Nazi dissolution of the Bruderhof

[1] Begun by Emmy and Eberhard Arnold and a handful of others in 1920, its members sought a lifestyle that would offer an alternative to the bitterness and despair that ravaged Europe in the wake of World War I.

[2] They took the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as a directive on which to build their community: peacemaking, purity in relationships, love to one another and to enemies.

Unwilling to submit their children to Nazi influence, they took them to the independent principality of Liechtenstein, where they established a daughter community.

A year later, when compulsive military conscription was introduced in Germany, the Bruderhof’s young men similarly escaped to Liechtenstein.

[5] Two visitors from the Hutterian Brethren in America happened to be present, and when the police entered their room they protested and boldly announced that they would report this event on their return home.

During that time, the initial charge of a threat to the state was changed to fraud – a move that cleared the Nazis of any accusation of persecuting Christians.