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World War II Era Records of the World Council of Churches

  

Order Background

Advisor: Pierre Beffa, Director World Council of Churches Library.
This publication came about with support from the Kkenneth Scott Latourette Fund, Yale Divinity School Library.

Historical background
The documents in this collection form a subset of the World Council of Churches archives dating from 1932 to 1957. They were assembled hurriedly and in a very provisional form during the dark days of the war by an administration just being born and still in the making. Under such chaotic conditions, some elements were inevitably lost and the original order of the records was difficult to reconstruct. Yet a dramatic story is revealed here, the story of the fledgling ecumenical movement’s thought, policy, and activities in the face of the power of Nazi Germany.

The ecumenical movement represents the effort of churches divided for centuries to re-establish contact with each other, to rediscover their common heritage, to explore possibilities for collaboration, to react in situations of crisis, and to find a new place within society by participating in the foundation of a new world community. To achieve these ends, the churches founded many organizations, including the International Missionary Council in 1910, the Universal Council on Life and Work in 1925, and the Faith and Order movement in 1927. In 1938, the Life and Work and Faith and Order movements came together to form the World Council of Churches, which was officially inaugurated in Amsterdam in 1948. Today the World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of churches from different traditions: Orthodox, Anglican, Old Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist, and Pentecostal.

During the Second World War, the World Council of Churches in Process of Formation was instrumental in smuggling several hundred Jews across the borders into Switzerland, actively helped by courageous and inventive young French workers affiliated with CIMADE (Comité Inter-Movement Auprès Des Evacués). Reflecting on this era, Dr. W.A. Visser ‘t Hooft, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, wrote "… as I look back on these attempts to help the Jews during the war years, I feel far from proud. I know that I should have done a great deal more." Not all the sources testifying to this period have been preserved, but what remains is gathered in this collection.

Sections
The archives of the ecumenical movement are housed in the Library of the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva. They are divided into many different sections, reflecting the various bodies that have been active in the ecumenical scene during the 20th century. The records of the International Missionary Council and the General Correspondence Archives of the World Council of Churches’ General Secretariat, previously published on microfiche by IDC Publishers, are examples of such sections.

The present collection makes another section of the ecumenical archives available on microfiche, dealing with Germany and fifteen other countries in the period from 1932 to 1957. The archives are organized by country. The documents in the archives consist of newspapers, press clippings, press releases, telegrams, correspondence, minutes, manuscripts, and personal notes. Records relating to Germany account for thirty boxes and are divided into four sections:

  • Church struggle: documents of H. Schönfeld;
  • Kirchenkampf: documents of H. Henriod;
  • Wartime;
  • the Jewish question.




    • Scholarly relevance
    In recent years, these archives have been studied by historians of the Bergier Commission, a commission set up to investigate the role of Switzerland during the Second World War. The collection includes correspondence of such notable individuals as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bishop Bell, H. Schönfeld, Karl Barth, James McDonald, Georges Casalis, Adolf Freudenberg, Martin Niemöller, Bishop Dibelius, Gerhart Riegner, Marc Boegner, and Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft. The archives document not only the issues and events of the War, but also the beginning years of the World Council of Churches. As Dr. Visser 't Hooft wrote: "The war came. And at first it seemed as if it would at least mean that the clock of ecumenical history would be definitely set back. The staff became smaller and smaller. Many plans had to be cancelled. But right in the midst of war the tide turned. What new contacts between the churches lost in frequency, they gained in intensity and depth. The war did not weaken the council. On the contrary."

    Pierre Beffa

    Director, World Council of Churches Library