Mission at Nuremberg

January 27, 2014
Henry Gerecke, a Lutheran minister from St. Louis serving as an Army Chaplain at the close of WWII, received a startling opportunity: ministering to the Nazis who would be charged with war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. Gerecke, who had given well-attended sermons for years, had also struggled during the war to bridge the divide between his country and his faith, refusing a request from Office of Strategic Services officials to extract information from prisoners during confession. Townsend, a three-time Religion Newswriters Association Religion Reporter of the Year, examines Gerecke’s struggle and the uneasy path toward prosecuting Nazi officials, with Churchill at one point recommending Nazi officials just be shot within six hours of capture rather than be prosecuted. Townsend’s account is full of surreal moments Gerecke witnessed during his time in Nuremberg, from watching a congregation full of Nazis singing “Silent Night” on Christmas to Goering’s last letter to his daughter, an innocuous note wishing her a happy birthday. Townsend’s accessible account captures the strangeness and horror of Gerecke’s assignment, and examines what it’s like to spend the day around men who had committed such monstrous acts. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor.

October 1, 2013
Just when you think there could be nothing new to say about the Nazis, here's a unique account that raises pressing moral and spiritual issues. After serving as a U.S. Army chaplain, Lutheran minister Henry Gerecke was asked to minister to 21 Nazi leaders standing trial at Nuremberg, among them Hermann Goring and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Townsend was thrice named Reporter of the Year by the Religion Newswriters Association; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2013

Just when you think there could be nothing new to say about the Nazis, here's a unique account that raises pressing moral and spiritual issues. After serving as a U.S. Army chaplain, Lutheran minister Henry Gerecke was asked to minister to 21 Nazi leaders standing trial at Nuremberg, among them Hermann Goring and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Townsend was thrice named Reporter of the Year by the Religion Newswriters Association; with a 50,000-copy first printing. Big new thrillers from two veterans, set in New York City and FloridaNovelist Ackroyd revisits Sixties London; two New York Times reporters track a war criminal

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2014
In his first book, Townsend, a writer and editor with the Pew Research Center's Religion and Public Life Project, examines World War II's most unusual ministry: the pastoring of the architects of the Third Reich. On Nov. 20, 1945, the Allies commenced the Nuremberg Trials, an unprecedented proceeding that charged Hitler's top lieutenants--Goering, Kesselring et al.--with conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity. Due to the strict security surrounding the prisoners, the Chaplain Corps was called upon for the first time in its 230-year history to supply religious counseling to America's enemies. Assigned to this controversial task since he was Lutheran (like so many of the German prisoners), spoke the language and had experience with prison ministries, Chaplain Henry Gerecke (1893-1961) worked for nearly a year to rescue the souls of some of history's most notorious defendants. Gerecke's prewar life story, a quick review of the Chaplain Corps' evolution, scene-setting to explain the Nuremberg tribunal's composition and mission, thumbnail sketches of the Nazi henchmen and a recitation of the atrocities they engineered, and prison life for the war criminals are all part of Townsend's story. However, he focuses most on Gerecke's delicate interactions with his highly unusual flock. Passages recalling the middle-aged St. Louis preacher's counseling of Goering (and the decision to deny the Luftwaffe commander Holy Communion) and Gerecke's first meeting with Rudolf Hess are especially well-done. Townsend authoritatively addresses the excruciating moral and religious issues confronting wartime chaplains and deftly explains the role of a spiritual adviser in bringing the wrongdoer, even one seemingly beyond redemption, back to "a place of restoration." Gerecke's story is only a footnote to "the trial of the century," but Townsend thoroughly understands and skillfully handles the rich, potentially explosive material it contains.

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