I thought that the villages in the Ruhr Pocket of Germany would all be industrial wastelands. I was quite mistaken. Mengede is the picture-perfect German village. German architecture is famous for its timber beams, primarily in the traditional Fachwerk (half-timbered) style, using exposed oak beams forming geometric patterns with infill of plaster, creating iconic, fairy tale-like buildings.
I was staying in the building next to the Noah Evengelical Church. The view from my room window was of the large round stained glass window of the church. I decided to stay here several days to catch my breath after sketching so many cities in a row. I would usually only stay in a city for one day and then follow the my father’s 75th Infantry Division troop movements to the next city.
Being a short distance north west of Dortmund city center, Mengede would have experienced serious destruction from Allied bombings. Dortmund was the most bombed city in Germany. The bombings destroyed approximately 66% of Dortmund’s homes. The most devastating raid occurred on March 12, 1945, when 1,108 aircraft dropped over 4,800 tons of bombs, destroying 98% of the buildings in the inner city center.
The Noah Kirchengemeinde Mengede church building survived World War II largely intact. In sketching the building I felt that rubble must have been used in some of the reconstruction of sections of the church. Some stones were no longer block shaped but rather random and inconsistent.
I have to wonder where church leadership stood on the question of the final solution. Generally, the leadership of both Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany adopted a cautious approach, during World War II. They often tried to compromise with the Nazi state or avoided confrontation to prevent internal division or antagonizing authorities. Historically the German Evangelical Church viewed itself as one of the pillars of German culture and society, with a theologically grounded tradition of loyalty to the state.
Most church leaders were neither equipped nor financially able to resist the Nazi regime. There was an overall lack of public opposition to antisemitism from church leadership.
The Nazo platform stated: “We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State, provided they do not threaten its existence nor offend the moral feelings of the German race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not commit itself to any particular denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health only from within on the basis of the principle: The common interest before self-interest.” Most church leaders to embraced the Nazi doctrine.
The Jewish community in Germany was less than 1% of the population. Throughout this period there was virtually no public opposition to antisemitism or any readiness by church leaders to publicly oppose the regime on the issues of antisemitism and state-sanctioned violence against the Jews. Jewish residents faced escalating persecution, and systematic deportation to death camps, with most either murdered or forced out before the war’s end, leaving the area effectively “clean” (judenrein) of Jews.