Hitler & the Mormon Church

http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/hitlertemplework.htm

The Mormon Church Attempts to Conceal Temple Records for Adolf Hitler
By Helen Radkey

On August 30, 1998, Don McAreavy, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, wrote to the LDS Family History Library asking if LDS proxy temple work had been performed for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. McAreavy specifically wanted to know if temple ordinances had been performed for Hitler and Braun on September 28, 1993, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah.

A response to this inquiry was sent to McAreavy on September 8, 1998. Typed on an official letterhead of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the letter was signed by Mae Dean Ashton. The address of the sender was shown as: Family History Library, 35 North West Temple Street Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-3400.

Ashton's reply reads as follows:

DON McAREAVY

Dear Mr. McAreavy:

Thank you for your letter of Au gust 30th regarding temple ordinances for Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun.

We searched the International Genealogical Index TM Addendum and found no information listed for either. The enclosed printout is the closest we could find and you will note that birth dates are 1836 and 1838.

No additional information is available.

Sincerely,

Mae Dean Ashton
Team Leader
Photoduplication Unit

The printout Ashton sent McAreavy shows LDS proxy ordinances that have been performed for Alois Hiedler or Heidler (Hitler), the father of Adolf Hitler.

In October 1998, McAreavy was able to obtain copies of LDS temple ordinance records for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun from Philip Roberts of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. These IGI (International Genealogical Index) copies reveal that Adolf Hitler was "baptized" and "endowed" on December 10, 1993, and "sealed" to his parents on March 12, 1994. These events took place in the London Temple, England.

Roberts' copies also show that Hitler was "sealed" to Braun on September 28, 1993, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah and on June 14, 1994, in the Los Angeles Temple. Roberts sent copies of these records to Ashton.

McAreavy sent another mailing to Ashton on October 17, 1998, again asking her if she could locate information for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in LDS files. On November 17, 1998, McAreavy mailed a double registered letter to Ashton. He reminded her that Roberts had sent documentation to her that seemed to indicate that the Mormon Church had done temple ordinances for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

"Would you please be kind enough to verify if the information that Philip Roberts provided is both accurate and proof that temple ordinances were performed for Adolf Hitler," McAreavy wrote.

Ashton replied to McAreavy's November 17 letter on December 2, 1998. She again insisted that the (Alois Hitler) copies she had sent McAreavy with her September 8 letter were all that could be located in the IGI TM (Addendum). McAreavy was informed that he could soon expect to receive a reply from the (Family History) Department Director.

On December 29, 1998, McAreavy again wrote to Ashton. He requested the name and mailing address of the Department Director because he had received no communication from that person as promised by Ashton. When there was no response to this request, McAreavy wrote directly to the Department Director of the Photoduplication Department of the Family History Library on January 25, 1999. McAreavy again asked if the Mormon Church had done temple ordinances for Hitler and Braun.

The following reply, again typed on an official letterhead of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dated March 16, 1999, was sent to McAreavy from the Family History Library:

To Whom It May Concern:
Subject: Famous or Historical Figures

You recently wrote to inquire if temple ordinances have been performed for a famous or historical figure. As a matter of policy, we respond to such requests only when those making the request are directly related to the person about whom they seek information.

It might be helpful to know that, as an institution, we have no control over the names individuals submit to receive temple ordinances. However, we strongly counsel Church members to submit only the names of those persons to whom they are related. Furthermore, we believe that ordinances performed in behalf of any deceased individual are valid only if that person is worthy of and chooses to accept what has been done in his or her behalf.

The Church spends a great deal of time, effort, and money to make information available that helps not only its members, but all who are interested in family history pursuits. You are welcome to use the resources we provide. We hope you find satisfaction in doing so.

Sincerely,

Family History Department

In this impersonal communication to McAreavy, the LDS Family History Department clearly avoided taking responsibility for the discrepancy between Ashton's September 8 denial of LDS temple work for Hitler and Braun—and the IGI copies, supplied by Roberts, which seem to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt—that this notoriously well-known pair have, indeed, had proxy LDS ordinances performed on their behalf.

At the time McAreavy made his initial inquiry to the Family History Library on August 30, there were multiple entries in LDS temple ordinance files that showed that Mormons have performed various rituals on behalf of Hitler and Braun. These records can still be accessed. Ashton gave McAreavy incorrect information. Was this a deliberate evasion of truth? What are the facts?

Current IGI TM addendum temple ordinance entries for Mr. (Adolf) Hiedler (Hitler) show that Hitler was "baptized" by Mormons on September 30, 1993, and "endowed" on April 27, 1994, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah. This record was in the IGI TM Addendum at the time of Ashton's denial to McAreavy (of temple ordinance information for Adolf Hitler) on September 8. 1 obtained a copy of this particular record for Hitler from the LDS Family Search Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City on July 13, 1998—less than two months before Ashton stated that no such IGI record existed for Hitler!

If Ashton and her co-workers were not very efficient in their search for Adolf Hitler temple ordinance entries in the LDS genealogical computer system, the same could be said for their lack of thoroughness in locating the same type of records for Eva Braun.

Eva Anna Paula Braun, born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, on February 7, 1912, was "baptized" by Mormons on October 16, 1964, and "endowed" on February 5, 1965, in the Los Angeles Temple. She had been "sealed" to her parents some time prior to 1970. This information is current and is easily accessible in the IGI TM Addendum, in which file Ashton stated that no information was available for either Hitler or Braun. Genuine seekers should have found these entries for Braun.

In this case, it seems these records may have been intentionally overlooked. Was it easier for McAreavy to be given inaccurate information rather than present him with any copies that he could possibly have used against the Mormon Church? Or, are the staff of the Family History Library so poorly skilled at accessing their own computer files that they missed the entries in question?

In addition to the IGI, which is a huge database of names and vital information for multi-millions of people, with an Ordinance Index attached, the other significant LDS genealogical file is the Ancestral File. In this family history archive, LDS ordinance records may be found attached to pedigree charts.

There are currently Ancestral File ordinance records that show that Adolf Hitler was "baptized" on September 4, 1993, "endowed" on October 12, 1993, and "sealed" to his parents and also Eva Braun on June 14, 1994 in the Los Angeles Temple. The June 14 sealing of Hitler and Braun is the same sealing of which Roberts sent copies to McAreavy and Ashton. These entries could once be found in the IGI. They have since been deleted, along with other entries for prominent Nazis. What is going on here? Prior to adding the 1997 edition to the IGI, it seems that the Mormon Church, intent on preserving its public image, attempted to remove the names of well-known Nazis from the IGI files. Most of the IGI entries for Adolf Hitler, Mrs. (Adolf Hitler), Adolf Eichmann, Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, and Heinrich Himmler were quietly removed. Also erased were the records for Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Fascist Italy from 1922 to 1943 and an ally of Hitler and the Third Reich.

But the deletion effort was botched. Some entries were missed, such as the ones still current for Hitler and Braun in the IGI and Ancestral File. The IGI ordinance records for Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, which correctly showed his place of birth as Alexandria, Egypt, were deleted—yet other IGI ordinance entries still exist for Hess, wrongly listing his place of birth as Germany.

Also missed were LDS ordinance records, which still exist in the Ancestral File, for Paul Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering. These entries, which include baptisms for each of them, may have been intentionally removed from the IGI files.

Mormons apparently overlooked the LDS ordinance records of other well-known Nazis during their IGI purge. These records are currently accessible. Included in this liberal list are: Reinhard Heydrich, "The Father of The Final Solution"—Hitler's plan to exterminate all Jews in Europe; Alfred Rosenberg, hanged at Nuremberg for war crimes; Ernst Roehm, once the thuggish leader of Hitler's Storm Troopers; and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the Famous Desert Fox of World War II.

In May 1994 and March 1996, from LDS genealogical centers I obtained numerous Nazi IGI entries that have since been deleted. In this collection are copies of the LDS records for Hitler and Braun that Roberts sent to McAreavy and Ashton, with the additional sealing of Adolf Hitler to his parents on June 14, 1994.

I have IGI copies of all the LDS ordinance records for Hitler, which are currently in the Ancestral File—but no longer in the IGI. As well, my copies show another baptism for Hitler, almost identical to the one still in the IGI files under Heidler (Hitler) with the same ordinance dates. But the deleted entry is listed as Hitler (Hiedler) Adolf, showing a birth date of 1889. The Hiedler (Hitler) entry shows a birth date of 1891—so they are different records.

A mysterious record for a Mr. Hitler, of Vienna, Austria, with date of death 1900, and showing a proxy baptism date of April 15, 1924, in the Logan Temple, Utah, is also no longer in the IGI files. Other vanished IGI entries are a sealing of Adolf Hitler to Eva Braun on October 19, 1993, at the Jordan River Temple, and a baptism for Mrs. Hitler (Hiedler) on September 10, 1993, and an endowment for her on March 17, 1994, also in the Jordan River Temple.

The Mormon Church has attempted to deliberately conceal LDS temple ordinances for Adolf Hitler. This first occurred with the disappearance of many of the IGI records for Hitler and other publicly known evildoers of the Third Reich. Then—there was a second attempt to cover-up Nazi records when Ashton told McAreavy that no LDS temple ordinances had been performed for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

Even when confronted by Roberts with IGI temple records for Hitler and Braun, those in charge of the Family History Department at the Family History Library, representing the genealogical arm of the Mormon Church, did not want to take responsibility for these records. Their implausible excuse was that they have no control over the names individuals submit to receive temple ordinances.

Like a slippery snake in the grass, the Mormon Church may have tried to dodge public criticism by denying its questionable proxy recognition of Adolf Hitler—the amoral and evil Nazi genius who was responsible for the terror and barbarism of the Third Reich and the loss of millions of innocent lives before and during World War II. But LDS ordinance records speak for themselves—Mormons have repeatedly claimed the unpopular Hitler. Anything stated to the contrary cannot alter this conclusion.

Deception is not the hallmark of a church with integrity. As the Mormon Church will eventually find out—even the most artful serpent can be choked by its own coils!

UPDATE

PROXY BAPTISM OF JEWS: THE SPLASH GOES ON
By Helen Radkey

Behind closed temple doors, and unquestionably in defiance of the May 1995 agreement between Mormons and Jews, in which the LDS Church promised to cease temple ordinances for deceased Jews who are not direct ancestors of living Mormons, the practice never stopped. Since 1995, Mormons have performed proxy ordinances for most Jewish notables, including prominent Israeli political figures: Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Sharett, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion and Theodor Herzl—along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, including multitudes of Jews in the arts, the sciences and in the entertainment field—such as Gilda Radner, the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. Even Jews on the Titanic, who went into the icy waters of the North Atlantic with the Jewish Shema prayer on their lips, spoken with their last breath, have been proxy baptized and proclaimed as members of the LDS Church.

There is no way to accurately count the number of Jews who have been subjected to proxy ordinances since the agreement was signed. The figure is probably staggering and over a million. In seven years of intensive research, I have amassed a sizeable collection of copies of post-1995 proxy ordinance entries for obvious Jews from the LDS Church's database of posthumous ordinances, the International Genealogical Index (IGI). Sources are usually not cited in the IGI, but I have found many entries that were taken from identifiable Jewish sources, such as Holocaust lists and synagogue records.

According to LDS belief, the only way to enter the highest "heaven" is by being baptized through Mormon rite. Mormons advise those who protest that proxy baptism does not necessarily make dead Jews into Mormons; it gives their souls, which retain free will, the ability to choose "the true Gospel of Jesus Christ" and thus the opportunity to enter the highest kingdom in the hereafter. However, the baptismal and confirmation prayers used by Mormons in their temples are explicit in their content. Deceased parties are baptized by proxy without the option to decline. They are then confirmed as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by proxy and supposedly given the gift of the Holy Ghost, again without the option to decline. If Mormons, in general, are so adamant that the dead always have the opportunity to accept or reject these posthumous ordinances—then why is this choice not reflected in the wording of their baptismal and confirmation prayers?

If Jews live their lives in the earthly domain as devout Jews, why would they want to deny their religious existence here and adopt some other faith in the world to come? What are some of the deeper implications of proxy baptism?

LDS rites for the dead are unbridled attempts to deny the legitimacy of the religious beliefs of lives already lived and to manipulate deceased parties into Mormonism, under the pretext of supposedly offering these voiceless and defenseless souls the highest degree of spiritual glory in the hereafter. The practice of proxy baptism is the ultimate in religious intolerance. Who are Mormons to say they carry the only "keys" to open heaven's gates—and then offer these "keys" to Jewish deceased who must either accept this offer or miss out on "celestial glory"?

What Mormons perceive as a service to humanity and not an offense to others is nothing more than self-delusion. Proxy baptism is a form of religious libel. Heartfelt as it may seem to Mormons, it ultimately casts doubt on the Jewish heritage of all Jews, including Jewish religious, philosophical, political and cultural leaders. Centuries from now, when people look to historical documentation about Jewish figures, they'll find that the LDS Church's public lists may show these deceased Jews as Mormons. The private lists of the LDS Church will most certainly show them as such. Mormons may have removed many names of Jews from their IGI records, currently available for public viewing, but the LDS Church maintains private ordinance lists. And, once performed, no LDS ordinance is ever undone, nor is there any procedure by which an ordinance can be reversed, despite vehement protest.

LDS Church members cross the line by collecting the names of multi-thousands of Jews murdered in the Holocaust and inflicting yet another injustice upon them in the form of posthumous ordinances. These innocents died for no other reason than because they were Jews. For the sake of collective Jewish memory, their religious identities must remain intact. Proxy baptisms help to whitewash the Holocaust by attempting to remove the Jewish identities of those who were murdered. And for the sake of historical accuracy, the religious identity of these victims of the Holocaust must remain unquestioned.

Jewish Holocaust victims, described by the Church as having been removed from the IGI database, are reappearing in the lists of the posthumously baptized, name after name, family after family. Some of these Holocaust victims, murdered as young teenagers, have no direct descendants, yet the Mormon faithful submit their names anyway, falsely claiming descendancy. Zealous Mormons are still pouring names of Jewish Holocaust victims into the LDS temple system. Some of these names are showing up in the IGI showing death camps, such as Auschwitz or Sobibor, on the entries.

Mormons are attempting to revise history through proxy baptisms. LDS proxy temple ordinances for Jews demonstrate total disrespect for Jews and Jewish feelings and should not be tolerated by any self-respecting Jew on the face of this Earth.

Even as Jewish leaders hold private negotiations with LDS officials on this long unresolved issue, after almost eleven years of continuous agreement breaches by Mormons, where is the outrage? Are these Jewish leaders quietly capitulating to reassurances from LDS officials that there will be new methods to curb the enthusiasm of overzealous Mormons and prevent them from submitting names of Jews from whom they are not directly descended into the LDS Church's temple system?

Why do Jewish leaders continue to overlook the huge number of deceased Jews subjected to proxy ordinances in violation of the 1995 agreement? Shouldn't they emphatically seek redress from the LDS Church that repeatedly gives, and then breaks its word to Jews, all the while shamefully denying wrongdoing? Don't the Jewish leaders who were involved in the signing of this legal agreement have a responsibility to the worldwide Jewish community to take decisive action against this group of religious revisionists who think they are the exclusive caretakers of salvation?

Representing the memory of every single deceased Jew subjected to posthumous ordinances by Mormons in blatant violation of the 1995 agreement should be the primary task of the Jews who signed this document. Why have these Jewish leaders collectively abdicated their moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the agreement are finally and firmly enforced?

Also see: Salt Lake Tribune Articles -

May 2, 2001: LDS Try to End Unauthorized Work for Jews
October 9, 1999: LDS Struggle to Keep Proxy Baptisms Appropriate

Salt Lake City Weekly Articles:

August 19, 1999: Amazing Grace: Anne Frank and Hitler Share LDS Baptisms
August 26, 1999: Frank Family Removed From LDS Records
August 3, 2000: Baptismal Blunders