Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis

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. (Mar.)