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Uelzen Branch
Roger P. Minert, “ Uelzen Branch, Hanover District,” in Under the Gun: West German and Austrian Latter-day Saints in World War II (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 222–23.
Located sixty miles northeast of the city of Hanover, the branch in Uelzen was small and somewhat isolated. According to records kept in the mission office, there was only one elder in the branch as World War II approached. No page is found for Uelzen in the mission directory, and no eyewitnesses can be found as of this writing.
| Uelzen Branch [1] | 1939 |
| Elders | 1 |
| Priests | 1 |
| Teachers | 2 |
| Deacons | 2 |
| Other Adult Males | 3 |
| Adult Females | 16 |
| Male Children | 2 |
| Female Children | 1 |
| Total | 28 |
In August 1945 Hermann Walter Pohlsander, surviving president of the Hanover District, wrote the following paragraph to describe the condition of the Uelzen Branch:
The branch has 21 members of whom 7 have proved to be faithful. All the priesthood apostatized already before the war. Living in Uelzen is Sister Marie Warnecke who is well known to all the missionaries and now is quite old. The faithful Sister Marie Hoppe, 72 years old, lives in Borg close to Uelzen. In Lüneburg is the residence of Sister Marie Hoppe and her children. These Saints are cared for spiritually by the Saints in Celle. A small amount of Church property is still there, but is of not much value. Bad travel conditions make it impossible to visit these Saints at the present time. [2]
In Memoriam
The following members of the Uelzen Branch did not survive World War II:
Agnes Jüschke b. Habelschwerdt, Breslau, Schlesien, 3 Mar 1889; dau. of August Jüschke and Marie Karger; bp. 25 Jan 1923; conf. 25 Jan 1923; m. Eisleben, Sachsen, 4 Dec 1921, Friedrich Paul Horn; 1 child; d. pneumonia Uelzen, Hannover, 28 Aug 1941 (FHL microfilm 68799, no. 2; IGI)
Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm Schmitz b. Uelzen, Hannover, 15 Jul 1916; son of Josef Schmitz and Alwine Dorothee Elisa Wolter; bp. 12 Mar 1927; conf. 12 Mar 1927; m. 16 Nov 1940, Elfriede Eickelmann; rifleman; d. wounds Szuchimitschi or Suchinitschi, Russia, 9 Jan 1942 (FHL microfilm 68799, no. 26; www.volksbund.de; CHL CR 375 8 2439, no. 934)
Otto Erich Schmitz b. Uelzen, Hannover, 17 Jul 1920; son of Josef Schmitz and Alwine Dorothee Elisa Wolter; bp. 6 Oct 1928; conf. 6 Oct 1928; d. pleurisy 10 May 1942 (FHL microfilm 68799, no. 27; IGI)
Notes
[1] Presiding Bishopric, “Financial, Statistical, and Historical Reports of Wards, Stakes, and Missions, 1884–1955,” 257, CR 4 12.
[2] Uelzen Branch manuscript history, CHL LR 9489 2.
