Skip to main content

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF

Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations

Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out.

The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags.

First, your congregational by-laws. 

It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the Heubuden Mennonite Church, West Prussia, together with Mennonite Prof. Benjamin Unruh drafted articles of incorporation for the new “Conference of Mennonite Congregations of German Nationality in the Province of Wartheland,” March 1944 (note 1). It limited church membership to "citizens only" in German-annexed Poland (e.g., no Poles). At the time Germany too was in the midst of the "largest deportation operation in [its] history.” However, only about 1 million non-citizens were deported by Feb. 1944; Pres. Trump has spoken of 12 to 20 million, which sounds very ambitious; but even if it is only a few million he would benefit from cooperation from the churches. Your by-law changes should also clearly indicate that the congregation will not offer sanctuary.

Second, an alert

There will be congregations in the conference led by or welcoming of (e.g., offering sanctuary) undocumented immigrants. They will want to dominate denominational gatherings in the next year, determine invited speakers, publications and educational materials—and maybe even the Mennonite World Conference in the summer. This kind of backroom planning happened for the Mennonite World Conference in 1936 in Amsterdam/Elspeet (also the 400th anniversary of Menno’s identification as an Anabaptist). Planners of the conference were extremely sensitive to the developing political situation in Europe. Dutch organizer Fritz Kuiper in a letter to Christian Neff (June 8, 1935) noted his fear that any advance notice of those themes with current relevance could “torpedo” the conference from the start. Organizers colluded to keep Benjamin Unruh off the speakers’ list, but later gave him a “safe” theme to talk on (note 2). Unruh was a supporter of new laws limiting citizenship in Germany. Interestingly these same Dutch organizers a decade later created bogus identifications/passports (Menno-Pass; see below) to allow illegals from the Soviet Union to enter The Netherlands in 1946 (note 3). Prepare for such tricks.

Third, yes, you are still an Anabaptist! 

You will be criticized by left-leaning, woke Mennonites saying that your support of President Trump is at odds with your faith. However, in the 1930s and 1940s Mennonite scholars like Prof. Unruh and Dr. Horst Quiring pointed to the work 16th century Anabaptist Dr. Balthasar Hubmaier for whom bearing arms and holding high government offices was permissible (note 4). Unruh published his own astute “Anabaptist Vision” the next year after the conference (note 5). So you're ok.

Fourth, an appropriate attitude is important

When 35,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union were evacuated and resettled in German-annexed Poland (with other ethnic Germans from the east), an equivalent number of Poles had to be deported—some to the “General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region,” and some sent to German occupied France as farm labourers. Only those ineligible for citizenship were designated for deportation, of course. The deportation machinery operated very efficiently; the attitude of most Mennonites (and other Germans from the east) while deportations took place was completely passive, as one Pole recalled some years later (note 6). That was helpful for the effort—a strategy you may wish to consider as the deportations begin.

Fifth, identify a Mennonite leader who is well-connected to the Trump organization 

He or she could be of special assistance for the Trump-Mennonites in agricultural areas (not unlike Prof. Unruh). Undocumented people do 25% of the agricultural work in the USA today; you can recommend that your local deportations happen in a staged manner which will not disrupt agricultural production. Again, our tradition has witnessed a roll out and can help with a tried example in Wartheland. All illegal immigrants must first be registered; you could help with that effort to ensure no one is overlooked. Next, prioritize (as in Germany, 1944) which non-citizens are most needed for farming to ensure no agricultural disruption. This would only be an interim measure, of course. Logistics: all "to-be-deported" families should be required to live in one nearby area together (doubling up families worked best in 1944). A central local office could keep an ordered list. When Pres. Trump’s representatives ask for, e.g., 5 families this month from your district to fill quota, then military assets should be employed for quick, efficient removal (within one half day ideally).

Sixth, an example 

See attached Deportation Completion Forms from Storchnest, Warthegau. One Mennonite boy whose family received a house in Storchnest—taken from a family identified for deportation—recalled years later in Canada that those were “not happy people” probably because they were “subservient”—and of course they were; they no longer had a right to be there long term! He also noticed that “through corruption and sly methods these people managed to retain enough goods and food so that they could survive” (note 7). That is a reminder that you will need to be on guard; perhaps a local militia can help, and Mennonites from your congregation should be free to volunteer if they feel called by conscience. Your congregational by-laws should be amended to state this clearly (contact me for good examples from Prof. Unruh).

There are many of precedents in our rich Mennonite story! However the Wartheland example was only for a million or so people. President Trump will need even greater support for the numbers he has promised American voters. It will be messy work and not easy; those involved in the 1944 deportations required at least two generations to process their feelings of guilt. Thank God though that America can have full confidence in President Trump; God has called (and saved!) him for a moment like this.

PS Reminder: Don’t forget about that congregational AGM in January! Set up your agenda early and prepare well for these changes coming to America.

                                                ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast





---Notes---

Attached Deportation Completion Forms, Storchnest, Wartheland District of Lissa. From Polish State Archives at Poznan, 53/1009/0/2/9. https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/de/jednostka/-/jednostka/1261501.

Note 1: “Satzung der Mennonitischen Gemeindekirche im Wartheland” (March 1944 Submission), from Mennonitische Forschungsstelle Weierhof, Vereinigung Collection, folder 1944.

Note 2: Frits Kuiper to Christian Neff, letter, April 29, 1935, from Mennonite Library and Archives (Bethel College), V 6, box 15, folder 8, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/V_6/box%2015/folder%208/316.jpg; re: “torpedo,” Frits Kuiper to Christian Neff, June 1935, idem, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/V_6/box%2015/folder%208/293.jpg; Harold Bender to Frits Kuiper, Dec. 22, 1935, with recommendations of who to keep off list of speakers at World Conference; https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/V_6/box%2015/folder%208/292.jpg. Unruh was given a safe topic, from the organizer’s perspective: “Die Mennoniten in Rußland in Geschichte und Gegenwart,” in Der Allgemeine Kongreß der Mennoniten gehalten in Amsterdam, Elspeet, Witmarsum (Holland) 29. Juni bis 3. Juli 1936, ed. by Christian Neff (Karslruhe: Schneider, 1936), 60-64, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/1936,%20MWC,%20Der%20Allgemeine%20Konferenz%20der%20Mennoniten/Better%20Copy/DSCF1220.JPG.

Note 3: See Gerlof D. Homan, “‘We Have Come to Love Them’: Russian Mennonite Refugees in the Netherlands, 1945–1947,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 25 (2007), 39–59; 42; 40f., https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/1223/1215; also P. Dyck and E. Dyck, Up from the Rubble, 102f

Note 4: See Horst Quiring, “The Anthropology of Pilgram Marbeck,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 9, no. 4 (October 1935), 155–164 (German online: https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Geschichtsblaetter/1936-1940/DSCF4453.JPG).

Note 5: Benjamin Unruh, “Das Wesen des evangelischen Täufertums und Mennonitentums,” Mennonitische Jugendwarte 17, no. 1 (February 1937), 6–15, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Jugendwarte/DSCF9305.JPG.

Note 6: Czesław Łuczak, “Chronicle: Records on the Situation of Poles in the Warte Land,” Instytut Zachodni (Poznań), Western Affairs 8, no. 1 (1967), 170. Łuczak’s reference is to all “ethnic Germans” who arrived in Wartheland and simply stood by and were quiet.

Note 7: “Michaelsburg,” private family correspondence to author, August 1, 2024.

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 24, 2024. https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2024/11/what-is-church-to-say-letter-4-of-4-to.html




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From USSR to Cherrywood Station: Mennonites winter in Markham-Stouffville, 1924

On September 26, 1924, 126 Russian Mennonite passengers disembarked the S. S. Melita at Quebec City ( note 1 ). They were among some 20,000 Mennonites who could immigrate to Canada from the Soviet Union in the 1920s. A number of these families received train cards to Cherrywood (Pickering) and Locust Hill (Markham) stations, where they were received by Markham area Mennonites. The Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBC) registration forms record each family's travel dates as well as their "first place of arrival" in Canada. The attached artifacts—a few pages from the financial records booklet kept by Markham-Stouffville treasurer J. L. Grove, plus some correspondence—profile concretely the level of support of this community north-east of Toronto for co-religionists fleeing the Soviet Union. Mennonites in Ontario had been well informed of the relief needs in Russia since 1921 and plans for mass immigration ( note 2 ). In April 1924 the local Stouffville Tribune ...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Royal News! Mennonites give gifts of “Oxen, Butter, Ducks, Hens & Cheese” to new King (1772)

What do Mennonites offer a new king? The ritual ceremonies of homage to a new European king—as we see on TV these days--are ancient. Exactly 250 years yesterday, Frederick the Great became king over Mennonites in the Vistula River Delta where most of our ancestors lived. Here is how that played out. On May 31, 1772, Heinrich Donner was elected elder of the Orlofferfelde Mennonite Church, 25 km north of Marienburg Castle in Polish-Prussia; thankfully he kept a diary ( note 1 ). Only a few months later the weak Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth collapsed and was partitioned by powerful, land-hungry neighbours: Austria, Prussia and Catherine the Great’s empire. In the preceding decades Mennonites had lived with significant autonomy, felt secure under the Polish crown and could appeal to the king for protection . Now some 2,638 Mennonite families were under Prussian rule. Frederick II took possession of his new lands on September 13, and then invited four persons of nobility plus clergy from ...
Post a Comment
Read more

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Outrage in Canada: Ukrainian in Waffen-SS honoured in Parliament. Mennonite Connections

As an historic peace church, Russian Mennonite congregations in Canada never celebrated “their veterans” who had volunteered with the Waffen-SS or Wehrmacht in complex times; hundreds did however volunteer to protect and defend their corner of Ukraine from a new era of Moscow-based Bolshevism. Some later self-identified as "The Lost Generation." German Prussian Mennonites in contrast understood that heritage differently and celebrated the “Heroes' Day Memorial” service anually until 1945. After 1945 Germany appropriately renamed their remembrance day as Volkstrauertag —the People’s Day of Mourning ( note 1 ). Many descendents live in Canada. A parallel Ukrainian story made the news in Canada in September 2023. The Speaker of the House of Commons invited a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran to a joint session of Parliament for the visit and address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 22.  Without good vetting by the Speaker, the guest was laud...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 1 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accuarte and carefully considered. ~ANF American Mennonite leaders who supported Trump will be responding to the election results in the near future. Sometimes a template or sample conference address helps to formulate one’s own text. To that end I offer the following. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mennonites in Germany sent official greetings by telegram: “The Conference of the East and West Prussian Mennonites meeting today at Tiegenhagen in the Free City of Danzig are deeply grateful for the tremendous uprising ( Erhebung ) that God has given our people ( Volk ) through the vigor and action of [unclear], and promise our cooperation in the construction of our Fatherland, true to the Gospel motto of [our founder Menno Simons], ‘For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.’” ( Note 1 ) Hitler responded in a letter...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...
1 comment
Read more

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...
Post a Comment
Read more

“First Arrival of German Troops in Halbstadt” (Volksfreund, April 20, 1918)

“ April 19, 1918 will always remain significant in the history of the Molotschna German Colony. That which until recently could hardly be imagined has occurred: the German military has arrived to free us from the despotism, rape and pillaging of barbarous people and to reestablish the order and security of life and property--something desperately necessary for our land. For this we give thanks above all to the One in whose hands the peoples and nations and also individuals rest. ...” ( Note 1 ) Mennonites greeted their “guests and liberators” with festivities that included baked goods (Zwieback), meats and even the German anthem “ Deutschland, Deutschland über alles "—all before the watchful eyes of their Russian /Ukrainian neighbours. The troops arrived by train; and to the shock of most present, three bound prisoners—all well-known bandits and terrorists—“were brought out of one of the railway cars without any prior notice, lined up and shot right in front of us” as an exampl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonites, the Queen, the Anthem and Monarchy Generally

For most Canadians, Queen Elizabeth II had been omnipresent their entire lives: on our coins, bills and stamps. In school in the 1960s and early -70s, my generation sang "God Save the Queen" every other day in class, and "O Canada" on the other days. A portrait of the Queen was in every classroom. I vividly remember lining Niagara Street in St. Catharines as a school child in 1973 when the Queen came whizzing through in a black limo in the rain to get to Niagara-on-the-Lake, the first capital of Upper Canada, now full of Mennonite farms. That black limo was owned by a wealthy Mennonite fruit farmer—my relative Isbrand Boese! It is not outside the tradition for Mennonites to sing “God save the Queen/King”. On Sunday, September 20, 1937, 700 people gathered in the Coaldale Mennonite Church (Alberta), and the service concluded with the singing of national anthem ["God save the King”] ( note 1 ). Mennonites organized this celebration to give thanks and to honour ...
Post a Comment
Read more