Mennonites and Nazis

MCC releases research findings on historical entanglements with National Socialism

Benjamin Unruh (front row, third from left) stands with refugee representatives in Moelln, Germany, circa 1930. Unruh, a displaced Mennonite from the Soviet Union living in Germany and a committed Nazi, negotiated with the Nazi government on behalf of MCC regarding a debt the relief organization owed. (Mennonite Heritage Archives photo)

Mennonite Central Committee has released the findings of its research on the organization’s historical entanglements with German National Socialism (or Nazism) and its legacy before, during and after the Second World War.

MCC initiates research into historical connections with National Socialism

High-profile Nazi officials toured the Mennonite colonies in occupied Ukraine. During his 1942 visit to Molotschna, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and an architect of the Holocaust, exchanged greetings with Mennonite surgeon Johann Klassen. (Mennonite Heritage Centre photo [Alber Photo Collection])

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has initiated research into how national socialism (Nazism) shaped the contexts in Europe and Paraguay where MCC operated in the 1930s and ’40s, and how, at the time, MCC engaged with the German National Socialist government and worked to resettle Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union.

Historian looks at conflicted relationship of ‘Mennonite’ and ‘German’

When Ben Goossen began researching his book on Mennonites and German nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, he thought he would mostly be living in the past.

Goossen was at Bethel College’s Kauffman Museum Aug. 27 to give a presentation based on his book, Chosen Nation: Mennonites and Germany in a Global Era, published by Princeton University Press earlier this year.

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