1. “Church Completes Reassignment of European Missionaries,” Improvement Era 42 (December 1939): 735.

2. Gilbert W. Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany: A History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany between 1840 and 1970 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970), 92. See Alfred C. Rees, in One Hundred Tenth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939): 73.

3. Martha Toronto Anderson, A Cherry Tree behind the Iron Curtain: The Autobiography of Martha Toronto Anderson (Salt Lake City: By the author, 1977), 18.

4. Anderson, Cherry Tree, 18.

5. Anderson, Cherry Tree, 19–20. See Wallace F. Toronto, in One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1940), 52.

6. Toronto, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 52. See Anderson, Cherry Tree, 19–21.

7. Czechoslovak Mission History, June 20, 1939, typescript, 13, Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City.

8. In his mission report, President Toronto explained that “other American and English citizens living in the German occupied territory had been held in lieu of ten thousand dollars each.” Wallace F. Toronto to the First Presidency, September 18, 1939, 6, copy in possession of Allen Toronto.

9. Czechoslovak Mission History, December 31, 1939, 9. See Anderson, Cherry Tree, 26.

10. Czechoslovak Mission History, December 31, 1939, 9. See Anderson, Cherry Tree, 26.

11. Czechoslovak Mission History, December 31, 1939, 9. See Anderson, Cherry Tree, 26.

12. Asael Moulton, interview by Allen Toronto, date unknown, notes in author’s possession.

13. Moulton, interview.

14. Anderson, Cherry Tree, 26.

15. Martha S. Toronto Anderson, James Moyle Oral History Program, interview by Richard O. Cowan and David F. Boone, February 1978, typescript, 1, Church Archives. See Czechoslovak Mission History, December 31, 1939, 11.

16. Anderson, Oral History, 3.

17. M. Douglas and Evelyn N. Wood, James Moyle Oral History Program, interview by Richard O. Cowan and David F. Boone, February 3, 1978, typescript, 16, Church Archives.

18. Albion Smith, interview by David F. Boone, August 25, 1978, quoted in David F. Boone, “The Worldwide Evacuation of Latter-day Saint Missionaries at the Beginning of World War II” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1981), 18.

19. Ralph W. Kauer, James Moyle Oral History Program, interview by David F. Boone, August 26, 1978, typescript, 5–6, Church Archives. See Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 18–19.

20. Kauer, Oral History, 6. See Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 19.

21. East German Mission Manuscript History, December 31, 1939, Church Archives.

22. As Sister Smith accompanied her husband on their European tour, she often used her distinguished, opera-quality, contralto voice to delight audiences of European members and missionaries. Occasionally she sang a song or two in the native language of her audience or persuaded President Smith to join her in a duet. Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 13.

23. Jessie Evans Smith, Journal, August 24, 1939, typescript, 13, Church Archives.

24. M. Douglas Wood, in One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 77–78.

25. This was the last commercial flight for that aircraft. When the plane arrived in Frankfurt, it was taken off the public transportation route and sent to the Polish front to carry troops, munitions, and supplies. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 78.

26. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 77; West German Manuscript History, August 27, 1939, typescript, Church Archives; Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 95; Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 23.

27. Swiss Mission Manuscript History, August 27, 1939, typescript, Church Archives; Mark Garff, Journal, August 28, 1939, typescript, 5, Church Archives; Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 23.

28. Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 23. See also Joseph Fielding Smith, introduction to “Border Incident,” by Ellis T. Rasmussen and John Robert Kest, Improvement Era 46 (December 1943): 752.

29. The Dutch had suffered a shortage of food during World War I and did not want foreigners in their country if war broke out again. They needed to save their limited food supplies for their own people. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 79; Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 93.

30. Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1979), 526; Smith, Journal, 13; Smith, introduction to “Border Incident,” 752.

31. Smith, Journal, August 25, 1939, 13.

32. A. Burt Horsley, interview by David F. Boone, September 16, 1978, transcript in author’s possession.

33. Horsley, interview.

34. Horsley, interview.

35. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 79; Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 93.

36. As the missionaries traveled toward Holland or arrived at the border, they often came in contact with other missionaries in the same predicament. Most of them stayed together, which ultimately made locating them easier because they were in groups rather than just in pairs. The six elders who joined with Horsley and Poll were John Dean, Edward Mabey, Lawrence Meyer, Wilford Woolf, John Bingham, and Joseph Loertscher. They later met up with Wesley Knudsen, Ralph Thompson, Harold E. Kratzer, and Richard Larkin Glade. Terry Bohle Montague, “Mine Angels round About”: Mormon Missionary Evacuation from Western Germany, 1939, 2d ed. (Orem, Utah: Granite Publishing and Distribution, 2000), 71, 73; Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident.”

37. Richard D. Poll, Journal, August 27, 1939, original in family’s possession.

38. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 80–81.

39. Smith, Journal, August 30, 1939, 15.

40. Erma Rosenhan, Journal, August 26, 1939, typescript, Church Archives. There do not seem to have been any specific instructions regarding the evacuation of the sister missionaries, perhaps because there were so few of them. Except for Sister Rosenhan, there is no mention of lady missionaries from the Czechoslovak and German missions. This does not mean, however, that there were no other women. In addition to the mission presidents’ wives, a Miss Grace Olson is mentioned, although there is no specific information in available Church records about her status or her experiences during the evacuation. Sister Don C. Rigby (no given name listed) also traveled with the elders during the evacuation. She had journeyed to Germany to meet her soon-to-be-released husband and accompany him home. Her plans were realized but certainly not in a way either of them could have imagined.

41. In addition to Knutti, this group included Ellis T. Rasmussen, Rayo Parker, William Thayne, Claytor Larsen, and Louis J. Haws. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 753; Montague, “Mine Angels round About,” 63.

42. Frank Knutti, Journal, August 26, 1939, copy in author’s possession.

43. Elder Kest knew the Murdocks well, and according to his sister, John Robert’s association with the president and his family may explain why he was chosen for such an important mission: “[President Murdock’s] wife was Claire Murdock. She was very musical. And so my brother Bob, being so interested in music himself, he was a singer and an actor, became kind of special to them I think. They produced the opera Martha for the Dutch Saints during the early part of that year [1939].” Marjorie K. Crooks, interview by David F. Boone, September 29, 1999, transcript in author’s possession.

44. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 795.

45. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

46. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

47. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

48. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

49. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

50. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 796.

51. Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident,” 793. See also Montague, “Mine Angels round About,” 93, 95.

52. Norman George Seibold, James Moyle Oral History Program, interview by David F. Boone, 1978, typescript, 4, Church Archives.

53. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 79; West German Mission Manuscript History, August 26, 1939, quoted in Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 94.

54. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 80; West German Mission Manuscript History, August 26, 1939, quoted in Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 94.

55. Seibold, Oral History, 4.

56. Wood, One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 79, quoted in Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany, 94.

57. “Do What Is Right,” in Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), no. 237.

58. Seibold, Oral History, 12.

59. Seibold, Oral History, 6. The uncertainty of rail travel in a country involved in military mobilization took its toll on even the young elders. They had to change trains frequently, go out of their way to make connections, and endure irregular schedules before finally reaching safety, tired and often hungry, in either Holland or Denmark.

60. There are slight discrepancies, especially in dates, place names, and the sequence of events, in different accounts of the evacuation from the West German Mission. I conducted the interviews cited in this article in the late 1970s and early 1980s, approximately forty years after these events took place. As Seibold admitted, “Forty years is a long time and my mind is a little dim on some of it as far as the sequence of the thing. . . . I’ll tell the story as I remember it.” Seibold, Oral History, 4. Montague, in “Mine Angels round About,” 85–86, identifies the train station where Seibold confronted the police as the Emmerich, Germany, station rather than the Cologne station. According to Montague’s account, it was at Cologne that Seibold climbed onto the baggage cart and whistled but at Emmerich that he was threatened by the police, probably because they had seen the large amount of money he was carrying.

61. Seibold, Oral History, 5.

62. Seibold, Oral History, 12.

63. See Montague, “Mine Angels round About,” 83–100. Montague based her account of Seibold’s rescue mission on an interview with him and also on interviews and correspondence with several of the missionaries he found along the way and who shared at least part of the journey through Germany to Denmark. Among them were Owen Ken Earl, Louis J. Haws, Charles Jenkins Jr., William Manning, Ferryle McOmber, and Frank Knutti. She also drew information from the journal of Ben Lasrich and from Rasmussen and Kest, “Border Incident.” (Rasmussen’s group met and joined with Seibold’s group and are among the thirteen elders who arrived in Denmark on August 28.) When I interviewed Seibold in 1978, he did not remember spending much time traveling with any group. “I was alone most of the time,” he recalled. “There were short distances that I would travel with the brethren and then I’d send them off. . . . I haven’t recorded it in my journal and I can’t remember for sure.” Seibold, Oral History, 5.

64. Seibold, Oral History, 6.

65. Seibold, Oral History, 6.

66. Seibold, Oral History, 11–12.

67. According to Montague, there were two elders from the West German Mission who were still in Austria. Assigned to a remote rural area, Elders Nephi Henry Duersch and Robert J. Gillespie were bicycling from village to village and staying with members during the last week of August when the telegrams ordering the evacuation went out. They did not return to their apartment and read their telegram until September 2. The two managed to catch a train to Stuttgart, Germany, and another to Basel, Switzerland, arriving there in the early morning of September 3. Montague, “Mine Angels round About,” 101–102.

68. Seibold, Oral History, 11.

69. Seibold, Oral History, 11.

70. England, Denmark, and Holland were, for the most part, the host countries for the evacuating missionaries. Except in isolated instances, the major focus of mission leaders in these countries was to provide ship passage home for the departing missionaries.

71. Franklin J. Murdock, interview by David F. Boone, January 20, 1981, transcript in author’s possession.

72. Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation,” 112.

73. Unusual and faith-promoting experiences occurred in every aspect of the missionary evacuation. The missionaries leaving the Czechoslovak and West German Missions (almost one hundred in number) had the most harrowing experiences getting to neutral countries. Many of them recorded personal experiences in journals, correspondence, and mission reports, and these, along with oral and mission histories, provided many personal insights and details for this article. More than sixty years after the evacuation, many of these former missionaries still became animated and excited just remembering events and sharing their experiences. Several worthwhile compilations of the experiences of evacuating missionary personnel are also of great interest and are a valuable part of preserving the past. References include several graduate level studies on Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. Published sources on the evacuation are limited but include Smith, Essentials in Church History; and James B. Allen and Glenn M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2d ed., rev. and enl. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992). Elder Smith’s volume is included because of his personal involvement as the General Authority supervising the evacuation. Works specifically dedicated to the missionary evacuation include Montague, “Mine Angels round About”; and Boone, “Worldwide Evacuation.” Histories on specific European areas include Bruce Van Orden, Building Zion: The Latter-day Saints in Europe (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996); Scharffs, Mormonism in Germany; and Albert L. Zobell Jr., Under the Midnight Sun: Centennial History of Scandinavian Missions (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1950).

74. Smith, Essentials in Church History, 526. Elder Smith’s summary refers to all the missions of Europe, not just the Czechoslovak and East and West German Missions.

75. Curtis B. Hunsaker, “History of the Norwegian Mission from 1851 to 1960” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1965), 86; East German Mission History, December 31, 1939.

76. J. Reuben Clark Jr., in One Hundred Tenth Annual Conference, 20.

77. Harold B. Lee, in One Hundred Thirteenth Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1943), 128.

78. Personal conversation by the author with Carl-Erik Johanson, December 17, 1980, notes in author’s possession.

79. Leone Openshaw Jacobs, interview by David F. Boone, transcript in author’s possession.

David F. Boone

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