In mid-April 1933, an urgent cablegram was delivered to Rulon S. Wells in Salt Lake City. Elder Wells was senior president of the Seventy, but the cablegram came to him in his capacity as president of Associated Newspapers, the umbrella organization for the foreign-language newspapers published by the Church. The cablegram came from Oliver H. Budge, president of the German-Austrian Mission, with headquarters in Berlin:

Stop articles Beobachter. Doing us damage.

The Beobachter was the Church’s German-language newspaper, published since 1890. It carried articles about Church events and doctrine, news from Germany, and letters from German-speaking Latter-day Saints both in the United States and Germany. It’s original purpose was to serve first generation immigrants to Utah while they learned English; it gradually also became a missionary tool used in the German-speaking missions in both Europe and South America. A few months before President Budge sent his urgent cablegram, for instance, Francis Salzner, president of the Swiss-German Mission, had circulated a letter among the elders of his mission encouraging them to use the Beobachter as a missionary tool:

The “Beobachter”can often be used to make a contact where a tract would hardly serve the purpose, and it is to this end that we shall strive in the future. It is often possible, with the aid of this paper, to create a friendship with one of [the] biggest powers of every city – the editor of the local publication. It is advised that a “Beobachter” be taken every week or two to the editor of the paper in your city. Tell him you are Americans and that you have a paper, printed in the extreme western part of America, which might contain something of interest to him, and that he is at liberty to print anything which might be of interest to his patrons. The same policy can be carried out with the people in stores, your tailor, barber, and others with whom you deal. They are more interested in your church and home-land than you often realize, and they would gladly receive a newspaper from the heart of America and the headquarters of the Church.

President Salzner did warn his elders, though, that “the paper should be read over carefully to make sure that it contains nothing which might be misconstrued or falsely interpreted.”

In an earlier generation, such unwelcome articles concerned immigration. In 1909, for example, Thomas E. McKay repeatedly noted the problem: “We are doing what we can to get our members to remain here and make our branches strong; there are a number of influences that tend to defeat our efforts in this line; – the Beobachter is one of them. Every time our members read it they get the emigration fever.” And: “There is one objection however, to having our members subscribe for [the Beobachter. It gives them the emigration fever. Some of them have it already, of course, but the reading of the ‘Beobachter’ adds fuel to the fire, and starts the fire burning in many others.” And: “Any influence that tends to increase the desire to leave here decreases our power to spread the Gospel more rapidly. We believe the “Beobachter” exerts such an influence and would therefore much prefer that our members here do not read it regularly.”

But encouraging emigration hardly seemed like the kind of urgent matter that would provoke a cablegram from Berlin. Elder Wells handed the cablegram to Janne M. Sjodahl, the Swedish-born multi-lingual editor of the Beobachter and asked him what the matter was.

Brother Sjodahl said, “I do not know just what articles are referred to, but I take it for granted that the criticism concerns what has been written about Hitlerism and the persecution of the Jews.”

The articles are, as you will notice, mostly a resume of the dispatches on those subjects. The editorial comments do not differ essentially from the attitude of the Deseret News. The special point I have been trying to make is this, that what the German people, as well as the American nation, and all others need is the message of the Gospel. No Latter-day Saint can take exception to that proposition.

Our papers are read, not only in the missions but also here at home, and it is not always easy to decide what to write on current questions. We have among our readers some who are animated by the spirit of revolution that is shaking the world. They are heard in private conversations and seen in contributions to the daily papers. For the benefit of those of our readers whom the agitators are trying to influence, I have thought it desirable to stress the fact that salvation from moral and economic evils and difficulties can come only through Loyalty to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe my position in this respect is sound, but if I have lacked wisdom in presenting it I am sorry, and I sincerely apologize.

Brother Sjodahl identified two recent editorials that might have caused the problem, but contrasted them with a third editorial he expected to publish that week. Elder Wells agreed that “these articles are somewhat anti-Hitler and certainly not very complimentary to him,” but also that “they are not radical and have been taken from press dispatches. It would be difficult to say much about Hitler that would be satisfactory in German.”

While recognizing that such articles were firmly rooted in truth so far as journalists could represent it, and that Brother Sjodahl’s religious point would escape the understanding of faultfinders, the Beobachter’s staff was careful to avoid controversial matters from that point forward – and whether you think that was a virtuous response for the protection of German Latter-day Saints and the mission effort in Germany, or whether, knowing as you do what was to come, this was appeasement of totalitarianism that should have been resisted, or whether it was something else, is the kind of historical judgment that falls to all of us. We judge the past; students in the future will judge the doings of our day; their actions in turn will be judged by still more future generations.

-ooOoo-

That’s the end of my commentary. Below are English translations of the three editorials published March-May 1933 in the Salt Lake Beobachter.

Hitler at the Head

March 23, this year, will stand in history as the beginning of a new chapter, the end of which, as yet, is beyond human calculation. On that day, the German reichstag, yielding to tremendous pressure, surrendered its power and authority to one man, ostensibly for four years. At present, it does not appear probable that the republic can survive suspended animation for a period of four years. It is, on the contrary, probable that the surrender was, and was meant to be, the end of popular government and popular liberty in Germany.

A peculiarity of the drastic action was the fact that the Catholic Centrist party sided with Hitler’s followers, at the same time that Catholics in other countries are protesting against the persecution of the Jews in Germany. What secret plans are hidden in their surrender to a dictator whose policy Catholics outside Germany profess to oppose?

We can easily understand that the better part of the German people have keenly felt the defeat of German imperialism as embodied in the regime of the Hohenzollerns and humiliating exactions of the Versailles treaty. But that the resentment should finally take the form it now has taken, at a time when the German people has regained the respect and confidence of all the world, and when its friends are gradually removing the objectionable conditions of the treaty, is inexplicable. It will make the return to normalcy more difficult because of the fear of the aims and purposes of a dictator.

Evidently a time of trial is at the door. Let the noble German people turn to God in humility and repentance, and give heed to the message of the servants of the Lord who are proclaiming the ever-lasting gospel, for that is what Germany and America and all the world needs in these the latter days.

Persecution?

War is on between the Jews and the German chancellor.

The battles are being fought in mass meetings throughout the world, where protests are raised against persecution, and in commercial circles where boycott is declared against the products of German industry.

In reply to the protests, the German government states that the stories of persecution are all false. It is admitted that Jews have been driven out of Germany, but not because they are Jews, but because they are a menace to the state. In reply to the boycott it is added that retaliatory measures will now be taken against the Jews in Germany because of the stories told by the exiles abroad.

We have no doubt that the said stories are in some instances exaggerated. That is always the case in conflicts of this kind.

But on the other hand, Mr. Hitler has for years occupied an attitude of antagonism to the Hebrew race. Way back in 1920 his followers declared that, “Only a member of our own people may be a citizen. Our own people are only those of German blood without reference to confession. Therefore, no Jew may be a member of our people. He who is not a citizen may live in Germany only as a guest and must be governed by laws regulating foreigners.”

That is “anti-Semitism.” It is based on the supposition that the Hebrews are of a race different from the German people. But that is not the Christian view of the relationship of nations. Paul stats that view in his discourse at Athens, when he says: “(God) hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” (Acts 17:26.) According to this, there is, or should be, no race distinction, no matter what the differences of creed or opinions may be. Wherever race prejudices are aroused, there is a possibility of outbursts of fanaticism, fatal to good government and friendly relations with neighbors.

It might appear that the Jewish problem in Germany concerns no one but the Germans, and that the governments of other countries should take no notice of it. Part of this view is true. Each country has its own problems and is entitled to a free hand in dealing with them. But this freedom is clearly restricted to the limits of established laws and rules of ethics. Even a government should have no right to disregard the laws of right and wrong about which there can be no controversy. One of these is the right of all men to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under just laws.

We hope Mr. Hitler will not lead the German people to the brink of race and religious hatred, where Lenin’s Russia now stands. It is not a safe position. Germany is needed in the council of nations to help the world up out of the ditch in which the world war left it, stripped and bleeding. But this must be done by the application of the healing balm of the gospel of peace, not by added violence.

Hear Also the Other Side

“Der Beobachter,” in previous articles, has paid passing attention to the change that has occurred recently in the German form of government. This is in line with the instruction given to the Saints by revelation, to study “things which are at home, things which are abroad, the wars and the perplexities of the nations,” etc. (Doc. and Cov. 88:79). That includes national and international policies.

Naturally, “Der Beobachter” has presented the subject referred to in the light of the published dispatches, without partisan consideration, since this is outside our field of view.

Today, we take pleasure in reproducing a contribution to a German paper, the “Zwickauer Tageblatt,” March 21, in which the order is explained from an entirely different angle. This helps us to understand the patriotic sentiment on which the new government has laid its foundation. without a correct appreciation of that sentiment, the upheaval is, and must remain a mystery.

As for the “Beobachter,” we have no other desire than the welfare of all – the salvation of the entire world. And this we are looking for, through the gospel of the Redeemer. – Editor