Editor's note: After serving as president of the Hamburg Germany Mission from 2001-04, Lynn Hansen and his wife, Faith, returned to Germany in 2008 on an 18-month mission. Under the direction of the area leadership, they collected oral histories from LDS Church members who experienced the end of World War II. They collected more than 310 stories, which will soon be published in German. A shorter English version is scheduled for publication later this year. Here are a couple of those experiences.
They called it Operation Gomorrah. On the night of July 27, 1943, more than 700 Allied aircraft attacked the city of Hamburg, Germany. The bombings created a firestorm akin to an outdoor blast furnace with winds up to 150 miles per hour and reaching temperatures of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The asphalt on streets burst into flame, killing anyone who was in the way. Many in air raid shelters were cooked to death, and some eight square miles of the city were incinerated. At least 40,000 people died.
Twenty-year-old Gerhard Fricke, whose mother joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1910, had avoided military service because of a speech impediment. Instead he had worked in military industry, helping to build submarines. After an initial bombing raid had destroyed his family's residence, they lived for a time with an aunt. Then as the building began to shake, Gerhard forced his aunt, his mother and a sister away from the building and into a deep underground bunker, saving all their lives.
His brother, Harald, who was three years younger, and his grandfather had shared duty helping fire marshals contain fires ignited by Operation Gomorrah. They were assigned to watch over the church's meetinghouse near where they lived.
They decided to run quickly home, where they found their house no longer existed. German anti-aircraft guns were firing at the Allied bombers, and red-hot shell fragments were falling around them as they, too, ran to the bunker and were saved.
After surviving Gomorrah, both brothers were inducted into the German army. Gerhard was trained in smoke mortars, which were fired to obscure the positions of German artillery, and was sent to the Western Front. He was to have participated in the defense against the Allied forces that had landed on the west coast of France, but the war was nearly over and he was soon taken prisoner by the Americans. He spent most of his prisoner of war time on an open meadow in deep mud, but always had enough to eat.
Harald was not so lucky. He was quickly dispatched to the Eastern Front, not far from Leningrad where his unit was soon surrounded by Russian forces. He was wounded and still retains shrapnel in his face, which causes that side of his face to be permanently numb. For his actions, he was awarded the Iron Cross.
Because the war was over when his unit surrendered, he was not technically a prisoner of war, but the effect was the same. Because there was such an infestation of lice, his head and body had to be shaved.
The food was minimal, and Harald traded his Iron Cross for bread. On one occasion, his toes froze and he had to be hospitalized. Each day he witnessed 10 to 15 of his comrades being taken from the hospital dead.
After 1½ years as a prisoner in Russia, Harald was so thin and sickly that the Russians told him to go home. He spent about four weeks in a cattle car trying to get back to Germany. Many of his fellow travelers died along the way. But he made it home, emaciated but still alive. Although his mother had continued to pray that he would one day return, the family thought him dead since there had been no word from him.
After his arrival home, he quickly became active in the LDS Church again and witnessed significant growth of the church in the early years after the war. He served as bishop for 15 years and on the high council for 22. Today, at 83, he can be found in the Hamburg Ward building in Wartenau almost any day painting, cleaning and ensuring the well-being of that building that also serves as stake center.
Gerhard came home and he, too, resumed his activity in the LDS Church. He married Ruth Braun, a member of the church who had fled from her home in East Prussia in front of the advancing Soviet Army. At that time only the Altona Branch still had a building to meet in as all the other meeting places had been destroyed in Allied bombing raids. Gerhard and Ruth settled into a nice apartment allotted them by the housing authority. But to their surprise, they received a new call.
Michael Panitsch, the Altona Branch president (and later the first president of the Hamburg Germany Stake) came to Gerhard and said, \"Gerd, you're needed in Altona. We have found an old villa in Altona, and it is to be our meetinghouse. But the place is in shambles. We need you to restore it.\"
Gerhard and Ruth gave up their nice apartment and moved into the dilapidated building. Piece by piece they took it apart and put it back together again, reinforcing it with steel beams, new plumbing and electrical wiring. All this time, the Frickes lived in the top level of the building and subjected their wants and individual comforts to the mission of preparing the building to be the meeting place for those attending the Altona Branch, which later became the Altona Ward in the Hamburg Germany Stake. The building had been slated for destruction, but now, through the efforts of the Frickes, it is protected under German law as a state monument.
The Frickes lived in the building, acting as its caretakers until Gerhard \"retired\" at 65 and moved into a nearby apartment. In his own words, \"Now, I am 85 years old and still active in the Altona Ward. My presence near the Altona building is necessary as I am constantly being asked for a key to the building or about other things in the building. I also wanted to look after things, do the gardening and carry out many small repairs that would otherwise have not been done well. In the course of my life, this villa became my life. It became second nature to me to keep it in good condition. She is still the 'model branch building' of the Hamburg Stake. I have a firm testimony that Father in Heaven has watched over me a lifetime and the restored church is led by the Lord; this I've often felt.\"