This story has touched my heart beyond my ability to express - so much that we felt compelled to name our youngest baby girl after this story, this people. As a reminder of their faith, strength, and hope. I hope it will bless her life - and I know that the reminder will be a blessing to me in my life.
A 3-part story from September, October, & November 2019 Friend
Followed by more information about the Dutch Potato Project
The healing of souls was as important as the nourishing of bodies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Megan Armknecht
(Based on a true story) - Part 1
The author lives in New Jersey, USA.
“Whatever happens, God will take care of our family,” Mom said.
Grace Vlam was a nine-year-old girl living in Holland in 1940, during World War II. Nazi Germany had just begun attacking Holland.
BOOM! BOOM!
It was three o’clock in the morning, and the city was being bombed. One minute Grace had been asleep in her bed, and the next, Dad was telling everyone to get under cover. Now Grace was huddled under the kitchen table with her dad, mom, and younger brothers, Heber and Alvin. She could hear the rumble of explosions and glass shattering outside. It was so loud!
“What’s going to happen to us?” Grace asked Dad.
Dad stroked her hair. “I don’t know,” he said. “But let’s say a prayer.”
The Vlam family held each other close.
“Dear Heavenly Father,” Dad prayed, “please keep our family safe.”
After a while, the noise quieted down. There were no more explosions. They were safe!
Mom took Grace’s hand and smiled at her. “Remember when we were sealed in the temple?”
Grace nodded. When they had moved from Indonesia to Holland, they were able to stop in Utah and be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.
“Whatever happens, God will take care of our family,” Mom said.
The next day, Grace heard air-raid sirens when she was outside on the city plaza. She looked up and saw planes above her head, with little black things falling from them. She stood there, staring, her mouth wide open.
A man started shouting at her. “Run! Those are bombs!”
Grace raced home, her heart pounding as she finally made it safely through the front door.
A few days later, the Nazis—who were the government leaders of Germany—officially took over Holland. Because Dad had been an officer in the Dutch military, the Nazi officers watched him carefully. Sometimes the Nazis took people who had been military officers as prisoners.
But that won’t happen to Dad, Grace thought. We’re members of the Church, and Dad is a leader in the mission presidency. God will protect him.
After the bombings, the Vlam family had to leave their city. One day at her new school, Grace heard other students whispering.
“Some people were taken prisoner today!”
“Will they ever come back?”
Grace was scared. Was Dad OK? She ran home as fast she could. As she burst through the door, she saw Mom in the hallway.
“Is it true?” Grace asked. “Is Dad gone?”
Mom didn’t say anything, but Grace knew from Mom’s sad eyes that Dad had been taken away. He was a prisoner of war. Grace leaned against the wall. She was too afraid to even cry.
What do we do now? she wondered.
At that moment, Grace heard a voice say, “You will see your father again.” The voice was calm and clear. Grace knew it was the voice of the Holy Ghost. It made her feel a little better. She didn’t know exactly what would happen, but she did know that Heavenly Father would take care of her and her family.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Answered Prayer
By Megan Armknecht
(Based on a true story) - Part 2
The author lives in New Jersey, USA.
Grace was an 11-year-old girl living in Holland during World War II. Her father was taken away as a prisoner of war.
Illustrations by Rebecca Sorge
After Dad was taken away, Mom took care of Grace, her two brothers, and two of their cousins. There were many mouths to feed and not enough food to go around. Their family only got a small amount of flour, vegetables, and potatoes.
One day the doorbell rang. Grace followed Mom to see who it was. When Mom opened the door, there on the doorstep stood a young Nazi officer. Grace’s heart started beating faster, and she held her breath. What did he want?
“How many people live in this house?” he asked gruffly.
“It’s myself, my three children, and my two nephews,” said Mom.
“You have no husband here?” the officer asked.
“No,” Mom answered. “He was taken away.”
The officer looked around the house. “Do you have a radio? We don’t want you listening to programs from our enemies in England and America.”
Mom got the radio and gave it to the officer.
“This is a big house,” he said, glancing around again. “Too big for just the few people who live here. You will have to leave by tomorrow. We are going to take over this house.” He turned sharply and marched away.
Grace couldn’t believe what she had heard. She watched Mom’s eyes widen in shock. Then Mom closed the door and went straight to the back of the house.
Grace followed slowly behind, her heart racing. Could the soldier really come back and take their house, just like he’d taken their radio? What would they do? Where would they go? How would Dad know where to find them again?
Grace stopped outside Mom’s door and peeked inside. Mom was on her knees, praying. Grace quietly went back to the sitting room until Mom came back.
“Oh, Mom, what will we do?” Grace asked.
Mom sighed. “All we can do is pray and trust in the Lord that He will protect us.”
The young Nazi officer didn’t come back the next day or the next. He never came back! Grace and her family were able to keep their house. Grace knew that God was helping her family. Even though the war was not over, He was still watching over them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope in Holland
By Megan Armknecht
(Based on a true story) - Part 3
The author lives in New Jersey, USA.
Grace was a 15-year-old girl living in Holland during World War II. The war had gone on for a long time. The people in Holland were starving, and they hoped the war would soon be over.
Illustrations by Rebecca Sorge
The last year of World War II was the very worst for Holland. The Nazis took everything. There was no coal to heat their house. Grace couldn’t go to school. She and her family had to eat tulip bulbs to keep from starving. They tasted horrible! Worst of all, Dad was still a prisoner of war.
But people were hopeful. Some said the Nazis were losing the war. And in May of 1945, the Nazis finally surrendered. Holland was free again! People celebrated in the streets. Now Grace could go back to school. There were no soldiers to be afraid of.
Best of all, one day when Grace and her brothers were walking back from school, they saw that the flag of Holland was flying in front of their home. Could it mean … ?
“Dad’s home!” shouted Heber.
Grace and her brothers ran inside. Grace threw her arms around Dad and gave him a big hug. He hugged her back tightly. It was so wonderful to have him home.
Soon after that, packages of food, clothes, and medicine began arriving in Holland. The Church leaders in Salt Lake City sent a lot of supplies to help people after the war. Grace even got a new dress! She had worn the same dress for five years, so she was very happy to have a new one.
For the first time in years, Grace had enough to eat. The mission presidency and the government in Holland decided to start a potato project to grow more food. Church members planted lots of potatoes in nearby fields. By fall they would have thousands of potatoes to eat.
“Look!” Grace told Dad, pointing to a sprouting potato plant. “We’ll never go hungry again!”
Dad nodded but didn’t smile. He said, “President Zappey told me that the Latter-day Saints in Germany are still starving, just like we were. They are not getting help from the government like we are.” Dad put his arm around Grace’s shoulders. “President Zappey has asked if we would give our potatoes to the German Saints.”
“Give up our potatoes!” Grace cried. But the Nazis were from Germany!
“I know it’s not easy,” Dad said. “But the people from Germany are also children of God. He loves them too. I forgave the Nazis for making me a prisoner. The Lord can help us all forgive.”
Grace looked up at Dad. He was the bravest person she knew, but she didn’t know if she had the courage to forgive like him. Then she remembered one of her teachers in school during the war. Her teacher had said that not all Germans were Nazis, and not all Nazi soldiers were bad. And now the girls and boys in Germany were starving, just like Grace had been.
Grace took a deep breath. “I understand,” she said. “Let’s give them our potatoes.”
Dad hugged her and smiled. “You are such a brave girl. This is a hard thing to do. But we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and so are our German brothers and sisters.”
Grace smiled. The angry feelings in her heart melted, and she felt calm and warm. She could forgive the Germans. And Jesus could help her love them too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That We May Be One - The Dutch Potato Project
Latter-day Saints in Holland gave 140,000 pounds (70 tons) of potatoes and 180,000 pounds (90 tons) of fish to the German Latter-day Saints. Later, in 1953, the German Saints sent supplies to Church members in Holland after a huge flood.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE STORY OF THE DUTCH POTATO PROJECT
DECEMBER 3, 2017CHURCH HISTORY
Loving your enemies is more than a catchphrase.
In the video That We Might Be One: The Story of the Dutch Potato Project, we see the great sacrifice Church members in Holland made for members of the Church in Germany following World War II.
After the war, food was scarce. The Dutch people received potatoes from their government to cut up and plant. These potatoes would help them survive, though just barely. During this same time, Church leaders visiting areas of Europe saw that Germans had experienced the coldest winter in living memory and that the German Saints were starving.
The mission president, Cornelius Zappey, came up with a plan: ask the Dutch Saints to send all their potato harvest to the German Saints. The members of the Church in Holland could hardly believe they were being asked to help people in the very country that had caused them such sorrow and pain. Yet the Dutch Saints desired to serve the Lord. After much anguish, they agreed to send their potatoes to members of the Church in Germany.
The German Saints were astonished that the Dutch Saints would help them. As one German man said, “They were enemies and had nothing to do with Germany any more. And suddenly, they grew potatoes for us.”
The Germans saved some of the potatoes to plant, and they gradually became self-sufficient. In 1953 the Dutch suffered great flooding and needed help. German Saints rallied, sending aid packages to relieve the suffering in the Netherlands.
Like the Saints in Europe following World War II, we can follow Jesus Christ’s admonition found in Matthew 5:44–45: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”
Watch the video That We Might Be One: The Story of the Dutch Potato Project to learn of the personal stories of both German and Dutch survivors who experienced the Dutch potato project.
------------------------
War and Peace and Dutch Potatoes
By William G. Hartley
President Cornelius Zappey’s first weeks among the war-scarred Dutch Saints made him do much praying—and some weeping. In February 1946, just nine months after the end of a shattering world war, he and Sister Zappey had arrived from America to reorganize and rejuvenate the Netherlands Mission.
Acting mission president Jacob Schipanboord had done excellent work. The war had done its work too. Many of the 3,200 members needed food and clothes. Branches needed to be fully staffed, administered, and adequately housed. The bomb-damaged mission home in The Hague needed windows, doors, repairs, and furniture. Full-time proselyting was to be instituted. And the hatred and bitterness many members felt toward their former enemies somehow had to be dissolved.
The horrors of World War II had begun for tiny Holland in late 1940 when German tanks and troops overran the country in five days. To break Dutch resistance, the German Luftwaffe wiped out the center of Rotterdam—including the LDS chapel there—in the first major air blitz aimed at a city; 40,000 civilians perished.
For five bitter years Nazi troops occupied Holland. Many Dutch, to protect family and friends, cooperated. Others resisted. Some did both. Many Dutch soldiers, resisters, and Jews were executed or taken to prison camps. (Anne Frank was one.)
Both at the beginning of war, when Germany attacked, and at the end when allied forces counter-attacked, Holland suffered much physical damage. About 400,000 homes were damaged or destroyed; 8,000 farms ruined, 700 square miles of land inundated when Nazis wrecked dikes holding back the sea, half of the forests destroyed, and 40 percent of the livestock wiped out. Railroad equipment, bicycles, motor vehicles, and in some cases entire factories were confiscated. More than 200,000 Dutch people died because of the war. Such destruction and casualties were not as great as those in some countries; still, bitterness ran deep and the Saints were not immune.
The last months of the Nazi occupation had been the worst. Germany, reeling under the Allies’ military impact and running out of supplies, systematically robbed Holland’s foodstuffs, fuel, and clothing. This left the Dutch civilians destitute during the biting winter of 1944–45. Some froze. Some starved. One survivor recalls how schoolchildren at one point were lucky to get a carrot for breakfast and potato peel soup for lunch. Another survivor who had several children made the family walk 150 miles from Rotterdam to Groningen, where there was more food, in severe weather. In Amsterdam the daily ration was reduced to one-tenth of normal requirements. This period of hunger hardened feelings even more toward the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators.1
Even when the Zappeys arrived, almost a year after the war ended, hunger still stalked Holland, even though relief goods from America and elsewhere were pouring in, including tons of LDS welfare supplies. From a Church welfare storehouse in The Hague, mission leaders, volunteers, and dilapidated trucks distributed needed items to two dozen branches.
Welfare goods clothed and nourished the body. But what would help the scarred souls? What could dissolve the bitter feelings toward Germans and collaborators about the loss of loved ones?
“Mama, all we can do here is pray for the people to overcome their hate,” President Zappey told his wife. But then he went to work to answer his own prayers. A salesman by profession, he set out to convince the Saints of the importance of love and forgiveness. He chose as a mission theme “Love One Another,” which he preached constantly in the branches and at mission meetings.2
Elder Ezra Taft Benson, in Europe directing the Church’s relief effort, instructed President Zappey to have the Dutch members be welfare producers as well as recipients. President Zappey saw how it could help the Saints learn to work together again and forget their differences. He moved on the instructions at once. Since potatoes were one of Holland’s best crops, President Zappey proposed to local priesthood leaders that they start branch or quorum potato projects where they had land. Where they didn’t, they were to start sewing projects.
During 1947, Mormon potato patches sprang up in backyards, road medians, vacant lots, and former flower gardens. Planting days became special branch occasions with singing, speaking, and praying, after which the Saints planted seed potatoes obtained from the Dutch government. And it was cooperative! Typically, one member punched a hole in the ground with a stick, a second person dropped the potato in, and a third covered it.3
During summer months many Saints, before going to work, visited their branch’s potato patch to water or weed. By autumn the prospects for a good harvest looked bright. Members expected that potatoes produced by their hard work would be used to aid local members.
But President Zappey was thinking farther ahead. In a March 12, 1947, report President Alma Sonne of the European Mission had painted a harsh picture of conditions in neighboring Germany:
“What few reserves the people had a year ago are now completely exhausted. This exceptionally severe winter has greatly aggravated their tragic condition. Germany is still not productive. Scarcity of available supplies and lack of distribution facilities have not been conducive to improving the situation. Clothing is almost wholly unobtainable; food continues to be rationed on a sub-subsistence basis.”4
By summer the crisis still was severe, despite massive relief efforts by western democracies. Church welfare helped the German Saints, but more was needed. “My people are so hungry,” East German Mission President Walter Stover repeatedly told President Zappey during their meetings in Holland.5
The closer harvest time drew, the more President Zappey knew the Lord wanted those welfare potatoes sent to the German Saints to supplement the welfare goods coming from America. But he wondered how Dutch members would react “if we should ask them for the food for which they had worked so hard to give to the people who had caused them such suffering and depredation—the people who had ruthlessly confiscated the last bit of their food and exposed their little children to starvation?”6
Facing this hard test of the spirit of the gospel, President Zappey decided to call a mission conference in Rotterdam to propose that the potatoes be shipped to Germany. He worried about how the leaders might react, particularly when the Dutch still were on rationing themselves. He asked mission secretary Johanna Riet to take careful notes during the expected debate. Then, calling on the spirit of the Lord, he preached in behalf of the proposal:
“Some of the most bitter enemies you people have encountered as a result of this war are the German people. We know what intense feelings of dislike you have for them. But those people are now much worse off than you, and we are asking you to send your entire potato harvest to the German saints. Will you do it? Do you want our own saints to die of hunger there?”7
The leaders, touched by the Spirit, voted for the project.8
One hurdle cleared, another large one appeared: laws forbid the export of food grown in Holland. President Zappey, however, trusting the Lord to make the way possible, wrote to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Supply for special permission to ship the welfare potatoes. The blunt reply was: “The exporting of food is absolutely not permitted, and under no circumstances can or will there be an exception made.” Refusing to give up, President Zappey filled out more forms. He met with one government official after another. The mission staff fasted and prayed earnestly.
The answer to their prayers came during the fateful meeting at the Amsterdam airport. President Zappey was there to put Elder Sonne on a plane for London. To Elder Sonne’s pleasant surprise he met a close friend, Dr. P. Vincent Cardon from Utah, in the ticket line. Dr. Cardon, chairman of the United Nations advisory committee on food and agriculture in Geneva, Switzerland, had just finished meeting with Dutch food officials. President Zappey requested and received from Dr. Cardon a personal letter of introduction to the Dutch food ministry.9
President Zappey did not think that meeting was an accident: “Why should President Sonne return to London on that particular day? Why was it just at the time when passage on the plane from Amsterdam to New York was unavailable, making it necessary for Dr. Cardon to fly to London? Why was it that President Sonne should take the same flight to London when there are five flights daily between Amsterdam and London? For days and days and time and time again, this matter had been made a matter of prayer—that the Lord would open the way so that the Dutch Saints would be able to send these potatoes to the suffering German Saints. The Lord is continually guiding His children and answering their prayers when they ask Him in righteousness for help if they have exerted their own efforts to the utmost.”10
Dr. Cardon’s letter enabled President Zappey to personally explain the Church’s welfare program to high government officials. He received permission to ship fifteen tons.
At harvest time, Groningen, Dordrecht, Utrecht, and a dozen other Dutch branches shipped loose potatoes in various size truckloads to The Hague warehouse. They represented many hours of hard work and sacrifice by hundreds of dedicated Saints. The potatoes were sorted, but sacks were in short supply. One day missionary Symen Stam saw some bundles of patched sacks being unloaded from an ocean liner, and felt inspired to ask about them. To his surprise, the ship’s personnel, once they learned why he needed the sacks, sold him more than 500 at a reduced price, enough for the welfare project.11
As The Hague warehouse filled with the new potatoes, President Zappey discovered that the Lord had blessed their project beyond expectation. Instead of the projected fifteen tons, the warehouse soon held seventy tons—five times what the export permit would allow!
President Zappy went back to the food ministry. Another miracle—an amended permit! But, warned the government, this was “a great exception. Every other church and relief organization which had presented similar proposals had been refused.” When the Bureau of Potatoes Directory tried to interfere, President Zappey astonished them by warning that the potatoes belonged to the Lord, and if He willed it, He would see that they reached Germany. His doggedness paid off and full clearance was granted.12
Missionary and member muscles moved the mountain of potatoes into ten rented trucks. Then, shortly after midnight on November 6–7, the convoy rolled east toward the German border. President Sonne observed, “This will go down in the history of the welfare program as an outstanding example of the true love which characterizes the work of the Lord.”13
Meanwhile Presidents Stover and Jean Wunderlich of the East and West German missions made arrangements for the potatoes to enter their areas. German Saints, when told to come and pick up fresh potatoes, were astonished—and deeply touched. The West German Mission history noted the arrival on November 16, 1947. “Each member of the Hamburg Branch received 25 pounds. This is a wonderful gesture by the Dutch Saints and the members in Hamburg are grateful.”14
At Celle in north-central Germany Brother Philipp Bauer arranged with city officials to store two truckloads of potatoes in the basement of the municipal finance building. Prisoners helped unload the sacks. Members then came from surrounding branches to load up small trucks with their allotments. Celle Saints, mostly refugee women and children from eastern Germany, as well as nonmember relatives and investigators, received 100 pounds per person.15
Members in Berlin gladly picked up potatoes for eating, and President Stover wisely saved a good supply to use as spring seed potatoes. Then early in 1948 Latter-day Saint military officials in Berlin obtained permission from American authorities for the Saints to farm a four-acre section of a city park. Members laboriously prepared the ground and on May 6 planted nearly 4,000 pounds of Dutch potatoes.
In late June the Russians imposed the Berlin Blockade, cutting off overland shipments to Berlin (which is located nearly 100 miles inside East Germany). Western democracies responded with the famous Berlin Airlift, which kept Berliners alive for nearly a year. City residents, fearful that Russia might try to stop the airlift, guarded their foodstuffs carefully. During summer and fall Church members guarded their potato field against thieves and livestock, counting heavily on their potato harvest to be a bountiful one in case the airlift failed.16
During three September days about sixty-five Berliners—mostly women and older men since the younger men had perished in the war—harvested potatoes by hand. Even the tiniest potatoes were saved. “Every pound of food counts in Germany today,” wrote Elder Calvin Clyde, a missionary there. Members dug up sixteen tons of potatoes, an eight-fold return. “It is easy to understand the happiness of all the members of the Church in Berlin and the friends who worked on the project,” Elder Clyde reported, “when each of them received 40 lbs. of new potatoes.” Again, some potatoes were reserved as seed for the next spring.17
Back in Holland the 1947 potato project had produced a new spirit of unity and love among the Saints. And if President Zappey needed further proof, he saw it in 1948. That year the members, on their own initiative, requested that they again be allowed to aid the German Saints. “The hate was simply out of the branches for the Germans,” observed Elder Stam, “on account of doing that great [1947] project.”18 Potato patches were replanted and the project repeated.
Barely had this decision been made when “fishes” joined the “loaves.” Brethren attending a Rotterdam priesthood meeting on February 23, 1948, decided to buy herring to send with the potatoes. Other branches, learning of the idea, raised money too. The mission home received a telegram on March 9 saying: “You may expect six barrels of herring from the branch and four barrels from the missionaries laboring in Amsterdam.”19
The fishing town of Vlaardingen was selected as the site to purchase newly salted herring, in the first herring harvest since the waters were finally cleared of mines. When the town learned of the Mormons’ 1947 potato project and the plans for 1948, its newspaper praised the Church’s welfare program in a feature article on March 5:
“These [1947] potatoes were not bought; they were raised by the givers themselves in their free time. All summer long they had worked on it, and lack of experience along this line was made up [for] by unlimited enthusiasm. Evidence was to be given that the Dutch members of the Church were not only willing to receive but also to give. They had received plenty: after the war, the good gifts from the members of the church in America had flowed into their homes, and shipments of food, clothing and covering up to 2 1/2 million guilders’ worth were distributed to members and non-members of the Church. …
“The ‘Welfare Plan’ is not ended; it is still in full swing. … In the framework of this plan, the Dutch members began in 1947 to raise vegetables, fruit, and particularly potatoes.
“Now they have their eyes on another product of Dutch labor: herring! These, too, will be sent to the German members and the large percentage of albumen and fats that is found in the herring will be a valuable addition to their poor food rations. A few weeks ago, this herring project was announced in the branches of the Church in the Netherlands, and already the financial contributions of the members are flowing in.”20
When the herring were caught, salted, and put into barrels, the Saints purchased eighty barrels—nine tons—and shipped them along with ninety tons of newly dug potatoes to Germany by train in late October 1948.21
The shipment filled six railroad boxcars. But the overloaded sixth car broke down and had to be replaced by two others. In Germany the cargo was reloaded into trucks, which then headed for eastern Germany where the need was greatest.
Welfare supplies other than the Dutch donations were also flowing into the East German Mission. President Stover, using his own funds, purchased in Schleswig-Holstein even more potatoes, so that the German Saints could have a plentiful supply. Other welfare food and clothing arrived from Geneva by way of Vienna, Prague, and Dresden.
Distribution was President Stover’s problem. At one point East Berlin officials decided to confiscate a stockpile in the cellar of Brother Emil Fischer, but President Stover backed them off by using his American citizenship to threaten a diplomatic scene. The Stover family car made many trips into eastern Germany and West Berlin to deliver welfare supplies, including trunkload after trunkload of rather smelly herring. By December, in Berlin alone, every member of the Church received 155 pounds of potatoes and 40 large herring.22
That Saints in one country aided Saints in other countries was not unique to the Dutch. Swedes helped Finns. Swiss sent clothes and chocolate to Austrians. Belgian Mormons also sent much of their American welfare supply to German Saints. And in 1948 alone, Church headquarters shipped 25,876 cases of food, including 542 tons of wheat, to aid European Saints.23
What was unique about the Dutch project, however, was the magnitude of the effort by so few Saints—of a people who had suffered so much from the Germans. Members of fewer than two dozen branches willingly worked countless hours as volunteer farmers to produce 200 tons of fresh vegetables badly needed by German Saints, and volunteered to donate enough money to purchase eighty barrels of herring—all within eighteen months.
The food was important; but more important were the blessings. It’s one thing to talk about brotherhood. It’s another thing to actually act like brothers. When President David O. McKay learned what the Dutch Saints were doing, he called it “one of the greatest acts of true Christian conduct ever brought to my attention.”24 The healing of souls was as important as the nourishing of bodies.
When President Zappey returned to his Salt Lake furniture business in 1949, he perhaps did not fully realize that his leadership had helped the Dutch Saints to write one of the finest chapters in the Church’s history.
Loving your enemies is more than a catchphrase.
In the video That We Might Be One: The Story of the Dutch Potato Project, we see the great sacrifice Church members in Holland made for members of the Church in Germany following World War II.
After the war, food was scarce. The Dutch people received potatoes from their government to cut up and plant. These potatoes would help them survive, though just barely. During this same time, Church leaders visiting areas of Europe saw that Germans had experienced the coldest winter in living memory and that the German Saints were starving.
The mission president, Cornelius Zappey, came up with a plan: ask the Dutch Saints to send all their potato harvest to the German Saints. The members of the Church in Holland could hardly believe they were being asked to help people in the very country that had caused them such sorrow and pain. Yet the Dutch Saints desired to serve the Lord. After much anguish, they agreed to send their potatoes to members of the Church in Germany.
The German Saints were astonished that the Dutch Saints would help them. As one German man said, “They were enemies and had nothing to do with Germany any more. And suddenly, they grew potatoes for us.”
The Germans saved some of the potatoes to plant, and they gradually became self-sufficient. In 1953 the Dutch suffered great flooding and needed help. German Saints rallied, sending aid packages to relieve the suffering in the Netherlands.
Like the Saints in Europe following World War II, we can follow Jesus Christ’s admonition found in Matthew 5:44–45: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”
Watch the video That We Might Be One: The Story of the Dutch Potato Project to learn of the personal stories of both German and Dutch survivors who experienced the Dutch potato project.
Source: Church History
—Phyllis Rosen, Mormon Insights------------------------
War and Peace and Dutch Potatoes
By William G. Hartley
President Cornelius Zappey’s first weeks among the war-scarred Dutch Saints made him do much praying—and some weeping. In February 1946, just nine months after the end of a shattering world war, he and Sister Zappey had arrived from America to reorganize and rejuvenate the Netherlands Mission.
Acting mission president Jacob Schipanboord had done excellent work. The war had done its work too. Many of the 3,200 members needed food and clothes. Branches needed to be fully staffed, administered, and adequately housed. The bomb-damaged mission home in The Hague needed windows, doors, repairs, and furniture. Full-time proselyting was to be instituted. And the hatred and bitterness many members felt toward their former enemies somehow had to be dissolved.
The horrors of World War II had begun for tiny Holland in late 1940 when German tanks and troops overran the country in five days. To break Dutch resistance, the German Luftwaffe wiped out the center of Rotterdam—including the LDS chapel there—in the first major air blitz aimed at a city; 40,000 civilians perished.
For five bitter years Nazi troops occupied Holland. Many Dutch, to protect family and friends, cooperated. Others resisted. Some did both. Many Dutch soldiers, resisters, and Jews were executed or taken to prison camps. (Anne Frank was one.)
Both at the beginning of war, when Germany attacked, and at the end when allied forces counter-attacked, Holland suffered much physical damage. About 400,000 homes were damaged or destroyed; 8,000 farms ruined, 700 square miles of land inundated when Nazis wrecked dikes holding back the sea, half of the forests destroyed, and 40 percent of the livestock wiped out. Railroad equipment, bicycles, motor vehicles, and in some cases entire factories were confiscated. More than 200,000 Dutch people died because of the war. Such destruction and casualties were not as great as those in some countries; still, bitterness ran deep and the Saints were not immune.
The last months of the Nazi occupation had been the worst. Germany, reeling under the Allies’ military impact and running out of supplies, systematically robbed Holland’s foodstuffs, fuel, and clothing. This left the Dutch civilians destitute during the biting winter of 1944–45. Some froze. Some starved. One survivor recalls how schoolchildren at one point were lucky to get a carrot for breakfast and potato peel soup for lunch. Another survivor who had several children made the family walk 150 miles from Rotterdam to Groningen, where there was more food, in severe weather. In Amsterdam the daily ration was reduced to one-tenth of normal requirements. This period of hunger hardened feelings even more toward the Nazis and their Dutch collaborators.1
Even when the Zappeys arrived, almost a year after the war ended, hunger still stalked Holland, even though relief goods from America and elsewhere were pouring in, including tons of LDS welfare supplies. From a Church welfare storehouse in The Hague, mission leaders, volunteers, and dilapidated trucks distributed needed items to two dozen branches.
Welfare goods clothed and nourished the body. But what would help the scarred souls? What could dissolve the bitter feelings toward Germans and collaborators about the loss of loved ones?
“Mama, all we can do here is pray for the people to overcome their hate,” President Zappey told his wife. But then he went to work to answer his own prayers. A salesman by profession, he set out to convince the Saints of the importance of love and forgiveness. He chose as a mission theme “Love One Another,” which he preached constantly in the branches and at mission meetings.2
Elder Ezra Taft Benson, in Europe directing the Church’s relief effort, instructed President Zappey to have the Dutch members be welfare producers as well as recipients. President Zappey saw how it could help the Saints learn to work together again and forget their differences. He moved on the instructions at once. Since potatoes were one of Holland’s best crops, President Zappey proposed to local priesthood leaders that they start branch or quorum potato projects where they had land. Where they didn’t, they were to start sewing projects.
During 1947, Mormon potato patches sprang up in backyards, road medians, vacant lots, and former flower gardens. Planting days became special branch occasions with singing, speaking, and praying, after which the Saints planted seed potatoes obtained from the Dutch government. And it was cooperative! Typically, one member punched a hole in the ground with a stick, a second person dropped the potato in, and a third covered it.3
During summer months many Saints, before going to work, visited their branch’s potato patch to water or weed. By autumn the prospects for a good harvest looked bright. Members expected that potatoes produced by their hard work would be used to aid local members.
But President Zappey was thinking farther ahead. In a March 12, 1947, report President Alma Sonne of the European Mission had painted a harsh picture of conditions in neighboring Germany:
“What few reserves the people had a year ago are now completely exhausted. This exceptionally severe winter has greatly aggravated their tragic condition. Germany is still not productive. Scarcity of available supplies and lack of distribution facilities have not been conducive to improving the situation. Clothing is almost wholly unobtainable; food continues to be rationed on a sub-subsistence basis.”4
By summer the crisis still was severe, despite massive relief efforts by western democracies. Church welfare helped the German Saints, but more was needed. “My people are so hungry,” East German Mission President Walter Stover repeatedly told President Zappey during their meetings in Holland.5
The closer harvest time drew, the more President Zappey knew the Lord wanted those welfare potatoes sent to the German Saints to supplement the welfare goods coming from America. But he wondered how Dutch members would react “if we should ask them for the food for which they had worked so hard to give to the people who had caused them such suffering and depredation—the people who had ruthlessly confiscated the last bit of their food and exposed their little children to starvation?”6
Facing this hard test of the spirit of the gospel, President Zappey decided to call a mission conference in Rotterdam to propose that the potatoes be shipped to Germany. He worried about how the leaders might react, particularly when the Dutch still were on rationing themselves. He asked mission secretary Johanna Riet to take careful notes during the expected debate. Then, calling on the spirit of the Lord, he preached in behalf of the proposal:
“Some of the most bitter enemies you people have encountered as a result of this war are the German people. We know what intense feelings of dislike you have for them. But those people are now much worse off than you, and we are asking you to send your entire potato harvest to the German saints. Will you do it? Do you want our own saints to die of hunger there?”7
The leaders, touched by the Spirit, voted for the project.8
One hurdle cleared, another large one appeared: laws forbid the export of food grown in Holland. President Zappey, however, trusting the Lord to make the way possible, wrote to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Supply for special permission to ship the welfare potatoes. The blunt reply was: “The exporting of food is absolutely not permitted, and under no circumstances can or will there be an exception made.” Refusing to give up, President Zappey filled out more forms. He met with one government official after another. The mission staff fasted and prayed earnestly.
The answer to their prayers came during the fateful meeting at the Amsterdam airport. President Zappey was there to put Elder Sonne on a plane for London. To Elder Sonne’s pleasant surprise he met a close friend, Dr. P. Vincent Cardon from Utah, in the ticket line. Dr. Cardon, chairman of the United Nations advisory committee on food and agriculture in Geneva, Switzerland, had just finished meeting with Dutch food officials. President Zappey requested and received from Dr. Cardon a personal letter of introduction to the Dutch food ministry.9
President Zappey did not think that meeting was an accident: “Why should President Sonne return to London on that particular day? Why was it just at the time when passage on the plane from Amsterdam to New York was unavailable, making it necessary for Dr. Cardon to fly to London? Why was it that President Sonne should take the same flight to London when there are five flights daily between Amsterdam and London? For days and days and time and time again, this matter had been made a matter of prayer—that the Lord would open the way so that the Dutch Saints would be able to send these potatoes to the suffering German Saints. The Lord is continually guiding His children and answering their prayers when they ask Him in righteousness for help if they have exerted their own efforts to the utmost.”10
Dr. Cardon’s letter enabled President Zappey to personally explain the Church’s welfare program to high government officials. He received permission to ship fifteen tons.
At harvest time, Groningen, Dordrecht, Utrecht, and a dozen other Dutch branches shipped loose potatoes in various size truckloads to The Hague warehouse. They represented many hours of hard work and sacrifice by hundreds of dedicated Saints. The potatoes were sorted, but sacks were in short supply. One day missionary Symen Stam saw some bundles of patched sacks being unloaded from an ocean liner, and felt inspired to ask about them. To his surprise, the ship’s personnel, once they learned why he needed the sacks, sold him more than 500 at a reduced price, enough for the welfare project.11
As The Hague warehouse filled with the new potatoes, President Zappey discovered that the Lord had blessed their project beyond expectation. Instead of the projected fifteen tons, the warehouse soon held seventy tons—five times what the export permit would allow!
President Zappy went back to the food ministry. Another miracle—an amended permit! But, warned the government, this was “a great exception. Every other church and relief organization which had presented similar proposals had been refused.” When the Bureau of Potatoes Directory tried to interfere, President Zappey astonished them by warning that the potatoes belonged to the Lord, and if He willed it, He would see that they reached Germany. His doggedness paid off and full clearance was granted.12
Missionary and member muscles moved the mountain of potatoes into ten rented trucks. Then, shortly after midnight on November 6–7, the convoy rolled east toward the German border. President Sonne observed, “This will go down in the history of the welfare program as an outstanding example of the true love which characterizes the work of the Lord.”13
Meanwhile Presidents Stover and Jean Wunderlich of the East and West German missions made arrangements for the potatoes to enter their areas. German Saints, when told to come and pick up fresh potatoes, were astonished—and deeply touched. The West German Mission history noted the arrival on November 16, 1947. “Each member of the Hamburg Branch received 25 pounds. This is a wonderful gesture by the Dutch Saints and the members in Hamburg are grateful.”14
At Celle in north-central Germany Brother Philipp Bauer arranged with city officials to store two truckloads of potatoes in the basement of the municipal finance building. Prisoners helped unload the sacks. Members then came from surrounding branches to load up small trucks with their allotments. Celle Saints, mostly refugee women and children from eastern Germany, as well as nonmember relatives and investigators, received 100 pounds per person.15
Members in Berlin gladly picked up potatoes for eating, and President Stover wisely saved a good supply to use as spring seed potatoes. Then early in 1948 Latter-day Saint military officials in Berlin obtained permission from American authorities for the Saints to farm a four-acre section of a city park. Members laboriously prepared the ground and on May 6 planted nearly 4,000 pounds of Dutch potatoes.
In late June the Russians imposed the Berlin Blockade, cutting off overland shipments to Berlin (which is located nearly 100 miles inside East Germany). Western democracies responded with the famous Berlin Airlift, which kept Berliners alive for nearly a year. City residents, fearful that Russia might try to stop the airlift, guarded their foodstuffs carefully. During summer and fall Church members guarded their potato field against thieves and livestock, counting heavily on their potato harvest to be a bountiful one in case the airlift failed.16
During three September days about sixty-five Berliners—mostly women and older men since the younger men had perished in the war—harvested potatoes by hand. Even the tiniest potatoes were saved. “Every pound of food counts in Germany today,” wrote Elder Calvin Clyde, a missionary there. Members dug up sixteen tons of potatoes, an eight-fold return. “It is easy to understand the happiness of all the members of the Church in Berlin and the friends who worked on the project,” Elder Clyde reported, “when each of them received 40 lbs. of new potatoes.” Again, some potatoes were reserved as seed for the next spring.17
Back in Holland the 1947 potato project had produced a new spirit of unity and love among the Saints. And if President Zappey needed further proof, he saw it in 1948. That year the members, on their own initiative, requested that they again be allowed to aid the German Saints. “The hate was simply out of the branches for the Germans,” observed Elder Stam, “on account of doing that great [1947] project.”18 Potato patches were replanted and the project repeated.
Barely had this decision been made when “fishes” joined the “loaves.” Brethren attending a Rotterdam priesthood meeting on February 23, 1948, decided to buy herring to send with the potatoes. Other branches, learning of the idea, raised money too. The mission home received a telegram on March 9 saying: “You may expect six barrels of herring from the branch and four barrels from the missionaries laboring in Amsterdam.”19
The fishing town of Vlaardingen was selected as the site to purchase newly salted herring, in the first herring harvest since the waters were finally cleared of mines. When the town learned of the Mormons’ 1947 potato project and the plans for 1948, its newspaper praised the Church’s welfare program in a feature article on March 5:
“These [1947] potatoes were not bought; they were raised by the givers themselves in their free time. All summer long they had worked on it, and lack of experience along this line was made up [for] by unlimited enthusiasm. Evidence was to be given that the Dutch members of the Church were not only willing to receive but also to give. They had received plenty: after the war, the good gifts from the members of the church in America had flowed into their homes, and shipments of food, clothing and covering up to 2 1/2 million guilders’ worth were distributed to members and non-members of the Church. …
“The ‘Welfare Plan’ is not ended; it is still in full swing. … In the framework of this plan, the Dutch members began in 1947 to raise vegetables, fruit, and particularly potatoes.
“Now they have their eyes on another product of Dutch labor: herring! These, too, will be sent to the German members and the large percentage of albumen and fats that is found in the herring will be a valuable addition to their poor food rations. A few weeks ago, this herring project was announced in the branches of the Church in the Netherlands, and already the financial contributions of the members are flowing in.”20
When the herring were caught, salted, and put into barrels, the Saints purchased eighty barrels—nine tons—and shipped them along with ninety tons of newly dug potatoes to Germany by train in late October 1948.21
The shipment filled six railroad boxcars. But the overloaded sixth car broke down and had to be replaced by two others. In Germany the cargo was reloaded into trucks, which then headed for eastern Germany where the need was greatest.
Welfare supplies other than the Dutch donations were also flowing into the East German Mission. President Stover, using his own funds, purchased in Schleswig-Holstein even more potatoes, so that the German Saints could have a plentiful supply. Other welfare food and clothing arrived from Geneva by way of Vienna, Prague, and Dresden.
Distribution was President Stover’s problem. At one point East Berlin officials decided to confiscate a stockpile in the cellar of Brother Emil Fischer, but President Stover backed them off by using his American citizenship to threaten a diplomatic scene. The Stover family car made many trips into eastern Germany and West Berlin to deliver welfare supplies, including trunkload after trunkload of rather smelly herring. By December, in Berlin alone, every member of the Church received 155 pounds of potatoes and 40 large herring.22
That Saints in one country aided Saints in other countries was not unique to the Dutch. Swedes helped Finns. Swiss sent clothes and chocolate to Austrians. Belgian Mormons also sent much of their American welfare supply to German Saints. And in 1948 alone, Church headquarters shipped 25,876 cases of food, including 542 tons of wheat, to aid European Saints.23
What was unique about the Dutch project, however, was the magnitude of the effort by so few Saints—of a people who had suffered so much from the Germans. Members of fewer than two dozen branches willingly worked countless hours as volunteer farmers to produce 200 tons of fresh vegetables badly needed by German Saints, and volunteered to donate enough money to purchase eighty barrels of herring—all within eighteen months.
The food was important; but more important were the blessings. It’s one thing to talk about brotherhood. It’s another thing to actually act like brothers. When President David O. McKay learned what the Dutch Saints were doing, he called it “one of the greatest acts of true Christian conduct ever brought to my attention.”24 The healing of souls was as important as the nourishing of bodies.
When President Zappey returned to his Salt Lake furniture business in 1949, he perhaps did not fully realize that his leadership had helped the Dutch Saints to write one of the finest chapters in the Church’s history.
No comments:
Post a Comment