The initial epigraph, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21), establishes the thesis of Tim Townsend’s 2014 book, “Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis.”
We learn in the book’s first sentence that modernity’s epitome of evil, Adolf Hitler, is the reason why Wilhelm Keitel will soon be “hanging by his neck from a rope.” Readers do not have to wait long to understand the visceral nature of the setting; it’s described in the very first paragraph in the book: “Outside the prison, no moon marked the sky above the destroyed city of Nuremberg.”
Such exemplary showing, instead of telling, continues throughout this entrancing nonfiction account of U.S. Army Chaplain Henry Gerecke’s unfathomable “mission” to provide spiritual guidance and prayer to the 21 imprisoned Nazi leaders awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. Less than seven months after Hitler committed suicide and World War II in Germany ended, trials took place inside the Nuremberg Palace of Justice and continued for 11 months.
The author shares how Gerecke, a Lutheran who spoke German, questioned whether or not he could carry out the task his government asked of him: “He wondered how a preacher from St. Louis could make any impression on the disciples of Adolf Hitler ... During the months stationed in Munich after the war, Gerecke had taken several trips to Dachau. He’d seen the raw aftermath of the Holocaust. He’d touched the inside of the camp’s walls, and his hands had come away smeared with blood.”
In fact, when Gerecke was given the assignment, Townsend describes him as being “terrified by the prospect of being close to the men who had tried to take over the world.”
But the 52-year-old is guided steadfastly by such scriptures as Proverbs 25:21–22: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”
Gerecke treats the men who committed crimes against humanity with true humanity, and in doing so, not only fulfills his calling as a pastor, but his duty to the United States of America.
