Tending the flock: German Lutherans, reconstruction, and prisoners of war

ABSTRACT

This article examines how German pastors played a critical role in the rehabilitation of German prisoners of war (POWs) interned in Britain. The author focuses on a particular group of German Lutherans from 1940 to 1950 as a microcosm of postwar rebuilding, arguing that pastors, through POWs, sought to create an alternative vision of German reconstruction. This vision stemmed from a desire to reform German Protestantism after collaboration with the Third Reich. The author traces the individual contributions of pastors and their negotiations with British governmental and religious allies to centralise these pastors as early re-education experimenters, indicative of the multiplicity of visions of German reconstruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Prisoners of war
• Great Britain
• Cold War
• Germany
• German Lutherans
• Second World War
• religion
• re-education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ See Neville Wylie, Barbed Wire Diplomacy: Britain, Germany, and the Politics of Prisoners of War, 1939–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); Henry Faulk, Group Captives: The Reeducation of German Prisoners of War (Toronto: Chatto & Windus, 1977); Sophie Jackson, Churchill’s Unexpected Guests: Prisoners of War in Britain in World War II (Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2010); and Bob Moore, ‘Turning Liabilities into Assets: British Government Policy towards German and Italian Prisoners of War during the Second World War,’ Journal of Contemporary History 32, no. 1 (1997): 117–36.

² See Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Civilizing the Enemy: German Reconstruction and the Invention of the West (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006); Rita Chin et al., After the Nazi Racial State: Difference and Democracy in Germany and Europe (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009); Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992); and Michael J. Hogan, The Marshall Plan: America, Britain and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1953 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

³ Klaus Scholder, Die Kirchen und das Dritte Reich, vol. 1 of Vorgeschichte und Zeit der Illusionen, 1918–1934 (Frankfurt am Main: Propyläen, 1977); and Gerhard Besier, Die Kirchen und das Dritten Reich: Spaltungen und Abwehrkämpfe, 1934–1937 (Berlin: Propyläen, 2001).

⁴ Doris L. Bergen, Twisted Cross: The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996).

⁵ Manfred Gailus, Kirchliche Amtshilfe. Die Kirche und die Judenverfolgung im Dritten Reich (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008).

⁶ Julius Rieger, The Silent Church: The Problem of the German Confessional Witness (London: S.C.M. Press Limited, 1945).

⁷ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theological Education at Finkenwalde: 1935–1937 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013).

⁸ Matthias Weindel, Leben und Lernen hinter Stacheldraht: Die Evangelischen Lagergemeinden und Theologischen Schulen in England, Italien und Ägypten (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2001), 47–52.

⁹ Klaus-Dieter Zunke, An der Seite der Soldaten: Der seelsorgerlich-missionarische Dienst evangelischer Werke, Verbände und Freikirchen als eigenständige Soldatenseelsorge (Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster, 2017), 73.

¹⁰ 28 February 1945, 215/245, Item 11, United Kingdom (UK) Home Office (HO), National Archives, Kew, UK (NA).

¹¹ Ibid. A Command Paper is a document issued by the British government and presented to Parliament, and includes white papers, green papers, and reports from various government bodies.

¹² Peter Clarke, Hope and Glory: Britain 1900–2000 (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 209; and David Kynaston, Austerity Britain, 1945–1951 (London: Walker Books, 2007), 19.

¹³ ‘Report: Employment of Prisoners of War and Enemy Aliens,’ MAF47/54, 4 November 1939, UK, NA.

¹⁴ ‘Minute 12,’ 3 July 1940, 65/7, Item 192, Cabinet Office Files (CAB), NA; and ‘G.W. Lambert of the War Office’s letter to the Under-Secretary of State,’ 10 September 1940, MAF47/54, UK Foreign Office (FO), UK, NA.

¹⁵ Of the 163,000 German POWs, the British government deemed 14,000 ‘unemployable’ as ‘Ardent Nazis.’ ‘Image Reference 0002,’ 129/2, Item 3, UK, CAB, NA.

¹⁶ Minister Hudson stated further that in order to have ‘any reasonable chance’ of maintaining food production, the British government would need vastly to increase the number of POWs. ‘Image Reference 0001,’ 66/65/54, Item 1, UK, CAB, NA.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ ‘Image Reference 0017,’ 128/2, Item 8, UK, CAB, NA.

¹⁹ There is a large literature surrounding the internment of ‘enemy aliens,’ who were often Jewish refugees, in Britain during the Second World War, particularly by historian Marion Berghahn.

²⁰ H.M Prison, Isle of Man. Regulations with Respect to Management etc., 1929, 215/245, Item 1, UK, HO, NA.

²¹ Ibid.

²² The term ‘ardent Nazi’ appears frequently throughout the documentation surrounding classification of German POWs. However, the term seems to be largely arbitrary, and left up to the distinction of those classifying the POWs. The criteria surrounding the categorisation of ‘ardent Nazi’ are thus highly suspect and largely unknown.

²³ In Group Captives, Faulk stated that while there were some early attempts at re-education in late 1944, it began in earnest after the Potsdam Conference, 17 July – 2 August 1945, in which the Allies affirmed their intention to ‘denazify and democratize’ the Germans.

²⁴ ‘In so far as possible, internees should manage their own camp organizations and activities, and every opportunity has been taken to develop and maintain this general principle through a system of camp and house leaders.’ ‘Letters from Camp Commandants,’ 215/419, Item 5, UK, HO, NA.

²⁵ The role of the ‘Colonial Office’ in POW affairs is particularly interesting. As pointed out in Barbara Ingham’s ‘Shaping Opinion on Development Policy: Economists at the Colonial Office during World War II’ (1992) and Sabine Clarke’s ‘The Research Council System and the Politics of Medical and Agricultural Research for the British Colonial Empire, 1940–52’ (2013), the era of ‘decolonisation’ demanded the Colonial Office shift to researching ‘colonial development.’ Perhaps the Colonial Office’s re-education, democratisation, and pacification efforts with POWs in Britain acted as a part of these efforts. Future scholars might consider the POW project as an experimenting ground for Colonial Office researchers. ‘Letters from Camp Commandants,’ 152/3, Item 12, UK, Colonial Office (CO), NA.

²⁶ The British measured a camp’s reception towards democratic values through the number of POWs taking English language courses, their understanding and reception to British society, and their relationship with their British captors.

²⁷ ‘Letters from Camp Commandants,’ 152/3, Item 13, UK, CO, NA.

²⁸ Faulk, Group Captives, 161.

²⁹ ‘Donation Solicitation Letter to Dr Rieger,’ 15 November 1944, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 001, Item 89, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Kirche Collection (DBKC), London Metropolitan Archive, London, UK (LMA).

³⁰ Teachers were limited to those willing to teach religious subjects. ‘Pastor Birger Forell correspondence regarding aid for prisoners of war,’ 11 December 1946,

4288, Group D, Series 04, File 025, Item 3, DBKC, LMA.

³¹ ‘Letters from Commandants,’ 152/3, Item 8, UK, CO, NA.

³² Because of the limited release of National Archives surveillance files, it is unclear if British authorities monitored pastors during their involvement in the POW camps. It is well documented that the British monitored the POWs, so it is probable that also they monitored the pastors.

³³ JonDavid K. Wyneken, ‘The Western Allies, German Churches and the Emerging Cold War in Germany, 1948–1952,’ in Religion and the Cold War: A Global Perspective, ed. Philip Emil Muehlenbeck (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2012), 19.

³⁴ While ‘cooperative’ is not defined, by the time repatriation ‘finished’ in 1948, the British government declared a definite positive shift in attitude. ‘Letters from Camp Commandants,’ 152/3, Item 5, UK, CO, NA.

³⁵ The German acronym for YMCA is CVJM, but for ease of reading and translation, I will use the English ‘YMCA.’ The British YMCA supported displaced people, refugees, and prisoners of war during the Second World War, and had operated for over 100 years.

³⁶ ‘Norton Camp Meeting,’ 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 028, Item 5, DBKC, LMA.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ See also Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 52–61.

³⁹ Anna Wolff-Poweska, Memory as Burden and Liberation: Germans and their Nazi Past (1945–2010), trans. Marta Skowrońska (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2015). It is generally accepted that Germans truly began the process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past) in the 1960s–70s, but German Lutherans represent the early beginnings of this process.

⁴⁰ Robert P. Ericksen, Complicity in the Holocaust: Churches and Universities in Nazi Germany (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 94–139.

⁴¹ Ibid., 94.

⁴² ‘Letters from Böckheler,’ 29 November 1946, 4288, Group A, Series 03, File 007, Item 16, DBKC, LMA.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Hanns Lilje became bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover in 1947, while Wilhelm Stählin founded the Jaeger-Stählin Circle fostering Catholic-Lutheran ecumenical discussion. ‘Jentsch, Pastor Werner (Norton Camp/Willingen): correspondence concerning his activities and his offer to assist YMCA work with German prisoners in Britain,’ 19 March 1948, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 028, Item 44, DBKC, LMA.

⁴⁵ Ibid., Item 71.

⁴⁶ ‘Neighbour’ here is used biblically, as if in reference to a member of the flock of the clergy.

⁴⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ The Bureau of Christian Reconstruction was formed in 1945, as the merger of the WCC’s Department of Reconstruction with the European Central Bureau for Inter-Church Aid. ‘Böckheler’s Letters on Temporary Housing in London,’ November 1948, 4288, Group A, Series 04, File 007, Item 68, DBKC, LMA.

⁵⁰ For instance, one unit stayed in Camp 186 from 13–23 November in 1947, at which point they were shipped to Germany. ‘Data on Transition Camp Populations,’ 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 032, Item 12, DBKC, LMA.

⁵¹ ‘Young youth leaders course’ translation of Jugendleiter Kurs. Ibid., Item 46.

⁵² Catechesis is a religious instruction in preparation for Christian baptism or confirmation. It is interesting that the pastors use the term ‘catechesis’ to describe the lessons given to the POWs, as if they viewed the POWs as unbaptised. This was not actually the case, as the vast majority of Germans during this period were baptised before adulthood, suggesting that German pastors viewed the POWs as needing to be rebaptised, before they returned to Germany. The process of ‘rebaptising’ is one employed by Protestant faiths when a member is viewed to have lapsed in their religious commitment.

⁵³ Ibid., Item 50.

⁵⁴ Ibid., Item 8.

⁵⁵ The War Prisoners’ Aid for Great Britain was part of the YMCA. Ibid., Item 69.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ ‘Report of Pastor Jentsch,’ July 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 028, Item 70, DBKC, LMA.

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ When Jentsch conducted these surveys, names were not requested in order to preserve a degree of privacy and avoid punishment, adding a greater credibility to the POW responses. Much of the ‘German guilt’ was attributed to ‘survivor’s guilt,’ such as one POW’s description of the sinking of the Scharnhorst, a German capital ship of the German’s Kriegsmarine in 1943, writing, ‘my salvation from the death of drowning which I could not grasp with my mind, appeared a miracle to me. Why did he save me, just me, as one of 36 out of 2,000?’ Ibid., 72. Guilt over atrocities committed would only emerge later during the German period of Vergangenheitsbewältigung. See also Raphael Gross, ‘Relegating Nazism to the Past: Expressions of German Guilt in 1945 and Beyond,’ German History 25, no. 2 (2007): 219–18.

⁶¹ ‘Report of Pastor Jentsch,’ July 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 028, Item 73, DBKC, LMA.

⁶² Ibid., Item 75.

⁶³ This also refers to the challenges faced by German pastors attempting to restart their parishes in Germany. ‘Böckheler Concerns over Placement,’ 11 April 1947, 4288, Group A, Series 03, File 003, Item 55, DBKC, LMA.

⁶⁴ ‘Forell Reports from Germany,’ 25 May 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 025, Item 10, DBKC, LMA.

⁶⁵ Ibid., Item 11.

⁶⁶ ‘Letters from Rieger to Burlingham,’ 4 June 1948, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 019, Item 18, DBKC, LMA.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ These statements from POWs are undeniably complicated. Written as part of a survey administered by Jentsch, as part of a re-education programme, and while captured in a POW camp, undeniably colours these accounts. Yet even with these factors, the fear of repatriation remains raw and evident throughout the POW statements, and offers a window into the fears of repatriation and the physical and emotional stagnation felt by these young men. With limited evidence as to the feelings and emotions of these men, it is important to excavate what insights historians could bring into the actions, motivations, and thoughts of POWs. Also, these surveys were completed by the POWs themselves, and were not the recollections of Jentsch. ‘Letters from Rieger to Burlingham,’ May 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 019, Item 40, DBKC, LMA.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 41.

⁷⁰ ‘POW Surveys,’ May 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 028, Item 40, DBKC, LMA.

⁷¹ Ibid., Item 41.

⁷² Ibid., Item 42.

⁷³ Wolff wrote to Gerhard Leibholz, a German lawyer who emigrated to Great Britain in 1938 along with his wife Sabine, the sister of Bonhoeffer. Heavily involved in British war-time advisory, and possessing a close relationship with Anglican bishop George Bell, Leibholz would return to Germany to aid in reconstruction. ‘Letters from Wolff to Leibholz,’ 18 April 1946, 4288, Group D, Series, 04, File 002, Item 7, DBKC, LMA.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ ‘Letters from Barwick Concerning Hirschwald,’ 18 April 1946, 4288, Group D, File 04, Series 002, Item 12, DBKC, LMA.

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ ‘Editorial by Rueckert,’ September 1947, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 002, Item 43, DBKC, LMA.

⁷⁸ Ibid., Item 65.

⁷⁹ ‘DPW Letter to the Foreign Office,’ 9 March 1948, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 002, Item 86, DBKC, LMA.

⁸⁰ ‘Rieger Intervention on Restrictions of POW Travel,’ 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 002, Item 58, DBKC, LMA.

⁸¹ ‘DPW Letter to the Foreign Office,’ 9 March 1948, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 002, Item 86, DBKC, LMA.

⁸² ‘War Office Letters to Johnston,’ March 1948, 4288, Group D, Series 04, File 002, Item 90, DBKC, LMA.

⁸³ Ibid., Item 71.

⁸⁴ Ibid., Item 95.

⁸⁵ Ibid.

⁸⁶ Matthew D. Hockenos, A Church Divided: German Protestants Confront the Nazi Past (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 11.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Honors Carolina under the Tom and Elizabeth Long Research Award; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s History Department under the David Anthony Kusa Award for Research in History; Tom and Elizabeth Long Research Award [Award for $500 for research abroad in London Metr]; David Anthony Kusa Award for Research in History [Award for $1000 for research abroad in London Metr].

Notes on contributors

Augusta Lynn Dell’Omo

Augusta Lynn Dell’Omo is a doctoral student in History at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. She specialises in US foreign policy during the late Cold War, with a particular interest in race and religion in American foreign policy. Her dissertation focuses on the intersections between the Reagan administration, televangelism, and the anti-apartheid movement during an ending Cold War. Interested in public history, Augusta contributes to UT’s public history forum, Not Even Past, and acts as an interview and technical director for 15 Minute History, UT’s podcast for students, educators, and history buffs. Currently, Augusta possesses reading proficiency in German and Italian, and is learning Afrikaans. She graduated with highest distinction and highest honours from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA 2016) and received an MA in history from UT in May 2018. She tweets @Augusta_Caesar.