Stories of German WWII Refugees

On 15 March 2009, Elder Lynn and Sister Faith Hansen gave a fireside to the Senior Missionaries and told several of the stories that they have gathered on their mission here in Germany. A couple of years ago Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf felt that stories of Saints here in Germany who survived World War II should be recorded and eventually put in a book. Elder Hansen was chosen by our Area President, Robert C. Oaks, to do this job. Among other things that Elder Hansen has done in his life, he taught German at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado for several years, served in several advisory capacities in Europe, including as the US liaison officer to the Soviet Army in East Germany for six years. He and his wife also served as a mission president and mission mother for three years in Germany.

Therefore, they were asked to return to Germany on another mission to interview elderly members and record their stories. They have recorded over 200 stories. He said that he can’t give us copies of them, but he let us take notes. I was so enthralled by the stories that I just listened to them and went home and wrote down as much as I could remember. I couldn’t remember hardly any names or places or dates or even all of the stories, but here are some of the experiences I remembered hearing about.
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An LDS man told that when he was 15 yrs. old the German Army was drafting every young man into the army near the end of the war. He really didn’t want to go into the army, but he was told that the following Thursday he had to report to the draft office. He decided to start fasting to ask the Lord to help him stay out of the army. He fasted for five days. Finally he showed up to the Draft board on Friday. They said, ”You’re late, why didn’t you come in on Thursday?” He told them he was sick. They proceeded to give him a physical examination and they decided he was too weak and scrawny to be a soldier. So they didn’t take him. ****

Another LDS man told of a time when he was in the German Army and he had been shot very badly and fell down as if he were dead. His comrades thought he was dead and threw him into a grave but didn’t have time to put dirt on top of him. Later he woke up and found he was in this grave with other dead soldiers. He was able to crawl out of the grave and saw that he was on the Russian side with Russian soldiers all around him, but they didn’t try to catch him. He started walking toward the German side and still the Russian soldiers didn’t stop him. Finally he got to the German side and his fellow soldiers said so amazedly, “Where did you come from?” He told them where he had walked and they told him he had just walked through a mine field.
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Another story was told by a sister, that when she was a young girl, her family was trying to flee out of Germany as refugees at the end of the war, before the Russian Army could stop them. They had a wagon pulled by a horse and her father was driving it with all of them and their possessions in the wagon. However the Russians caught up with them and took away their horse and wagon and also the father. The mother had to keep going with the other 3 or 4 children, carrying the youngest on her back for 45 km. They slept in barns and in the bushes at night. Farmers were afraid to keep them because it was against the law, but they kept going until they got out of Germany to safety. They never saw their father again. When they had reached a safe place she gave a prayer of thanks. She was asked why she was thanking God when they had been through so much tragedy, and she said, “Because we are alive.” ***

One sister told Elder and Sister Hansen that the Russian soldiers were going through the German towns and raping all the women and girls, then taking away or killing most of their men. This woman told the Hansens that she had been raped more than 30 times. She was so ashamed for anyone to know that and had only told her husband and her aunt, but now she wanted the truth to be known. ***

Another LDS woman told of how she was praying and praying that she would not be raped by the Russian soldiers. They were systematically going through their village to a different house each night and raping all the women in each house. This sister knew her house was the next one so she prayed very hard for something to keep this from happening to her. That night the soldiers came and pounded on the door. No one answered and they pounded again. After a third time of this they were getting ready to break the door down when one of the soldiers said, “Oh let’s go to the next house, there is no one here.” So the soldiers left and that sister was saved. ****

Another sister told of how their family was running out of food. They needed something to eat. Her mother and the children had been praying for something to happen that could help them find food. They decided to go out and see if they could find anything, even though it was night time and they were breaking the curfew, but there didn’t seem to be any way of getting food. Then they saw an older woman with a bag beckoning to them. They went up to her and she handed them the bag and left. They opened the bag and found it filled with bread. *****

Brother Erich Koenitz, who was the branch president of a small branch in Poland, a part that used to be in Germany before the end of WWII, had tickets for him and his wife to move back into Germany. In fact he and his wife were standing on the platform waiting for the train to come. They got talking about the Saints in their little branch and wondering how the members would get along. They decided not to go, and Brother Koenitz continued to serve as branch president for 30 years. ****

There was a story of a sister who had had such a hard life. She couldn’t take life any more. Her husband was an abusive alcoholic and life for herself and her children was so terrible. She didn’t believe there was any purpose for living any longer and decided she would end it for them, even planning the day and time to turn on the gas without the flame and end their lives. The day came and she turned on the gas. Then there was a knock at the door. She turned off the gas and answered the door. It was two Mormon missionaries. When they asked her if she had heard of the church, she shouted “No!” and was slamming the door. One of the missionaries stuck his foot in the way so it wouldn’t close and asked, “Do you know the purpose of life?” That question caught her curiosity and she asked them, “Do you know the purpose of life?” When they told her “yes,” she wanted to know more and let them in. She listened and eventually their family joined the Church and was able to change their lives for the better. That elder who stuck his foot in the door said he had never done that before and didn’t ever do it again, but he knew he had to do it that time. ****

One story was told by a woman who remembered as a child what happened to herself, her mother and her siblings. Her father was gone and her mother had tried to hold the family together. They were members and their family finally got a passage on a special cruise ship that was carrying refugees to America. They all got settled on the ship and finally enjoyed a feeling of being warm and comfortable, when the mother suddenly said, “We have to get off the ship.” The children were all moaning and groaning about it but the mother kept insisting they had to get off that ship. Finally they elbowed their way through the thousands of refugees and got off the cruise ship. Then it left without them. The mother didn’t know why they had to get off, but she just kept feeling that they couldn’t go with it. Days later they heard that a German U-boat had torpedoed the ship and the whole thing sunk taking all 10,000 passengers with it, including over 2000 children. They would have been part of that if their mother hadn’t listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost to get off the ship. ****

A story of obedience was told about the family of Zenos Frenzel, who joined the church. In 1936-1937 they were told to begin a food storage plan. They couldn’t do much, but every day they went to the store they bought a few extra cans of food to put in a storage box. They kept doing that for a few years. They also planted a garden and got a few chickens. Then during the war, when there was so much shortage of food, this family was able to live quite comfortably on their food storage. What a blessing to them that they had obeyed their leaders.****