Mai 18, 2010 Talk on Frankfurt WWII

Whoa what a day. Dad stayed home all day to wait for the UPS guy to bring our internet and guess what? Dad buzzed him into our apartment and when he looked at the paperwork it said our address, but our visa says we live at the Mission office so they would not leave it. Are you kidding me, who did they think was living in our apartment. Anyway he will be back on Thursday just to drop off a package then we have to get one of the computer savvy missionaries to put it in. Maybe by Xmas we will be able to skype the family. The rest of the day made up for it.

The couples group invited a Scottish member of the church who has researched old German buildings around Frankfurt and he had a great slide show and lots of info on Frankfurt during WWII. Frankfurt was actually the hub for the German armies. Some structures are still standing. After the US came in they took them over, that is what was left of them. The Church has been here since 1841. There are so many interesting things that he told us, I am going to let dad write about a few of them. We learned that almost next door to us is a housing unit that was the home to Ann Frank before Hitler made them leave their homes and move into the Ghetto. Their is also a place in town where the Gestapo had their headquarters. Frankfurt was also the home base for the Nazi deportation gathering houses. There is allot to see here and I am trying to figure out what Mazzy would like to do when she gets here. We can go as far as Nurmburg on the Czech border on the east. Wish we could go to Munich but that is out of the mission. We might be able to get permission to go. Cross your fingers.

Last night we attended a fireside on the history of Frankfurt and it was interesting.The former bishop here showed us slides of stones with Roman writing. Bronze plaques over a thousand years old. Tower near our apt. built before Columbus to look for any enemies coming.I forgot the name of the tower.Another one down town Frankfurt is near our mission office.One park here near the center of town is over a thousand acres was bought by one of the Rothchilds who built a huge mansion. After Hitler came into power, Rothchild, being a Jew, was thrown out of his home It was on the outskirts of town two hundred years ago but now is near the center.He said that Orson Hyde stayed here in 1841 on his return from Jerusalem. In Heddernheim there was a Gestapo forced labor Camp. In Frankfurt in the Hauptfriedhof (cemetery) near our home their is a Polish Holocaust Mass grave. Also in Frankfurt was the home of Oskar Schindler, the Jewish man who saved 1,200 Jews by protecting them in his factories in Poland and Czechoslovakia. We saw the building where Elder Ezra T. Benson ask the American commander for permission to help feed the German people and Saints.Elder Robert D. Hales was a young elder here so were a few other general authorities. There were barracks where LDS and Catholics stayed because they had large families after the war.There were C.I.A. bishops who worked for the gov. (USA) but the members didn't know until after the war.There are battlefields here where Romans moved large armies to conquer the Germanic Tribes up and down the large rivers. Napoleon slept here retreating from Russia. The French invaded several times but were repulsed.We saw pictures of Hitler waving to the crowds from buildings still standing downtown Frankfurt.In fact that area is very beautiful and is called Willy Brandt Plaza.The place is wide and long. The expensive shops are all there. Its filled with people daily. We get lost every time sis. Walters and I go there. But we enjoy it. The old opera house is there with a flying horse statue on it's roof. The museums have everything in the world you might want to see.'There are trains that go in any direction and they leave and arrive frequently.

I great story was told about a Bishop Pitts here in Germany in the 50's and he was working for the US government as a CIA agent. No one knew in the ward but one time he was working undercover as a drug agent and he had to dress like a druggie on the street. He had one gold earring in his ear. He had to go directly to a Ward counsel meeting and he changed his clothes but forgot to take off the earring. The council got a big kick out of that. Another member who was also working in the CIA would frequently come to meetings either with a broken leg, arm, collar bone, hands etc. Everyone would say he was very accident prone. Come to find out later he had been caught many times and had been beaten up.

I have inserted some good pictures that Dad and I took on our way back from work the other day. We went into the richer part of town. Hope you like the fashion stores Rachel. Statue is of Gothe, the famous writer. Hitler burned all of his books plus everything else in the middle of Frankfurt. The pink mushroom type things are in the underground train station. They are amazing. Everyday there is some group playing music for money.