RUPERT, Idaho (AP) — A man who helped evacuate his fellow missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Germany in 1939 as the Nazi threat grew has died of natural causes. Norman Seibold was 88.
Mr. Seibold's efforts were remembered in Terry Montague's 2000 book, "Mine Angels Round About."
"Norm had his own moral compass," Montague said. "He determined what was the right thing to do and he did it."
As the Nazis were setting their sights on Poland, Mr. Seibold decided to find the stranded missionaries in Germany and get them out.
Mr. Seibold went to train stations and employed a method often used by missionaries to signal each other. He whistled the first five notes of the LDS hymn, "Do What is Right."
Any missionaries on hand would gather around him. In five days he rounded up all 85 missionaries in the country and safely evacuated them.
In 1956, Mr. Seibold and his first wife, Ruby Eliza Davenport, moved to Rupert where he managed Imperial Produce Co. From 1962 to 1982, he managed the Minidoka Stake Welfare Farm. Following the death of his first wife, he married Dona Ostergar in 1972.
Mr. Seibold, who died Friday, Nov. 28, 2003, also served as a Minidoka County commissioner from 1983 to 1995.