The German-speaking nations of Germany, Austria and Switzerland were fruitful missions for the Church in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, despite periods of repression. Not only did many German Saints emigrate to the American Zion, many also stayed in Europe, by choice or by financial necessity, which, by the 1930s, had resulted in branches with generations-long experience. While there were occasional clashes between youthful American missionaries and German branch leaders over some arrogant assumptions of missionaries and stubborn resistance of local leaders, the Church functioned well in that time and place. During his 1926-1932 tenure as British/European Mission president, John A. Widtsoe conducted a successful effort to transition the continental missions from missionary to local leadership, an effort that ultimately allowed Church members to maintain branch organizations and a semblance of Latter-day Saint life during even the darkest days of World War II.

The German-speaking missions had been in constant geographical and organizational flux from the earliest days, with boundary changes, name changes, and leadership changes depending on missionary success and especially on political realignments. In 1934, the relevant year for this post, there were two German-speaking missions in Europe: the Swiss-German (or Swiss and German) Mission led by Francis Salzner from 1931-1935, with headquarters at Basel, Switzerland, and the German and Austrian Mission led by Oliver H. Budge from 1930-1936, with headquarters at Berlin, Germany.

Doubtless because his mission was centered in Berlin, Budge, rather than any other Latter-day Saint, was several times called upon to define Mormonism for the leaders of the Nazi party that assumed power with the 1933 election of Adolf Hitler to chancellor of Germany. Recently published archives of the Gestapo suggest a closer scrutiny of Mormon activities than had been previously known. While the intensity of that scrutiny deepened as time went on, Budge was already aware of it when, in September 1933, he wrote to the Gestapo (following an in-person interview at which the Gestapo evidently solicited this response) outlining the Church’s beliefs and structure, including an assurance that Latter-day Saints were a law-abiding people, and that the German laws and government were supported by the Church and its members. Budge wrote:

Furthermore, they are taught to be worthy of being counted among the best citizens of the land and to fully support the ordinances and laws of the city, state, and country in which they live. The authorities of our Church have no instructions or advice to offer regarding party politics; they leave members the freedom to join the party of their own choice; in any case, we teach that the party currently in power and the established laws of the land should be supported by the Church’s members.

While some have tried to characterize this letter as full-throated support for the full Nazi program, and evidence of Church indoctrination of Nazism, my reading of that letter requires no such hostile (to Budge or to the Church) interpretation. Budge was clearly responding to questions asked by his interviewer (“Following our discussion yesterday and in response to your inquiry, I am pleased to present to you the following brief explanation concerning …”) The Gestapo interviewer set the general terms for Budge’s letter by the subjects he asked about.

Budge was, however, prone to seeing Germany and its government – in the regime’s early days – this 1933 letter and the 1934 articles I am about to post have little or no reference to what came later – in the rosiest possible light. He loved Germany and the Germans, and it was easy for him, and many, many others, to find praiseworthy aspects, aligned with Gospel teachings, in many of the regime’s promotions. While I could wish that Budge and every Latter-day Saint in Germany and in the United States had had the wisdom and foresight to recognize the coming danger, I can’t legitimately blame them for that lack of prescience. Contrary to popular misunderstanding, prophets are teachers, not fortune-tellers.

Budge closely followed developments in Germany that he saw as being in line with gospel principles. One of those principles was salvation for the dead, and its necessary companion, genealogical research. He saw many favorable signs for that great mission of the Church in the burgeoning official German interest in tracing one’s ancestry, in making that tracing as easy as possible, and in preserving records of the past. Stated as simply as that, virtually anyone would be cheered by governmental interest in any form, in any country, at any time.

Budge – because he was not a fortune-teller? because he was so blinded by the light of gospel possibilities that he did not see the evil uses to which the same government interest could be, and was, turned? – saw only great possibilities with regard to German genealogy. He wrote a series of ten very short articles noting what he saw as entirely positive aspects of genealogical interest in Germany, and submitted them to the “Church News” section of the Deseret News, the Church’s Salt Lake City newspaper. They were published weekly in February thru April of 1934, and are reproduced below, in full.

I wish to note a few facts – presented almost randomly – before turning you loose on the articles:

First, these articles are the responsibility of Oliver H. Budge, and whatever editorial policies the Church News/Deseret News may have had in 1934. We have a tendency today to assume that anything that comes out in a Church venue must be the full and official word of the Church, that it has been fully vetted by some correlating committee. That was not the case in 1934 for a publication like the Church News. General authorities did have input into editorial policy, but it is utterly unfair to read more into this than Budge’s personal views and the editor’s knowledge that this topic would be of interest to readers.

The series was originally planned to have ten parts, and there is something about the structure of the parts that suggests to me that the series was fully written before publication, not produced week by week just in time for publication. I have been unable, despite diligent search, to find parts 9 and 10, and conclude they were never published. I have no evidence for why those last two parts did not appear. Was there dissatisfaction at some level with the specific (and to me unknown) topics of those parts? Was there dissatisfaction with the general trend of the articles? Were they pulled by some sort of official action? I do not know. There is no series summary or conclusion in the last-published part, and I have found no later commentary about the series.

The Provo Herald reprinted at least a piece of the series. Other newspapers may have done so as well, although I have not done a complete survey. That suggests to me that the subject was of general interest, in the minds of at least two editors. The articles were probably widely read within the culture they were aimed at.

That culture was the Latter-day Saint culture in western America. I can see no internal clue that they were aimed in any way at the German Church.

I do not know whether these articles were printed by Der Stern, the German church publication, in either translation, or as original to German, in full or in summary. Der Stern is online and perhaps a reader knows or can research that question – the magazine was printed in Fraktur in that era, however, and I can’t read a word of it.

Two of the articles reference at length a man named Karl Fahrenhorst. Fahrenhorst was the leader of the official government office (within the Interior department, I think) concerned with the preservation and tracing of genealogical lines. Not mentioned by Budge was that Fahrenhorst was a Nazi, a full party member and elected official, and that he had long – very long – been involved in anti-Jewish rhetoric and activity. Budge and the rest of the Church can hardly be expected to have known of the coming Holocaust, but we know, and can and should be horrified at having given even this much endorsement to Nazi race policies. Especially note his “credentials” as to supposed “race science,” and the foreshadowing of the purpose of genealogical identification to determine who is really German and who is not, who will hold a place in German society and who will not. When you read the articles below, please try to read them with both the eyes of 1934 and your own eyes of 2025, and see what a different cast that ignorance/awareness gives to the articles.

There are numerous other points I had intended to make when I started, but this post is already long and you haven’t even reached the 1934 articles yet. I’ll trust some of you to comment on them, and, to some extent, why their publication in 1934 raises the hairs on the back of my neck in 2025, why we cannot accept surface similarities between bright gospel principles and dark partisan policy, and why we must guard our own humanity and that of all our fellows if we have any hope of a celestial kingdom.

Nevertheless, please observe Keepa’s longstanding commenting norms: Keepa is intended for Latter-day Saint believers and for those friends who can respect those beliefs: I do not tolerate blatant Church bashing or personal abuse of other commenters. I do not tolerate lazy drive-by comments (“Tax all the churches!”). I will not tolerate stupid and lazy assumptions that all World War II-era Mormons were Nazis or that all present-day Mormons are Republicans who march with Patriot Front on Saturday and bless the sacrament on Sunday. And for this post, do not refer to D.C. Nelson’s Moroni and the Swastika as evidence for anything other than his own shockingly incomplete research or unsupportable conclusions (I will not be commenting further here on that; don’t ask).

On the other hand, Keepa can make space for disappointment, questioning, uncertainty, and even limited political commentary that otherwise meets Keepa’s norms of courtesy.

The 1934 articles:

The Hearts of the Children

Germany’s “new deal” under Hitler has brought about some unusual situations in genealogical and family research. In this series of ten articles, President Oliver H. Budge, of the German-Austrian mission, gives some interesting sidelights on this new Germany activity.

I.

Fulfillment of Prophecy in the ‘Third Reich’

One of the greatest wholesale fulfilment of prophecy that I have ever witnessed is being carried on right in front of our eyes here in the present day “Reborn Germany.” Those ringing words of Malachi in the last two verses of the Old Testament have had a great influence in the “Third Reich.”

Genealogy and anthropology are one of the most far-reaching of the recent developments in this country. They are not hobbies nor matters of choice, but realities. Public officials of every class are required to present a certificate (pedigree chart) of their ancestor in order to retain their positions. Commissions have been instituted by the government for the purpose of preserving all old documents. Archives are being built up, societies are being organized and the newspapers and periodicals are full of such material.

The genealogical fever has transplanted itself not only into the hearts of the specialists in this line, but also into the very being of the laymen.

Our members who were before active now have the opportunity to visit special classes provided by the city schools and colleges where they live. In Berlin, our Berlin Genealogical society has made special arrangements with the Technical. Academy whereby it can send fifteen or tw3nty of its members there for instruction. Those who w3ere already engaged in the work are working harder. Those who didn’t know what genealogy was, are now learning.

The fact that every official has to have his pedigree charts causes the government to make it more easy for those persons to obtain them.

Our members have taken advantage of this opportunity and have received much valuable information in regards to the same. Entrance into the various parishes has been made easy. Writing to pastors has been successful because they have been obliged to answer letters written for genealogical information. Thus one whole nation and a world power has turned with one mind toward its fathers.

II.

Government Protection of Written Memorials

The German Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick, has issued an edict to all provincial governments for the purpose of protecting old written memorials. (Included in these are old wills, church books, law proceedings and the like.)

Among the provisions of this declaration are:

“We suppose that a regulation will be introduced in all territories for the safe keeping of all historical written documents and hold the information of our progenitors in the past centuries. The proposed laws which shall be enforced concerning the rights of German kinship and citizenship and all other governmental and territorial laws that are based on lineage and race difference, can only be enforced when the records of legal status are worthily protected.

“The German people requires that these records whose contents are about the only means of determining a record of the past, be protected from every harm as a worthful possession of the community. The church books provide the only dependable foundation for research of race and family for the centuries of the past. Many of these and other valuable written documents are now found in a poor condition, many are damaged, many lie without proper binding, and others are exposed to the dangers of fire and theft.

“Cases in which church books are purposely damaged, pages torn out, or the books themselves are stolen, are multiplied the more that public interest is turned in that direction., It is especially dangerous for these valuable books and documents inasmuch as every individual has had access to them. The number of defrauders and imposters that have tried to complete pedigree charts has grown very large. Their inability to complete family trees and pedigrees is not only dangerous to the public which receives poorly completed records, but it also endangers the pres5rvation of the documents themselves.

“I therefore intend to make special rulings for the protection of all documents that testify to the growth and fates of the German people. All records that hold vital statistics and especially the church books, citizens books, funeral speeches and other publications of like nature, shall be placed under the “protection of Written Monuments.” The ownership of documents placed under this protection will in no way be interfered with, nevertheless, it will be caused that these records are indexed, brought into a condition of safety from fire and theft and saved from deterioration by a set of instructions for their particular use. I further intend to make numerous copies of these records by means of photography in order to protect the original copies from being worn out by continual usage and deterioration through handling, but at the same time to make it possible to gain access to the original copies without any harm to them.

“For the present, however, there are a few hurried regulations necessary through which those records will be protected that are now in danger either because of their present state of preservation, lack of interest of the possessor, or the method in which they are now used. I therefore ask the territorial governments to make immediate negotiations with districts now in possession of such documents and to work in an appropriate manner toward the following regulations:

“1 – Records not protected from fire, water, mould, must, the danger of becoming worm eaten, or that are not so situated that they can be intelligently used, are to be immediately placed in a suitable location. In case the custodian of such records cannot present the guarantee that they are properly situated, they shall be taken into custody by definite local government authorities who will issue a receipt to the owner and then provide a suitable room for them until the owner may present satisfactory evidence that the records will be properly cared for. The custody of such “confiscated” records will be given an exemplary man who has qualified himself for this position as a worker in an Archive or as a family researcher. He will be able to supply information that may be contained in the records at any time that they are in his custody.

“2 – The use of these records by inexperienced persons shall not be allowed in the future. Only persons who can certify their ability and integrity will have access to them. In case of doubt as to a researcher’s ability, the matter is to be referred to the specialist for race research as the department of the interior who will pass judgment. The compilation of pedigree charts for third parties shall only be allowed to those persons who are officially recognized.

“3 – The commissioner for race research as the Ministry of Interior is to be notified concerning all documents which are brought under the “Protection of Written Monuments.” I ask that my efforts be supported by all having knowledge of this announcement in order to insure the records of the German people and to make them useful for the upbuilding of the folk. The German folk is indeed indebted to the churches as they are often the only bodies which have saved and recorded the developments of its families through the many centuries,. I ask you to be united with me in the appreciation of this great important national possession and in the conviction of the necessity to retain it for the folk hose family, church and state life may thereby be renewed.”

The two greatest religious bodies in Germany, the Catholic and Lutheran churche3s, are giving their support to the Minister of Interior in his efforts to preserve their records.

III.

Mormons Pass Government Test for Researchers

Of special interest in the German-Austrian mission is the fact that in connection with the announcement of the minister of interior concerning the protection of all written documents, a certain set of requirements has been given out that must be fulfilled by all those wishing to do research work in the country. This is to prevent misuse of the original writings. Upon the meeting of these said requirements, a certificate is issued which allows access to all offices in which these books are kept.

The certificate consists of a sort of a passport which is renewed every quarter year by the addition of an official stamp and picture of the possessor. Some of these requirements which must be fulfilled by each researcher in Germany ho desires to use the church and civil records, follow: A short hand written life’s history, two passport pictures, one pedigree chart, an index of all work and publications of a genealogical nature, a certificate of conduct issued by the police, and a small entry fee.

Three of the brethren in our mission have already acquired this certificate from the commissioner of race research at the department of interior and are now operating with the government in procuring the names of their progenitors as well as in helping their fellow members in securing their work.

It is very interesting to see just how these requirements are so closely related to our own book of remembrance requirements. Good members are doing all in their power to get in on the “ground floor.”

IV.

Church Books Indexed Through Free Will Work

The papers announce a very interesting project which is to be tried in the Bruchaal work division of Baden, Germany. A plan has been worked out for the copying of genealogy from old church books into an organized archive so that the research worker may be sable to obtain his genealogy in a legible form and in more readily accessible places.

The interesting feature of this project is the manner in which it is to be carried out. After seeing the necessity of this work, the promoters applied to the employment bureau of southwestern Germany for men to carry the project through.

After due consideration the project was decided worthy, and a regular government work camp was established in Bruchaal with the provision that it could be removed ay time. There are at present ten schooled but jobless merchants who are working on the project. They are able to live at home and work on the records during the day, receiving the regular 1.50 Reichmarks per week which is given single men in government work camps.

The ink, paper, etc., for this work are furnished by the “Badische Home Society.” The president of the society is the assistant director of the Bruchsaler school of commerce and he has procured an empty class room which is used as an office for this work.

The books of both the Lutherian and the Catholic churches will be examined and the information copied onto a card index. The workers have started on the marriage books of a Lutherian church, each man taking some special phase of the work so that he might become expert in that particular line. Old hands at this work might wonder how new men like these can start out reading the ancient hand writing and produce a reliable copy. Provisions for this have been made by starting the workers out on the books dating from 1850-1880 which are more legible than the older ones. As they gain experience they take the older books. Even then, the manager carries considerable responsibility for the success of the work.

We are hoping that this experiment will prove a success in order that the valuable work might be continued.

V.

Family Research a Public Obligation

The new leader of the “Consolidation of the Societies of German Families and Heraldry,” Karl Fahrenhorst, M.D.L., who is also a scientific companion of the expert for rare research for the department of interior, issues the following call:

“The Germany Family Research faces many great and new problems. The government of the National Socialists Revolution has planned that the research of German kindred and races should become more and more a problem of the people. The decades of preparation of the Germany family and heraldry societies must now be used to solve the scientific and political problems, which have always been a part of our work. I call upon the family history societies for their utmost activity. We have never thought of family research as just concerning well-to-do generations. Through our co=operation, the race and blood preservation fo our folks must be brought into action. The German Family Research has nothing to do with world division nor folk seclusion. It comes from the people and ends in the people. Germany research is German Folk Research.

“It is now the duty of every German who is outside of the family research societies, which build the scientific and organized backbone, to interest himself with his family history. Thios aim must be reached within a short time. The aim will then be crowned by the fact that every German Folkman will have a knowledge of the deep historical and blood relationship between every German Family and the great German Folk.”

VI.

Book of Remembrance Campaign Carried Out

Special field campaign was carried out in the German Austrian mission,. This was in the form of a “Book of Remembrance” exhibition under the direction of the mission genealogical supervisor.

`A pageant depicting the different assignments and their fulfillments and a lecture, illustrated by a large replica of the Book of Remembrance was present in over thirty different towns. This was something entirely new here. At no previous time had there been any sort of a mission wide activity in genealogical work. A special time at the different conferences this fall was set aside for this exhibition. Many people had the opportunity to hear about genealogy and the Book of Remembrance.

In Berlin a very well worked out display of its genealogical activityu was exhibited at Conference time by the genealogical society. A number of very attractively worked out family trees, pedigree charts and family histories were displayed. The different phases of the work were shown from start to finish. Several old church books and family Bibles were shown and then the work was carried out of these old books onto family group sheets and pedigree charts. Old coats of arms and royal lines, as well as worked out pedigrees of the leaders of our Church, were exhibited.

Another of the districts showed its talent in another way. At Weimar, a huge ten by 12 foot Book of Remembrance was erected from which the different characters, each representing a different assignment of the book, emerged and discussed his particular phase.

Mission conditions are slightly different from those at wards and stakes and so the Book of Remembrance is being used not only for the younger people, but also for the oldest of the old. Their acceptance of the same is very enthusiastic. And right in direct line with our work, a nationally spirited publishing company issued a periodical which carried a number of assignments exactly like ours. Picture pedigree charts, family history sheets, and other arrangements like our were features, and we have good reason to believe that these were given out with our Book of Remembrance as the pattern.

VII.

Record Keeping Anciently – And Now

A few methods of following a progenitor which are as interesting as peculiar have been related to me by our German brethren doing research. In the earlier times, the students who attended the old German universities used to beat their way about the smaller towns begging for money with which they could finance themselves during the school season. There were usually four persons in each town to whom the students would make it a point to go and make heir wants known. These were the town teacher, doctor, druggist and preacher as they were usually financially supreme in the town.

These men had to submit to the requests of the students to keep from being molested by them. The preachers, it seems, couldn’t stand the continual drain on their own account and so an extra account was carried in the church books where the name of the beginning student and amount given was recorded. Because of this entry, researchers have often run on to one of these hopping “akademikers” as he made his way toward the university town. He could then easily be located at the university and there in the registration books, one can find birth dates, names of parents and much other valuable information.

Many researchers are able to follow a certain line in the old parish registers only so far and then they come against an impregnable wall or “dead center”: and it seems that they can go no further. In some of the old German churches however, there is one means by which researchers can often reestablish their clues. This is by means of the “Los Liste” which literally translated, means “list of fate.” On this list were entered the names of those who had committed some sin and were consequently fined and also the names of those who had paid a certain sum for the forgiveness of some sin. The amounts, names and dates, and the nature of the sin which determined the amount, were all carefully written down in this book. In these old lists, the researcher can often find valuable information which will help him to follow his line further.

The churches kept the only reliable records in those earlier times but in about 1870 the “Standesamter” or civil offices for vital statistics were introduced. These are very efficient civil offices like those of our county clerks and the records of birth, deaths and marriages have been kept accurately since that time. These offices furnish a very reliable and exact source of information for the researcher.

VIII.

Pan German Genealogical Organization

The new leader of the “Third Reich” has seen fit to organize the genealogical and heraldry societies of Germany into a consolidation in order that they might all cooperate in the important task of organizing the records of the German people. This organization includes thirty different societies and approximately 8000 members and is under the leadership of Karl Fahrenhorst, M.D.L., a scientific expert closely connected with the department of interior.

The tenth conference of this organization has just been held at Konigsberg in Prussia and some of the very interesting points of discussion are these.

A proposition of the government to photograph every page of all old church records and books as a means of obtaining more copies of the same and of preserving the information contained in them as many are in rather dilapidated condition.

The publishing of a bibliography of German Family History for the period of 1910-1930. The book has been compiled at the central office for German Personal and Family history in Leipzig and will be published as soon as the necessary finances are available.

A catalogue containing the funeral orations and personal correspondence found in the Poland Genealogical Society of Dresden is being compiled by twenty-six people who give their time to the work and receive practically no compensation.

This society has also recently copied the information found on its pedigree charts on to cards of an index system and has sent these to Berlin so that a central archive might be organized. This society has also kept its own index up-to-date and has given out considerable information to researchers.

The central office at Leipzig is also issuing an Immigration Index of 60,000 cards which is to contain a record of all emigrants since the seventeenth century and especially those who have crossed the seas. The main purpose of this index is to answer questions written in by the descendants of these emigrants concerning the genealogy of their fathers.

As pointed out by Dr. Fahrenhorst in his opening speech, the genealogical work in Germany, taken as a whole, is now under a new banner and shows every sign of a bright future. May success follow these worthy endeavors.

[parts IX. and X not found]