[MUSIC PLAYING]
As surely as it scarred cities, the Second World War
scarred hearts.
Neighbors in the Netherlands had lost faith in each other
after some cooperated with German occupiers
and others chose resistance.
Good will gave way to suspicion during the war's last winter
when hunger drove many to theft.
Even Church members struggled with unity.
They didn't hardly talk to each other.
They all had so much trouble of their own in their families.
And it was just like a funeral, you
might say, to see the people there.
We had a pretty hard time even to get
acquainted among the Saints.
If you had been betrayed by your neighbor
because they had collaborated and they became informers,
you don't know what to say.
You don't trust a soul.
After the war, Mission President Cornelius Zappey's priority
was to help distribute welfare aid from North American
members.
But he also wanted to find a way to help heal the branches
and restore unity among the members.
He liked to say LDS also meant Let's Do Something.
The Church wanted us to help them to start projects
and to do something.
So we thought the wisest thing was
to start the potato project.
We got the potatoes from the government for planting only.
Of course, the eating potatoes were on rationing.
But the planting potatoes we could get any time.
And there was plenty of land lying dormant.
In many branches, the planting was made a special location.
There was singing, speaking, and praying,
at the end of which the potatoes were entrusted into the soil.
We were told Heavenly Father would
open the windows would bless us if we
would keep His commandments.
And we really experienced that.
[SPEAKING DUTCH]
I am proud of the people who did this.
There was a feeling of solidarity,
a sense of belonging, and that feeling
you only get if you've been there.
You can talk about it, but when you've helped,
you get that feeling.
But while Dutch Saints went to work preparing for a brighter
future, Saints in Germany were suffering from hunger
after the coldest winter in living memory.
[SPEAKING GERMAN]
We got two slices of bread a day.
And while roasting them, we took off the crumbs
and kept them in our mouths as long
as we could-- until our mouths hurt-- in order
to suppress the feeling of hunger.
Just before my 17th birthday, my mother
asked me what I want for my birthday.
And I said, just for one day I would not like to be hungry.
You cannot imagine that.
You cannot imagine how it feels, you know?
Walter Stover, the German American president
of the East German mission, felt an urgent need
to care for the temporal needs of the suffering Saints.
During a visit to President Zappey,
President Stover mentioned the hunger in Germany.
The thought occurred to Zappey that he hardly
dared express-- perhaps the Dutch members could
send to their potatoes to Germany.
But what would they say if we should ask them
for the food for which they had worked so hard to give
to the people who had caused them
such suffering and deprivation?
All of a sudden, then, at the end of the war,
when you have been left with nothing--
literally nothing-- and you don't
have really very kind feelings towards these people.
Some of the most bitter enemies you have encountered
as a result of war are the German people.
We know what intense feelings of dislike you may have for them.
But those people are now much worse off than you.
And we are asking you to send your entire potato
harvest to the German Saints.
Will you do it?
Will you help our own Saints to not die of hunger there?
Whether they were Saints or not, they were Germans.
We were in the meeting, and we found out
that those potatoes were not for us.
They would go and feed Germany.
We couldn't believe it.
How can they tell us that we have planted potatoes for them?
President Zappey would send my father, who
had been a prisoner of war, to visit the various branches
in the Church and persuade them.
He could say, I've been through.
You know that I have.
Let's separate what a bad regime did,
and not condemn the whole culture.
Understanding the Saints, but at the same time,
telling them what the gospel really is all about.
That they were members of that Church of Jesus Christ.
And somehow, this had to make a difference.
The regime has done that to us.
But I blamed every German.
And so I had a lot-- an awful lot-- of repentance to do.
[SPEAKING DUTCH]
The idea is to help each other after they harmed
each other is an example of pure Christian charity.
President Cornelius Zappey did a very important thing.
He took the lead, as we say in the Netherlands.
He remained positive.
And he did the only thing he could do to start this project,
and that was with the intention to love each other.
And so when harvest this time came,
we were just overjoyed that we would have so many potatoes.
[SPEAKING DUTCH]
The members were on their knees with the baskets
in between them.
There were a lot of people.
Certain the Lord had blessed this harvest,
President Zappey worked to overcome a final obstacle--
securing permission for the 70 tons of potatoes
to leave the country.
Dutch officials were reluctant to let so much food
past their borders so soon after the war.
But President Zappey refused to give up.
I told them that these potatoes belonged to the Lord,
and if be His will, the Lord would
see that they came to Germany.
Though noting it was a great exception,
Dutch officials accepted Zappey's impassioned request,
and granted permission.
In Germany, President Stover added to the Dutch shipment
by purchasing more potatoes.
And the struggling Saints received as much as 100 pounds
per family to help them make it through the year.
Can you believe that?
Ah!
I was just touched by how the Lord had it
in his hand to help us.
[SPEAKING GERMAN]
This was really a gift from heaven to us.
They were enemies, and had nothing
to do with Germany any more.
And suddenly, they grew potatoes for us.
We still have potatoes.
Potatoes are good.
Touched by the healing power of Christ-like service,
the Dutch Saints presented their own proposal the next year
to donate herring to the German Saints, as well
as another potato harvest.
In Holland, herring is a basic food.
And so they knew herring.
And they knew what to do.
And they said, potatoes alone is not enough.
You have to have herring with it.
[SPEAKING GERMAN]
To this day, I'm still all too fond of herring.
The German Saints did not eat all the potatoes they received.
A few were saved for a new welfare project.
Just outside Berlin, Saints gathered.
And once again, the Lord's potatoes
were entrusted to the soil.
[SPEAKING GERMAN]
The potatoes were a really good thing for us.
Our mother cooked the potatoes, and we ate them.
People put the potato peels on a baking sheet
and oven-dried them.
Then, we ground them and baked things
like bread, even from potato peels.
Over time, German Saints became increasingly self-reliant.
In 1953, flooding in the Netherlands
gave German Church members an opportunity
to express their gratitude.
They resolved to flood the mission home with aid packages
for the country whose Saints had served them so well.
After the terrible war and the famine that followed,
our Dutch sisters and brothers were
the first to offer us help in our great need.
The German people cannot forget that.
We now wish to stand by the Dutch people in their need,
and to return the goodness they provided to us then.
The war scarred both Dutch and German Church members,
but the gospel brought them together
in a circle of selfless service.
Human acts had broken the trust between neighbors and nations,
but Christ-like love healed those wounds.
It did not just nourish our bodies, but it had our souls.
Even before the war, our country was in such a turmoil.
And here, we were shown so much kindness, and so much
love by these people.
It strengthened my faith to be treated so kindly.
And then, it gave me hope for better future.
Whatever our political or personal differences,
the same promise is ours today.
The miracle of unity is being granted to us
as we pray and work for it in the Lord's way.
Our hearts will be knit together in unity.
God has promised that blessing to his faithful Saints,
whatever their differences in background,
and whatever conflict rages around them.
He was praying for us as well as his disciples
when he asked, Father, that we might be one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]