent to which you’re an anti-Semite.
July 18, 2023
Absolutely fascinating. Important side of history that didn't make the textbooks.
February 4, 2026
This is not a history book, despite the fact that the original draft of this was Nelson's history PhD dissertation. I would be interested in seeing that original dissertation to compare it to what eventually turned into this book. Because he wears his opinions on his sleeve so much here that this would need some serious revision to pass a dissertation committee, IMO. I am not a professional historian. But I am competent enough to know that his transgresses the boundaries of historiography quite a bit in this book. There are enough "likely" and "it seems that" and "undoubtedly" and other such vocabulary sprinkled throughout the work that even a historical amateur like me can see he goes well beyond the verifiable data.
Also, he believes, very obviously and publicly, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is far too close to Nazi Germany's government for his tastes. As a member of that Church, this is so laughably incorrect that it spoils much of the rest of the book for me.
There's some good data buried in here about LDS missteps during and after Nazism in Germany—I'm not one for hagiographies of my Church either. But it's buried under such contempt and misunderstandings that I can't help but wonder what a more historiographically moderate scholar would have produced on the subject. I bet that's a book that I would find worthwhile.
Aside from the dripping contempt he treats my Church with, I have two complaints about the book. First, like many books that are products of dissertations, it jumps around a lot from one subject to the other without tying everything together as well as it could have. There are very obviously parts that felt like individual articles shoehorned into being chapters in this greater whole, but not edited to be part of that whole as well as they could be. Which leads to my second complaint, that he drops the concept of a "memory beacon" without fully explaining it. (In writing this, I went back to check and he actually does, in an endnote on p. 348 of my copy. For crying out loud, put that kind of paragraph in the text itself.) I mean, I figured it out as I went, but some up-front explanation would have saved me and other readers some headaches. If you're gonna use a term like that, you gotta define it!
Anyway, 2 stars. Did not like. There's a reason it took me almost 2 months to finish this book. What a slog.
Also, he believes, very obviously and publicly, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is far too close to Nazi Germany's government for his tastes. As a member of that Church, this is so laughably incorrect that it spoils much of the rest of the book for me.
There's some good data buried in here about LDS missteps during and after Nazism in Germany—I'm not one for hagiographies of my Church either. But it's buried under such contempt and misunderstandings that I can't help but wonder what a more historiographically moderate scholar would have produced on the subject. I bet that's a book that I would find worthwhile.
Aside from the dripping contempt he treats my Church with, I have two complaints about the book. First, like many books that are products of dissertations, it jumps around a lot from one subject to the other without tying everything together as well as it could have. There are very obviously parts that felt like individual articles shoehorned into being chapters in this greater whole, but not edited to be part of that whole as well as they could be. Which leads to my second complaint, that he drops the concept of a "memory beacon" without fully explaining it. (In writing this, I went back to check and he actually does, in an endnote on p. 348 of my copy. For crying out loud, put that kind of paragraph in the text itself.) I mean, I figured it out as I went, but some up-front explanation would have saved me and other readers some headaches. If you're gonna use a term like that, you gotta define it!
Anyway, 2 stars. Did not like. There's a reason it took me almost 2 months to finish this book. What a slog.
December 19, 2025
I was excited to pick this up, as I regularly nerd out on both WWII and Mormon history. Unfortunately, this was probably the most disappointing book I read this year. Its biggest flaw is that it somehow manages to make a genuinely fascinating topic painfully boring—a talent I previously believed the LDS Church had a monopoly on.
The first quarter of the book doesn’t feel particularly essential; it’s a monotonous slog through the conditions preceding Hitler’s Germany. More than half the book takes place before the war even begins, bogged down in Church politics and administrative interactions with Nazi officials. None of this is especially engaging, and it’s certainly not a page-turner.
If you’re hoping for a juicy scandal, you’ll come up empty. While that wasn’t my motivation going in, I found myself wishing for something to break the monotony. What you get instead is a fairly dry accounting: J. Reuben Clark held antisemitic views, other Church leaders routinely pandered to the Nazi government and prioritized Church Inc. over the needs of members, and some German Saints were enthusiastic Nazi supporters. That’s about it.
The most compelling story—by far—is that of Helmuth Hübener, the anti-Nazi activist who was ultimately sent to the guillotine for his efforts. That Helmuth was a Church member almost feels like an afterthought, but it is interesting to see how the Church responded to his actions at different levels.
Another issue is how clearly the author has a bone to pick with the LDS Church. I don’t object to the criticism itself, but when it begins to dominate the tone, it gets old fast. That said, the book is well-researched, and it deserves credit on that front.
The first quarter of the book doesn’t feel particularly essential; it’s a monotonous slog through the conditions preceding Hitler’s Germany. More than half the book takes place before the war even begins, bogged down in Church politics and administrative interactions with Nazi officials. None of this is especially engaging, and it’s certainly not a page-turner.
If you’re hoping for a juicy scandal, you’ll come up empty. While that wasn’t my motivation going in, I found myself wishing for something to break the monotony. What you get instead is a fairly dry accounting: J. Reuben Clark held antisemitic views, other Church leaders routinely pandered to the Nazi government and prioritized Church Inc. over the needs of members, and some German Saints were enthusiastic Nazi supporters. That’s about it.
The most compelling story—by far—is that of Helmuth Hübener, the anti-Nazi activist who was ultimately sent to the guillotine for his efforts. That Helmuth was a Church member almost feels like an afterthought, but it is interesting to see how the Church responded to his actions at different levels.
Another issue is how clearly the author has a bone to pick with the LDS Church. I don’t object to the criticism itself, but when it begins to dominate the tone, it gets old fast. That said, the book is well-researched, and it deserves credit on that front.
April 3, 2025
An un-whitewashed history of the relationship between those of the LDS faith who lived in Germany, and or, who were responsible for church members in Germany, and the Nazi regime. The book includes the tragedy of church members who fully supported Nazism, including, banning Jewish converts from meetings, to the heroism of young Helmuth Hubener, and his subsequent excommunication from the LDS church by a leader who wanted to show Hitler's propaganda as part of the church service. Very enlightening and disturbing at once, but it makes you appreciate those who bucked the system and tried to ignite revolt even more. Well worth reading for the LDS and non-LDS alike who are interested in religious history during the Nazi movement.
January 30, 2025
An excellent and unfortunately topical history lesson for those who are able to stomach the author's tempered indignation at a religious institution whose modern leaders still echo the sentiments that lead their brothers and sisters in Christ of old to not simply capitulate with powers antithetical to the message of Christ, but enabled active and enthusiastic service to them. It leaves the reader wondering how much modern church leadership learned from the past, and how many of the same missteps they will make in the current political climate.
August 19, 2025
I've taken a hiatus from history reviewing but I'm so glad I borrowed this volume. I had no idea that the LDS church was manipulated by the Nazis and the weird ways in which Mormons played along with the dictatorship. It's a counterpoint to the recent film 'Escape from Germany', which depicted foreign missionaries in a sympathetic light. I suppose this book goes to show how deeply Protestant churches played along with authoritarian regimes (I would like to know more about Mormons under communism, too).
June 21, 2023
I was so interested to read this. The tone, bias and lack of credible sourcing was truly disappointing.
The author uses sources that have been discredited by historians without agendas (e.g., Fawn Brodie's "biography" of Joseph Smith and the old stories about possible nineteenth-century sources for the Book of Mormon) as though they are reliable, or at least uncontested.
The author uses sources that have been discredited by historians without agendas (e.g., Fawn Brodie's "biography" of Joseph Smith and the old stories about possible nineteenth-century sources for the Book of Mormon) as though they are reliable, or at least uncontested.
August 23, 2021
A really well researched and thought out book. The final few chapters and the conclusions really bring home how the Mormons approach to the Nazi party was misguided, unnecessary and left trail of embarrassment and blood.
June 13, 2018
First book by this author, but impressed. Really did a lot of great research on this interesting period.
April 29, 2023
Such valuable/important information, but I found it mostly dry to get through, except maybe the last few chapters.
June 27, 2025
I actually read David Nelson's original dissertation, which is publicly available online (though less edited and readable, I assume)
May 28, 2016
Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany, written by David Conley Nelson, is a confronting historical look at Swastikathe relationship of the Mormon Church and Germany. The book itself is a result of Nelson’s 20-year project researching the German history of the church that culminated in his doctoral dissertation from whence this book is derived. Relating much more than only the Nazi regime, this is an account of the church and its German membership from the first missionaries sent to Germany in the 1850’s, well into the telling of the reactions of attendees of the Alaborg, Denmark Mormon History Association conference in 2000 where Nelson presented some of his research.
The breadth of the book is both positive and negative. It is positive in that it squarely positions readers to understand the historical relationship of the church with German Mormon pioneers, German church membership and Germany in general. Conversely, in undertaking such a broad report, the first section of the book felt long in anticipation of the upcoming analysis of the relationship of the church and the Nazis, which is not discussed until section 2. Nevertheless, Nelson’s writing style, a combination of narrative examples that engross the reader, peppered with analysis and context, make the book easy to read and engaging...
To read the rest of this review, please go to the Exponent blog at http://www.the-exponent.com/book-revi...
The breadth of the book is both positive and negative. It is positive in that it squarely positions readers to understand the historical relationship of the church with German Mormon pioneers, German church membership and Germany in general. Conversely, in undertaking such a broad report, the first section of the book felt long in anticipation of the upcoming analysis of the relationship of the church and the Nazis, which is not discussed until section 2. Nevertheless, Nelson’s writing style, a combination of narrative examples that engross the reader, peppered with analysis and context, make the book easy to read and engaging...
To read the rest of this review, please go to the Exponent blog at http://www.the-exponent.com/book-revi...
December 14, 2016
Fascinating book which takes a look at how various individual Mormons navigated the challenges of staying faithful LDS in the midst of National Socialism in pre and post WWII Germany and America and how the institution of the Mormon Church did the same.
My favorite chapters were the final two which dealt with Helmuth Hübener, the only Mormon to be executed by the Nazis for opposing their regime and who was also excommunicated by his pro-Nazi branch president (Arthur Zander), for "intercepting and spreading foreign broadcast transmissions" - basically for falling afoul of the 12th Article of Faith in the eyes of Pres. Zander, after being arrested by the Gestapo when caught distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets.
Thank you to my colleague and friend, Brett Walker, for giving me a copy of this book which was signed by the author, David Conley Nelson, whom he knows in Houston. An engaging read for sure!
My favorite chapters were the final two which dealt with Helmuth Hübener, the only Mormon to be executed by the Nazis for opposing their regime and who was also excommunicated by his pro-Nazi branch president (Arthur Zander), for "intercepting and spreading foreign broadcast transmissions" - basically for falling afoul of the 12th Article of Faith in the eyes of Pres. Zander, after being arrested by the Gestapo when caught distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets.
Thank you to my colleague and friend, Brett Walker, for giving me a copy of this book which was signed by the author, David Conley Nelson, whom he knows in Houston. An engaging read for sure!
October 15, 2015
A historical narrative, this book is the first account of how Mormons avoided Nazi persecution through skilled collaboration with Hitler’s regime, and then eschewed postwar shame by constructing an alternative history of wartime suffering and resistance. Interesting and disturbing account of how a religious group avoided persecution during World War II.
May 8, 2015
2-3 stars. It was good in some places, less good in others. Still a good book to read if you're interested in Mormonism in the Third Reich.
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