(22) British Zone
Hermulheim, near Cologne
Luxemburger Strasse 82
September 6, 1946
To the Mormons – Parish
of Idaho Falls, Mormon Temple
(Idaho) U.S.A.
I am an unknown man for you – I worked voluntary as an officer POW at the harvest of potatoes and sugar-beets in your county in October-November last year. After my return and after being recovered consciousness in my home-country I feel the necessity to write to you and to return thanks for the very good treatment, that the farmers of your creed allotted the prisoners.
The POW’s always have a good nose for those things and then always instantly we have recognized, when the farmer is a Mormon or he isn’t one.
I believe, it has been very well, that a large lot of German people has come into your county to become acquainted with your own people; by this it has been contributed to do apart wrong conceptions about the truth of your creed and of your living – and to give it further.
It has been well, I could me touch also intellectually with your community, in order now to give explanation to friends and to the other people – for: What do the people here know from the Mormons? “They are a sect of polygamy” and they have smiled to my report, that we had worked in the county where live many of Mormons and we had had it well. But after having brought the proof, that I feeled at my own body the sincerity and practice of your highest principles – than the faces were serious and they listened with attention.
I hope, very much of the prisoners carry thanks to your people in their families etc., and don’t forget the good behaviour of the Mormon farmers.
Now is the living in our country very bad and unhappy – hungry and cold – without clothing and dwelling – so live very much people in our western country – also I have lost all my property by bombing at the end of the war – and sometimes I’d like working and living only in a little cabin, in your county. America you have it better – already said Goethe.
Let me send my and my wife’s respectful compliments to your community and to their farmers.
From FRIEDRICH NITSCHE,
post-office clerk
Wow.
Love this, and love the respect Friedrich shows by writing in English.
A remarkable letter.
Wow. Where did you get this? Was it sent to your family?
Great letter, I’m curious to know where you found it as well.
Very nice. I heard a similar sentiment one time from an elderly German gentleman who had been a prisoner of war in a Mormon area of the United States.
Here is the address that Nitsche was writing from (now Hürth). It looks like it is largely a Turkish area of Cologne now.
I found it in the church history library — there are some real gems here, no? (No more specific citation, sorry; I research for a living, and when I post sources, too often my work is absorbed into other people’s work without attribution. But I find this stuff by voraciously searching the collections here, whether for clients or for my own projects. I can’t seem to read anything without the reflex consideration of how I can turn it into a Keepa post!)
I’m glad you appreciate this. While I could have rewritten it to improve his English, I thought his own words conveyed his gratitude better than the most polished language could have done.
The Mormons were never an object of much persecution in the Third Reich on the national level before or during World War II. However, there was a fair amount of negative media accounts of the LDS. During the 1930s there were numerous articles published in the German about polygameous LDS splinter groups in Utah and Arizona. Furthermore, after Kristalnacht and the world-wide criticism heaped on Germany, the Nazis responded by publishing an article comparing the Jewish issue in Germany to the Mormon issue in Missouri during the 1830s. This would explain the misconceptions of the LDS Nitsche debunked upon his return which he described in his letter.
I loved the way he wrote this letter.
There was a German POW camp in Salina, Utah and several of the men worked on my father’s farm. My dad gave them his tobacco ration cards and they gave him a beautiful jewel box that had been made in the camp. I have it now. One night an American guard shot up the camp and killed several of the prisoners. My parents always felt bad about the incident and that the prisoners had to be moved away.
This letter speaks as well of the “farmers of [our] creed” as of Herr Nitsche. What a kind gesture to write this letter. I’m hopeful it got printed in the Church News and not just a local newspaper.
Yet another gem. I had heard similar things about Germans returning to live near their POW camps in Montana, but only anecdotally. I’m so happy to hear instances of human beings living up to their potential for kindness.